Which of these 3 laptops would be the best buy?

hypnotic

I've been looking around a for a while now and have come up with these 3 choices. Just can't make my mind up now on which to get! I'm nearly ready to flip a coin :pac:

I don't need the graphics card to be amazing as I know I wont get that on my budget, so I think these laptops fit the bill.

Also I don't want to order off laptopsdirect.ie so am limited in choice somewhat

The ACER Aspire 6935G seems to be the best specs-wise, it seems to have the better processor, video card and hard drive but there are some things I don't like, like losing 1" in screen-size vs the 17", and the fact that the keyboard is off-center.

Also I'm not sure about the resolution on the 6935, is it good enough do you think?

I've heard that it can be gotten with better resolution, does anyone know anywhere that would have it?

There is also the option of getting the Dell Studio 17. Advantages to this are longer battery life and the 3yr warranty. But I've read that the speakers are fairly crappy.

However they are offering discounts of €150 and a further 10% off until tomorrow. The original price is about €1,400+

So any thoughts folks?

ACER Aspire 7730G-734G32BN - € 899.00

Intel® Core™2 Duo processor Penryn 7350 (2GHz)
4 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) - DDR2 SDRAM ( 2 x 2 GB )
320 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400 rpm
17" TFT 1440 x 900 ( WXGA+ ) - 24-bit (16.7 million colours) - CrystalBrite
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS - 512 MB


ACER Aspire 6935G-844G32BN - € 1,048.99

Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn 8400 2.26GHz ( Dual-Core )
4 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) - DDR3 SDRAM ( 2 x 2 GB )
320 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 7200 rpm
16" TFT 1366 x 768 ( WXGA ) - 24-bit (16.7 million colours) - CineCrystal
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT - 512 MB

Dell Studio 17 - about €1,000

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40Ghz, 3MB, 1066MHz)
4 GB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
320 GB (5.400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
17.0" Widescreen WXGA+ CCFL (1440x900) TFT Display with TrueLife™
256 MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3650
Primary 9-cell 85 WHr Lithium Ion battery
3Yr In-Home Warranty Support, including evenings and Saturdays

Alanstrainor

What's the intended usage for th laptops? I presume Gaming?

hypnotic

Yes I want to be able to play some games,that was a factor in choosing these models.

But I'm not too bothered about playing the latest games on high setting or anything because I know that won't be possible on my budget.

So the 3 listed have dedicated mid-level cards (or at least I think so ) which I imagine would be good enough for games a few years old and the like.

Voodu Child

They are all kind of similar, so it's hard to tell you which is 'best'. So just some general comments that pop into my head : :pac:

1366x768 is a pretty low res for a 16" in my opinion. I don't really like these new 16:9 displays, but anyway, it just seems pretty low for such a screen size. I have 10 year old 12" laptops with the same vertical res!

1440x900, again, it's a little low for a 17". You've got this great big screen, which should be great for productivity, but its' kind of hampered with a res that would be more suited to a 15". It's no major deal, but it's just something that struck me. I'd prefer a 1680x or 1920x screen with a 17".

You're correct in saying the cards are all mid-range. They have 128-bit interfaces, and pretty low shader counts, so you can expect good mid-level performance, but nothing amazing. The HD3650 would be the lowest of the 3. FWIW, you will get a better gaming machine for the money, if that is an important factor for you.

That's about all that strikes me, they are pretty samey otherwise and i'd need to know more about your preferencs to say more.

hypnotic

Well I did think the 16" resolution is too low, but do you think both the others are as well? I don't know much about this resolution stuff as you may tell, but that is a similar resolution to what I have on my 19" desktop which seems grand enough

These laptops are meant to be good multimedia machines so I'm surprised that you think the resolution isn't the best on the 17"s

Thing is my options to buy from are really Dabs, Komplett, Elara and Dell and I haven't seen a better gaming machine for the money I want to spend. I would have thought that the video cards in these machines would be decent for most games, and maybe play new games on lowest settings

And a mate of mine who knows a bit about computers said that the 7730G was a good buy so I just don't know anymore!

Voodu Child

hypnotic wrote: »

Well I did think the 16" resolution is too low, but do you think both the others are as well?

Well, to be fair it's not woeful bad or anything. It was more of a personal opinion, i'd just prefer a 17" with a little higher res than 1440x900.

hypnotic

So bottom line do you think any of them are worth the money if I what I want to do is watch movies and some gaming? I just don't see much better out there unless I go with laptopsdirect or something which I don't want to get into!

Voodu Child

Yeah, they are both solid machines. Apart from the points listed, there's not much else to say about them, they have decent specs and both look like nice machines. My main reservation about them is that they are pretty much mid-level machines.... you could scale your budget back a little and still get something with the same spec (or push the budget a little higher, and get something with a much higher spec). So they are kind of in a no-mans land in terms of value.

If I had to choose, I would go for the €900 one, as there is only a slight difference in performance between the two.

hypnotic

Cheers for the advice

I'm actually swinging a bit more towards the dell now though

I figure another €100 / 150 for a better processor, battery and 3yr in-home warranty is decent value, and probably worth losing out slightly on the video card for....

Their 10% off offer is up tonight too!!

Voodu Child

Go through the EPP site and you'll save 3-6% (depending on the value of the machine you're going for) on the Dell. The 10% coupon still works as well.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a170/vairish/studio17.jpg

There are a lot of threads/posts about the EPP if you're not sure what/where it is.

hypnotic

Deadly, thanks.

I just found the epp site but do I have to prove anything to get the further discount? It mentions loyal corporate customers and such....

Also one last time do you think I should just go for the €800 acer or is a studio 17 a good machine? I've read lots of reviews that really slag it off

Voodu Child

hypnotic wrote: »

Deadly, thanks.

I just found the epp site but do I have to prove anything to get the further discount? It mentions loyal corporate customers and such....

Also one last time do you think I should just go for the €800 acer or is a studio 17 a good machine? I've read lots of reviews that really slag it off

Just put your company as Bank of Ireland. That's about it. They don't check, and even if they did, the offer is open to employees and their families, so I bet you qualify anyway (;);)). They want your money no matter what, so they don't really care tbh.

I don't really know a lot about the Studio machines to be honest. If you've read bad reviews, go with your gut instinct..

hypnotic

OK cheers for your help