Is this Acer any good for gaming?

Lunabu

Hi, I had a nice Sony Vaio laptop on order from Sony direct and had to cancel the order today as Sony messed me around for 6 weeks.
I've now been looking around for a midrange laptop instead that may not offer everything the Vaio had but that will allow me to do all the normal things as well as play some new games.
I came across this Acer Aspire at a decent price in the UK (£600), so I'd like some opinions please. I like the look of it and I think it would be ok for me.
I'm not a mad gamer, but I'd like to be able to play some decent games once in a while.
Thanks for your help:

Here are the specs:


Processor Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 / 2.13 GHz
64-bit Computing Yes
Data Bus Speed 1066 MHz
Chipset Type Mobile Intel GM45 Express
Cache Memory
Type L2 Cache
RAM
Installed Size 4 GB / 4 GB (max)
Technology DDR2 SDRAM - 667 MHz
Form Factor SO DIMM 200-pin
Hard Drive 320 GB - Serial ATA-150
Type DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - integrated
Supported Flash Memory Cards SD Memory Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, MultiMediaCard, xD-Picture Card
Display Type 17.3" TFT
Max Resolution 1600 x 900
Features LED-backlit, CineCrystal
Graphics Processor / Vendor NVIDIA GeForce G210M
Data Link Protocol Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n (draft)
Features Acer SignalUp
Compliant Standards IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED, IEEE 802.11n (draft)
Technology 6-cell Lithium Ion
Capacity 4400 mAh
Run Time (Up To) 3.5 hour(s)
OS Provided Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Voodu Child

Nvidia G210M is very much a lower/mid graphics card. It'll game better than an integrated solution, but will perform badly with current games, and won't even be a strong performer with slightly older games.

For the money you'll do better.

Overheal

Voodu Child wrote: »

Nvidia G210M is very much a lower/mid graphics card. It'll game better than an integrated solution, but will perform badly with current games, and won't even be a strong performer with slightly older games.

For the money you'll do better.

Itll run leaps better than my 8400, and I can at least min. crysis on this, and play l4d and things fairly comfortably. so you wouldnt be too poorly off. Id be a bigger fan of the modible ATI 4870 or whatever that thing is. Sexy ****ing card.

Voodu Child

Overheal wrote: »

Itll run leaps better than my 8400, and I can at least min. crysis on this, and play l4d and things fairly comfortably. so you wouldnt be too poorly off.

Well 8400M GS is a 2 year old card, and was already lower/mid (for a discrete) when it came out. So saying this thing is better doesnt really mean a whole lot. Its not a useful comparison.

For €700 i'd be looking for something twice as powerful...GT230M, HD4570, that kind of performance. Someone posted a €750 Acer with GT240M the other day.

Lunabu

Thanks for your replies.
Is this the better graphics card you're talking about?

NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M - 1 GB

This Acer laptop would be £679 or the equivalent daily euro rate.
Here's the rest of the specs. Please comment as I'm looking to buy:


Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 / 2.2 GHz
RAM
4 GB / 4 GB (max)
Technology DDR3 SDRAM - 1066 MHz
Form Factor SO DIMM 204-pin
Configuration Features 2 x 2 GB
320 GB - Serial ATA-150
DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - integrated
5 in 1 card reader
17.3" TFT
Max Resolution 1600 x 900
NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M
Video Memory 1 GB
6-cell Lithium Ion
Capacity 4400 mAh
Run Time (Up To) 2 hour(s)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Overheal

lol thats a desktop with a battery backup :pac:

Voodu Child

Lunabu wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.
Is this the better graphics card you're talking about?

NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M - 1 GB

This Acer laptop would be £679 or the equivalent daily euro rate.
Here's the rest of the specs. Please comment as I'm looking to buy:

Yes, and it'll certainly be a lot better for gaming than the previous one. For reference, the GT240M is at least twice as fast as the G210M, and probably closer to 3x in many games. I'd call it upper-mid range and its probably as good as you'll get in that price range.

Just to comment on the rest of the spec: The CPU is okay, nothing special but it won't hold you back. Plenty of ram. The battery life is not going to be great with a 4400mah battery - although I would argue that very few 17" laptops have good battery life anyway. Screen res is fine, some 17" machines will go full-HD but 1600x900 is fairly decent anyway, and a good match for the GPU.

Also check out the Aspire 5739G - thats a 15.6" model, and some configs have the same GT240M GPU. Link

Lunabu

Tnx Voodu Child. Looks like I may be going with the 2nd one then. The link you gave me, that's a Vista laptop (with Windows 7 upgrade), but i'd rather go for a Windows 7 one and fancy the bigger screen as well.
I remember when I bought that Windows XP Dell with an upgrade for Vista. Vista never ran properly on that laptop, so in the end I had to reset it to factory settings and XP.

Voodu Child

Lunabu wrote: »

Tnx Voodu Child. Looks like I may be going with the 2nd one then. The link you gave me, that's a Vista laptop (with Windows 7 upgrade), but i'd rather go for a Windows 7 one and fancy the bigger screen as well.

Well im sure there's a newer Win7 equivalent, I didn't really look. Although of course, if you want the bigger screen then its a moot point - definitely go with a 17.3" model. Seems fairly good for the price all-in.

I'll post back if I see anything else that has compareable specs/price.

docmol

I've got quiet a few acer laptops over the last 18 months, and only one had any sort of a problem (which was probably user inflicted) so I can recommend them. All the laptops i've got have been from dabs.ie and have been reconditioned models, ie a bit cheaper but with the full warranty. It might be worth your while checking them out. The only complaint I have with Acer is the huge amount of crapware they install before it leaves the factory. Not only does it slow the machine down, it is a pig to uninstall. What I do with them now is wipe them as soon as I get them and install a fresh win7 and drivers before I pass them on. This is actually quicker then uninstalling their bloatware and the only way to go IMO. If you decide to go down that route remember to download your wireless nic drivers before you format! Don't use the reinstall partion/cd, you don't need it, your licence is on a sticker underneath the laptop and here is a link to a nice modded win7 iso (not cracked so perfectly legal!)
<Snip>

Lunabu

Thanks for your comments, Really appreciate your help.
If I decide to go for that Acer, I think I'll have to uninstall the crapware manually. Wouldn't trust myself to do everything you suggested with regard to a clean install of Windows 7.
Haven't checked out dabs yet, forgot about them, but checked out all the other main Irish suppliers.
My personal experience with laptopsdirect has been ok so far, I've ordered from them twice in the past. Also had excellent experience with elara.ie, but they don't have what I want atm.
Am looking at buying tomorrow evening.

Alanstrainor

Torrent link removed. Windows 7 is not free to distribute.

Overheal

if only

Lunabu

Guys, I've decided to go with the second Acer, the one with the better graphics card.
Thanks again for all your help and I'll let you know in this thread what I think of it. May have to go out and buy a new game...:eek: (money would be a fine thing!)