Laptop Buying help

Hayezer

Ok so I'm thinking of getting a new laptop, but I'm a bit clueless to what I should be looking for. I'm looking through the website acerdirect.co.uk and the refurbished models as there are pretty good discounts, and my brother got one there and it was perfect :pac:

I just want a laptop that is quick for browsing, downloading and just general use. If it happens to be able to run some games decently that's just a bonus, but I'm presuming I'd have to pay big money for that.

So for example, this http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/ACER__a1-LX.RQL02.068/version.asp?PID=171 has 8GB RAM and 500GB hard drive, while this http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Grade_A1_Acer_Timeline_X_5830T_Core_i3_Laptops_77056655-1-LX.RHM02.054/version.asp?PID=171 has 6GB RAM but 640GB hard drive. Which is more important/what's the difference.
And what is considered a decent processor? I have no idea what any of them mean :pac:.

Thanks a million for any help!

Jarren

You don't have to pay a big money to be frank with you

Forget about those Acer lappys from Acer.uk

Get the new one instead



Specifications
Product Description Acer Aspire 5755G-52458G50Mnks
Screen 15.6" LED -Gloss /1366 x 768
Processor Intel Core i5 2450M -2.5GHz
Chipset HM65 Express
Memory 8GB DDR3 SODIMM
Hard Drive 500GB -5400rpm
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GT630M - 2048 MB
Optical Drive DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM
Card Reader 5 - in -1
Network Gigabit Ethernet
Wireless Network Wireless-N
Webcam 1.3 Megapixel
Connections HDMI, VGA, 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0
Battery 6 cells lithium
Warranty 2 years
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Edition
Other Software Microsoft® Office Starter, Bing Bar, Windows Live Essentials
Colour Black/Silver
Dimensions (wxdxh) 38.2 x 25.3 x 3.3 cm
Weight 2.6Kg


Decent CPU and GPU,you should be able to run a few recent games without any issues.


http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-630M.63761.0.html

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/15_16_inch/80007120/acer_15_6_5755g_52458g50mnks_i5_2450_8gb_500gb/details.aspx

Hayezer

Jarren wrote: »

You don't have to pay a big money to be frank with you

Forget about those Acer lappys from Acer.uk

Get the new one instead



Specifications
Product Description Acer Aspire 5755G-52458G50Mnks
Screen 15.6" LED -Gloss /1366 x 768
Processor Intel Core i5 2450M -2.5GHz
Chipset HM65 Express
Memory 8GB DDR3 SODIMM
Hard Drive 500GB -5400rpm
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GT630M - 2048 MB
Optical Drive DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM
Card Reader 5 - in -1
Network Gigabit Ethernet
Wireless Network Wireless-N
Webcam 1.3 Megapixel
Connections HDMI, VGA, 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0
Battery 6 cells lithium
Warranty 2 years
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Edition
Other Software Microsoft® Office Starter, Bing Bar, Windows Live Essentials
Colour Black/Silver
Dimensions (wxdxh) 38.2 x 25.3 x 3.3 cm
Weight 2.6Kg


Decent CPU and GPU,you should be able to run a few recent games without any issues.


http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-630M.63761.0.html

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/15_16_inch/80007120/acer_15_6_5755g_52458g50mnks_i5_2450_8gb_500gb/details.aspx

Those 2 I linked you were just random examples, I'm just wondering is it more important to go for bigger RAM or bigger hard drive? Or is about 5GB RAM and 500GB hard drive ok? And is the games you can play essentially down to the graphics card? That one you linked is looking pretty nice :P

Jarren

GPU- gaming

RAM- would cause your laptop to seem faster on certain type of operations

Hard drive - If you go for SSD then would boot up/load games/transfer files much faster.

CPU - Here's some benchmarks that may give you some idea of the difference in performance.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

I've used i3/i5 processors before on very demanding computer apps before and couldn't see much difference in the performance tbh.

Occono

Hayezer wrote: »

Those 2 I linked you were just random examples, I'm just wondering is it more important to go for bigger RAM or bigger hard drive? Or is about 5GB RAM and 500GB hard drive ok? And is the games you can play essentially down to the graphics card? That one you linked is looking pretty nice :P

Yes, games are down almost entirely to your graphics card. Any i3 CPU will do, 2GB of RAM would do (although you'll want more just for multitasking in general) and so on. It's the graphics card you need to be on the lookout for.