Argos-Acer 17.3" laptop

Mearings

I checked this laptop y'day €470 (€25/off). Today it's reduced by a further €50. Intel Premium Quod Core Processor N3700 I'm waiting for Windows 10 to finish downloading at present. They seem to be widely available at Argos.

TerrorFirmer

I wouldn't call that a bargain at all. The N3700 is on the bottom rung of low end hardware.

It doesn't mean it's not perfectly fine for casual use, but definitely not a bargain. For that money you can buy an i3 laptop which would be literally twice as fast.

For anyone interested here is the laptop in question.

Capt'n Midnight

€419.99 :eek:

[RANT]I got a cheapo laptop in 2011 and I still can't see any reason to upgrade because entry level laptops just aren't getting more powerful.


I stuck an i5 560M in it. Upgraded the RAM and Wifi card so it now has bluetooth. Added an SSD for speed. And replaced the DVD with a bay for the SATA drive for more storage. Total cost about the same, really.

Upgrading to this one would give me one USB 3.0 port, another 1.7" of screen and more, but slower, storage space.

I'd like USB 3.0 because it would mean I wouldn't have to reboot to change the drive in the DVD bay. Or maybe I could use a NAS.


TBH. the main change in laptops in the last few years have been Bluetooth, USB 3.0 and processors that use less power which translates into longer battery life at the expense of better performance. Also most recent entry level laptops I've looked recently don't have upgradable CPU's and some only have one slot for RAM.

[/RANT]

TerrorFirmer

Entry level laptops are getting more powerful if you look around. You can pick up 4th generation i3 laptops for €350 now and they are fast machines.

It's just the market is flooded with these low power laptops which are grand for facebook and netflix and whatever, but they're often horribly overpriced which is the issue. The laptop in the OP should be way cheaper than that, and to think it's supposedly reduced from over €500 is just ludicrous.

alaimacerc

I think the laptop market is stagnating somewhat because it's had the legs taken out from under it by the rise of smartphones and tablets. One of my pet peeves is that bog standard screen size has essentially got "stuck" at "HD ready" (x768) for a long time, unless you're willing to pay a very large premium for a BizNiz/self-regarding artsy type top-of-the-line model.

biebiebie

alaimacerc wrote: »

unless you're willing to pay a very large premium for a BizNiz/self-regarding artsy type top-of-the-line model.

I won't be taking a bite out of that granny smith haha

The_Conductor

Is the processor physically soldered to the motherboard- does anyone know?

crabbypaddy

The_Conductor wrote: »

Is the processor physically soldered to the motherboard- does anyone know?

soldered FCBGA1170

The_Conductor

crabbypaddy wrote: »

soldered FCBGA1170

Damn- it would have been a reasonable base on which to add one of the engineering samples- if the chip wasn't soldered........

imitation

I have never heard of a laptop in recent times with a changeable CPU. Intel generally just sell BGA mobile processors that have to be soldered in place.

I'd agree on the price, it's nothing special I'm afraid as it's only a celeron. In recent times the atom processor has been turbo charged, but as a result most celerons have be brought down to that level. (Although the non N series ones tend to be much better like the 2957u)

ssmith6287

Why buy a laptop and change the cpu, just buy the laptop with the cpu yer looking for or use the likes of DELL to built one to your spec. Voiding your warranty and the time spent taking apart and reassembling your machine should cover the cost.

The_Conductor

ssmith6287 wrote: »

Why buy a laptop and change the cpu, just buy the laptop with the cpu yer looking for or use the likes of DELL to built one to your spec. Voiding your warranty and the time spent taking apart and reassembling your machine should cover the cost.

Why? Because I can get engineering sample chips.
As to voiding the warranty etc- I've been servicing laptops and building PCs since 1997- its how I got the deposit together for my home. I stopped doing it other than as a hobby- when Dell murdered my market.

ssmith6287

The_Conductor wrote: »

Why? Because I can get engineering sample chips.
As to voiding the warranty etc- I've been servicing laptops and building PCs since 1997- its how I got the deposit together for my home. I stopped doing it other than as a hobby- when Dell murdered my market.

Congrats.. but clearly if the OP is thinking the laptop mentioned is a great bargain then what you have done on your machine is completely irrelevant and just a gloat

The_Conductor

ssmith6287 wrote: »

Congrats.. but clearly if the OP is thinking the laptop mentioned is a great bargain then what you have done on your machine is completely irrelevant and just a gloat

Its not a gloat- its a waste of time.
To the OP- the processor in the laptop is crap- for not very much more money- you can get a vastly more powerful laptop.

beauf

Also be aware, that

When you see those low powered atom/celeron/pentium chips they are usually accompanied by a low cost screen, keyboard, and chassis.

Capt'n Midnight

ssmith6287 wrote: »

Why buy a laptop and change the cpu, just buy the laptop with the cpu yer looking for or use the likes of DELL to built one to your spec. Voiding your warranty and the time spent taking apart and reassembling your machine should cover the cost.

If you are shopping for a €299 laptop you aren't going to be adding a €200 CPU. Especially when it's a near certainty you'll get it for a fraction of that price later on.

Most people don't change laptops every year. And it takes time for CPU prices to fall. You could always wait two years if you are really worried about warranty.

It's nearly as if Intel are building in obsolescence by using BGA rather than socket.

unkel

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Entry level laptops are getting more powerful if you look around. You can pick up 4th generation i3 laptops for €350 now and they are fast machines.

I agree with your point in general, but the typical i3 / i5 processor in a laptop these days is a mobile or ultraportable cpu, which is nice for a long battery life, but a 6W CPU is hardly going to be a good performer

As was always the case, a desktop will be vastly superior (faster, more adaptable, more upgradeable, longer lasting, cheaper to fix) for similar money

TerrorFirmer

ULV i3's and i5's are 15w and performance is good. Most people don't need the full mobile processors hence the switch to ULV as the primary processor. They are still available if you want them, just have to look around.

Obviously a desktop is going to be more powerful but that's like telling someone to buy a motorbike because it's faster than a bicycle!

If you need a laptop you need a laptop.

unkel

Agreed again. Don't want to take this off topic any further but a lot of people buying 17" laptops do so as a desktop replacement. Which is not always wise / value for money and a lot of people don't understand this. "But it has an i5 processor?"

Mearings

This laptop is now shown at its full price on Argos.ie.

http://www.argos.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10152&langId=111&q=ACER&c_1=1|category_root|Office%2C+PCs+and+phones|14418968&pp=20&r_001=2|Processor+type|Intel+Pentium|1

Sneachta

unkel wrote: »

Agreed again. Don't want to take this off topic any further but a lot of people buying 17" laptops do so as a desktop replacement. Which is not always wise / value for money and a lot of people don't understand this. "But it has an i5 processor?"

interested to hear

beauf

Basically, hard to know what best suits someone, or if its a good deal for them. Unless you know what they will be using it for.

Also its very hard to know the relative performance difference between different machines and processors unless you are very technical. If they were trying to deliberately tried to trick the consumer they couldn't have done a better job with the naming of the products. Be it a laptop, desktop, processor.

The only way to know how good something is. Is to read views where its been tested properly. Not in some half baked flashy website, or magazine which is probably sponsored by the hardware maker anyway.