Athlon-Vs-Turion

cormie

Hi,
I'm looking to buy a new laptop. I'm not sure which to go for between the Acer 5021 and the Acer 5014.

The 5021 has a Turion, has an extra 20GB HD and has a Gigabit LAN.
The 5014 has an Athlon and the spec is the same except it lacks the above.

The 5021, even though it seems to have more is €20 or so cheaper.

Can anyone tell me why the Athlon is dearer and which would be the better choice? 20GB wouldn't really make much of a difference and I don't even know what a Gigabit LAN is so I'm not sure if I would need that.

So my options are:
Acer 5021 (Approx €1,160 delivered from acernotebooks.co.uk)
Acer 5014 (Approx €1,175 delivered from acernotebooks.co.uk)

MicroAid.ie also have the Acer 5021, they are selling it for €1,267 and I could pick it up from them probably.

Do you reckon I could say knock it down to €1,160 and I'll give you the business rather than acernotebooks.co.uk? Is it worth the extra €100 to get it from them rather than online?

Has anyone had any problems with Acer notebooks before?

Has anyone dealt with The Laptop Shop in Stephens Green before? Do you reckon they could beat this price for a similar spec machine?

Any feedback appreciated:)

wes

A Turion is better battery wise so if your gonna be lugging it around a lot then your probably better off with that one.

cormie

Thanks for the tip,
but why would anyone sacrifice a 20GB hard drive, bettery battery life and a gigabit lan annnnd and pay €20 extra for the Athlon?

Ri_Nollaig

id say the Turion is just designed for laptops and as said has a better better life. AMD version of centrio i guess while the althon64 AMD version of the P4 is just more powerful
the Turion is 1.6ghz
while an athlon64 is 2.2 or 2.4ghz

savemejebus

cormie wrote:

Thanks for the tip,
but why would anyone sacrifice a 20GB hard drive, bettery battery life and a gigabit lan annnnd and pay €20 extra for the Athlon?

A possibility could be power and speed. I can't find detailed spec sheets for the athlon machine and it doesn't say on the turion but the athlon 3400 is probably much faster and more powerful than the turion and as for the hard disks it could be that the 80gb hdd might be 7200rpm while the 100gb could be 5400rpm.

IF (and i don't know whether this is the case, i could be really wrong) those are the reasons then the athlon machine would be faster at both processing and seek times on the hard disk However the turion would have the longer battery life

irlrobins

[QUOTE=cormie
Has anyone had any problems with Acer notebooks before?
QUOTE]

yea my flatmate had a hardware problem on her Acer laptop. Rang the dublin number listed for technical support and got a voice recording saying the number has been changed to xxxxxxxxxx. Which is fine except that's at local rate number in the UK which can't be dialed from Ireland.

So emailed them, took days to get a reply which completely ignored what I had written and gave a solution to a totally different problem. Mailed again, again days for a reply. Same prob. And a third time. Gave up in the end and bought a external wireless card.

They don't even have an auto reply with your case number. So god knows how they track each problem. Worse customer service I've seen.

I know people will argue otherwise but buy Dell. At least someone answers the phone!

Ri_Nollaig

the althon64 might b larger and heavier too there is no spec sheet for it (out of stock?) but if u want mobilty and long battery then its the Turion otherwise the althon

cormie

Hmm, well if I'm going mobile, weight and battery life wont be an issue as I wont be mobile for long and if I am I'll probably be beside a power outlet. So what's this 1 gigabit thingy? When would that be used?

irlrobins, thanks for the feedback. I used to work in Dell and there are a million nightmare stories from there.

This is why I'd prefer to buy it from MicroAid, I could just winge at them if anything went wrong. I'll ring them tomorrow for a quick haggle anyway and I'll ring TheLaptopShop to compare and price match bladdy blah.

The 5021 and the 5014 are the exact same price at MicroAid. Both have 512 Ram and both are 2x256. Does this make a difference?

I'm pushed for MicroAid as I'll be able to go out direct from Aldi and pick it up.

Gandalf23

I've had an Acer Aspire 5021 (Turion64 ML-28 processor) for the last month or so, and I'm impressed. Excellent laptop, brutal power, and incredible screen.

To be honest, Acer build and quality is not as good as some laptops I've owned before such as IBM's and Sony's, but when you look at the spec and the price Acer is incredible value.

The debate over Athlon V Turion is covered comprehensively in the AMD forums at http://forums.amd.com/

My 2 cents is that the Athlon is really a desktop replacement chip that uses more power, and thus has lower battery life and runs hotter. The Turion is specifically a laptop chip, uses less wattage, and thus gives longer battery life and a cooler lap! Very roughly its similar to the choice between a P4 and centrino in an Intel laptop.

I think you will get an excellent machine whichever chip you chose.

cormie

Ahh not more forums :eek: hehe..

Hmm let's see. Ok, I usually have these programmes running while my laptop is on:

Thunderbird (email client like Outlook)
MSN Messenger (chat client)
Emule (Download client)
AVG (Virus Protector)
Microsoft AntiSpyware (Spyware client)
IE (web browser, say 3 windows max)
Intel ProSet for Wireless (WiFi Connection software)
Poker (software for playing poker online)


On rare occasions I would also have the following running (not at the same time but I would prefer not to have to close down MSN and the likes whilst using them)
DVD-Shrink (DVD Back up Software)
Nero Burning Rom (Disc Burning software)
Adobe Illustrator (image programme)
Winning Eleven (Modern Football game)

Does this give a better idea of whether I would need the extra power of the Athlon over the Turion?

Is there any way to tell how much power I am using on my current laptop when I have all the regulars and maybe one or two of the rare ones running and then you could tell me if I really need the Athlon over the extra 20GB etc. If I'm not going to be needing the extra power, I'd prefer the other extras instead.

Oh Gandalf, when you say Brutal Power do you mean Brutal bad or Brutal good?

Ri_Nollaig

cormie wrote:

Oh Gandalf, when you say Brutal Power do you mean Brutal bad or Brutal good?

he means Brutal power as in good power :rolleyes:

cormie

Yeah I thought so with the "I'm impressed" bit before it;) Choice of words is not the best though son:D haha.

Gandalf23

Brutal good... this is the most powerful laptop I have ever owned, and it kicks most of my friends and co-workers machines asses (and I work in an IT area with lots of hardware around the place).

Interesting list of programs running... why pray tell are you still using IE? Firefox all the way man!!!

I have similar programms running and the Turion takes them all in its stride. It handles power hungry stuff like iTunes, AdAware, and similar stuff very very easily.

I've narrowed the AMD forum stuff to this...
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=48892

Gandalf23

cormie wrote:

Yeah I thought so with the "I'm impressed" bit before it;) Choice of words is not the best though son:D haha.

its been a long day...

Apologies...

cormie

Thanks for going to all the trouble:)

So the Athlon must be allot more powerful if for the same price you get a lighter laptop, with longer battery life, a bigger hard drive, a gigabit lan thing and less power usage (cheaper esb bills) and less likely to over heat.

I just did a test there, I went to the task manager with all my programmes open and it's typically 30% usage. Then I opened up Adobe and it boosted to 70% then back to about 35%. In the task manager I have 51 processes running. Maybe it's just full of crap I don't need running (iTunes shows up even though it's not on the taskbar/start up folder??)

So you reckon the Turion would do me for what I need it for then?

How about Winning Eleven 8? I don't suppose you have that to test it on? Or maybe a game that requires more from your pc and let me know how that is?

Thanks again:)

Gandalf23

cormie wrote:

So the Athlon must be allot more powerful if for the same price you get a lighter laptop, with longer battery life, a bigger hard drive, a gigabit lan thing and less power usage (cheaper esb bills) and less likely to over heat.

Thats not really how it works... the Athlon may be more powerful, but the difference in power will not really be noticable imo.

cormie wrote:

I just did a test there, I went to the task manager with all my programmes open and it's typically 30% usage. Then I opened up Adobe and it boosted to 70% then back to about 35%. In the task manager I have 51 processes running.

I have over 50 processes running too. I did a very quick test, and my CPU usage is varying between 0% and 3% most of the time. When I open Photoshop 6 it spikes at about 55% and then settles back to about 2%. iTunes gives the same result.

cormie

There must be some other reason that the 5014 is dearer then Is it DEFINITELY just the power that costs extra? I thought the Turion is newer technology (newer=more expensive?). I'm slightly confused as to why the Turion is cheaper.

EDIT: Gandalf, where did you get your 5021 and how much was it at the time? Do you reckon the above deals are good? Have you had any trouble at all with yours? When you say the build quality isn't the best, why is this?

Gandalf23

Yes that is confusing. It might be something to do with Acers pricing policies. Because the Turion is slightly newer technology, Acer may be pricing it agressively to compete head-to-head with centrino.

I think either option you mention is fairly good to be honest. I'm really happy with my Turion64, and I would be amazed if the Athlon64 is much different in power/speed.

Tauruz

Just to tell you i'm currently trying to return an acer travelmate i bought about a month ago. Tech support is appauling. Had a screen problem sent it to the UK to get it repaired got it back 2 weeks later still the same problem returned it again now ive no sound coming out of the speakers. Tech support completely stupid and unhelpful...id never buy an Acer again. Bought it from DigiUK they're being very helpful on getting a refund which Acer are begin v.unhelpful about also they sent back the laptop with the wrong repair report the 2nd time around.

cormie

That's a good point about the competition with Centrino which could be the pricing reason. I think I'll go for the Turion if that's the case. I probably wont need anything faster anyway.

Gandalf, I edited my post above, could you answer them Q's if you don't mind please:)

Tauruz, thanks for the feedback. I'm guessing with every make there will be complaint. I think I'll buy it in MicroAid for the fact they are Irish and if anything goes wrong I can go knocking on their door. Price seems good enough, only €100 dearer than online which for something so dear, is worth the security. I'll try get them to match acernotebooks.co.uk price anyway:)

Gandalf23

cormie wrote:

Gandalf, where did you get your 5021 and how much was it at the time? Do you reckon the above deals are good? Have you had any trouble at all with yours? When you say the build quality isn't the best, why is this?

Thats a bit of a long story. Short version is that I was in DESPERATE need of a computer very quickly (MBS thesis deadline approaching and my other computers hard drive died), so I paid slightly over the odds to get my 5021... I didnt have time to look around for he cheapest deal. I also had to get XP Pro, and this cost extra.

Prices you are quoting look fairly good.

I've had no trouble to speak of to be honest. The build quality is OK, but just OK. The keyboard is not as responsive as other laptops I've had, and the keys have to be pressed harder than I'm used to. The CD/DVD drive is a little more noisy than I'd like, and the CD/DVD software bundled with the laptop is not the greatest software I've ever seen. The fan is also a touch noisy.

The build quality is not as solid as other laptops I'm used to... it just doesnt FEEL like a top end laptop. However, I am comparing to IBM Thinkpads and Sony Vaio's, so look at my opinions in that light.

But remember, for the price it would be hard to find a similar specced computer. The 5021 gives excellent value.

cormie

Well it sounds like what I'm after! Thanks for your help I'll do some more head wrecking tomorrow. Good night:)

cormie

Just rang MicroAid about the 5021, I told them about acerlaptops.co.uk price and they actually dropped the price last night anyway by about €30, so now it's only about €80 dearer to get from them rather than acerlaptops.co.uk. I think the security is worth the extra €80.

So will I go for this then? Any final words of wisdom before I go mental?

aaf

Spanner in the works (throws). The Athlon would *probably* be better at handling Illustrator and any encoding (DVD and your beloved MP3's!) you may do. Also, the Athlon would probably be better at handling games. The Turion is *probably* aimed at business types with it's mobile chip and therefore imo, wouldn't be as powerful. If it was my choice, I'd go for the Athlon64

chump

I disagree I'd go for the Turion any day.

You're buying a laptop, buy one with a mobile processor!

And read a few reviews on your specific laptop choice.

And read a little about the turion

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=1659&cid=14&pg=1

cormie

Well Pro Evo is the only game I ever play and I rarely use Illustrator or the others. As long as it can handle Pro Evo ok I'll be fine because I know it will be able to handle the other things even if they are a bit slow, speed would only matter with Pro Evo for me I suppose.

chump

cormie both of those badboys would fly

aaf

chump wrote:

I disagree I'd go for the Turion any day.

You're buying a laptop, buy one with a mobile processor!

And read a few reviews on your specific laptop choice.

And read a little about the turion

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=1659&cid=14&pg=1

Having read that article, either of the two would be suitable for your needs. Also, do you really need a laptop? You could build a decent PC for that kind of money. How many spanners do I have? :rolleyes:

cormie

I like that attitude:)

Hmm, think I'll just go for the 5021, cheaper, bigger HD, gigabit yolky lighter, cooler, better battery and will more than likely be more powerful then I actually need it to be:)

blorg

Definately get the mobile processor. Prices can sometimes be a bit mixed up and make no sense, it could be that they will be dropping the price of the Athlon next month. The Turion one is also lighter and significantly thinner:

Athlon: 3.6kg, 292x _47_ x361mm
Turion: 3.1kg, 278x _33_ x363mm

cormie

Turion it is then:) Now, I wonder will I get a refund from Aldi. :rolleyes:

Cremated

Gandalf23 wrote:

Brutal good... this is the most powerful laptop I have ever owned, and it kicks most of my friends and co-workers machines asses (and I work in an IT area with lots of hardware around the place).

Interesting list of programs running... why pray tell are you still using IE? Firefox all the way man!!!

I have similar programms running and the Turion takes them all in its stride. It handles power hungry stuff like iTunes, AdAware, and similar stuff very very easily.

I've narrowed the AMD forum stuff to this...
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=48892

Cormy get firefox, www.getfirefox.com

aaf

lol, he already has firefox. He's being posting threads about firefox like a lunatic for the past few weeks!

cormie

Who me??
huh? You have me mixed up:P I use good oul IE:D Only recent threads I've been posting of anything similar is about my connection speed to o2 and poker.ie annnnd maybe something about thunderbird about 2 months or so ago. Is there another cormie out there? maybe a cormíe??? note the i/í;)

aaf

cormie wrote:

Who me??
huh? You have me mixed up:P I use good oul IE:D Only recent threads I've been posting of anything similar is about my connection speed to o2 and poker.ie annnnd maybe something about thunderbird about 2 months or so ago. Is there another cormie out there? maybe a cormíe??? note the i/í;)

Hmmm, maybe it was Thunderbird stuff then. You should take a look at firefox though as it has a few features that interlink with Thunderbird which you may find useful.

cormie

I may go the firefox route on my new laptop if I get it then, see what all the fuss is about:)

zuma

Would people stop trying to push Firefox down peoples throats!!!!

I use it:



but whats its got to do with a thread about differences between an Athlon and Turion CPU....????

Computer broken....get firefox......broken leg....get firefox......have the flue....get firefox....!!!!!


Sorry about the rant...but Im getting pissed off with all the linux/firefox fanboys pushing their adorations!!!

cormie

Thanks for taking a screenshot of my sig;) free advertising, buckin deadly.

Can you get firefox over the counter or do you need a perscription so?

Peteee

I can vouch for the Acer 5021.

Bought one couple of weeks ago off www.laptopsdirect.co.uk, ordered saturday, arrived on thursday.

Nice laptop, can't comment on the build quality cos its my first laptop but I like it better then my cousins Dell 6000.

Runs games great, Screen is superb, even if the viewing angle is poor due to its reflective coating.

Hard drive is massive, even if it is only 4,200 rpm. Battery life is good (got nigh on 4 hours on day browsing the web (albeit with screen turned down to lowest brightness))

Overall extremely happy with it.

cormie

Great thanks for the feedback:) Will hopefully have it by tomorrow!

cormie

Brilliant, walked into Aldi with my laptop on (it was in the middle of formatting, haha) and spoke to the manager who straight away asked what price it was and said she'll get the money. That was basically that. No problem with not having the receipt or anything. I got my cash straight back and got a cent more than I paid!

I went straight to the bank to transfer money to microaid.ie for a new Acer 5021 laptop which I should be getting tomorrow.

Im actually quite sad not to be giving Aldi the business again because that is just superb customer service and when I initially brought my first one back for a replacement it was the exact same. It's just a pitty the laptop was faulty because I got it for a great price and Aldi were great even though the laptop wasn't.

chump

thats unbelliiiiveable... good news tho, congrats!

Fair play to aldi

Gandalf23

Good choice cormie... excellent machine the 5021... you made the right choice.

Good luck with it.

cormie

Cool thanks:) And thanks for all the help and advice everyone!

Chalk

fair play man,

glad you got sorted from aldi,
and nice choice of replacement

dearg_doom

Good stuff! Didn't think ALDI would be that easy about it.

I think I have the same lappy and it is class alright, esp for the price I got it for at the time.

Good to hear it's all sorted tho; and I can't wait to hear how ye find the Turion:)