Better performace for £1000....

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,277
Location
Nottingham
Hello,

What you think to this spec for £1000 ???

Core I7 720QM 1.6GHz
500GB HDD
4GB RAM
ATI HD4650
15.6" WXGA

Its a Acer Aspire 5940G Laptop.

Is the CPU right at 1.6Ghz seems alittle slow ???? am i missing something ??


I would be moving from a Acer 6930G, Core 2 Duo P7450 2.13Ghz, 4Gb, 9600mGT 1Gb.

Would u expect a performace improvment if i changed....

Thanks for the help :)
 
cpu over clocks it self when only 1 or i think 2 cores are in use... so for games is great.... think it goes to 2.8 or something close to that...

For £1000.0 might be worth weighting a little for the 5 series mobile gpu's? as not sure how much upgrade 4650 is over 9600m gt in mobile graphics
 
Ok theres this one for £950,

Intel Core i5 520M 2.4
4 GB RAM
640 GB HDD
15.6 in LED HD
Blu-ray Rom
Graphics - ATI HD 5650

Acer 5942G

How does that compare ??
 
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I brought a 1k laptop about 2 years ago and it was the biggest mistake i made, have you considered a cheap netbook and a nice £600~ gaming pc setup? Its what i wish i did :p

although if it is a laptop i would compromise on a cheaper CPU for a better GFX chip (well they aren't cards!) as if its for games thats always where your bottleneck is on a laptop.
 
I dont want a desktop, been there and done that.

Just want the best perforamce for around £1000 and a step up from my Core 2 Duo P7450 with 9600mGT.

I carnt seem to find better than the Acer 5942G @ £950 specs are,

Intel Core i5 520M 2.4
4 GB RAM
ATI HD 5650
640 GB HDD
15.6 in LED HD
Blu-ray Rom

I currently have Acer 6930G so the above spec is better and a step up.

The ATI 5650 gets 13911 in 3dmark05 and my current 9600mGT gets 9592 in 3dmark05 so its alittle quicker and DX11.

Just need to sell my 6930G now :)
 
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my first generation HP Envy 15 was under 1k when i bought it last year. one of the best things i bought.

only gets 8300 in 3dmark06. but i'm happy

anyway spec is good considering it has bluray

have you thought about a 7200rpm drive too
 
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I dont want a desktop, been there and done that.

Just want the best perforamce for around £1000 and a step up from my Core 2 Duo P7450 with 9600mGT.

I carnt seem to find better than the Acer 5942G @ £950 specs are,

Intel Core i5 520M 2.4
4 GB RAM
ATI HD 5650
640 GB HDD
15.6 in LED HD
Blu-ray Rom

I currently have Acer 6930G so the above spec is better and a step up.

The ATI 5650 gets 13911 in 3dmark06 and my current 9600mGT gets 9592 in 3dmark06 so its alittle quicker and DX11.

Just need to sell my 6930G now :)

Those scores you quoted are wrong. I guess you mean 3dmark03??
The 5650 will get around 7k in 3dmark06.

The 5942g is ok but certainly not worth £950! you are paying a premium for new technology.

You could get the new vaio E series which has a 1080p screen, i5 cpu and 5650 for £800!
Also on the Envy front the new i5 series are a lot cheaper than the i7 but they havent hit the UK yet so it might be worth waiting if you like it.

The Dell Studio i7 and i5 series are plagued with throttling issues so I would avoind those for the moment
 
Yes sorry its not 3dmark06 its 3dmark05 :)

Still not a bad score for 05 though ??

Will look at the others you suggested.

Thanks Ben


/EDIT

Well just built this over at sony style,

Sony VAIO E Series

Intel i5 Processor Processor i5-520M (2.40 GHz) with 3 MB L2/L3 Cache
ATI MobilityRadeon HD5650 1GB
320 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
4 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
39.4 cm LCD, 1366x768 + webcam
Blu-ray Disc(TM) player
Glossy white
Win 7

Total £ 819.01 inc. VAT


Awesome price and more or less the same spec at the Acer !!

Thanks ninja2000 !!!
 
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no problem mate :) I have the vaio CW (14" but similar build) and am really pleased with it.
I have been looking around for a decent i5 with 5650 and this seems the best I can find.
And if it runs as cool as my CW I will be so pleased!
 
Do you rate the ATI 5650 card ??? it sounds good on the notebookcheck.net web site and is faster than my 9600mGT.

I have had a look at the HP Envy 15 ! looks very nice and good specs but price is over £1000. There are differences in the UK and USA specs ?? will the UK one be updated soon ???

The UK version is priced @ £1099 and the spec is,

Intel Core i7-720QM 1.60 GHz, Level 2 cache 6 MB
4Gb RAM DDR3
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive 7200 rpm
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4830
15.6" Diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen 1366 x 768
Windows 7 64Bit

The main difference i can see in the USA version is the graphics card, ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5830 Graphics

Any idea when HP will update the UK spec to match ??? Wonder if the price will stay around £1000 though ???


Thank Ben
 
the usa hp envy 15 has recently had a refresh hench the better graphics card and usb3, they are the 2nd generation hp envy15.

it prob be less that 1k if configured with an i5
 
I did this whole shebang last week, and in the end it came down to:

  • Acer Aspire 5942G - as above - £950
  • HP Envy 15 - as above - £900 from Dixons (b-grade)
  • Dell Studio XPS 16 - i5, Radeon 4670 - £900
  • Mesh Edge DX - i7, Radeon 5650 - £900
  • HP Pavilion DV6 - i7, GeForce GT230M - £850
I was proper up for the Envy 15 until I read about heat and noise issues, and the lack of an internal optical drive and dearth of connectivity counted that out. The Acer is great but I wasn't too keen on the design and don't really trust them for build quality. The Dell looked good, but would have taken a few weeks to get here. As for the Mesh; best spec overall but pretty poor design and I couldn't find any reviews or salient info on it anywhere. So I went for the HP Pavilion because of the full fat i7, price and attractive design. I'm pretty happy with it so far. The GeForce GT230m is a little underpowered but enough to play MW2 and L4D2 on max at native res so it's OK.
 
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Do you rate the ATI 5650 card ??? it sounds good on the notebookcheck.net web site and is faster than my 9600mGT.

I have had a look at the HP Envy 15 ! looks very nice and good specs but price is over £1000. There are differences in the UK and USA specs ?? will the UK one be updated soon ???

The UK version is priced @ £1099 and the spec is,

Intel Core i7-720QM 1.60 GHz, Level 2 cache 6 MB
4Gb RAM DDR3
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive 7200 rpm
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4830
15.6" Diagonal High Definition LED HP Brightview Widescreen 1366 x 768
Windows 7 64Bit

The main difference i can see in the USA version is the graphics card, ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5830 Graphics

Any idea when HP will update the UK spec to match ??? Wonder if the price will stay around £1000 though ???


Thank Ben

I had a 4670 and it was a great mid range card. Blew my overclocked 9600 away! The 5650 is even better.

I also like the envy's but as you say the UK version is gimped. Also dont go for the i7 as it has severe heat issues but the i5 seems a lot better. It will still run hot though. If you check out HP UK they have just refreshed the i7 with 5830 and 1080p screen so it will not be long before the i5 arrives. It should also be cheaper
And as reflux says it has no internal optical drive although for me that is not an issue as I download all software or use an external drive if i really need it.
 
I looked at the HP Envy a couple of months ago, but due to the lack of a full 1080p option in the UK I decided against it. Do we have any other info on the refresh versions in the UK? Both the i7 & i5 modles?
 
I looked at the HP Envy a couple of months ago, but due to the lack of a full 1080p option in the UK I decided against it. Do we have any other info on the refresh versions in the UK? Both the i7 & i5 modles?

Your wish is being fulfilled....;)

HP Envy 15-1100 Notebook PC

Processor type
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor i7-720QM
• 1.6 GHz, Level 2 cache 6 MB

Chipset
Intel® HM55

Memory
8 GB DDR3 (4 x 2048 MB)

Storage
500 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive 7200 rpm

Optical drives
External SATA optical drive: Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer

Graphics
Display size (diagonal)
39.6 cm (15.6") Diagonal Full High-Definition LED HP Ultra BrightView Display
Display resolution
1920 x 1080

Graphic card
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5830 Graphics, up to 4091 MB total graphics memory with 1 GB dedicated

External I/O ports
2 SuperSpeed USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0 (shared with eSATA port), 1 HDMI connector, 1 eSATA + USB connector, 1 RJ45 ethernet connector, headphone-out/mic-in combo jack, extended battery connector


It's going to cost £1500 which is way too expensive. :eek:
 
Your wish is being fulfilled....;)

HP Envy 15-1100 Notebook PC

Processor type
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor i7-720QM
• 1.6 GHz, Level 2 cache 6 MB

Chipset
Intel® HM55

Memory
8 GB DDR3 (4 x 2048 MB)

Storage
500 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive 7200 rpm

Optical drives
External SATA optical drive: Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer

Graphics
Display size (diagonal)
39.6 cm (15.6") Diagonal Full High-Definition LED HP Ultra BrightView Display
Display resolution
1920 x 1080

Graphic card
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5830 Graphics, up to 4091 MB total graphics memory with 1 GB dedicated

External I/O ports
2 SuperSpeed USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0 (shared with eSATA port), 1 HDMI connector, 1 eSATA + USB connector, 1 RJ45 ethernet connector, headphone-out/mic-in combo jack, extended battery connector


It's going to cost £1500 which is way too expensive. :eek:

thats a pretty good deal for a high end system lol

but 8gigs of ram is a bit ott

also theres nothing wrong with i7 in the hp envy they are designed to run at 45w, its hotter than i5's at 35w but desktop processors run at 130w!
 
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yeah i have seen it retail at £1330, not a bad price for the specs.
I am just worried the i7 would be too hot for that chasis! I touched the envy 15 i7 in blue shirt land, it was scorching just at idle :(
 
I just ordered myself a Alienware m15x

intel i7 720qm 1.6
4gb DDR3
GTX260M
320gb 7200rpm Drive
Slot loading dvd rw
full hd screen

£1205.01

gonna be a beast

I dont want to touch the the ATI HD series atm for laptops as they are crippled with the GDDR3 and the tiny ram bus that they have. 5850s have been performing about the same as the 160m :( which is a dam shame considering the power of the gpu
 
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