Which laptop? (Acer v Dell)

Tombles

Tombles

Tombles

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10 Jun 2005
Posts
760
Hi all,

Im buying my girlfriend a laptop and i have a couple in mind but not really sure how good they are in terms of price and spec so any help much appreciated.

The two laptops i am looking at are:

Acer Aspire 5720 Gemstone

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 - 2GHz (x2), 800MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache
RAM: 1GB DDR2 - Low cost double memory offer, call for details!
Hard Drive: 160GB Serial ATA
Screen: 15.4" Widescreen TFT (1280x800 - 16:10) with CrystalBrite Technology
Optical Drive: DVD±RW Super Multi
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with up to 358 MB of Intel Dynamic Video Memory Technology 8 MB of dedicated system memory, up to 350 MB of shared system memory)
Wireless LAN: 802.11a/b/g
Battery Life (Depending on Use): 4 hours
Weight: 2.8kg
Warranty: 1 Year Collect and Return - Upgradeable to 3 Years!
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
5 in 1 Card Reader
Integrated 0.3 Megapixel Webcam
Built-in Acer 3DSonic Stereo Speakers
S-video Output
Firewire Port

£549.97

and

Dell Inspiron 1520

Intel® Pentium Dual Core Processor T2330 (1.60GHz, 1 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB) edit
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English edit
1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return edit
Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish without camera edit
15.4" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) TFT Display with TrueLife™ edit
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024] edit
160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory edit
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software edit
Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)
Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card - Europe - Pentium Dual Core Only

£592.52

She will be mainly web browsing and watching/listening to media but the odd small bit of gaming but nothing too performance demanding.

Thanks
 
Thanks for the input guys, i specced up a Vostro 1500 and came out with this:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5470 Processor (1.6GHz,800MHz,2MB L2 cache) edit
Genuine Windows Vista® Business - English edit
Base Warranty - 1 Year Business Hardware Support edit
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife™ edit
Matte Jet Black without Camera edit
3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (1x1024 + 1x2048 MB) edit
160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
256MB nVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT edit
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive edit
Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)

What do you think? Think i could change Vista to Home premium and also haggle it down to £600 as thats kinda my limit.

edit: sorry the price came in at around £617
 
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1,66 GHz Intel® Core™2 Duo T5450 667MHZ
120GB 7200rpm SATA Harddisk Samsung®
Zepto Zpro 300Mbit Wifi Card (ABGN)
No OS
Keyboard Znote 6x14W Black UK
14,1" WXGA+ 1440x900 - 6224W
12 months pick up & return
6 Cell Battery
NVIDIA® Geforce 8600M GT 512MB
Online discount UK 5
2GB (2x1024) DDR2 667/PC5300 SODIMM
SAMSUNG DVD-RW Slot-in 6xx4W/6xx5WD/2xx5

£565.00... Im thinking of getting this one! should last me a few years!
 
I did look at the Zepto laptops but my girlfriend wants at least a 15.4" screen as she wont be using it for moving around much and also got to buy Vista on top of that price so none of them really were any good for me.
 
Could always check out the HP Laptops

Processor: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58
Memory: 2GB
HD Capacity: 160GB
Display: 15.4"
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7150M
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Full Specifications:
Processor type: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 Mobile Technology
Level 2 cache: 2x512 KB, Up to 1600 MHz system
Operating system installed: Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
Standard memory: 2048 MB
Maximum memory: Supports up to 2 GB DDR2 memory
Memory layout: (2 x 1024 MB)
Internal hard disk drive: 160 GB
Hard disk controller: SATA Hard Disk Drive
Hard disk drive speed: 5400 rpm
Optical drive type: Lightscribe Super Multi DVD Writer (+/-R +/-RW) with Double Layer support
Memory card device: 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
Modem: High speed 56K modem
Network interface: Ethernet 10/100BT integrated network interface
Wireless technologies: 802.11b/g WLAN
External I/O ports: 3 USB 2.0, 1 VGA port, 1 RJ11 modem connector, 1 RJ45 ethernet connector, S-video TV out, 1 headphones-out, 1 mic-in, 1 IEEE 1394, remote control infrared port (remote optional), cable docking connector
Video capture interface: IEEE 1394 FireWire Interface
Expansion slots: One ExpressCard/54 slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)
Display size: 15.4" WXGA High Definition BrightView Widescreen
Display resolution: 1280 x 800
Video adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 7150M
Video RAM: Up to 559 MB total available graphics memory
Webcam: HP Pavilion webcam with stereo integrated microphones
Remote control: HP Mobile Remote Control
Internal audio: 3D Sound Blaster Pro compatible sound 16 bit integrated

£539.99

from a place with the logo of a square with a orange triangle within it

only thing i dont like about hp is the price you pay for hardware in terms with dell, however they do look good and are more stylish than a chunky vostro.
 
Tombles said:
Thanks for the input guys, i specced up a Vostro 1500 and came out with this:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5470 Processor (1.6GHz,800MHz,2MB L2 cache) edit
Genuine Windows Vista® Business - English edit
Base Warranty - 1 Year Business Hardware Support edit
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife™ edit
Matte Jet Black without Camera edit
3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (1x1024 + 1x2048 MB) edit
160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
256MB nVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT edit
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive edit
Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)

What do you think? Think i could change Vista to Home premium and also haggle it down to £600 as thats kinda my limit.

edit: sorry the price came in at around £617
Click to expand...


I would take the ram down to 2 gigs and get a better cpu in there, as the ram could be more easily upgraded later if needed.
 
Doohickey said:
Why what's wrong with Acer :(
Click to expand...

I've had experience with ACER after a laptop went bad. (not mine I add)

It's hard in the first place to get them to take it back when it goes wrong, and then you have to wait up to six weeks to get it back.
My Bro in laws son had one, and his parents paid another huge amount for 3 years hardware support.

It went back 3 times in 2 years with various problems. I admit he is heavy handed, but that doesn't excuse ACER fitting a second hand hard drive which they had taken from another machine (win98) and upgraded it to XP.
You could still find files on it from another user.

You could choose which version of XP to boot to when it booted, so it hadn't been installed properly either.

Now I read the terms of this 3 year thing, and ACER had not delivered, but my brother in law was past phoning / waiting etc.

Last week I got to use a brand new DELL and its well made with good battery life.
I HATE DELL desktops, but my experience with there laptops makes me believe they are half decent.

The down side with DELL....if it does go bad, you might end up talking to someone in India.
But even though they are hard to understand, they don't fob you off like the brit ACER guys do.

I know it may just depend on who you get on the phone that day, but I can't excuse the so called ACER repairs I got to see.

Just remembered, Ive had some pretty first hand experience with DELL support as well.
Friend of mine in Ireland bought a desktop, and the sound card wouldn't do what she wanted.
The model she bought was in a slim line case, so fitting another sound card wasn't an option (easy one at least)
I wrote her an e-mail to send to DELL, and she got a full refund.
 
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my acer has been back 6 times and they are still unable to fix it, pushed the laptop out of warrenty and now I'm trying to get trading standards involved. The retailer isn't playing nice either. The past 3 times I insisted on a replacement, however their policy was "if it can be fixed they will". Now because I have complained about the issue so much after so many repairs they're declaring it a design limitation and are refusing to deal with me.

I've had 1 hard disk, 1 new hinge, 2 Digitizers, 1 inverter, 1 DVD drive... and it's still not working. Most of the parts were not new, I found different partitions on the hard disk, someone else's cd in the replacement drive and last time they sent it back they forgot to send some of the other removable parts of the laptop so they arrived a week later in another box.
 
A family member sent their Acer back to be repaired a few years back.. Acer sent back the same model but not their laptop :)

So all of his personal data was sent to someone else, similarly they could access another persons personal data. Took him over 3 weeks to get Acer to admit thir mistake, even though the original RMA clearly showed their correct serial number and the laptop they recieved did not match (and was scratched in places the old one wasn't)

Since then I have only ever recommended Acer to people whose budget will only buy them an Acer.

The Vostro's on the other hand are lovely laptops (though not sure about Dell support as they havent needed to use it yet.)
 
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