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Opinions on a laptop
I was out at Best Buy today and just browsing around when I ran across this:http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/acer-acer-aspire-17-3-laptop-featuring-intel-core-i5-430m-as7740g-6969-blue-as7740g-6969/10138173.aspx?path=6d393bdfd4a55ffa78400a9c856ab469en02
17.3" screen
Intel Core i5-430M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 512 mb memory
4GB RAM
500GB (5400RPM) HD
1600 x 900 screen resolution
HDMI Port
4 USB Ports
8X DVD Double-Layer Drive
The listed price is $799.99 (Canadian $) but I got $30 knocked off so it was $769.99 before taxes and fees. To me, this seemed like a great deal. Its hard to find a decent gaming laptop for under $1000, so when I saw one with an Intel Core i5-430M cpu and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 gpu for under $800, I almost couldn't believe it. Is this a good deal or not? Keep in mind that electronics are usually at least 10% more expensive(often more than 10%) in Canada than in the US. Thanks.
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
Comments
The problem is the HD5470. Prices have been declining in laptops for some time. The best laptop out right now is under $2000. You can get a better ASUS for the same price.
I was just on the notebook market a few weeks ago, so I'm pretty familiar with what's out there, if not specifically in Canada.
Looking at the Canadian Tiger Direct site, I found absolutely miserable selection for notebooks. The same thing held true for Newegg.ca, which surprised me.
If you WERE looking specifically for a gaming notebook, and were willing to spend a bit above your budget, Newegg.ca DOES have the Asus N61JQ-X1 for $1050 and only $9.99 shipping. I'm assuming that's Canadian dollars, though even if that was in USD it would only thow things off by about $15. That notebook is absolutely stellar, featuring a Core I7-720QM, 4GB of DDR3-1333, a 7200RPM HDD (320GB), and a Radeon HD 5730. It's actually what I decided on, and seeing Crysis run quite playably (high 20s/low30s for fps) at native res (1366x768) on straight up high settings made me very happy. The only downside to the machine is abysmal battery life, which is about 2-3 hours with Wifi enabled, vs 4-5 on a lot of other recent notebooks. The Core I7s just suck juice like crazy
Another good alternative from the same site would be would be the Asus N71JV-X1. It has a superior 17' screen with 1600x900 resolution, and a 500GB HDD, and only costs $929 plus shipping, but its GPU is a slower Geforce GT 325M, which, when paired with the higher resolution screen, would suffer a hit in framerate (though should still easily outperform a lower end Radeon HD 5470). The technical upshot is that with only a dual-core Core I3, the battery life would be vastly better.
Hopefully that at least gives a place to start. If nothign else, I'd shop at places like Newegg or Tiger Direct over Best Buy any day, even with shipping. Keep in mind that the notebook you selected isn't terrible, just not the best out there right now.
In general, I'd also second Cleffy's reccomendation for an Asus machine, HANDS DOWN. Their notebooks are solid, and have a nice feature set. Even some of the bloatware is nice
, for instance, there's a log on feature which uses the notebook's webcam and facial recognition for Windows logon, and it's really pretty good (even if it takes a couple of weeks to get to know you). Expressgate is also surprisingly handy, being a small and light OS built right into the motherboard, while allows you to boot straight to a web browser (Firefox 3.5) and music player and Skype in under 5 seconds, and shuts down just as fast (great for a quick look at the weather or a quick check of email). To top it off, Asus doesn't just give you a warranty, but they give you a free year of accidental damage protection in case you drop it in a pool one day, though it varies by model (I don't know if the N71JV is included), and it may not be available in Canada, so you'd have to check up on ADW.
check those on newegg!you get dx11 i7 proc on the check price fully packed to give most regular computer a run for its money
buy and after market cooler base to keep it cool(yes they get hot if you crank everything up like i usually did
with a fan base you wont have issue
men i sure wish i had both that laptop
I only intend to use it when I travel, not as desk top replacement. My current desktop has an i7 920 cpu, an ATI 5870 gpu, 6 gb of DDR3 RAM and 1.2 TB of HD space (with a 128 GB SSD to boot from) so theres no need to play games on the laptop from home. I just want to be able to play more recent games at playable frame rates that don't look like total ass. I'd be doing that from either a hotel room or some other place where I can put it down on a desk and plug it into a wall, so weight and battery life aren't an issue. Truth be told, I wasn't even looking to buy a laptop but I couldn't resist the price and specs. I know theres "better" laptops available but from the research I've done I haven't seen anything in that price range to match the specs of the one I bought.
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
assuming from your last post you already purchased this, but if not there is a good deal on an ASUS laptop (ASUS = DURABLE) on Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220634
Ive recently bought a laptop at staples for a good price, prety much the same specs
amd turion 2 x2 m500
15.6 16:9 hd lcd
320 hd
raedon 4570
4gb ram
Its runs most games well actually, runs wow really well at a high fps at max setting, even aoc runs fine, on medium settings, still get 30 or so fps, i paid 700+ taxes. So thats a prety good deal, be a decent gaming laptop. Not great but decent. Im not sure if graphics in that laptop would be better then mine with my 4570, but if it is your laughing cause mine runs quite well.
I just replaced my Gateway P172 w/ the Asus N61J
I love it. I play LOTRO at full Ultra-High graphics with no issues
Here is a pretty good deal.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220700
I love that ASUS is putting a standard 2-year warranty on some of their laptops. I would recommend getting at least 1 more year of the extended warranty ($70). You can get 2 more years for ($100).
P.S. - Here is another one from Amazon. I have had a lot of luck with MSI laptops.
"Those who dislike things based only on the fact that they are popular are just as shallow and superficial as those who only like them for the same reason."
The Acer is acceptable. I just bought a new laptop myself, a Sony Vaio (from the F-series, can't remember the number right now but it was the neatest of all I checked). Both best performance for the money and best design.
I personally think Acer is in the same class as ASUS, it is good quality and you should be happy with it.
Whatever you do, stay away from HP.
Hmm, all the laptops I've gotten seem to not last nearly as long as my desktops (on the order of a couple years compared to 5-6 years). I think part of the problem is that the air filtering systems on my laptops have been poor, so they get filled with dust and crap (and you can't easily clean out the filter areas either). Any laptops that avoid this problem? Anyone have a laptop that stayed in good running condition for 4+ years? (Though finding new batteries after 2-3 years isn't always easy).
At the moment I plan on replacing my current laptop (Hel-80, Compal) with a desktop in the next few months.
(I am not meaning to hijack the thread. I just figured this information would be useful to the OP as well).
The only laptop I've seen last more than a couple of years to date that I've actually been around constantly was a 15.6' Asus ROG notebook owned by a girl I was living with, with a Core 2 Duo and a Geforce 8600M GT, which, despite being constantly subjected to heavy gaming, has held up very well, and shows no real signs of trouble. It's at least three years old for sure , and I believe it's four years old, or at least fast coming up on it. The second oldest I can think of is my father's Asus netbook, which is three years old, if that counts. Asus also beats anyone else, hands down, for included warranties at the moment.
Unfortuntely, there's really no way to keep the vents clean that well without taking one's notebook apart at least a little. That said, removing enough of the bottom to get access to the fan is usually a piece of cake. The worst notebooks for users to attempt to service are HPs, by far, and I've also experienced the worst longevity with them, having two of them fry within a year of purchase (and as of only a year or so ago, they were at the bottom for notebook in Consumer Reports). As long as you stay away from that brand and its quirky construction methods, however, most are very easy to maintain, even if a tad bit of dissassembly can give better access to the cooling systems. At worst, you can also just blow some compressed air into the output vent to loosen up the dust and hope it comes out, but that's not really the best way to go about things.
All that said, desktops cool better, so they're much longer-lasting, and their modular nature makes it easier to replace something if it does break.
Thanks for the post (I mean all of it, not just the quoted part above). I will check out the Asus notebooks before I buy my next computer.
Notebooks I've seen usually have the metal grill of some sort that helps filter the air as pretty intrinsically part of the laptop and mine is about 3/4 of an inch thick, meaning cleaning between the metal fins isn't easy (very annoying). Cleaning the fan is easy enough, but I've noticed that it just builds up dust pretty quickly these days.
My last desktop case on the other hand has a nice metal mesh for the air intake, and this catches the dust nicely. The mesh can be removed and cleaned and it pretty much captures ALL dust leaving the inside pristine. I've never seen a notebook with a system like that (I don't mind if I have to take part of the machine apart underneath to clean it, btw). That case is something like 5+ years old.
Go for the ASUS brand laptop. They are cheaper and you get better hardwares within the laptop.
Here is a recent report from Squaretrade about the reliability of laptops.
http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf
From my experience, it falls pretty close to the mark.
"Those who dislike things based only on the fact that they are popular are just as shallow and superficial as those who only like them for the same reason."
Nice information. Thanks a bunch for that link.
i'm a proud owner of an ASUS laptop equipped with a core 2 duo t7700, 2 gig of RAM and a 8600M GS and it has lasted for more thatn 2 and a half years.The only thing that i have to mention is that the graphics card is frequently overheated(idle= 60 C intense gaming 80+ C).It failed once as it's graphics card had been literarry burned so i would advise you to purchase a cooling stand along with your laptop.
That's some good info right there, and yeah, it falls right in with my personal experience too. Notice how HP is just the worst by far?
I've owned two HP laptops, one mid-range and one entry-level (Compaq Brand).
The first one had the internal connector for the power jack secured to nothing more than the motherboard, and only by three weak points of solder. It was also placed right above the CPU (a desktop Pentium 4), so the CPU would heat up and then weaken the solder. Eventually, it came so loose, that power wouldn't go the laptop reliably (it would sort of pulse in and out, and this began to damage the notebook). So finally, I dissassembled the whole damn laptop, which took hours because of the poor assembly design, and pulled the mainboard out, and re-soldered the connection... only to have it fall off again a month later. This put me into a routine of literally taking apart and repairing this jack every month, because I couldn't send it in for repairs, as HP considered it grounds for motherboard replacement ($600 cost). Eventually, the frequently repeated soldering just burned up the motherboard around the jack, and the computer just froze, let out a long solid beep from the PC speaker, and never worked agin.
My second was a Compaq, purchased in 2007 for about $500. It worked alright, and the built-in Geforce 6150 was pleasantly powerful for an integrated GPU (which was noted around the net everywhere at the time). Then, one day, after about a year, it just stopped working, no POST, no nothing. I bought a replacement motherboard on Ebay for $100, and it took me 7 hours to dissassemble this ackwardly-built machine (I can usually stip down a laptop to its mainboard in under an hour, or half an hour if I'm familiar with the model's construction). There weren't really a lot of screws; it was just plastic stressed together in funny ways. The GPU had fried because HP's cooling system was just miserable (it SHARED a single, thin heat pipe with the CPU, and the fan was VERY small!). I popped in the new board, re-built the machine, and it worked... for about two months. Guess what? The GPU fried. I was playing an old and none-too-stressful game, and then is just bluescreened, and from then on, attempting to use the GPU just resulted in a BSOD (it worked alright with the GPU disabled, running in software though).
Learn from my experiences, people. NEVER buy an HP notebook. Their PDAs and phones are bomb proof, and their printers last forever, and their desktops are solid (though usually include shoddy PSUs), but their notebooks are just miserable. Quite frankly, I think HP should fire their notebook design teams.
They don't have a notebook design team. That's the crazy thing. There are what...maybe 3 notebook makers in the world. Compal (NOT COMPAQ) and two others (Compal and another one are by far the two major players, IIRC). They make all the notebooks for all the other companies.
It would be interesting to see just how the companies with crappy notebooks go about getting them.
You're right, I forgot about that fact. Now, this isn't true of every company. Asus does design and manufacture notebooks; so does MSI. This might be party why they have higher quality notebooks. Of course, there's also Compal, like you said, which is just huge. I was originally going to buy a Compal machine before finding my Asus on Amazon. Clevo is another manufacturer.
What's curious is that according to Wikipedia, Compal makes the machines for both HP and Toshiba, yet HP notebooks are lousy while Toshiba's are great.
lol I just got pretty much the same thing in today for a little more.... just a better brand. I'm sorry, I wouldn't trust an ACER Cup Holder, much less a laptop.
I didn't read the rest of the thread, but I agree with the guy who said don't buy an HP Laptop. They are crap, I own 4 and everyone of them is broken in different ways.......... they all broke w/ in 6months of buying them. Acer is crap, but in all honesty.... I'm reinstalling windows on a friend's Acer that he bought 2yrs ago and it's been to Iraq and back and still kicking. (except for the BoSD bootup). I just wouldn't put my money into one.
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