The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

dc2447

I'd certainly buy a Tosh before buying an acer or even a dell

kieran1985

can anyone who bought the Acer Aspire 1642WLMi or Acer Aspire 5024WLMi tell me what they think of them?

they seem to offer a pretty good spec for a good price. also the only difference between the 2 systems seems to be the processer. 1642 has an Intel Pentium M 740 1.73 GHz while the 5024 has an AMD Turion 64 mobile technology ML-34 1.8 GHz - 64-bit.

any advice as to whats better?

thanks

dc2447

kieran1985 wrote:

can anyone who bought the Acer Aspire 1642WLMi or Acer Aspire 5024WLMi tell me what they think of them?

they seem to offer a pretty good spec for a good price. also the only difference between the 2 systems seems to be the processer. 1642 has an Intel Pentium M 740 1.73 GHz while the 5024 has an AMD Turion 64 mobile technology ML-34 1.8 GHz - 64-bit.

any advice as to whats better?

thanks

The p4 has better benchmarks but I don't know why you would care on such a low end laptop.

kieran1985

well im working on a pretty tight budget, but i'd just like to get the best system i can for my money

Hillfly

Well i just bought the 5024wlmi.

I am very happy with the machine. The Amd Turion processor is 64 bit which will help future proof it a bit as well as having a 256mb graphics card which is also pretty good. I hear the next genration of windows (Vista) relies quite heavily in graphics - so a decent card is also agood way to future proof. I got the model withh 100gig hard drive too - so plenty of space.
The wrieless is good too as it uses the acer 'signal up' techonology which helps improve reception.

The look and feel of the machine are the same as all acer aspires. Have look at one in Comet to get an idea.

I'd reccomend the machine to anyone wanting a dcent desktop replacent on a budget - especially after the recent price drop.

I'm not sure the benchmarks are better on the pentium - it depends what machine setup's have been tested. Can you say where you saw that dc2447?
The 5024 has new bios available that increases the performance a bit.

belfastgal

AFTER READING ALL THE GREAT POSTS AND ADVICE ON HERE . I DECIDED TO GO FOR THE ACER ASPIRE 1642WLMI ON WWW.SHOPACER.CO.UK AND ASKED THEM DID THEY PRICE MATCH - ONLY TO BE TOLD THEY COULDNT MATCH SAVASTORE'S PRICE OF £543.40. THE BEST THEY COULD DO WAS KNOCK £5 OFF BRINGING THEIR PRICE DOWN TO £569.THEY QUOTED ME A DELIVERY PRICE OF ( TO NORTHERN IRELAND ) £39 + VAT TOTAL AMOUNT OF £603.
I THINK THIS SEEMS THE BEST I CAN GET TO NOTHEREN IRELAND. HAD A LOOK ON SHOP ACER S WEBSITE AND DELIVERY TO N.I IS QUOTED AS £24.99 + VAT . SHOULD I GIVE THEM ANOTHER RING OR JUST BITE THE BULLET ?

belfastgal

Just ordered a acer aspire 1642wlmi - delivered etc to northern ireland £569....well pleases .thanks alot for helping me out and getting me such a great deal. :j

dc2447

kieran1985 wrote:

well im working on a pretty tight budget, but i'd just like to get the best system i can for my money

The best system doesn't mean the one with the largest cpu nor that having a bigger cpu will make it faster.

Low end laptops tend to have:

* poor cooling
* poor ventilation
* cheap motherboard and ram
* Low MTBF (mean time between failure)

Get a laptop from a recommended manufacturer - don't buy acer and dell because they are the cheapest, keep an eye out for bargains like the Thinkpad for £399 and jump in.

pigeonpie

What's the difference in real performance in terms of rpm processor speed as some of the cheaper ones like HP have 4500 (i think) whereas otherwise you get 5400rpm and 7200rpm. How much do you notice this when working on a desktop replacement?

Also please anyone, which laptop is quiet? Are the Acers with Turion processors quiet and "Vista" proof (all the hype, will it be better than XP?)
thank you

MickKnipfler

Where do you get a thinkpad for £399?