Tesco Direct - Acer Laptop £374 Delivered

patwa_2

Hi. Yes it comes with both the RJ-45 (Network) and RJ-11 (modem) ports.

It comes with system recovery discs so you can restore it to factory defaults, and it may also comes with a no-CD reset as well (handy if you're travelling).

It may also come with the actual Windows CD itself, as a separate disc to the recovery discs, so the answer to your second question would be yes. And yes it is the latest Windows Media Center.

patnut

patwa wrote:

It comes with system recovery discs so you can restore it to factory defaults, and it may also comes with a no-CD reset as well (handy if you're travelling).

It may also come with the actual Windows CD itself, as a separate disc to the recovery discs, so the answer to your second question would be yes. And yes it is the latest Windows Media Center.

Patwa where did you get this information from..? You are wrong on all accounts. Mine came with no cds at all. And I'm sure no one else got any CDs either.

The information you are giving sounds incorrect.

aurora_borealis_2

I bought this for my mum.
There were definitely no CDs with it. I burned them myself.

I also need to to a file transfer. Can someone make a link to the cable that I need please?

chipbeck

patnut wrote:

I must say I'm quite impressed.:o

I paid £332.98 with staff discount a further £7.87 off thanks to Quidco and 832 clubcard points to boot.

Out of the box: It's v slim/light & looks v slick too.

After burning the two recovery disks I set it up to my wireless network which was a breeze.

Pros: Looks more than it cost, comes with some nice bundled software, Good build quality, price, screen. Easy to use.

Cons: battery life could be better, speakers could be better positioned & louder.

Would I recomend: Yes

Remember movies have to be played at the laptop highest setting "Entertainment" otherwise the playback will appear choppy due to the processor performance being decreased. So make sure you have a mains supply near by as the battery will not last long at this setting at all.

What's a technical boffin like you working at Tescos for (hopefully loadsa dosh). I bought one of these for the misses yesterday and want to access my linksys broadband router....... I don't know where to start. I haven't even managed tp burn any recovery discs although I have bought some dvds to write them on. Any help would be much appreciated.

patwa_2

Apparrently my information was wrong for which I apologise. I was going on full retail purchase experience (not from Tesco) which had all of the above. Surprised there was not even a recovery disc - maybe it's on-board recovery only?

Apologies for the inaccuracy, it was not my intention to mislead anyone.

Colsta

rthirlby wrote:

I work as a Laptop Repair Engineer so ive seen more laptops than most people have had hot dinners.............
My personal preference when buying a laptop is to choose one with a GOOD graphics card capable of playing games but most sub £400 laptops only have basic Intel or SIS rubbish graphics cards that just cant handle any modern games.................

When something seems too good to be true, it usually isn't.
I don't wish to undermine rthirlby's good intentions, but I'm afraid just because he says he is a laptop engineer doesn't mean he is right!!

The Xpress 1100 is NOT a dedicated 3D chipset but is in fact an integrated solution, just like the Intel and SiS integrated chipsets mentioned in the original posting. The specifications he included actually say this (my italics):

"ATI Radeon® Xpress 1100 integrated 3D graphics, with up to 128 MB of shared system memory"

For the technically minded, further information can be viewed HERE

For those that aren't technically minded, this means that these laptops are perfectly suited for most tasks including basic games (and a good deal at the price). HOWEVER they ARE NOT suitable for proper 3D gaming (e.g Halo, Doom 3, World of Warcraft). If 3D gaming performance is a must have for you, then look elsewhere because you won't see a suitable laptop in this price range.

bennnneb

is there a way of making the speakers louder? tried watching a dvd on highest setting and it wasnt very loud. however listening thrpugh headphones it was.

rthirlby

Colsta wrote:

When something seems too good to be true, it usually isn't.
I don't wish to undermine rthirlby's good intentions, but I'm afraid just because he says he is a laptop engineer doesn't mean he is right!!

The Xpress 1100 is NOT a dedicated 3D chipset but is in fact an integrated solution, just like the Intel and SiS integrated chipsets mentioned in the original posting. The specifications he included actually say this (my italics):

"ATI Radeon® Xpress 1100 integrated 3D graphics, with up to 128 MB of shared system memory"

For the technically minded, further information can be viewed HERE

For those that aren't technically minded, this means that these laptops are perfectly suited for most tasks including basic games (and a good deal at the price). HOWEVER they ARE NOT suitable for proper 3D gaming (e.g Halo, Doom 3, World of Warcraft). If 3D gaming performance is a must have for you, then look elsewhere because you won't see a suitable laptop in this price range.

Well of course the graphics card is integrated, 99% of all laptops have integrated graphics cards as they are built into the main circuit board.

I know of only a handful of laptops that have seperate, removable graphics card such as a few models built by Clevo rebadged as Rocks or Alienwares and the odd Dell machine of old.

The difference is that the graphics chipset used is better than the average sis and intel graphics chipsets and is capable of delivering much more for your money

My point still stands

patwa_2

I assume you have also tried accessing the full volume control panel and maxing out all the settings. Failing that, no, I'm afraid. You may be able to adjust the sound quality through using plugins, but if you can't shove any more power through the speakers, it's about as maxed out as it's going to be.

Maybe try connecting a set of external 2.0 or 2.1 speakers to your laptop, through a PCMCIA creative sound card (of course, this would not work when using the laptop as a 'mobile' device).

thelurch

Having looked at laptops in store recently, I noticed that the full volume through the onboard speakers was not very loud especailly when compared to my 4 year old HP.

I was told that manufacturers dont make them so loud now, they dont devote much space or system resources to it as if people want to watch laptops then I suppose they will plug in external speakers.

This may be wrong but its what ive been told.