dprince

I'm about to start my new job and I should be getting a significant amount of money for graduating high school. So it's time to replace my 5 year old notebook with something better. I'm basically looking for a desktop replacement for under $1300, plays the latest games well (WoW and GuildWars are the two I'm most concerned with), and won't be something I will need to replace for another 4 or 5 years.

Okay, so I think I've decided to go with the Acer Aspire 5672 which can be seen here: However, today I came across THIS beauty.

As far as I can tell, the only difference between the first Acer and this model is that this one has 2 GB of RAM instead of 1 GB, has XP Pro rather than XP Home, and it has 120 GB of HD space as opposed to 100 GB. I could care less about the extra 20 GB of hard drive space and XP Pro, what really interests me is the extra gig of RAM. However, is it worth the extra $300? The first laptop (with 1 GB of RAM) has 2 x 512 MB sticks of RAM in it.

If I buy the cheaper of the two, (1 GB RAM, 100 GB HD), could I easily buy two 1 GB RAM sticks and replace the two 512's? And if so, would this be a cheaper option than buying the second computer choice for $300 more? It would seem so after seeing this.

As I stated before, I'm looking for a laptop with a good graphics card. The two laptops I just showed you have an ATI Mobility Radeon x1400. Supposedly, they are now selling the Acer Aspire 5672 with an x1600. Check out this thread for more information. Does this seem like something I should look into? Is the x1600 that much better than an x1400?

Thanks for reading all my questions. I eagerly await your replies. =D

Plaid13

i havnt ever been much of a laptop person but My mom just got a acer laptop to use for ebay and whatnot and she seems very pleased with it and it is a good looking computer nice screen and all.

But as far as what one you should buy i think you should get the better of the two. get the best you can afford because laptops arnt really ment to be upgraded.

xepherys

"and won't be something I will need to replace for another 4 or 5 years"

To me this means get as much as you can for your budget.

Dilbert1234567

I could not find any pages comparing the 2 cards, how ever I found the same site comparing the 2 cards in different reviews.

Review of the x1600:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2632&p=2

Testing of the x1400:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2766&p=11

Comparing Day of defeat at 1440x900
x1400 gets 15.21 FPS
x1600 gets 42.7 FPS

Huge difference.

Bottom line is that laptops are not for gaming, you simply can't put a very fast video card in them for many reasons. If you want to be able to play the latest games for the next 5 years, it won't happen, even with a desktop, I’d recommend you keep the laptop for mobility, and then get a desktop for your gaming needs. Or get a new, low end laptop and a nice desktop.

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oberon

Don't expect a laptop to last 5 years if it has any crazy 'gaming' oriented features. Those things usually run very hot. Hot means short life span. Most laptops are poorly designed and I rarely see any that will last more than 2 years without needing repairs. You'd better get a long service warranty if you really want something like that.

In short, I agree with Dilbert1234567. Laptops aren't really useful at the high end of the price range, unless they are designed to be laptops and not gaming machines.

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Mondak

I tend to be a screen geek. If you are going to go with a 15.4 inch screen and deal with the weight - you should really get something above wXGA. Not sure if your budget allows it, but I would always say it is worth it.

As far as the video card is concerned, a good screen will beat a good video card unless you are really intending to use it for gaming. In that case, neither of these laptops are going to do the trick for you anyway.

Good luck.

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macmanmike6100

A little dated: http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...,123883,00.asp

A PCMag reader survey: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1851293,00.asp

Personally, though, I wouldn't buy an Acer (maybe even do one custom...my 18 year old brother just put together a nice one) and would plan on spending considerably more than $1300 (which I think is a little low for any computer purchase...)

Good luck -- let us know your experiences!

dprince

Well, I went ahead and ordered this Acer. It has an x1600 GPU instead of the old x1400, and an added 20 gigs of HD space. I spent somewhere between 25-30 hours researching this model before buying it, and I know it's going to be money well spent. I bough the two year warranty extension as well, so I'm covered for 3 years (1 year manufacturer's warranty + 2 year buy.com support). It should arrive sometime this week. I'll let you all know how it works out. =D

shoegirl

dprince, do let us know how you like that Acer.

My laptop is slowly (or not so slowly now) dying. As in melting together. It's a Dell, I know it's crap - it was bought for me for school a few years back. Anywho, I've found myself looking for a new laptop and Acer is on my list. I'd love to hear some more reviews and opinions.

dprince

I love my Acer to death man. It plays all the games I want it to and incredibly smoothly on medium to high settings I might add. Here's what I've been playing if you're interested: World of Warcraft, Doom 3, Dreamfall, Hitman: Blood Money, Unreal Tournament 2004, FarCry, Oblivion, and Guild Wars.

I minimize the games to play music on Winamp, go on Firefox, and chat on AIM all simutaneously with no problems. The Intel CoreDuo processor was made for this kind of stuff. The 120 GB hard drive size is a perfect for me and the little built-in webcam is fun to play around with. I'm very happy with this baby. I bought it from buy.com because I didn't have to pay sales tax so that saved me a little. I think it's the cheapest there. You can find it on newegg as well, heres the link. Oh, and the price kicks . I had no problem spending the extra $120 or so on a 3 year warranty, it may come in handy. Though from what I have been hearing I will never need to use it. Definitely happy with my purchase, I reccomend to all.

shoegirl

Thanks so much dprince. I've found an incredible deal on that same laptop - just $899! I do think I'll be buying it. And if I do, I'll let everyone know how it works for me, as well!