Which honkin' desktop replacement?

H

heavyharmonies

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Jun 16, 2004
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Gettin' me a lapt....err... brick.

Weight, mobility, and battery life are less of a concern to me than horsepower, screen size and quality, and upgradeability. I'll be taking it to and from my office, but not daily. Uses will be heavy Adobe CS, folding, some gaming albeit not a major concern, and web browsing.

I think I have it narrowed down to 2 contenders, but after a bazillion hours of reading at www.notebookreview.com and www.notebookforums.com, I'm still waffling between the two contenders:

  1. Acer Aspire 1712 http://pctorque.com/builder.php?type=68 $1853

    17" SXGA LCD
    Pentium® 4 3.0 GHz 800 FSB
    1024MB 333DDR RAM
    128MB NVIDIA 5700GO Video
    120.0 GB 7200rpm HD
    DVD-RW/CD-RW Combo Drive & Softwares
    10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
    Internal V.92 Fax/Modem
    2 speaker system and subwoofer
    Smart Li-ION Battery

  2. Dell Inspiron 9100. $2069 + tax - 4% Fatwallet cash back.

    Pentium® 4 w/ HT Technology 3.2GHz, 15.4-in. WUXGA
    Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
    256MB DDR 400MHz 2 DIMMs (will replace RAM from Newegg/Crucial)
    256MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON™ 9800 AGP 8X Graphics
    60GB Hard Drive at 7200RPM
    8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+RW/+R) with double-layer
    Dell® Wireless 1350 Internal Wireless (802.11b/g, 54Mbps)
    96 WHr 12-cell Primary Battery with Subwoofer
    1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year Mail-In Service
    Burlwood QuickSnap™ Cover

Both seem to be extremely robust machines.

Acer pros: uses desktop components, so easier/cheaper to upgrade; phenomenal screen, albeit 1280x1024, after RAM, about $400 cheaper

Dell: Higher resolution (but smaller screen size), Radeon 9800 graphics, dual-layer DVD, faster CPU out-of-the-box.

I want 'em both, damnit!

Suggestions pro and con?
 
i would go for the ACER
the 17" screen is more usable than a 15.4" widescreen
and it uses a 3.5" HD
which means you can pull the measely 120gb drive out of it
and toss in a 250gb+ HD
the FX5700 graphics card in it is darn good
either one you can pull the stock processor out and put a newer one in

i personaly think acer's support is of a higher quality than dell's
thoughif you could configure it with 128/256 ram i think it would be better getting pc3200(400mhz) memory for the system
 
As of right now, the bios in the Acer won't accept anything larger than 137GB. NOTE that is not the Windows limitation. Have you looked at Sager? In the category of DTR, check the 8790. 17in widescreen, upto 2gb RAM, dual harddrives and SXGA+ glossy screen. Any Intel proc that says Northwood or Prescott on the side is supported and pctorque.com will be happy to accomodate.
 
They are both great systems. I personally would go with the ACER as well.. the parts are a better combo imo.
 
revan said:
As of right now, the bios in the Acer won't accept anything larger than 137GB. NOTE that is not the Windows limitation. Have you looked at Sager? In the category of DTR, check the 8790. 17in widescreen, upto 2gb RAM, dual harddrives and SXGA+ glossy screen. Any Intel proc that says Northwood or Prescott on the side is supported and pctorque.com will be happy to accomodate.
Click to expand...

The screen looks absolutely gorgeous, but the reason I didn't include it is that a lot of people are reporting returning them due to the amount of heat the 8790 puts out. Apparently it's a real problem.

-Dan
 
Fair question, but I really don't want to fuck with cables or an external monitor. As heavy as these laptops are, they still can be carried under one arm (or over one shoulder)...

-Dan
 
i would suggest the first one cause of the sheerly MASSIVE drive ..i've never seen a 120gb on a laptop and i'd love to have a 120gb on my laptop because i'm a digital photographer and 40gb runs out within 2 weeks :)
 
revan said:
As of right now, the bios in the Acer won't accept anything larger than 137GB. NOTE that is not the Windows limitation. Have you looked at Sager? In the category of DTR, check the 8790. 17in widescreen, upto 2gb RAM, dual harddrives and SXGA+ glossy screen. Any Intel proc that says Northwood or Prescott on the side is supported and pctorque.com will be happy to accomodate.
Click to expand...

I just got my Acer 1712 from Newegg for 1813.00 It rocks. It is not (to me) as heavy as some people make it out to be, and the screen is awesome. It's a screamer and easy to work on.

It recognized my Hitachi 160GB w/8MB cache just fine. There is a newer BIOS, revan.
 
Caffeinated said:
I just got my Acer 1712 from Newegg for 1813.00 It rocks. It is not (to me) as heavy as some people make it out to be, and the screen is awesome. It's a screamer and easy to work on.

It recognized my Hitachi 160GB w/8MB cache just fine. There is a newer BIOS, revan.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've seen people with WD 250gb hard drives in those. :)
 
[update. Budget slightly higher, two more contenders]

I've read until I'm blind. I'll be damned if I can decide which desktop replacement to get. All of the following have appeal in one form or another:

  1. Sager 4750 (PCTorque)

    17" WSXGA+ (1680x1050) Gloss screen
    AMD 64 3200
    128MB Radeon 9700
    1024MB DDR400
    60GB 7200 RPM
    4x DVD+/-RW
    No OS
    802.11g Turbo
    1 Yr warranty
    $2345 shipped.

  2. Sager 8790 (PCTorque)

    17" WSXGA+ (1680x1050) Gloss screen
    P4 3.2Ghz Northwood
    256MB Radeon 9700
    1024MB Dual-channel DDR
    60GB 7200RPM
    4x DVD+/-RW
    No OS
    802.11g Turbo
    1 Yr warranty
    $2545 shipped.


  3. Acer Aspire 1712SMi (PCTorque)

    17" SXGA (1280x1024)
    P4 3.0 Ghz HT
    128MB Nvidia 5700Go
    1024MB PC DDR333
    120GB 7200RPM HD
    2x DVD-RW Combo Drive
    802.11g
    1 Yr warranty
    $1873 shipped.

  4. Dell Inspiron 9100

    15" WSXGA+
    P4 3.2 HT
    256MB Radeon 9800
    1024MB DDR400
    60GB 7200 RPM
    8x DVD+RW (dual layer)
    802.11g
    Purty Burlwood snap cover
    $2303 shipped.

Pros/cons:

4750: $200 less than the 8790, AMD over Intel. Cooling is an issue. Attractive screen.

8790: While more expensive than 4750, you get 128MB more VRAM, and the ability to RAID or add a 2nd hard drive (as a Photoshop user, this is attractive). Supposedly cooling is slightly less of an issue than with 4750, especially if I choose Northwood over Prescott (I'd love to hear some more definitive data on this though). Attractive screen.

Acer: $500 less than the others; uses desktop components. Can take the money and run or spend the $500 and drop in a 3.4 Prescott *and* upgrade the HD to 160GB 8MB cache. Heaviest of the 4 by a good five pounds. Lower-resolution 17" screen, but supposedly great brightness and contrast.

Dell: Latest video card, latest DVD+RW technology. Smaller screen size than others.

Any sage words of advice to steer me one way or another? (Uses: primarily Adobe CS, some gaming, some surfing, full-time folding)

-Dan
 
I just bought a sager np4750 and i love the thing. It performs slightly better than most 8790's i've seen. I currently get a little over 3800 in 3dmark03. The screen is just beautiful and it is huge. I would recomend a sager or acer over a dell for the support alone. They are very personal and friendly.
 
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