Laptop choice - ASUS F3JP or ACER 4234WLMi?

slix_88 · 13th March 2007, 5:14 PM

Hi guys,

I've just started uni and am having trouble tossing up between one or the other...BTW, i'm studying actuarial studies / Science (mathematics) and thus require a laptop for typing and statistical work.

I have compared both laptops, highlighting their advantages over one another:

ACER 4234WLMi -->

CPU: Intel Centrino Core 2 duo T5600 1.83GHz
RAM: 2 x 512MB DDR2 533MHz
HDD: 120GB 5200rpm
GFX: nVidia GO 7300 256MB Turbocache (128mb shared)
SCREEN: 15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800)
DVD: DVD+/-R Supermulti Layer drive
WLAN: 802.11a/b/g
BLUETOOTH: v2.0
BATTERY: 8-cell - up to 3.5 hours
OS: Windows Vista Business Edition
WARRANTY: 1YR

PRICE: $1740 - $99cashback = $1640

ASUS F3JP-AP002P -->

CPU: Intel Centrino Core 2 duo T5500 1.66GHz
RAM: 2 x 512MB DDR2 667MHz
HDD: 80GB 5200rpm
GFX: ATI Radeon X1700 256mb
SCREEN: 15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800) with colorshine
DVD: DVD+/-R Supermulti Layer drive
WLAN: 802.11a/b/g
BLUETOOTH: v2.0
BATTERY: 6-cell - up to 2-2.5 hours
OS: Windows XP Professional edition
WARRANTY: 2YR International
EXTRA: Built in 1.3MP camera

PRICE: $1599

Please help me make a choice...they both seem to be good, but i'm just worried about the short battery life on the asus, along with the slower CPU, smaller HDD and winxp...but has dedicated graphics and faster ram. In terms of the acer, i'm scared about the "shitty" gfx card which may lag windows vista and put too much stress on CPU.

See what I mean? It's a hard choice...

THaNkS..

Aratama_Bashi · 13th March 2007, 6:09 PM

i'm scared of the fact that it says "acer".
sorry, but their low end models are horrendous for build quality. i'd go quality over quantity.

andrew
(satisfied asus f3jp user)

Phat Devil · 13th March 2007, 7:21 PM

I'd definitely go the Asus one. A hdd can be easily replaced if or when you need it. They are cheap too. The graphic card in the Asus is much much better than the Acer one.

The only real thing thats going for the Acer is that it has longer battery life. That is if you are actually going to be away from the powerpoint for long times during the day The teeny bit faster cpu, you will probably not notice it.

Vista is still not 100%, I know coz i'm using it on my laptop at the moment. There are still lots of things that they can make better. But it definitely looks cooler than XP. If you are planning on using it for say business, i'd stick to xp until SP1 comes out for Vista.

And Asus is renowned for build quality

I'm using a Asus W3J atm and its going good.

slix_88 · 13th March 2007, 9:54 PM

The laptop will however be required during lectures (hence long periods). I'm still unsure

The guy @ harris technology says that the acer is claimed up to 3.5 hours but will generally only last about 2.5 hours. This is a difficult choice!!

How's the 6-cell battery for the asus laptops. On another note, is it possible to overclock the T5500?

Thanks

Aratama_Bashi · 13th March 2007, 11:14 PM

i have found that if im using the asus conservatively, it would probably last a lecture.

i would also be fairly wary of any claimed battery life, particularly from acer

BuuBox · 13th March 2007, 11:41 PM

Quote:

i would also be fairly wary of any claimed battery life, particularly from acer

An 8 cell battery is always going to last longer than a 6 cell. That said, you can probably buy a 12 cell battery for the Asus.

Nothing wrong with Acer's - their cheapies aren't the best built systems in the world, but the mid/top range are fine. Have you actually owned one?

slix_88 · 13th March 2007, 11:47 PM

No...it's actually my first laptop

Wouldn't anyone think that the best aspect for owning a laptop is power conservation / battery power?

I'm really confused...the Acer does seem very attractive, provided it's specs and statements. I went and saw the unit physically and it seems ok...but who am i to say that, if I haven't actually owned one?

I really need some advice. My budget is limited @ $1600-$1700, and I want a core2 duo centrino with gfx (anything but shared).

Thanks and keep them coming in...

justakid · 14th March 2007, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slix_88

On another note, is it possible to overclock the T5500?

Thanks

you could probably underclock/undervolt your laptop as well to get even more time out of it for lectures...where as overclocking (if possible) would lead to shorter times...

-- sorry if i'm stating the obvious....

bennyg · 14th March 2007, 1:24 AM

IMO anyone buying 512mb sticks these days is throwing away money... Vista will kill you on 1Gb, see if you can knock $$$ off the Acer by getting XP (perhaps $100 or so?).

Don't rely too much on overclocking as lappys have enough heat to deal with anyway (esp w/ dedicated GFX), and it's not like you can get in there and nicely AS5 everything (well you can but you'll void the NICE 2-YR WARRANTY that comes with the Asus - subtle huh)

Just turn down brightness and cpu speed to absolute minimum, and set screen blanking to a really short time, and turn off stuff like wireless if you don't need it. Word doesn't need much power to sit there while you dribble in your slumber...

so your lappy should last 2hrs. Mine does and it's a power hog (speedstep-less Celeron-M, overheats itself, hungry 15.4" screen; when running at full drains the battery in 30 mins).

I always LMAO when a lecturer says "oh and that's important" or "that will be on the exam" - you can instantly hear the noise like a hailstorm on a tin roof as everyone alt-tabs from solitaire to copy it down, word-for-word of course (in true Stupid Cashed-up International Student style, I'm at Melb Uni)

I guess it's between faster cpu/better battery vs. faster ram/proper gfx & wty, depends on whether the programs you use will really materially benefit from an extra 10% Merom power. If you're crunching CPU a lot even an 8-cell will drain too quickly for your liking.

EDIT: plus the 7300 Go will eat up RAM if you want more than its dedicated 128Mb VRAM. The X1700 has 256Mb dedicated. And 40Gb of HDD space isn't anything a box of blank DVDs can't handle.

slix_88 · 14th March 2007, 3:19 AM

i take it that you guys are suggesting me to go for the asus.

so, is it worth sacrificing all the extras provided with the acer for the asus? i am most probably gonna read a few more posts, and then go out to purchase my laptop after deciding on behalf of the replies.

thnx a lot...keep the posts coming in :P

Aratama_Bashi · 14th March 2007, 6:49 PM

Quote:

An 8 cell battery is always going to last longer than a 6 cell.

sorry, my fault. i wasn't meaning that i thought an 8 cell would last less than 6 cell because of brand... my statement about battery life was purely general

Quote:

Nothing wrong with Acer's - their cheapies aren't the best built systems in the world, but the mid/top range are fine. Have you actually owned one?

here's the catch. i haven't owned one! BUT for these solid reasons. for 3.5 years i was selling laptops, and for the last 2 years when i additionally dealt with acer, i have NEVER had so many units come back. they look and feel cheaper, and even a mate of mine who bought the ferrari (was it ferrari? maybe lambo or something else lol) had THREE power supplies catch fire or melt on him. spec-for-price isn't the only thing i look for, so if i were to choose between the two brands generally speaking, i would go the asus. in this case? def. the asus.

Quote:

so, is it worth sacrificing all the extras provided with the acer for the asus?

from a pure specification point of view, both of these notebooks are more than adequate. you haven't said that you need to run anything terribly demanding for uni (program-wise), so i would suggest that for regular use, you will be fine with either. but bring the brand into it and i would choose the asus without a doubt in my mind

if possible, try to find the XP Pro version of the a3jp - cheaper, and runs better too (i've had both xp and vista on my f3jp).

BuuBox · 14th March 2007, 7:50 PM

I sold computers up until maybe 2 months ago, and sold my fair share of Acer's in that period. I've even got one of the Acer cheapies sitting here next to me, and it's still going strong after about a year. It generally is on most of the time, but does go into sleep mode after a few hours. I've also had Compaq's, HP's and a Toshiba. And a Twinhead a few years back...

I have seen a Ferrari that stopped booting after it was 13 months old - but reinstalling the RAM fixed that. If the PSU's actually caught fire, I think Acer would have a lawsuit on their hands by now.

I will say that the Asus warrenty is better, if that's a big consideration.

Edit: Dismissing all this, are you going to be dragging the laptop to lectures and the like? If you are, 15.4" is stupid, as it something with a 2 hour battery life. 14.1" is the biggest you should be looking at, with a minimum battery life of 4 hours - otherwise, what's the point?

Aratama_Bashi · 14th March 2007, 7:58 PM

Quote:

I've even got one of the Acer cheapies sitting here next to me, and it's still going strong after about a year.

of course! the voice of reason is here

just because i say that acer isnt the most reliable brand, doesnt mean to say that you couldnt buy one and get hassle free use for 5 years!
thats one thing that shits me most about consumers that profess to have a clue. they get one bad experience from a brand - and assume it must be the worst brand in history. ffs! there is no such thing as a 0% failure rate! yet people might curse well engineered notebooks like toshi or ibm (pref. pre-lenovo?!

) and shitcan em because of some unfounded bullshit reasoning. same goes with phones, cars, furniture, whatever! the only thing that matters is the failure rate. grrrr! you would understand as someone else who has sold notebooks before.

Phat Devil · 14th March 2007, 8:42 PM

Small ie 14.1 and below with dedicated gfx and long battery life = expensive. Much more than what his budget can get. The only one i can think of in his budget would be something like the A8JP.

But if you are going to be using it on battery most of the time, then i'd either get something that would be out of your budget such as the Sony SZ for about 2.3k. Got most of what you need and 5+ hours of real battery life.

13th March 2007, 5:14 PM	#1
slix_88 Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Sydney Posts: 70	Laptop choice - ASUS F3JP or ACER 4234WLMi? Hi guys, I've just started uni and am having trouble tossing up between one or the other...BTW, i'm studying actuarial studies / Science (mathematics) and thus require a laptop for typing and statistical work. I have compared both laptops, highlighting their advantages over one another: *ACER 4234WLMi -->* CPU: Intel Centrino Core 2 duo T5600 1.83GHz RAM: 2 x 512MB DDR2 533MHz HDD: 120GB 5200rpm GFX: nVidia GO 7300 256MB Turbocache (128mb shared) SCREEN: 15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800) DVD: DVD+/-R Supermulti Layer drive WLAN: 802.11a/b/g BLUETOOTH: v2.0 BATTERY: 8-cell - up to 3.5 hours OS: Windows Vista Business Edition WARRANTY: 1YR PRICE: $1740 - $99cashback = $1640 *ASUS F3JP-AP002P -->* CPU: Intel Centrino Core 2 duo T5500 1.66GHz RAM: 2 x 512MB DDR2 667MHz HDD: 80GB 5200rpm GFX: ATI Radeon X1700 256mb SCREEN: 15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800) with colorshine DVD: DVD+/-R Supermulti Layer drive WLAN: 802.11a/b/g BLUETOOTH: v2.0 BATTERY: 6-cell - up to 2-2.5 hours OS: Windows XP Professional edition WARRANTY: *2YR International* EXTRA: Built in 1.3MP camera PRICE: $1599 Please help me make a choice...they both seem to be good, but i'm just worried about the short battery life on the asus, along with the slower CPU, smaller HDD and winxp...but has dedicated graphics and faster ram. In terms of the acer, i'm scared about the "shitty" gfx card which may lag windows vista and put too much stress on CPU. See what I mean? It's a hard choice... THaNkS.. Last edited by slix_88; 13th March 2007 at 5:55 PM.

14th March 2007, 1:24 AM	#9
bennyg Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Melbourne, Oztraya Posts: 684	IMO anyone buying 512mb sticks these days is throwing away money... Vista will kill you on 1Gb, see if you can knock $$$ off the Acer by getting XP (perhaps $100 or so?). Don't rely too much on overclocking as lappys have enough heat to deal with anyway (esp w/ dedicated GFX), and it's not like you can get in there and nicely AS5 everything (well you can but you'll void the NICE 2-YR WARRANTY that comes with the Asus - subtle huh) Just turn down brightness and cpu speed to absolute minimum, and set screen blanking to a really short time, and turn off stuff like wireless if you don't need it. Word doesn't need much power to sit there while you dribble in your slumber... so your lappy should last 2hrs. Mine does and it's a power hog (speedstep-less Celeron-M, overheats itself, hungry 15.4" screen; when running at full drains the battery in 30 mins). I always LMAO when a lecturer says "oh and that's important" or "that will be on the exam" - you can instantly hear the noise like a hailstorm on a tin roof as everyone alt-tabs from solitaire to copy it down, word-for-word of course (in true Stupid Cashed-up International Student style, I'm at Melb Uni) I guess it's between faster cpu/better battery vs. faster ram/proper gfx & wty, depends on whether the programs you use will really materially benefit from an extra 10% Merom power. If you're crunching CPU a lot even an 8-cell will drain too quickly for your liking. EDIT: plus the 7300 Go will eat up RAM if you want more than its dedicated 128Mb VRAM. The X1700 has 256Mb dedicated. And 40Gb of HDD space isn't anything a box of blank DVDs can't handle. __________________ Successful traders: 3/3: Brax, Zubrick, nvidiaXP Value: $125 Pending:- Coming soon: Asus G51J-A1, i7 720qm, 4Gb DDR3-1066, GTX260M@500/1250/800, 15.6" 1080p, 80Gb SSD, 320Gb HDD Soon-to-be-old lappy: Dell Vostro 1500, T9300/3Gb DDR667/8600GT@550/1200/475/320Gb/15.4" UWXGA \| Older lappy, Dell Latitude D620, T7200/2GbDDR2-667/GMA950/60Gb/14.1" Last edited by bennyg; 14th March 2007 at 1:35 AM.

14th March 2007, 7:50 PM	#12
BuuBox Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Melbourne Posts: 3,021	I sold computers up until maybe 2 months ago, and sold my fair share of Acer's in that period. I've even got one of the Acer cheapies sitting here next to me, and it's still going strong after about a year. It generally is on most of the time, but does go into sleep mode after a few hours. I've also had Compaq's, HP's and a Toshiba. And a Twinhead a few years back... I have seen a Ferrari that stopped booting after it was 13 months old - but reinstalling the RAM fixed that. If the PSU's actually caught fire, I think Acer would have a lawsuit on their hands by now. I will say that the Asus warrenty is better, if that's a big consideration. Edit: Dismissing all this, are you going to be dragging the laptop to lectures and the like? If you are, 15.4" is stupid, as it something with a 2 hour battery life. 14.1" is the biggest you should be looking at, with a minimum battery life of 4 hours - otherwise, what's the point? __________________ Dekstop: Intel Q6600, 6GB DDR2, NVIDIA GTX 275 896MB, 150GB Raptor, Samsung 1TB + 750GB, LG GGC-H20L, BenQ 24" G2400W Blast from the Past: Intel Pentium 4 3GHz, 3GB DDR2, ATI Radeon X600, 250GB, Samsung 17" LCD Trades: Too many to list. Hundreds. Atomic trusted trader: http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index...15&#entry12015 Last edited by BuuBox; 14th March 2007 at 7:54 PM.

13th March 2007, 7:21 PM	#3
Phat Devil Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Brissy Posts: 454	I'd definitely go the Asus one. A hdd can be easily replaced if or when you need it. They are cheap too. The graphic card in the Asus is much much better than the Acer one. The only real thing thats going for the Acer is that it has longer battery life. That is if you are actually going to be away from the powerpoint for long times during the day The teeny bit faster cpu, you will probably not notice it. Vista is still not 100%, I know coz i'm using it on my laptop at the moment. There are still lots of things that they can make better. But it definitely looks cooler than XP. If you are planning on using it for say business, i'd stick to xp until SP1 comes out for Vista. And Asus is renowned for build quality I'm using a Asus W3J atm and its going good.

13th March 2007, 9:54 PM	#4
slix_88 Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Sydney Posts: 70	The laptop will however be required during lectures (hence long periods). I'm still unsure The guy @ harris technology says that the acer is claimed up to 3.5 hours but will generally only last about 2.5 hours. This is a difficult choice!! How's the 6-cell battery for the asus laptops. On another note, is it possible to overclock the T5500? Thanks

13th March 2007, 11:47 PM	#7
slix_88 Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Sydney Posts: 70	No...it's actually my first laptop Wouldn't anyone think that the best aspect for owning a laptop is power conservation / battery power? I'm really confused...the Acer does seem very attractive, provided it's specs and statements. I went and saw the unit physically and it seems ok...but who am i to say that, if I haven't actually owned one? I really need some advice. My budget is limited @ $1600-$1700, and I want a core2 duo centrino with gfx (anything but shared). Thanks and keep them coming in...

14th March 2007, 3:19 AM	#10
slix_88 Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Sydney Posts: 70	i take it that you guys are suggesting me to go for the asus. so, is it worth sacrificing all the extras provided with the acer for the asus? i am most probably gonna read a few more posts, and then go out to purchase my laptop after deciding on behalf of the replies. thnx a lot...keep the posts coming in :P

14th March 2007, 8:42 PM	#14
Phat Devil Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Brissy Posts: 454	Small ie 14.1 and below with dedicated gfx and long battery life = expensive. Much more than what his budget can get. The only one i can think of in his budget would be something like the A8JP. But if you are going to be using it on battery most of the time, then i'd either get something that would be out of your budget such as the Sony SZ for about 2.3k. Got most of what you need and 5+ hours of real battery life.