Please help! Which to choose????

[ziggynerja]

Hello all,

I'm planning on buying a new low/mid priced laptop and I'm stuck between two laptops...was hoping tomshardware can point me in the right direction!

Ill be using the laptop for light Photoshop/Illustrator/Dreamweaver work and light gaming. Was hoping to be able to play COD:Black ops on low settings, but thats a bonus.

I do have a powerful desktop, but i still need a laptop because I'm moving around alot.

Here they are...

Acer Aspire
Intel® Core™ i3-370M processor (2.4GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
3 GB RAM
Graphics:UMA
320 GB HDD (5400 Rpm)
Screen:15.6" HD Acer CineCrystal™ LED LCD
Optical Drive: DVD-Super Multi DL drive
Around £380 NEW

Sony VAIO
Intel Core i3-330M Processor (2.13GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
4 GB RAM DDR3 SDRAM
500GB HDD (5400 Rpm)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 Graphics
Screen:15.5 VAIO
Around £480 - £500 USED(good condition, so shouldn't be an issue)

Now i understand the acer will not be able to play black ops with that intergrated gfx. Is the Sony worth the extra ££..


If you have any recommendations for other laptops, please let me know thought I'm looking to keep it below £500..


Thanks!

[Predator]

I think that was the vaio I had...a year after I got it using it for the odd light game and uni work the motherboard broke..I'm now selling it as faulty I'd avoid vaio...

Plus the Sony struggled with warcraft so black ops might be optimistic

Acet looks the better buy

[Blaineoliver]

Acer wont play any games, but will run photoshop etc slightly better in terms of CPU, those all accelerate with ATi graphics cards, so one with intergrated ati is probably better.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would get this laptop:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshi...urce=LDfroogle

It comes with a Mobility Radeon HD5650 HyperMemory which means it will be slower than a normal Mobility Radeon HD5650 but OTH will be faster than a Mobility Radeon HD5470.

A Dell Inspiron 15R can be had for around £550 with a Mobility Radeon HD5650 1GB:

http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/...codes-coupons/

[Predator]

Also vaio build quality is terrible...you pay for the brand not the machine

[ziggynerja]

Thanks everyone for the reply's.. Ive done alot of thinking, still haven't come to a decision just yet

I really would prefer to order from amazon.co.uk, as i live in Spain.. and it works out better for me..

@CAT-THE-FIFTH
Yeah those laptops are nice.. i was looking for laptops on amazon with that HD5650.. unfortunately most are too much for my price range (£300-450). Are there any other models around you can recommend??

@Blaineoliver
Thats interesting, but will it accelerate it enough to be worth £100 more?

@Predator
aaa seriously? I thought that Sony Vaio had great build quality.. :O Maybe that Acer is the way to go then..


Well I think if i was to even play black ops on that Sony, its going to be painful I dout ill find a laptop able to play it AND be able to do webdesign nicely at this price range ...

I guess the Acer is the one to go for being £100 cheaper...

but dam.. i love the look of those Sony laptops shame about bad build quality..

[Predator]

Well this is what happened to mine:

Month 3 touchpad texture worn off - made it hard to use
Month 4 'y' key randomly fell off and stayed off
Month 6 all the edging paint on every edge had rubbed off
Month 6 the hdd failed
Finally in the 12 month and 1 week out of warranty the motherboard failed

Since the start the cd drive made a terrible noise after a while I gave up using it.
The plastic around the memory card read (that I never used) broke.
The edging around the screen was loose

Now I am guessing you think I abused it? Wrong...it sat on my desk on a laptop cooler all day and took a few hours of wow and a few hours of uni work each day. I even dusted it each day!

All of this and Sony didn't want to know, all they wanted me to do is to send it to them they fix it and when I pay I get it back...I don't think so!

So may have been a bad egg but it's bad enough for me to recommend everyone to steer clear!

[Pob255]

Sony like most other laptop "manufactures" can produce good units and bad units, normally down to the model to which is a decent one.

With current laptops the production runs are getting very short, it's soooo annoying, 6 months down the line when any quality faults have shown themselves the production run is over and the model is EOL
You'd think that longer production runs would be cheaper but for laptops the oppersit seem to be true shorter production runs = cheaper laptops
When you look at some of the more expensive laptops, normally the business models, you'll find they have far longer production runs.
The cost of a sony is in part down to their use of longer production runs and in part is down to paying for brand.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This laptop should do the job:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MSI-FX600-15.6...32ebb2ffc6c6d8

This is the same laptop with Blu-ray for a few quid more:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MSI-FX600-BLU-...item53e58bf8ae

[Legthigh]

Personally I wouldn't buy either of the ones the OP listed.

Acer = Cheaply built imo, used to work in laptop repairs and the sheer amount of Acers we used to get in was unbelievable. (I do admit however that Acer seem popular laptops and it could have been a case of high saturation of the brand rather than they being so unreliable)

Sony = Parts can be a nightmare to get hold of, and in many cases extended warranty companies won't do the repairs themselves they will send back to Sony, who do not rush in sending stuff back, you could be months waiting to get it back should it need to go in for repair.

I'd look HP being honest.

[ik9000]

friend had acer - nothing but trouble. wouldn't recommend to anyone after witnessing her problems.

[ik9000]

Personally I wouldn't buy either of the ones the OP listed.

Acer = Cheaply built imo, used to work in laptop repairs and the sheer amount of Acers we used to get in was unbelievable. (I do admit however that Acer seem popular laptops and it could have been a case of high saturation of the brand rather than they being so unreliable)

Sony = Parts can be a nightmare to get hold of, and in many cases extended warranty companies won't do the repairs themselves they will send back to Sony, who do not rush in sending stuff back, you could be months waiting to get it back should it need to go in for repair.

I agree. Plus Sony Vaios have rubbish battery life. Have you looked at ASUS?