Acer Aspire 3023 & X700 Laptops Advice

Hey there,

Firstly thanks to the members of this forum, it's a great place, I used it when my girlfriend was looking for a laptop

Now it's my turn for a laptop! lol, im looking at the Aspire 3023. My g/f has the 3003, which is great, but i want a more powerful gfx card, the x700, as I play some games but I also do 3D animation using Maya.

The 3023 looks like a great deal to me, price wise and specs. Im in the UK, and have found the 3023 for just under £650, which is about my Max price.

Now I ask for your advice . Im having great trouble finding the 3023!! , either nowhere sells it, or it's out of stock :/. I checked the Acer site, and it's no longer listed, so I assume its been discontinued :/.

So firstly, does anyone know where to get the 3023 in England at a good price? and still in stock?. This would be a great help!

Also, I would like your advice in general. I want a comp with a good graphic, so thats the x700 128mb card. I read somewhere on here that the 64mb version would limit me quiet somewhat, so I guess I should forget about the TravelMate 4400, even though it has 64bit Cpu. Also there is the Aspire 5024, which has the whole lot, the 128mb gfx and the 64bit cpu... but at a more evil price :/, so I think I will have to count that one off the list.

So do you think I shoud go with the 3023? Assuming I can find it? or something else?. I can't really push more than £650 :/.

Thanks for your help and advice people! and for reading my long ass post,
Cheers
Matt

== EDIT

Idiot :/ I wrote, 3033, but I ment 3023! very sorry about that!

 

I ment 3023, very sorry about that dumb typo!
Anyway an admin could edit the title for me?
Cheers

 

Well, The ASUS W3J should be out inthe UK. It's a bit more but it has the X1600 GPU which is quite a bit faster than teh X700.

 

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_3023WLMi_LX.A4805.024/version.asp

Todays your lucky day. £634

 

Woooooohooooooooo! Cheers sionyboy I owe you! lol
Very tempted to order asap just incase thats their last stock!

Wiz33 thanks for the info, I found it on two sites, £1200 or something though! Way outa my price range, I think the x700 will do Many thanks for your post though!

So is the 3023 a good buy for me? Im thinking so

 

Well with Maya a faster CPU is a better bet than a good graphics card, unless its a professional GL solution. I'd say it depends on how much gaming you intend to be doing, with what type of games. 3023 is a decent enough system, but the Sempron 3000 is not the best mobile solution, though its far from bad. I'd get that and chuck in 1 gig extra of memory (have to take out 256mb module) and it should serve you well.

 

Thanks for the reply again sionyboy, it's good to talk with someone who knows about Maya. As you state Im not looking for a pro GL gfx for Maya, I highly doubt one even exsists for laptops, so I just want something that will work okay with Maya im 98% sure the x700 will. Maya fails to even open on Aspire 3003.

And after Maya is running, it's the cpu that counts for rendering etc, im used to leaving my computer on over night rendering anyhow lol.

Well im not a hardcore gamer, far from it, but it would be nice to run something from time to time. If I can run Maya okay, and play games from time to time, im happy!

But the 3023 and 1gig ram sound do me well
Thanks again.

 

I just wanted to say that you should do well with that setup (I noticed its almost exactly like mine was when I bought it, except you have nice graphics and I have integrated garbage, darn you budget!), although in the future you may end up with more RAM. If you do, you can allocate more video memory, and make sure you get 2 sticks of 512 MB instead of 1 stick of 1 GB so you can get dual channel. I would recomend Corsair ValueSelect. Also, the Sempron is reguarded as the "cheap celeron" processor of AMD, but it performs nicely with 1 GB of RAM and overclocks great (I gon't game, but it runs Google Earth very well on my computer). And finaly, if overheating troubles you (it did to me), get the cooling pad I reviewed here, it works great. Happy computing!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=51625

 

The Sempron's do not support dual channel memory, as they are designed on the socket 754 motherboard. Only Socket 939 CPUs have dual channel support. So you will not be losing any performance by using unmatched pairs in a Sempron/socket 754 bsed system.

 

Cheers Matt, glad you think it will suit me well, im thinking it will

As well as upgrading the RAM, maybe at a later date, after no warranty stuff etc, ... I was reading on this forum about swapping the sempron for an Athlon 64 or a Turon, is this possible? I mean will it work with the current BIOS and support a faster clock speed etc?

Also, thanks for the review of the cooling pad, I was thinking of getting one, but I would really like one that would work on my lap, or for use in bed or something, im lazy lol!

Many thanks