The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Which one is better?

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by Final_Spirit, May 1, 2011.

  1. Final_Spirit

    Final_Spirit Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    4
    Messages:
    214
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    My last laptop died on me last week and I've been looking for an affordable replacement for it. I found two Acer laptops on newegg that seem solid for the price. It looks like they are the same model except one is intel/nvidia nad one is AMD (all other specs the same: 500gb 5400rpm hdd, 4gb ram, etc). I was wondering if anyone could attest to the build quality/ performance. I don't really want to be replacing my old laptop with something that will perform worse, particularly in games. I originally had a core i5-430m and ATI 5730 for reference.

    Option 1: $650
    Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS5742G-6480 Notebook Intel Core i3 380M(2.53GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M

    (I would replace the core i3 with the core i5 from my old laptop)

    Option 2: $620
    Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS5552G-7641 Notebook AMD Phenom II Quad-Core N970(2.2GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi AMD Radeon HD 6650M
     
    Final_Spirit, May 1, 2011
    #1
  2. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

    Reputations:
    9,431
    Messages:
    58,194
    Likes Received:
    17,901
    Trophy Points:
    931
    The radeon is going to be faster and if you are going to be gaming then that's what you should care about.

    The AMD would be faster in 4 threaded situations but slower in single/dual.
     
    Meaker@Sager, May 1, 2011
    #2
  3. trandoanhung1991

    trandoanhung1991 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    41
    Messages:
    61
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    I think you'd be better off going with the first.

    1. Nvidia Optimus. Superb battery saver.
    2. Better performance in single/dual threads, and convincing performance with 4 threads. Might be on par to the AMD quad due to better IPC and clocks and hyper-threading.
    3. The 540m seems to perform better according to notebookcheck.

    I'd splurge the extra $30 and go with the Intel/Nvidia combo.
     
    trandoanhung1991, May 3, 2011
    #3