Acer Aspire 5100-5023.. thoughts?

[Careface]

Hey all. I recently bought a laptop (yeah, already purchased it lol) and was wondering if anyone could tell me how its going to perform? A bit generalised, I know, but I really cant find any reviews on it, and a quick search for the processor (TL-56) brings up nothing on ocf. I dont expect it to be a fantastic laptop, as I bought it cheap off trademe.co.nz, but any input would be greatly appreciated.

Im mainly concerned about the fact it has integrated graphics.. my experiences with desktops with integrated graphics have been.. well, terrible. Laggy as hell even when doing basic things like dragging a window across the screen.

some specs and a link to.. a site

Laptop (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3249947&CatId=1897)

CPU: Turion X2 TL-56 (2*1.8ghz, 2*512k L2)
RAM: 2*1GB DDR2-533
GFX: Radeon Xpress 1100 (256mb dedicated, +upto 256mb shared)
HDD: 160gb

Umm.. yeah, any info about this laptop would be greatly appreciated :). I know I could just wait until it arrives, but its not arriving for like a week and a bit, so.. yeah, I kinda want to get your opinions on it first :)

Careface*

[ps2cho]

For the same price you can get a better graphics card (8400M GS) and a Core 2 Duo processor with the Dell Inspiron series. Not to mention special deals if you are a student.

EDIT: Here's the link: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=bqdwk3d&s=bsd $800 for the stock with a 8600M GT and WXGA display. You can't beat that anywhere else.

[Daleon]

Well he already bought it, and hopefully didn't pay that price for it. Also the options for laptops are probably a little different in NZ.

If it has 256 dedicated ram, then it should do great in Windows, 2D games, etc. Older 3D games shouldn't be to bad, but I wouldn't expect it to play much past Q2 very well.

[Careface]

Sweet, thats pretty much what I was after. As long as it runs windows decently and to play the occasional game of Stepmania, Im happy :)

And yeah, I cant find any student deals on the dell website for NZ, and I got this laptop second hand, so I paid a lot less for it :) the laptop is just for university anyway. taking notes, powerpoint presentations, etc etc. Thanks for the replies :D

Careface*

[corruption]

I have the Acer 5050-3465. It has an MK-36 chip which is effectively a single core 3200+. The laptop also has the x1100 chipset. (An integrated x300 in the chipset.) I can overclock the gfx from 300MHz to 400MHz and I see a small, but noticeable difference. I can play WoW relatively well, lagging a little, but still very playable. My fps goes up by about 5fps when I overclock it, so I feel that it's worth it to overclock the gfx when I play the game and turn it off when I'm just using it for basic windows tasks.

The laptop is good enough that when traveling I can keep up with my guild's raids, but not something that will keep me from using my desktop for gaming when at home. ;)

I find the laptop good enough for more than what I wanted it for. I hope this helps.

[Careface]

Awesome, cheers. Does it impact battery life much when you oc from 300-400mhz on gfx? Ive never owned a laptop (incase you consider my very old 386 sx25 laptop that weighed a ton a laptop).. so I dont know much about battery life. What sort of time do you get with just general use?

Careface*

[Careface]

EDIT: Here's the link: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=bqdwk3d&s=bsd $800 for the stock with a 8600M GT and WXGA display. You can't beat that anywhere else.

Dizzam thats a nice laptop. I cant find it anywhere on the dell.co.nz site though, sadly. Shame Ive already bought the laptop.. though, I might be tempted to resell it (lose a bit of money from it, but meh) and buy one of these - as much as a hate Dell, and Intel.. hmm

EDIT: found it.. kinda. the Vostro 1500.. without anything upgraded, is NZ$1549, (US$1083) rather a lot out of my price range *sigh* :(