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[sYn]
[Moderator] Elitist
Posts: 8374
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 Posted: Sat, 22nd Nov 2014 18:46 Post subject: Low Cost Laptop Advice |
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Hey Guys!
So I'm looking at buying myself a cheap low end laptop (as well as one for the wife). She is moving from a macbook pro to a chromebook (and a new iMac in a few months) and I'm looking to replace my aged core2duo vaio which is running so hot (and has no working battery) that its no longer usable without burning myself!
Anyway, I'm looking at the £200 price range. Currently the following is on the table:
For her: Acer C720
Its running a Haswell based 2955U clocked at 1.4Ghz with 2Gb of DDR3 and a 32Gb HD.
http://www.tesco.com/direct/acer-c720-116-chromebook-intel-celeron-2gb-ram-32gb-grey/770-5462.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=770-5462
For me: Acer Aspire ES1-311
Its running a Bay Trial based N2840 clocked at 2.16Ghz with 4Gb of Ram and a 1Tb HD.
http://www.tesco.com/direct/acer-aspire-es1-311-133-laptop-intel-celeron-4gb-ram-1tb-black/426-2535.prd
The issue I'm having is the processor in the ES1, from what I can tell (and yes, I'm stupidly behind on this!) its an atom based chip that performs fairly poorly when compared to the haswell based 2955U. I can't find anything other than the N2840 within the price range running Windows though and I'm fairly convinced that a Chromebook wont cover all of my needs.
I'd primarily be using it for surfing the web.. so a chromebook would work fine for this.. However there are times that I'm likely to want to play some games while on the move, I'm not expecting them to work well, but hopefully they'll work. Things like Hearthstone for example, possibly World of Warcraft or some older steam games I've not managed to get around too (of which there are many)/ indie games that wont need much power. I should note that 11.6" feels a little small to me, so something at least 13/14 is needed.
Any thoughts? I want to try and get something ordered tonight!
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dr-nix
Posts: 996
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sat, 22nd Nov 2014 19:22 Post subject: |
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| [sYn] wrote: | Hey Guys!
So I'm looking at buying myself a cheap low end laptop (as well as one for the wife). She is moving from a macbook pro to a chromebook (and a new iMac in a few months) and I'm looking to replace my aged core2duo vaio which is running so hot (and has no working battery) that its no longer usable without burning myself!
Anyway, I'm looking at the £200 price range. Currently the following is on the table:
For her: Acer C720
Its running a Haswell based 2955U clocked at 1.4Ghz with 2Gb of DDR3 and a 32Gb HD.
http://www.tesco.com/direct/acer-c720-116-chromebook-intel-celeron-2gb-ram-32gb-grey/770-5462.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=770-5462
For me: Acer Aspire ES1-311
Its running a Bay Trial based N2840 clocked at 2.16Ghz with 4Gb of Ram and a 1Tb HD.
http://www.tesco.com/direct/acer-aspire-es1-311-133-laptop-intel-celeron-4gb-ram-1tb-black/426-2535.prd
The issue I'm having is the processor in the ES1, from what I can tell (and yes, I'm stupidly behind on this!) its an atom based chip that performs fairly poorly when compared to the haswell based 2955U. I can't find anything other than the N2840 within the price range running Windows though and I'm fairly convinced that a Chromebook wont cover all of my needs.
I'd primarily be using it for surfing the web.. so a chromebook would work fine for this.. However there are times that I'm likely to want to play some games while on the move, I'm not expecting them to work well, but hopefully they'll work. Things like Hearthstone for example, possibly World of Warcraft or some older steam games I've not managed to get around too (of which there are many)/ indie games that wont need much power. I should note that 11.6" feels a little small to me, so something at least 13/14 is needed.
Any thoughts? I want to try and get something ordered tonight! |
I've worked with (repaired) computers with chipsets simular to the Acer ES1 and i can say that it will work fine for surfing the web. But i don't see you playing games on it (other than very non demanding ones)
If you want more bang for your buck i would go up to a 15.6" computer. You could get a notebook with an AMD A8 or i3 for not a whole lot more money than the ES1 costs (see link below for one example).
http://www.tesco.com/direct/lenovo-g505s-156-laptop-amd-a8-4gb-ram-1tb-black/344-7158.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=344-7158
And btw i wouldn't go with a chromebook, those things are not really that good imho.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X | Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black | ASUS Crosshair VIII Dark Hero | 32 GB Trident Z 3600Mhz | Gigabyte Aorus PCIe4 1TB SSD | Corsair MP510 1TB SSD |ASUS RTX 3080 Ti TUF | Fractal Design Define 7 | Seasonic 850W Platinum
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[sYn]
[Moderator] Elitist
Posts: 8374
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| Posted: Sat, 22nd Nov 2014 19:35 Post subject: |
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Moving up to the 15" and adding the CPU cuts the battery life in half, which is also a pretty big factor in what I'm after. I may well be wanting to much out of a single machine for the price I'm aiming for. I just need to compromise on something - I suspect its going to be the gaming aspect of things.
What issue do you have with chromebooks? Personally I really like them for what they provide, my issue is simply the fact that I like to mess around and I don't think chromeos provides enough options for doing just that.
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dr-nix
Posts: 996
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Sat, 22nd Nov 2014 19:57 Post subject: |
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| [sYn] wrote: |
What issue do you have with chromebooks? Personally I really like them for what they provide, my issue is simply the fact that I like to mess around and I don't think chromeos provides enough options for doing just that. |
Mainly just the OS, it's so limited.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X | Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black | ASUS Crosshair VIII Dark Hero | 32 GB Trident Z 3600Mhz | Gigabyte Aorus PCIe4 1TB SSD | Corsair MP510 1TB SSD |ASUS RTX 3080 Ti TUF | Fractal Design Define 7 | Seasonic 850W Platinum
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| Posted: Sat, 22nd Nov 2014 20:46 Post subject: |
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Last edited by paxsali on Thu, 4th Jul 2024 21:55; edited 1 time in total
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[sYn]
[Moderator] Elitist
Posts: 8374
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| Posted: Sat, 22nd Nov 2014 22:34 Post subject: |
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I had a think about it and whilst I almost went for a Chromebook.. then I almost went for a HP Streamtop 14.. I ended up grabbing the Acer Aspire above. Its suits my needs and should provide enough battery life, power and portability that I want.
Thanks guys.
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| Posted: Sun, 23rd Nov 2014 02:52 Post subject: |
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Last edited by paxsali on Thu, 4th Jul 2024 21:55; edited 1 time in total
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[sYn]
[Moderator] Elitist
Posts: 8374
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| Posted: Sun, 23rd Nov 2014 03:40 Post subject: |
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ES1-311 - The other was just too big and had to low battery life. You're right that it would perform better but when I really thought about it, size and battery life where more important for its use.
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