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View Full Version : Out of 2 laptops which is best?



helliewm
August 27th, 2007, 09:50 PM
I am going to buy a new laptop and have narrowed it down to these 2. Which is best? They are both roughly the same price.

The laptop below but with 1gig of ram instead of 2 gig

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DELL-INSPIRON-6400-LAPTOP-1-86GHZ-2GB-DVDRW-160GB-UL-36_W0QQitemZ110163027866QQihZ001QQcategoryZ177QQss PageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem



Or this Acer

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ACER-TRAVELMATE-5520WLMi-LAPTOP-1-7GHz-1GB-DVDRW-120GB_W0QQitemZ110163969620QQihZ001QQcategoryZ177Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem



Which is best and will give me the most flexibility in terms of power, sockets such as USB.

Does the Dell have the dual layer DVD -rw ?

I just want another opinion taking all factors into account. I am going cross eyed here looking at laptops. The Acer is the most I can afford.

I have a new Desktop and a brand new Dell Inspiron 9400 17inch that is my main second machine. There is n't room for 2 Desktops in my house as its a cottage so has small rooms and I need to work downstairs with the dogs. However the Dell is rather too large to go and out and about with but makes a brilliant second main flexible computer for the house. Hence why I need a second machine as I work on a Consultancy basis.

Have I missed something neither laptop has Bluetooth?

Opinions would be great. It getting rather mind blowing now.

helliewm
August 27th, 2007, 10:02 PM
Bump had problems with the ebay links

FurryNemesis
August 27th, 2007, 11:43 PM
The Dell does have marginally better specs, but like you said it's bigger. If you're going to be lugging a laptop around very regularly, then +1 for the Acer.

Personally, I'd pick the Dell, but then again I'm not fussed by big, heavy laptops.

Fbot1
August 28th, 2007, 12:09 AM
Do you know what the battery life is for the dell?

RageOfOrder
August 28th, 2007, 12:27 AM
Ew Dell :mad:

If I ever buy a dell, I want someone to beat me to death with it.

On that note, I own an acer aspire-9410 laptop and love it. Smaller than the dells, even with a 17" screen.
Plus, Acer screens don't fade nearly as fast as those ****** dells do.

Buy the acer.

Edit: Used laptops are a bad idea. You can't really upgrade them, and you don't know how much the previous owner abused it.

jimrz
August 28th, 2007, 01:08 AM
Ew Dell :mad:

If I ever buy a dell, I want someone to beat me to death with it.

On that note, I own an acer aspire-9410 laptop and love it. Smaller than the dells, even with a 17" screen.
Plus, Acer screens don't fade nearly as fast as those ****** dells do.

Buy the acer.

Edit: Used laptops are a bad idea. You can't really upgrade them, and you don't know how much the previous owner abused it.
on the other hand, the Dell has Intel video + wifi while the Acer has ATI vid and does not say which wifi chipset. assuming you are planning to load ubuntu on it the Dell looks as though it may give fewer problems (based on the hardware), unless you need the more powerful ATI vid card for gaming or whatever.

brentoboy
August 28th, 2007, 01:51 AM
if you are going to run ubuntu on it, get the dell

at least dell is making an effort to have linux drivers for all thier chipsets.

I have had 6 Dell / ubuntu laptops, and I have never seen any compatabilty issues. (I have seen sleep / recovery issues, depedning on what version of ubuntu)

I like DELL becuase the bios has lots of nifty features.

- my 2 cents

jrusso2
August 28th, 2007, 02:19 AM
If I am going to carry around a laptop I would prefer something 15" screen or smaller.

I would however prefer a Dell to an Acer because of their better quality.

helliewm
September 3rd, 2007, 02:24 PM
I ended up with a Amilo P1 2515 2gig ram, 160 gig Hard Disc and an Intel x3100 graphics card. I had a hassle getting the graphics card up and running. Its brilliant has a 15" 4' screen and is nice and light.

Helen

Babbage
September 3rd, 2007, 02:35 PM
Ubuntu does seem to run better on Dell hardware. I wonder if a partnership with Dell was envisaged at the beginning? Anyway I've got Ubuntu running on a sister of this laptop (the Inspiron 9400) and with a few tweaks it blazing along, fantastic. :) Got to go with Dell!

blueturtl
September 3rd, 2007, 02:57 PM
I don't like the options presented, but if forced to pick between the two I would go with the Dell. Acer has some serious reliability issues in their hardware. I have never known a person owning an Acer laptop that didn't break before the person was willing to trade the system for a newer one. I never suspected anything until I briefly worked for a company that had supplied all it's staff with Acers. Almost every single one of them had to be replaced because they failed.