Which is in your opinion the better purchase?

[Jonathan]

Ok, the scoop:

I\'m buying a laptop later on this weekend. I\'ve been looking around a lot lately & have narrowed my choice down to 2 laptops:

1. Acer TravelMate 4002 WLMi

• Intel Centrino 725 (1.6 GHZ)
• 15.4 TFT WXGA
• 512 MB RAM
• 60 GB HD
• Dual DVD-RW
• ATI Radeon 9700 64 MB
• LiOn Battery (estimated 5 hours battery life)
• Weight 2.95kg
  

2. Acer Aspire 1524 WLMi

• AMD Athlon 64-bit 3400+
• 15.4 TFT WXGA
• 512 MB RAM
• 80 GB HD
• Dual DVD-RW
• nVidia 64 MB GeForce Go5700
• LiIon Battery (estimated 2.5 hours battery life)
• Weight 3.6kg
  

My reason for doubting is the processors.

I assume the Aspire is the fastest :? , but it consumes more power & makes the battery only last half of the time the TravelMate does.
My second point of doubt is the weight.
The TravelMate consumes less power, is lighter & therefore more portable.

Just for the record, I know there\'s a slight difference in HD capacity but that doesn\'t matter at all for me, so please take it into account when you post some advice.

So basically it narrows down to a Centrino 725 (1.6 GHZ) vs. Athlon 64-Bit 3400 choice.
I\'d really like to get some feedback on this from the hardware experts around here as I just can\'t seem to decide.

[viper]

3.6Kg is still very light mate, my old Vaio was a hefty 5.5Kgs!!!!

As I advised last night, don\'t go for the centrino (which is basically a fancy name for a 90nm Celeron D), the A64 is the much faster system....

As I advised you yesterday aswell, even though it says \'dedicated\' graphics memory, what they actually means that the graphics chip keeps 64Mb of the Main RAM for its own exclusive use, so there both are equal.

Going on processor alone (otherwise I count them equal including weight), you will find you dont use it for that long (2.5hrs) on battery unless you are on a flight or on a long journey. So I\'d say go for the Aspire!

Or, I advise you to wait to see if they release an AMD Sempron laptop (what I have at the moment), the processers are better, faster, and more powerful than the Centrino/Celeron range, and are better value for money than the AMD Athlons

Vips

[viper]

Also look at these:
http://www.meshcomputers.com/updated/pegasus151.htm
http://www.meshcomputers.com/updated/pegasus64.htm

[Jonathan]

I\'m not looking for alternative laptops really. I\'d just like some information on the ones I posted above. But thx anyway.

After some more research I came across multiple (reliable) sources saying the Centrino 725 (1.6 GHZ) performs about equal as & in some cases outperforms a P4 2.4 GHZ

[-=BYE=-RiptoR]

Centrino\'s are good mobile processors which consume a lot less power than normal processors.

And I don\'t think that AMD 3000+ is a mobile version, so expect some heavy power drainage and lots of heat

[=D.C.L.I=Everest]

viper Wrote:Going on processor alone (otherwise I count them equal including weight), you will find you dont use it for that long (2.5hrs) on battery unless you are on a flight or on a long journey. So I\'d say go for the Aspire!

I concur I hardly use mine on the battery alone. If it\'s about getting it from point A to point B as fast and easy as possible (for LAN parties, etcetera...), you\'ll want to go for power over longevity, man. You don\'t really need 5 hours of battery power unless your an internationally-travelling businessman. And you sir, are everything but an internationally-travelling businessman

[tomcat ha]

what do you want to do with the laptop?

[Jonathan]

The main purpose of my purchase is that I\'m kind of a computer addict and I\'d like to be able to take my \"work\" with me whenever I have to go somewhere I could work some more on what I\'m doing.
Other then that it\'ll be used to work or watch some movies from my bed instead of behind my (very cold & noisy) desk enviornment.

So I do intend to \"travel\" with it, that\'s the whole point why I\'m purchasing a laptop, otherwise I could have just stayed with my desktop.

[Jonathan]

=D.C.L.I=Everest Wrote:And you sir, are everything but an internationally-travelling businessman

Hmm... Maybe. At least I\'m still everything else

[Jognt]

travelmate, travelmate, travelmate!

centrino is made by intel, consumes a lot less power, has built in Wlan, and indeed performas incredibly good!

viper, if it says dedicated ram on the 9700, ill believe it has dedicated, otherwise it\'d say shared, and the 9700 is the best gfx chip there is for laptops (well.. except for the newest one offcourse )

how dare you compare the dothan to a celeron D! (atleast, as long as it is a dothan cored centrino )

edit: checked my *sources* its a Dothan cored CPU alright, go for it! (Dothan cored centrino\'s are fast as hell, a 2.1ghz Dothan kills a 3.0ghz P4 in 1 on 1)