Desktop Replacement

[Rey_Ron]

Hey guys,



I have a desktop "power station" that I'm going to sell off soon. I need mobility and power at the same time, but I'd rather not invest in an Alienware. I know that Acer Laptops have power and so Im thinking of getting an Acer Aspire.


My Current "Power Station"'s Specs are:

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
ASUS M4A88TD-EVO Mainboard
6GB (2GBx3) of Corsair DDR3 Gaming (1333MHz)
ASUS ENGTX-460 1GB
Creative Soundblaster 5.1 Audio Adapter
Seasonic M12II 620W Power Supply Unit

which Visualizes on a 24" Samsung B2330H LCD @ 1920x1080 via HDMI.


Now, since I know I'll be traveling a lot in the next 2 years, I need mobility. I've been through some sites and found a good site which lists Acer Laptops.

I've found some models which interests me, and are also in my budget. I'll link them up specifically, and, Experts please advise which is best for my taste.


1: http://buylaptop.com.my/web/products.asp?Id=1460 - This looks good, and supports DX11! But I would need advise about the battery life, because I need more battery time, like 4 hours?


2: http://buylaptop.com.my/web/products.asp?Id=1624 - again, I need advise, its an ATi Graphics adapter and its cheaper. So is the 1st one more powerful? And I want more battery life....

3: http://buylaptop.com.my/web/products.asp?Id=1623 - Advise anyone? NVIDIA GT540M? Is it better than my current ENGTX460?




All advise is highly appreciated,


Thanks guys, Love Tom's Hardware.


-Rey_Ron

 

[WR2]

Hello Rey_Ron;

You aren't going to get anything all that close to your GTX 460 desktop GPU in your budget range... which is... RM 2999?

Passmark GPU benchmarks:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

GeForce GTX 460 = 2348
GeForce GTX 460M = 1203

GeForce GT 540 = estimated @ 1100 not yet cataloged at Passmark.
Mobility Radeon HD 6550 = estimated @ 700 not yet cataloged at Passmark
GeForce GT 420M = 588

GT 540M review
AMD/ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6550 review
NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M review

 

[WR2]

Your #1 option: Acer Aspire 5750G-2634G64
Core i7-2630QM Sandy Bridge CPU @ 2.0 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.90 GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M with NVIDIA Optimus graphics
Optimus will shut down the GT 540M when not needed and use the graphics on the CPU. We had a report earlier tonight that a i7-2630QM / GT 540M got around 5 hours battery life. See remark by cbrunnem.

#2 Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG-482G64 i5-480M / ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6550
#3 Acer Aspire 5742G-556464 Core i5-560M / NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M

 

[WR2]

Passmark CPU benchmarks:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

Intel Core i7-2630QM @ 2.00GHz = 6387
Intel Core i5 M 480 @ 2.67GHz = 2754
Intel Core i5 560M @ 2.67GHz = 2514


-> Acer Aspire 5750G-2634G64 review

 

[Rey_Ron]

Hey Guys,



Thanks, now i know which one of the three would be a better option. Though I already feel that I'm going to miss my Power Station dearly later on. Well, yes my budget is somewhat RM 3,000 for the notebook only, because I may install and extra stick of Ram and also had plans for an extra battery.

However, now that it seems the Core i7 notebook is the best option, can you advise on what I can do to upgrade its performance all over?




Thanks again guys,


Rey_Ron

 

[WR2]

can you advise on what I can do to upgrade its performance all over?

There are no upgrade options you can perform yourself.
Your only option for increased performance is a CPU/video card upgrade.

 

[Rey_Ron]

Well, where and how do I upgrade the CPU & GPU? Lets assume I want to upgrade them both in a year's time. Where is it possible?

 

[WR2]

By upgrading the CPU & GPU I was referring to buying the more expensive models now.
There is no good option to do any type of user upgrade to the CPU/GPU once bought.

 

[Rey_Ron]

Best answer selected by Rey_Ron.