Two challengers appear!

[arwen_lune]

OK, so the Acer Aspire X5810 isn't suitable because not upgradable. Two options that seem suitable to me follow. Please your pros/cons/that brand is shit/etc for the following:

Acer Aspire M3203
AMD Athlon II X4 620
4gb RAM
1 tb HD
ATI Radeon HD4650 1gb
Dual Layer DVD/rewriter/blu-ray player
Win 7

HP Pavilion P6130
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
4gb DDR3-SDRAM
1 tb HD
DVD/RW supermulti whatever
ATI Radeon HD4350
Fiahwiah
Win Vista with Win 7 upgrade

I have no clue how the processors compare. I think I understand that the Acer's videocard is better. The DVD drive isn't a priority. Firewire is nice but not hugely important. Both are at local shops and cost the same. Your opinionating is very welcome.

Comments

[damanique.livejournal.com]

Unless you're planning to do gaming, heavy 3D design or big photoshop projects on your laptop, a graphics card is not a priority - I'm not sure the small noticable improvement in graphics and speed would warrant the extra costs, but it really depends on what you're using the laptop for. If it's going to be your main pc, you might want that extra edge from a better video card.

Then there's the processor - I've had Athlon CPU's on my PC for years, but next time I'm switching to Intel because Athlon CPU's tend to run hotter. Then again, that could just be a poor cooler. Honestly, both those CPUs are about the same, and although the Athlon socket AM3 is more upgradeable, you generally don't upgrade CPUs in a laptop unless you reeaaaallllyyy know what you're doing with a very tiny screwdriver. I think.

I think the Acer might be marginally better, and I tend to choose Acer over HP as a brand - that's a personal preference, though. I've just always had trouble with anything HP.

Last but not least, I'd figure having Win7 is nicer than Vista+Win7 upgrade.

[swaldman.livejournal.com]

Erk, are we talking about a laptop here? I thought they were both desktops...

[arwen-lune.livejournal.com]

Desktop, NOT laptop. I have no use for a laptop.

[damanique.livejournal.com]

Ha, sorry, I totally missed that.

[swaldman.livejournal.com]

I can't comment on brands and build quality.

I don't know which processor is better - if I had to guess I'd guess the Intel, but I suspect it may be very close.

The Acer does have a better video card, but if you're not gaming it will probably make no difference.

If I were you, and I didn't need firewire, I'd have a preference for starting off with Windows 7 rather than having Vista and then upgrading it - there's less faff, and less to go wrong.

Which one is a nicer colour? :-)
If you can see/hear them turned on in the shop, is either one really noisy?

[trtl.livejournal.com]

From the specs, for all intents and purposes, it really comes down to religion: AMD or intel?

If you're a heretic on that front, and as you plan to buy locally (good!), I'd check with the shop

- how much experience they have with the Win7 upgrade, is it easy to do?
- and more importantly, whether they expect better customer service (in case of breakage) from HP or from Acer.

[arwen-lune.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I hadn't considered if the upgrade might be a hassle - I kind of assumed since it'd be a brand new empty system nothing much can go wrong, but that's probably tempting fate!

[hobnobs.livejournal.com]

Each one has a benefit over the other. The Acer has a slightly more powerful processor, and slightly better VidCard, whilst the HP (apparently) has slightly better memory . (I'd confirm that though, as my HP Model No. bible says that it only has DDR2 in some of the 6130 models.)

With regards to the 1GB VidCard in the Acer you might want to make sure that you aren't getting 32bit Windows 7, as if that is the case you will be limited to only using 3GB of the main memory at most, because Win32 can only address 4GB in total and that includes video memory.

If one comes with Win64 and the other with Win32 then I'd recommend the Win64 one just for the fact it can address more memory so can be further upgraded if you want.

Finally; although I prefer HP kit, my Dad has one each of HP/Acer and asking him what he thinks gave the answer he prefers the HP.

[arwen-lune.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I've been tending toward the HP... for no particular reason, I believe.

The HP before the 7 upgrade has Vista 32-bit. Does that mean 7 can only be 32 bit too?
The Acer just says Windows 7 Home Premium

[hobnobs.livejournal.com]

The HP before the 7 upgrade has Vista 32-bit. Does that mean 7 can only be 32 bit too?

Sadly this is the case. The upgrade path only allows for you to follow the same version (32/64bit, home/business/ultimate) as the existing Vista OS.
More info here. http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/win7web/uk/en/knowbefore.html

[happydisciple.livejournal.com]

[arwen-lune.livejournal.com]

Uh, cryptic? Have you been out? Got your bid pack?

[happydisciple.livejournal.com]

Two Challengers appear, no, and yes.

Mid-March, though, a weekend on a Challenger. That'll be interesting.

[happydisciple.livejournal.com]

(Bid-packs were emailed out. If you haven't had yours yet, check spambin or contact Michelle)

[arwen-lune.livejournal.com]

Ahh, two challengers. took a moment *g*

I've got my bid pack, am just dithering about decisions. I just reread my report of last voyage and I know that a large part of what made that work was the great combination of perm crew we had. I managed it physically mostly because the atmosphere was good, so I had no big crashes.
I'm really quite worried about ending up with a bad combination of perm crew and having a shouty week, which would lead to not coping well health wise, which would lead to sailing fail.