[colecampbell666]

So I've got 950 dollars (Canadian) (before tax/shipping) to buy a laptop, and I want to get the most performance I can. I'd like the most performance for the price, and I don't care about extra features. The Acer 7720 6811 seems to be my best choice, although I'd rather go with a smaller higher-resolution screen if possible.

My criteria:

Dedicated graphics (9500 GS looks good)
Good RAM
15.4" screen if possible
Don't care about extra features.

Any suggestions?

[Bob-san]

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668206.php

Take a look at a Canadian Staples for something like that.

[captain-custard]

just a thing , acer computers are relaiable and fairly solid , ive got an old (3years) aspire 9410 series 17" laptop , its had its work cut out for it , its travelled more than 40.000km been bounced around , got full of dust and humidity , been rained on , dropped etc has run our sound and video installations for shows , the graphiics card is an nvidia 7300 overclocked and it works day in day out , no hard ware failures no overheating , and , styill manages to run games at an reasonable level , so all in all acer is not a bad choice............

[Nuke]

i bought one of theese and am fairly happy with it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220348

[S-99]

Check out dell's vostro line too. Those are good for price and performance. Granted i wanted to go pretty cheap. I got the vostro 1500 with an 8400gs, core 2 duo, and 2gb of memory. I do have a 120gb hard drive, but i really don't have a need for high storage capacity. The vostro 1500 cost me 538$

Acer is not a bad choice at all. Acer was what i recommended for my little brother to buy and he's very happy. Dell is good too. Lenovo is another good one.
For price you want to stick with acer and dell. Stay away from compaq and hp.

[dragonsniper]

How much would a good Acer cost?

[S-99]

Go to the acer website and check out everything they got.

[Nuke]

holy ****, my laptop can run crysis

[colecampbell666]

Getting either the Gateway suggested by Bob, or the Acer 8930G. I found it for 1150 at Staples, a bit over budget but worth it for the 9600GT, 4 GB DDR3, 1920*1080 screen, and Centrino² CPU. My sister is getting an EEE PC, are there any companies that will install a touch-screen on a 10" EEE PC?

[Nuke]

youd probibly want to see a laptop specialist, their a pain in the ass to work with. ive rebuilt at least 3 of them. if you do it yourself, come up with a ridiculously overelaborate means to sort your screws with data on where what goes where. if you dont, you wont have enough screws and half of em wont fit. my last laptop was held together by 3 screws because i lost half of them, or put them in the wrong holes. and that was over a hard drive upgrade

[Fury]

Yeah, notebooks are a pain to disassemble and assemble. You better get long warranty if the notebook is already on the expensive side. Otherwise you're going to get screwed over when you need to send it for repairs and you see the bill.

[S-99]

I hate taking apart laptops. Reminds me of an ibook i fixed a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was one of those old g3 ibooks. I;m all taking it apart to get to the hard drive and noticed it was 120gb sata. I'm like this isn't right.

After i got it all done and formatted, it ended up being one of the new intel ibooks with core 2 duo and 2gb of ram with pretty much the same chassis that the old ibooks had. It was confusing.

[captain-custard]

Getting either the Gateway suggested by Bob, or the Acer 8930G. I found it for 1150 at Staples, a bit over budget but worth it for the 9600GT, 4 GB DDR3, 1920*1080 screen, and Centrino² CPU. My sister is getting an EEE PC, are there any companies that will install a touch-screen on a 10" EEE PC?

just google eeepc mods its not that difficult to find a kit and do it your self but then your waranty is dead!!!!!

as a lot of netbooks install both linux and xp , microsoft has continued the xp for these net books but has stipulated that none of the manufacturers can fit a touch screen as standard or it would all ready be there .........

[colecampbell666]

youd probibly want to see a laptop specialist, their a pain in the ass to work with. ive rebuilt at least 3 of them. if you do it yourself, come up with a ridiculously overelaborate means to sort your screws with data on where what goes where. if you dont, you wont have enough screws and half of em wont fit. my last laptop was held together by 3 screws because i lost half of them, or put them in the wrong holes. and that was over a hard drive upgrade

So I could get it professionally done? Would it void the warranty?

My choice has come down to the 8930G and the HP DV5T

Both are identical save for a few things.
The HP has DDR2
It doesn't have Blu-Ray
It has a WSXGA+ screen (as opposed to a 1680*935 screen on the Acer, 16:9)
It's 40$ more.
It has a 250GB 7200RPM HDD, as opposed to 320@5400RPM

I like the Acer for some features it has over the HP, such as a built-in mike and a fingerprint scanner. The HP however is smaller, has a better aspect ratio for gaming, and a better screen. The only real thing making me hold onto the Acer is the RAM, what kind of performance boost will I notice from DDR2-667/800 (not sure which) to DDR3-1066?
It's only 15.4" which is better for portability.

Also, are there any companies that will act as a middleman for shipping? HP.com only ships to the US, and I'd be willing t go through a middleman who would accept the shipment from HP and then ship it to Canada. I'd be willing to pay one of you guys 15$+shipping cost to do so.

[Bob-san]

youd probibly want to see a laptop specialist, their a pain in the ass to work with. ive rebuilt at least 3 of them. if you do it yourself, come up with a ridiculously overelaborate means to sort your screws with data on where what goes where. if you dont, you wont have enough screws and half of em wont fit. my last laptop was held together by 3 screws because i lost half of them, or put them in the wrong holes. and that was over a hard drive upgrade

So I could get it professionally done? Would it void the warranty?

My choice has come down to the 8930G and the HP DV5T

Both are identical save for a few things.
The HP has DDR2
It doesn't have Blu-Ray
It has a WSXGA+ screen (as opposed to a 1680*935 screen on the Acer, 16:9)
It's 40$ more.
It has a 250GB 7200RPM HDD, as opposed to 320@5400RPM

I like the Acer for some features it has over the HP, such as a built-in mike and a fingerprint scanner. The HP however is smaller, has a better aspect ratio for gaming, and a better screen. The only real thing making me hold onto the Acer is the RAM, what kind of performance boost will I notice from DDR2-667/800 (not sure which) to DDR3-1066?
It's only 15.4" which is better for portability.

Also, are there any companies that will act as a middleman for shipping? HP.com only ships to the US, and I'd be willing t go through a middleman who would accept the shipment from HP and then ship it to Canada. I'd be willing to pay one of you guys 15$+shipping cost to do so.

Either way, it voids the warranty. The difference is if they screw up, you can get reimbursement.

Anyways--you'll see a small boost from faster RAM.

[colecampbell666]

As in what? 10%?

EDIT: Looking at some reviews etc, it seem DDR3 will give me a 5-15% performance boost.

Anyone willing to take me up on my shipping proposal?

[Bob-san]

As in what? 10%?

EDIT: Looking at some reviews etc, it seem DDR3 will give me a 5-15% performance boost.

Anyone willing to take me up on my shipping proposal?

What's your shipping proposal? And the speedups really all do depend. On Nehalem v. Penryn/Conroe, it's a gigantic difference. I don't think there's anywhere near as much of a difference for Conroe v. Penryn, which is more focused around (for you) PM45/GM45 (GMA 4500)v. PM35/GM45 (GMA 3100) v. PM965/GM965 (GMA 3000 iirc). I wouldn't worry about DDR3 for pre-Nehalem setups. But there are some noticeable increases in speed in Nehalem between various speeds.

[colecampbell666]

My proposal is that I tell HP to ship the laptop to you, you ship it to me, and I pay you the shipping charge + 15$.

[Bob-san]

My proposal is that I tell HP to ship the laptop to you, you ship it to me, and I pay you the shipping charge + 15$.

Sounds reasonable to me. You're in Canada? Do realize that they can it can be held up in customs, and the CAD is weak.

[S-99]

laptop specialist. Sounds wierd as hell to hear. It's nothing like a spine specialist or something. Although laptop specialists exist. It's sort of like saying lawn mowing specialist.