Acer Laptop - Is this a good deal?

[Pat H Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pat H]

What's the opinion on Acer? This would be my everyday computer. I mainly do emails, surfing, games & storing grandkids photos.

Price is $499.99
Includes notebook, six-cell lithium-ion battery, AC adapter
2.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 processor TF-36
AMD M780G chipset
15.6" diagonal widescreen HD TFT display with 1366x768 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio
2GB DDR2 667 SDRAM
320GB hard drive
SuperMulti drive, double-layer support
Acer InviLink Nplify 802.11b/g/Draft-N wireless LAN
Integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics
WMV 9 support, H.264/AVC decoding
Support for simultaneous display on notebook LCD/external monitor
Two integrated stereo speakers
High-definition audio support
Microsoft DirectSound-compatible
Crystal Eye Web cam, mic; supports PrimaLite technology
10/100 ethernet
5-in-1 memory card reader: MMC, SD, MS, MS Pro, xD
Two USB 2.0 ports
VGA, RJ-45 ports
DC input
Headphone/speaker/line-out/mic jacks
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
MS Works 8.5
60 days of MS Office Home & Student 2007
McAfee Internet Security Suite trial
Adobe Acrobat Reader

[mas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mas]

Hi Pat:

This looks like an ok deal. There are tons of laptops and lots of deals. You didn't include the model so I can't do an exact price comparison, however, if you want you can look at typical prices on TigerDirect, one of the better (IMHO) online electronic stores. The link above will take you to their laptop page. On the left side you can narrow the scope of what you want to look at by selecting a manufacturer, processor type etc. This will at least give you a ball park idea of what's being offered and at what price.

I've found them (TigerDirect) to be fairly competitive. Newegg is another site you might want to check out.

[Pat H Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pat H]

Mas, it's an Aspire 5532-5509.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

A friend of mine bought an ACER laptop for his grandson after much research and it has worked well.

[mas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mas]

Tiger doesn't list that model # but plugging it into Goggle shows online prices between $435-$469 with Amazon.com at $457.

I'm assuming the price you have is for a 'brick and mortar' store. Depending on your comfort level/expertise you may feel better with that, although places like Amazon are very good with their return policy on defective material. Also, you probably wouldn't have any state sales tax.

[Pat H Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pat H]

Thanks, Mas. It was actually a limited quantity special on QVC. I didn't buy it and the special is over. Based on the prices you saw, I guess it wasn't that good a deal after all. Thanks for the replies.

[Nancy Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Nancy]

Pat,

We have had good luck with HP laptops. Watch Staples, Office Depot etc. flyers for good prices. In the last 18 months or so, we've purchase 3 (and our friends 1) for under 500.

Nancy

ps. All are primary computers, not just for traveling.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

I'm not a huge fan of AMD processors and you should be able to get at least Dual Core Intel and 4GB memory and 320GB hard drive around that price.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Dell home right now has a 2.3 GHZ intel pentium dual core 17.3 " laptop with 250 GB for around $ 460. Go to Dealcatcher. com

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

You can get many laptops with more memory for a better price. I consider 2GB of RAM to be a minimum especially for gaming.

I definitely would buy on-line. I only buy Dell computers on-line from the Dell Small Business division ( anybody can buy there ). I have bought 5 laptops and 2 desktops from Dell and never had a problem with them. Their prices go up and down almost on a daily basis depending on what discounts and free upgrades they are offering that day.

I also recommend Amazon.com. I have bought many things from them. They generally have very good prices and no sales tax and free shipping. Their customer service is good. There is a secret to shopping Amazon.com. Don't just go to their web site. Instead do a search for the item you are interested in including model number ( i.e. Dell Vostro 1520 prices ). You will often find a cheaper price through one of Amazon's 3rd party vendors. You will still be buying it from Amazon but it will come from the 3rd party vendor. I have saved as much as 40% off of the price for the same item listed directly on Amazon.com. It just takes a little looking.

Cnet and NexTag are both good sites for comparing prices and if you plug in your Zip Code, you will get the out the door price including shipping and sales tax if any. Both Cnet and NexTag should come up in a search for the product. This applies to all products and not just computers.

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

Acer rated the worst

FWIW, Consumer's Reports rates the Acer laptop the worst of all the laptops in that category.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Computers : Laptops_Netbooks_Clearance_20100702 - BestBuy

Pat a better ACER, if you are still looking at them, for $329. 3GB but still single processor.

Acer - Aspire Laptop with AMD Athlon™ Single-Core Processor
Model: AS5532-5535 | SKU: 9555769
ENERGY STAR Qualified
AMD Athlon™ single-core processor TF-20; 3GB DDR2 memory; 6-cell lithium-ion battery; DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive; 15.6" widescreen; 160GB hard drive; Windows 7 Home Premium

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

In general it is best to use Intel for laptops

Computers : Laptops_Netbooks_Clearance_20100702 - BestBuy

Pat a better ACER, if you are still looking at them, for $329. 3GB but still single processor.

Acer - Aspire Laptop with AMD Athlon™ Single-Core Processor
Model: AS5532-5535 | SKU: 9555769
ENERGY STAR Qualified
AMD Athlon™ single-core processor TF-20; 3GB DDR2 memory; 6-cell lithium-ion battery; DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive; 15.6" widescreen; 160GB hard drive; Windows 7 Home Premium

In general I feel AMD offers far more bang for the buck than Intel with one very big exception. When talking any laptop the higher heat generated by the AMD line is a big problem. Plus power use tends to favor Intel in that environment as well. It is so bad that there are whole series of HP/Compaqs, very popular due to high performance, large feature sets (plenty of memory, good video, etc) and a very attractive price point (they sold tens of thousands) that are totally unusable without an active cooling pad. They literally burn the chips off the motherboard if used with only the original cooling - usually after 15-18 months (warranty over) and HP/Compaq will NOT repair/replace them when it occurs after the 12 month warranty. Talk about bad design.

So for laptops stick with an Intel designed for portable use (avoid the few units that use desktop cpu's for laptop's as they would have the same issues as the AMD's or worse).

[gophish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close gophish]

Sorry to join in so late. That original price sounds a bit high for what you are getting but the one that Lawren posted about sounds like a pretty good deal.
I know that some of the acer full size laptops don't seem to get as good reviews as some of the other brands. However their netbook is very good.
I would take a look at Dell and maybe even HP as they have been getting better reviews lately. I also second the thought of Tiger Direct. Have never ordered computer from them but have bought periferals and lots of parts.