Acer 9303 vs Inspiron 1720 (Help Please)

[SirShanson]

Hey, my apologies if somebody has posted a similar or exact question but I didn't find one so link appreciated if there is one out there. Anyway basically I'm after a laptop mainly to be used for work but also some high end games including some soon to come out so I need the laptop to comfortably run both, don't have an endless budget either so at the moment these are the two choices I have come up with.

Acer 9303 (With the 2gb RAM upgrade)

DELL £857.62

BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5450 Processor (1.66GHz,667MHz,2MB L2 cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
COLOUR CHOICE Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish without camera
LCD 17.0" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) TFT Display
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
HARD DRIVE 160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)

Please could somebody let me know how they compare and if it is worth the extra money to get the dell one. Thanks in advance.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Not even close, the DELL would win hands down. But whether it's worth £300/$600+VAT more is up to you. I wouldn't pay the extra if I wasn't doing more than light gaming.

The GFGO7300 in that Acer will clog it down and the GF8600MGT is almost too powerful for the CPU on the DELL, and added to that the Core2Duo is more powerful than the Turion. I would however try and get a better CPU on the DELL if you can get a smaller HDD and bump up the C2D speed a bit it would be the way to go, and then use dockable/external storage. It's easier to upgrade an HDD than it is to upgrade a CPU or GPU.

That you want to play high end games is going to be the issue/tiping point. The ACER won't play high end games, the only thing potentially holding up the DELL from playing high end games will be maybe the CPU, especially in single threaded games that want FAST CPUs.

 

[SirShanson]

Thanks a load for the quick response, unfortunately Dell don't allow you to go any lower on the HDD but I went back and check to see if I could deal with the CPU, so how does this do?

£848

BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7100 Processor (1.8GHz,800MHz,2MB L2 cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
COLOUR CHOICE Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish & 2.0mp camera
LCD 17.0" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WUXGA (1920x1200) TFT Display with TrueLife™
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024] edit
HARD DRIVE 160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)
Accessories
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card - Europe
MICROSOFT SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Much better CPU, and definitely worth the 'LESS' money. No brainer that one.

I don't understand how the T7100 is cheaper than the T5450?

What is a T7300 9-10pounds cheaper, because if so deal it up until the T7800Extreme makes it almost as cheap as the ACER.

 

[SirShanson]

I think it is to do with the second Notebook being one that Dell offer as standard i.e. no customization was made so they may well mass produce it. The one before however was a lower price originally but when upgraded to the same level as the second it came out more expensive. I hadn't realised this before my first post or I would have chosen the second option. Will purchase it in a little while then.

Thanks again by the way and if only with the cheapifying processor trick .

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

No problemo, glad it worked out.

You'll likely enjoy the better processor in your work environment too so there's benefit to it all around.

PS, I'll delete the multi-post.