I am needing to replace my old laptop and I've run across one that looks great and it's a great price. It's an Acer Aspire AS8730G-6681 18.4" Core 2 Duo T6500 4GB RAM 250GB HD & 1GB Nvidia 9600M GT. Here's the link...
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115594
I would be using it for daytrading when not at home and I need the largest screen possible. I originally wanted a quad core cpu but the price for those are just too high right now. Plus the custom desktop I built with a q6600 with 4GB RAM runs all my apps without a missing a beat. I think a dual core with 4GB RAM will work fine. If not I'll wait and keep looking.
I don't know anything about Acer laptops. I have 2 Acer monitors at home and they are great. I've head mixed reviews about Acer's laptop's quality. This particular machine is @ $200 cheaper than anything else of similar size, even those without dedicated graphics cards. This makes me wonder what the deal is.
Below are the answers to what I'm looking for...
1_What is your budget?
> $1000
2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
18.4" but will consider 17" - I will not buy one that is smaller than a 17" as it will not fulfill my needs.
3_What screen resolution do you want?
As large as possible
4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Desktop replacement
5_How much battery life do you need?
1.5-2 hours minimum...it's usually plugged in so this isn't a big issue
6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Possibly but this is not a deal breaker. I have Quake 4, Left 4 Dead, BioShock and a few newer games. Low to medium settings are fine.
7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
Creating & editing Camtasia videos, running cpu intensive charting applications & broker platforms simultaneously, general everyday use as well (Firefox, MS Office apps, media players, Power DVD, etc...)
8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
250GB main HD is fine. I have a 320GB as well that I can use if need be.
9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
Newegg, TigerDirect, Amazon
10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
As long as it will last. I've had 2 Toshibas, the first lasted for over 8 years until I sold it on eBay and the one I have now is almost 3 years old and working fine. I need a new one because the applications I'm using have outgrown this machine's capabilities.
11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
Like I said before it will be primarily used for day trading. The applications I will be using simultaneously are Sierra Chart (2 instances of it), Open E Cry's broker platform, Firefox w/ @ 3-4 tabs open, Oanda (web based java trading platform), Trade The News platform, MetaTrader4, MS Excel. In XP Pro 32bit I use @ 1.3GB of RAM when running all of this. In Vista Ultimate 64 bit it uses 2.5GB. I will probably cut this down considerably when I get my new machine configured the way I want it.
12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I have only had Toshiba laptops. The 1st one was a very old Pentium 1 133mHz and yes it was ancient. The one I have now is a L35-S2151 that I got on Black Friday in 2006. It has a 1.6Ghz Celeron M 420 & 2GB RAM. I don't like Dell or Lenovo because I've worked on several friends machines that always had motherboard problems. I know nothing about Acer and have heard mixed reviews about their quality which is why I'm posting here. Other than that I really don't care as long as it works.
13_What country do you live in?
USA
Thanks for reading this. Any advice is helpful...EWB
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115594
I would be using it for daytrading when not at home and I need the largest screen possible. I originally wanted a quad core cpu but the price for those are just too high right now. Plus the custom desktop I built with a q6600 with 4GB RAM runs all my apps without a missing a beat. I think a dual core with 4GB RAM will work fine. If not I'll wait and keep looking.
I don't know anything about Acer laptops. I have 2 Acer monitors at home and they are great. I've head mixed reviews about Acer's laptop's quality. This particular machine is @ $200 cheaper than anything else of similar size, even those without dedicated graphics cards. This makes me wonder what the deal is.
Below are the answers to what I'm looking for...
1_What is your budget?
> $1000
2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
18.4" but will consider 17" - I will not buy one that is smaller than a 17" as it will not fulfill my needs.
3_What screen resolution do you want?
As large as possible
4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Desktop replacement
5_How much battery life do you need?
1.5-2 hours minimum...it's usually plugged in so this isn't a big issue
6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Possibly but this is not a deal breaker. I have Quake 4, Left 4 Dead, BioShock and a few newer games. Low to medium settings are fine.
7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
Creating & editing Camtasia videos, running cpu intensive charting applications & broker platforms simultaneously, general everyday use as well (Firefox, MS Office apps, media players, Power DVD, etc...)
8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
250GB main HD is fine. I have a 320GB as well that I can use if need be.
9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
Newegg, TigerDirect, Amazon
10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
As long as it will last. I've had 2 Toshibas, the first lasted for over 8 years until I sold it on eBay and the one I have now is almost 3 years old and working fine. I need a new one because the applications I'm using have outgrown this machine's capabilities.
11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
Like I said before it will be primarily used for day trading. The applications I will be using simultaneously are Sierra Chart (2 instances of it), Open E Cry's broker platform, Firefox w/ @ 3-4 tabs open, Oanda (web based java trading platform), Trade The News platform, MetaTrader4, MS Excel. In XP Pro 32bit I use @ 1.3GB of RAM when running all of this. In Vista Ultimate 64 bit it uses 2.5GB. I will probably cut this down considerably when I get my new machine configured the way I want it.
12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I have only had Toshiba laptops. The 1st one was a very old Pentium 1 133mHz and yes it was ancient. The one I have now is a L35-S2151 that I got on Black Friday in 2006. It has a 1.6Ghz Celeron M 420 & 2GB RAM. I don't like Dell or Lenovo because I've worked on several friends machines that always had motherboard problems. I know nothing about Acer and have heard mixed reviews about their quality which is why I'm posting here. Other than that I really don't care as long as it works.
13_What country do you live in?
USA
Thanks for reading this. Any advice is helpful...EWB