[SirAlec]

sorry anuj! i quoted your message it was for mr. varghese.

As far as your inspiron 6400 is concerned. Its a C2d i guess. it will have atleast 945 mobo minimum. meaning which it will take 4gb ram easily. but if you are using xop its will just show 3.5ghz.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by stefanm

Ok now I have been looking at the HP Pavilion dv6-1110ax with a 1GB graphics card, just sending a mail for pricing, what's the opinion on the model, with the AMD Turion?

I hope HP quality has improved. We bought three HP/Compaq units in January to April 2007. Thankfully all with 3 year warranty. Just see the problems we had:

Compaq 3149 (dual Turion) of my daughter January 2007: A new DVD within five months. Then worked fine for about six months. It packed up. She was in the UK. first they tried to brush her off stating that for hardware she has to go back to the country of purchase. Once she revealed that she is a lawyer and a post grad at Nottingham they took it in and sent it back fixed within four working days. Worked fine for over a year. Packed up. has had a DVD Writer, Motherboard and Hard Disk change inthe past three months.

HP 6226 mine March 2007: Worked fine for a year + then ...Two HDDs, one Motherboard, one DVD Writer. May take up to 10 minutes before switching on.

HP6226 my son April 2007: Recently one DVD writer. About two months after we bought it it refused to switch on. Cured by itself three days later.

I will not touch HP with a barge pole. As for Turion no issues except that they run HOT.Bought an Acer 3810T recently. Cannot trust my 6226 to come on any more.

[stefanm]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

I hope HP quality has improved. We bought three HP/Compaq units in January to April 2007. Thankfully all with 3 year warranty. Just see the problems we had:

Compaq 3149 (dual Turion) of my daughter January 2007: A new DVD within five months. Then worked fine for about six months. It packed up. She was in the UK. first they tried to brush her off stating that for hardware she has to go back to the country of purchase. Once she revealed that she is a lawyer and a post grad at Nottingham they took it in and sent it back fixed within four working days. Worked fine for over a year. Packed up. has had a DVD Writer, Motherboard and Hard Disk change inthe past three months.

HP 6226 mine March 2007: Worked fine for a year + then ...Two HDDs, one Motherboard, one DVD Writer. May take up to 10 minutes before switching on.

HP6226 my son April 2007: Recently one DVD writer. About two months after we bought it it refused to switch on. Cured by itself three days later.

I will not touch HP with a barge pole. As for Turion no issues except that they run HOT.Bought an Acer 3810T recently. Cannot trust my 6226 to come on any more.

Thanks for the warning! Actually I booked a Dell Studio on Saturday, my decision was based on the available upgrades and the reliability/service factor. Pricewise the Dell and HP were similar on a spec for spec basis, the Acer machine at 42k would have been cheaper, but I didn't like the display very much. Two things were important to me in my decision, firstly a dedicated graphics card and secondly was the ability to use higher resolutions without connecting to an external monitor, this is where the Dell had me won over. Here's the final spec and prices for my order:
1- Studio 15 Basic Model Rs41,900.00
2- Plum Purple Colour Rs 642.95
3- C2D T6500 Std.
4-Vista Home Premium 32bit Std.
5- 1 Year Accidental Cover Rs 843.18
6- Full HD 1920x1080 15.6" Monitor Rs 2,143.15
7- 4GB Ram from 3GB Rs 1,071.58
8- 320GB 7200RPM HD Rs 268.43
9- 512MB ATI Radeon 4570 Rs 1,124.62
10- Belkin Backpack Rs 1,071.57
11- 9Cell Lithium Battery Rs 1,178.74
12- Bluetooth 5 button mouse Rs 1,393.04

Total Price came to Rs 51,637.26 + 900 Delivery Charge

Thanks for the inputs guys,

Cheers,

Stefan

[anujmishra]

Originally Posted by SirAlec

sorry anuj! i quoted your message it was for mr. varghese.

As far as your inspiron 6400 is concerned. Its a C2d i guess. it will have atleast 945 mobo minimum. meaning which it will take 4gb ram easily. but if you are using xop its will just show 3.5ghz.

Thanks SirAlec, even I was confusing with your earlier reply. I bought 2GB RAM (1GX2) for Rs. 1881/- from Ebay. It is Transcend Jet RAM SODIMM for Laptop. Yesterday I plugged in RAM and I can feel considerable amount of speed difference than 1 GB (512MX2) configuration.

I also recently purchased Dell Studio 15 laptop (with 4G 800 Mhz RAM). 6400 is generally used by my wife and by me for net-browsing. Now it is faster than earlier. I thought of making way fast but scrapped idea.

Whatever you written is correct that it can support 4GB RAM but it will show some 3.X GB in it. Also in some forum they say some Inspiron does not recognize 4GB RAM.

[SirAlec]

ofcourse the inspiron series was started way back in '98. i remember it was the out of reach for many. it was slated as high end lappy.

[deeps79]

Originally Posted by anujmishra

Thanks SirAlec, even I was confusing with your earlier reply. I bought 2GB RAM (1GX2) for Rs. 1881/- from Ebay. It is Transcend Jet RAM SODIMM for Laptop. Yesterday I plugged in RAM and I can feel considerable amount of speed difference than 1 GB (512MX2) configuration.

I also recently purchased Dell Studio 15 laptop (with 4G 800 Mhz RAM). 6400 is generally used by my wife and by me for net-browsing. Now it is faster than earlier. I thought of making way fast but scrapped idea.

Whatever you written is correct that it can support 4GB RAM but it will show some 3.X GB in it. Also in some forum they say some Inspiron does not recognize 4GB RAM.

If its 32 bit vista then you won't be able to use entire 4GB RAM. it would be around 3.x GB only.
To utilize 4 GB of RAM, you need 64 bit vista.

Please correct me if i am wrong but thats my understanding.
I just bought Dell XPS 1640 and has to upgrade to 64 bit vista to utilize the entire 4GB of RAM as per Dell site.
The original config had 3 GB ram with 32 vista.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Guys, need help here. I have been a Mac addict since years & years and kinda have very little clue about windows machines. So i come to you'll for advice.
My dad went and bought himself a Samsung NC10 Netbook a couple of months ago against my advice. Yesterday he bought himself an external CD/DVD drive. Now, when plugged in, it causes the track pad to behave very erratic... it goes from being totally unresponsive to hyper responsive. Same issue when an external mouse is connected. Remove the external DVD drive and all is fine.
Searched online, many people had the same problem but found on concrete answers to rectify this. Need help plz!

[cpyder]

Originally Posted by anujmishra

Thanks SirAlec, even I was confusing with your earlier reply. I bought 2GB RAM (1GX2) for Rs. 1881/- from Ebay. It is Transcend Jet RAM SODIMM for Laptop. Yesterday I plugged in RAM and I can feel considerable amount of speed difference than 1 GB (512MX2) configuration.

I also recently purchased Dell Studio 15 laptop (with 4G 800 Mhz RAM). 6400 is generally used by my wife and by me for net-browsing. Now it is faster than earlier. I thought of making way fast but scrapped idea.

Whatever you written is correct that it can support 4GB RAM but it will show some 3.X GB in it. Also in some forum they say some Inspiron does not recognize 4GB RAM.

Originally Posted by deeps79

If its 32 bit vista then you won't be able to use entire 4GB RAM. it would be around 3.x GB only.
To utilize 4 GB of RAM, you need 64 bit vista.

Please correct me if i am wrong but thats my understanding.
I just bought Dell XPS 1640 and has to upgrade to 64 bit vista to utilize the entire 4GB of RAM as per Dell site.
The original config had 3 GB ram with 32 vista.

That is correct. A 32 bit Operating System, be it Vista/Linux, can not use 4 GB. You may refer to my previous post on this very thread itself.

[MrinalSinha]

Hi Guys,

I am in market for a laptop. Yesterday got a quote of 41999/- for Acer 5738G. The specs are(Source: Acer WebsiteUnexpected Error)
Operating System

• Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium

Processor & Chipset

• Intel® Centrino® 2 processor technology, featuring
• Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T6600 (2 MB L2 cache, 2.2 GHz, 800 MHz, 35 W), supporting Intel® 64 architecture
• Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset

Memory

• 4 GB RAM (DDR3 Salesman's information)

HDD

• 320GB S-ATA hard disc drive

Storage

• 8X DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive
• 5-in-1 card reader, supporting Secure Digital™ (SD) Card, MultiMediaCard (MMC), Memory Stick® (MS), Memory Stick PRO™ (MS PRO), xD-Picture Card™ (xD)

Display

• 15.6" HD 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, high-brightness (220-nit) Acer CineCrystal™ LED-backlit TFT LCD, supporting simultaneous multi-window viewing via Acer GridVista™
• 16.7 million colours
• 16:9 aspect ratio
• 8 ms high-def response time
• 60% color gamut

Graphics

• Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset with integrated 3D graphics, featuring Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (Intel® GMA 4500MHD) with up to 1759 MB of Intel® Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0 (64 MB of dedicated video memory, up to 1695 MB of shared system memory*), supporting Microsoft® DirectX® 10
  (* depending on size of system memory)
• HDMI™ (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) support
• Acer Arcade™ Deluxe featuring Acer CinemaVision™ and Acer ClearVision™ technologies

Multimedia

• Dolby®-optimized surround sound system with two built-in stereo speakers
• Optimized 3rd Generation Dolby Home Theater® audio enhancement, featuring Dolby® Digital Live, Dolby® Pro Logic® IIx, Dolby® Headphone, Dolby® Natural Bass, Dolby® Sound Space Expander, Dolby® Inverse Filtering, Dolby® High Frequency Enhancer technologies
• True5.1-channel surround sound output
• High-definition audio support
• S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) support for digital speakers
• MS-Sound compatible
• Built-in microphone

Communication

• Acer Video Conference, featuring integrated Acer Crystal Eye webcam supporting enhanced Acer PrimaLite™ technology
• Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5100/5300 (dual-band quad-mode 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N) Wi-Fi CERTIFIED® network connection, featuring MIMO technology, supporting Acer SignalUp™ with Nplify™ wireless technology or
• 56K ITU V.92 modem with PTT approval; Wake-on-Ring ready
• Gigabit Ethernet; Wake-on-LAN ready
• Bluetooth® 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)

I/O Interface

• 5-in-1 card reader (SD™, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD)
• 4x USB 2.0 ports
• HDMI™ port with HDCP support
• 1x external display (VGA) port
• 1x Headphone/speaker/line-out jack
• 1x Microphone-in jack
• Line-in jack
• 1x Modem (RJ-11) port
• 1x Ethernet (RJ-45) port
• 1x DC-in jack for AC adapter

Security

• Acer Bio-Protection fingerprint solution, featuring Windows® logon, computer protection, Acer FingerLaunch, ProfileLaunch, MusicLaunch, Password Bank, MyLaunch, FingerNav
• Slot for Kensington lock
• BIOS user, supervisor, HDD passwords

Power Supply & Battery

• ACPI 3.0 CPU power management standard: supports Standby and Hibernation power-saving modes
• 48.8 W (6-cell) Li-ion battery pack
• 65W AC adapter
• ENERGY STAR® 5.0

Keyboard & Special Controls

• 103-/104-/107-key keyboard, with inverted "T" cursor layout, 1.8 mm (minimum) key travel
• Multi-gesture touchpad pointing device, supporting:
  • Circular-motion scrolling
  • Pinch-action zoom
  • Page flip
• Acer Bio-Protection fingerprint reader
• 11 function keys, four cursor keys, two Windows® keys, hotkey controls, independent standard numeric keypad, international language support
• Acer PowerSmart key
• Easy-launch keys: Acer Backup, WLAN, volume up/down, touchpad lock
• Media keys (printed on keyboard): play/pause, stop, previous, next
• Volume meter (up/down)

Weight & Dimensions

• 383 (W) x 250 (D) x 26/37 (H) mm (15.1 x 9.9 x 1.03/1.5 inches)
• 2.8 kg (6.16 lbs.) with 6-cell battery pack

Quality & Reliability Tests

• Temperature & humidity test
• Free drop test
• Acoustics test
• Weight and Pressure tests
• Spillage test
• Shock and Vibration tests
• Electrostatic discharge immunity test
• MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) test
• Hinge life test
• Keyboard-switch life test

Software

• Acer Arcade™ Deluxe featuring Cinema, Album, Music, Acer HomeMedia, Online Media
• Acer Backup Manager
• Acer eRecovery Manager
• Acer PowerSmart Manager
• Acer Bio-Protection
• Acer Crystal Eye
• Acer GridVista™
• Acer Game Console
• Acer GameZone
• Acer 3G Connection Manager
  (only on 3G models)
• Adobe Flash® Player
• McAfee Internet Security Suite 60-day trial version
• Google Toolbar™
• Google Desktop™
• Adobe® Reader®
• NTI Media Maker™
• Microsoft® Works with Office Home and Student 2007 Trial (Service Pack 1)

Options

• Memory expansion modules
• Additional battery
• Additional AC adapter

Warranty

• One-year International Travellers Warranty (ITW)

Configurations

• • Aspire 5738G with Dedicated Graphics
  • LX.PEY0X.012
  • Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium , Intel® Core 2 Duo T6600 (2 MB L2 cache, 2.2 GHz)/ Intel PM45 Chipset / nVidia 512MB Dedicated Graphics/4 GB RAM / 15.6" HD / DVD Writer/ 320 GB HDD / BlueTooth/ MultiCard Reader / GigaLAN / WebCam/ 4 x USB Ports / Dolby Stereo Speakers/HDMI/ FPR /6 Cell/ Genuine Vista Home Premium/ 1Yr International Travellers Warranty/Carry Case

What say? I have never used an Acer before.

[mobike008]

@Mrinal, seems to be a decent price ( is that all inclusive?) for the configuration. Is the OS Vista 64-bit? Check for discussions on this thread that 4GB Ram is supported only by 64-Bit else, 3GB Ram would suffice.

I am not a fan of Acer so i wont comment anything.

Acer users, share your inputs please

[SirAlec]

that laptop is very bulky. a desktop replacement i must say.

price you got is much higher. as this same model with nvidia graphics was under 40k. two months ago.

[cpyder]

Originally Posted by MrinalSinha

Hi Guys,

I am in market for a laptop. Yesterday got a quote of 41999/- for Acer 5738G. The specs are(Source: Acer WebsiteUnexpected Error)
Operating System

• Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium

Processor & Chipset

• Intel® Centrino® 2 processor technology, featuring
• Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T6600 (2 MB L2 cache, 2.2 GHz, 800 MHz, 35 W), supporting Intel® 64 architecture
• Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset

Memory

• 4 GB RAM (DDR3 Salesman's information)

HDD

• 320GB S-ATA hard disc drive

Storage

• 8X DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive
• 5-in-1 card reader, supporting Secure Digital™ (SD) Card, MultiMediaCard (MMC), Memory Stick® (MS), Memory Stick PRO™ (MS PRO), xD-Picture Card™ (xD)

Display.
.
.
.
.
What say? I have never used an Acer before.

Dear Mrinal, On the face of it I find the laptop overpriced. I say so on two counts, First the Processor is T6600, which is a generation old, and in that generation one of the lower rungs. Now you should be looking for Penryn series which will have nomenclature like Pxxxx.

Secondly, in this price you should get dedicated graphics card, not integrated ones.

Also, make sure you get free upgrade to Windows 7. There are a lot of vendors who are offering this. Why should you pay for a software which is going to be replaced in one month's time for almost the same price? Or delay the purchase by just a month. Windows 7 is going to be released sometime around 22 Oct 09.

Lastly, I had Acer Aspire lappy. Honestly, I was not at all happy. That was my worst computer related purchase. It promptly failed the moment warranty period was over. The build quality was bad. Searching the net I found that particular problem was fairly widespread around the globe and Acer never tried to fix it. Now, it could be only with that particular model.

You may check out Dell laptops on their website. Pretty good value for money IMO.

[doomsday]

After much procrastination, I went ahead and finally picked up a new machine. Its my second Acer, and I can clearly see that the build quality has indeed taken a hit- despite all their efforts of making it look flashy.

Its a Aspire 5738Z: 2GHz dual-core T4200, 2 GB DDR3, 320GB SATA, 15.6" LED (max res 1388x768), Intel integrated graphics, DVD burner, integrated webcam (pretty good) and microphone, Dolby virtual surround sound speakers, floating keyboard with full numeric keypad, 4 USB ports, HDMI port, card reader.

I got some command line Linux bundled with it- have installed XP with SP3; its running like a dream.

Paid 27,200 nett. including VAT, with bill- with the bag omitted since I already have one and don't use it.

[MrinalSinha]

Thanks mobike gaaru, SirAlec and Cpyder.

The OS is 64 Bit, so I guess 4 GB wont be a waste.
The price is all inclusive. Went to Croma and Laptop world to find the prices. The best price is 40K @ laptop world. Croma has proces it at 40990 against 41999 at Hypercity.

@Cpyder: Windows 7 upgrade is included in the price at all the vendors. Suggested laptop in similar price range?

[cpyder]

@MrinalSinha, Sorry for such a late reply. Got busy for a while. As I said, you can pay a visit to Dell's website. Pretty neat and clean layout. You can customize your lappy to a price/configuration level you need.

I just had a cursory glance, it appears that a similar spec laptop with Dell is also priced 41k. So, I .. err.. sort of.. eat my words. But if I were to choose between Acer and Dell, it would be Dell for sure. Best part is, they do not come with preloaded junk softwares. But if you spend sometime, you can get a good configuration/price ratio. After you finalise that on the site, make sure to speak to the customer care and 'bargain'. I could get rs 2k off.

That said, please make sure you have a good look around comparing the meat of the matter - like the processor, HDD, RAM, OS (windows 7 upgrade), Graphix card. Once these are compared, then you can see how much of gimmicks like gridvista(acer) or trulife (dell) actually matter to you.

Oh, before I forget, dont just buy it because you can/or you are getting it cheap. Compare the specifications with your requirements. No point in buying a Volvo truck for price of a Nano if all its got to do is be parked and nothing else.