Notebook Advice: Acer 1414 or other???

[DarkPrime]

I used to own a SAGER 5690 Laptop loaded to the gills, but sold it last year after i hardly used it and needed the money from it to pay itself off and then some. I didn't use it too much in part due to it's weight, horrible sound, 1 hour battery life, and it would get incredibly hot.

Fast forward to now, and i'm looking for a new, cheap replacement for my wife and I to use. We want one that we can easily take on trips and float around the house. I will use it some for my graduate classes (I take 1 or 2 a semester) and she might use it sometimes at the School she teaches at. Maybe it won't get too much use, who knows. But if it does get tons of use, I'll just buy another.

Right now i'm looking at an Acer 1414wlci. It's got a 15.4" screen, Celeron M 350, 512 ddr, 60 gig hd, built in wifi b/g, dvd/cd-rw, and intel extreme 2 graphics, and it weighs 6.6 lbs with battery. Best of all, I think I can get it for $600 plus tax (after rebates) at my local microcenter.

Can anyone comment if it can run at all anything like Unreal 2004? If i wanted to run that game at even low levels, could I? I'm thinking the most gaming this will get will be starcraft, if any at all. Is there any other things I should consider or other models to look at that would be between 500-700? I know that's not a high amount, but this will not be a primary machine. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[fbrdphreak]

This laptop will only be able to run DX7, maybe DX8 games at low resolutions. I benched a dv1000 w/same GPU and it got like 5fps in HL2 @ 640x480. Slideshows are cool
The Acer sounds like an awesome value. The Celeron M will run decently, giving you about 3 hours on an 8-cell battery. The rest of the specs all sound great for a budget laptop. The only thing I would look at is the battery. I know I've seen Acer laptops on NewEgg dirt cheap, but had a 4-cell battery :Q

Another good value would be an HP dv1000 (14" widescreen) or ze2000 (15" XGA). Both use Celeron M or Pentium M CPU's and have the same crappy Intel graphics. But if you custom order one, the 12-cell battery will give you 6 hours+ for $25 price increase. Also I know HP has educational discounts and I hear they are decent. Check here for my review on the dv1000.

Hope this helps and write back w/any questions

 

[DarkPrime]

Thanks for the info. The Acer 1414 i'm looking at at microcenter uses a 4 cell battery and it doesn't look like I could get a bigger one

Do you know if my wife might be able to get an educational discount because she's a first year 1st grade elementary teacher? Would she need to get it through her school (I don't think they help teachers get any at her school), or might she just need proof that she's a teacher?

 

[fbrdphreak]

From my understanding, the educational discounts generally apply to students; you mentioned something about grad school so I figured that would count. However, the best way to find out is to ask: Call HP Shopping and see what they can do.

 

[RedWolf]

Most educational discounts apply to students and staff. I know that Apple, Dell, and Gateway's do. Be sure to check your educational discount and the standard home prices. A lot of the better deals at Dell are home or small business only. You may be able to swing an additional discount on some of Dell's deals if you call but the website pricing is a little different for their educational site than the standard home or small business sites. I believe Gateway's discount is 5% and Dell's varies according to what warranty you buy (anywhere from 6 to 12%). My most recent Dell purchase was cheaper through home with a coupon code (much) than what I could get through their educational store.

 

[fbrdphreak]

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