I am considering buying a Dell laptop (model E1505) or an Acer laptop
(model Aspire AS5102WLMi). The Dell is more expensive and I am
wondering if it's worth it. Here are a few specific questions:

How is the reputation for quality for Acer and Dell?

The Dell has the following processor: Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2300E
(1.66GHz/667MHz FSB/1 X 2MB L2 Cache) . The Acer has the following
processor: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 1.6GHz with 512KB cache. Are the two

processors comparable?

They both have 1 GB of DDR2 memory. The Dell says it's dual-channel
RAM, but the Acer doesn't say dual channel. Does this make a
difference?

The Acer has a Type II PC Card Slot. The Dell has an ExpressCard slot
54mm 1.5 V and 3.3 V. I guess the Type II slot is the older standard
and ExpressCard is the standard of the future. Is this right?

Thanks in advance.

John

Big Daddy wrote:

> The Acer has a Type II PC Card Slot. The Dell has an ExpressCard slot
> 54mm 1.5 V and 3.3 V. I guess the Type II slot is the older standard
> and ExpressCard is the standard of the future. Is this right?

That would clinch it for the Acer.

There are still a LOT of devices not available on ExpressCard. Unless
you're sure you're never going to need any out-of-the ordinary device,
don't buy any laptop without a PC Card Slot.

The key question is what are you going to be using the thing for?

If you buy the Dell "right" it will probably be cheaper. Check out
WWW.TECHBARGAINS.COM ***EVERY DAY***. Watch for specials (espeically
end of month). The E1505 is going for around $650. There is a coupon
good for $200 off the E1505 if you add options to bring the total price
(before coupon) up to $999. There is a coupon for $300 off if you bring
the total price (before coupon) up to $1,499. The bottom line here is
that for $800, you can get a truly loaded E1505; for $1,200 you can get
a truly loaded E1505 with a 4-year extended warranty that includes
accidental damage coverage. It is possible that Dell will offer a much
more generous coupon later this year, during the holiday buying season.
Last year, they offered some "$750 off $1,500" coupons (HALF OFF).

The processor in the Dell is significantly better than the one in the
Acer (and you can upgrade the Dell to a still better Core 2 Duo for $90
or so). For laptops, the Intel processors are better than the AMD
processors; the Pentium M/Core architecture is very, very good and the
power consumption at the same performance level is lower (better).

Dual channel does make a difference, it increases performance. I'm not
sure if the chipset in the Acer supports dual channel or not.

On the expansion slot, that is one area where the Acer has the Dell
beat. Type II just refers to the slot height, and actually a type
II/III slot would be better. But the Dell doesn't have a PC Card slot
at all, and express cards, while they will ultimately replace PC Cards
in the future, are currently almost useless.

If you order a Dell E1505, be sure to order the recovery CD for the
operating system (it adds $10 to the cost). Also, order the upgraded
ATI video card, it's not clear if GMA 950 (what you get without the ATI
card) will run Vista Aero Glass. [It probably will, but there is doubt,
and the performance will suffer even if it does run.] Also be sure to
upgrade to a DVD burner instead of just the DVD "combo" drive (only
reads DVDs). These comments may apply to any other laptop (including
the Acer) as well.

There is going to be a coupon program to get a free or half-price
upgrade to Aero with the purchase of a new PC. Reportedly it's going to
start next weekend (10/27). You should delay your purchase until that
program has begun.

The E1505 comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). This is a
huge upgrade from XP Home, so keep that in mind. MCE is XP Pro with a
lot of additions (which you don't have to use and which won't get in the
way if you don't use them), a few very minor changes and one big change
(no domain networking, although this can be hacked). MCE is definitely
and unconditionally better than XP Home; it's as good as or better than
XP Pro for most people, as long as you don't need domain networking.
You can configure the startup user interface to be either Media Center
or the standard Windows desktop.

If you want to add a 3rd machine to your consideration, look for a
"deal" on a Toshiba A105 series with Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processors.
Watch what you get, however, as there are over 5 dozen configurations
of the A105.

The best time of the year to buy a laptop is coming up next month, in
the pre-Christmas buying season.


Big Daddy wrote:

> I am considering buying a Dell laptop (model E1505) or an Acer laptop
> (model Aspire AS5102WLMi). The Dell is more expensive and I am
> wondering if it's worth it. Here are a few specific questions:
>
> How is the reputation for quality for Acer and Dell?
>
> The Dell has the following processor: Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2300E
> (1.66GHz/667MHz FSB/1 X 2MB L2 Cache) . The Acer has the following
> processor: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 1.6GHz with 512KB cache. Are the two
>
> processors comparable?
>
> They both have 1 GB of DDR2 memory. The Dell says it's dual-channel
> RAM, but the Acer doesn't say dual channel. Does this make a
> difference?
>
> The Acer has a Type II PC Card Slot. The Dell has an ExpressCard slot
> 54mm 1.5 V and 3.3 V. I guess the Type II slot is the older standard
> and ExpressCard is the standard of the future. Is this right?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> John
>

Barry Watzman wrote:
> If you buy the Dell "right" it will probably be cheaper. Check out
> WWW.TECHBARGAINS.COM ***EVERY DAY***. Watch for specials (espeically
> end of month). The E1505 is going for around $650. There is a coupon
> good for $200 off the E1505 if you add options to bring the total price
> (before coupon) up to $999. There is a coupon for $300 off if you bring
> the total price (before coupon) up to $1,499. The bottom line here is
> that for $800, you can get a truly loaded E1505; for $1,200 you can get
> a truly loaded E1505 with a 4-year extended warranty that includes
> accidental damage coverage. It is possible that Dell will offer a much
> more generous coupon later this year, during the holiday buying season.
> Last year, they offered some "$750 off $1,500" coupons (HALF OFF).

God bless America.

Sorry for even commenting here but I'm updating the newsgroup every
minute to get an answer to a question in another thread.

--PS

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:45390AE6.7020509@neo.rr.com
> On the expansion slot, that is one area where the Acer has the Dell
> beat. Type II just refers to the slot height, and actually a type
> II/III slot would be better. But the Dell doesn't have a PC Card slot
> at all, and express cards, while they will ultimately replace PC Cards
> in the future, are currently almost useless.

Actually there is no guarantee that Express Cards will be the wave of
the future. There are lots a novel ideas that has never made it in the
past. Express Cards maybe one of them. Remember 3 inch floppies? IBM's
MCA (sp?) bus? 2.88MB floppies? Etc.

--
Bill

BillW50 wrote:
> "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:45390AE6.7020509@neo.rr.com
>> On the expansion slot, that is one area where the Acer has the Dell
>> beat. Type II just refers to the slot height, and actually a type
>> II/III slot would be better. But the Dell doesn't have a PC Card slot
>> at all, and express cards, while they will ultimately replace PC Cards
>> in the future, are currently almost useless.
>
> Actually there is no guarantee that Express Cards will be the wave of
> the future. There are lots a novel ideas that has never made it in the
> past. Express Cards maybe one of them. Remember 3 inch floppies? IBM's
> MCA (sp?) bus? 2.88MB floppies? Etc.

Don't forget HD-FD. Too bad about that one. It was a 200 MB, backward
compatible, 3.5" floppy drive that Sony invented. I saw some samples at
one Comdex, but it never made it into any products AFAIK.

I think that Express card will be successful, but there are certain
devices that won't ever be ported to Express Card.

I currently use a bunch of different PC Card products, including serial
ports, Compact Flash adapter, 1394, and in the past a parallel port
adapter. Most people will not need these devices. Some will.

One huge pain in the butt for movie-producer types, was the loss of a
CardBus slot on the Apple notebooks. This is because some of the
professional HD digital video cameras use a special CardBus memory card.
It's a real issue when you want to review clips in the field, and
possibly edit them in the field. You can't just take the memory card and
stick it into the laptop, you have to stop filming and transfer the data
via 1394. Panasonic makes a USB card reader (AJ-PCD10G), but it's $2200,
requires its own power supply, and is large, because it holds five
cards. The result is that Final-Cut pro users are either switching back
to Windows XP and AVID, or they are running OS X on non-Apple notebook
platforms such as the VAIO (a real pain as well). Users of AVID on the
Apple platform have an easier time, since they are just switching to
AVID on Windows XP.

In this case, it's going to fly. It has to do with the chipsets. PC
Cards are, very litterlly, PCI cards in a different form factor.
Express cards are PCI Express cards in a different form factor. New
chipsets are supporting PCI Express, they are not supporting the PCI
bus. End of story.


BillW50 wrote:

> "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:45390AE6.7020509@neo.rr.com
>
>> On the expansion slot, that is one area where the Acer has the Dell
>> beat. Type II just refers to the slot height, and actually a type
>> II/III slot would be better. But the Dell doesn't have a PC Card slot
>> at all, and express cards, while they will ultimately replace PC Cards
>> in the future, are currently almost useless.
>
>
> Actually there is no guarantee that Express Cards will be the wave of
> the future. There are lots a novel ideas that has never made it in the
> past. Express Cards maybe one of them. Remember 3 inch floppies? IBM's
> MCA (sp?) bus? 2.88MB floppies? Etc.
>

BillW50 wrote:

> Actually there is no guarantee that Express Cards will be the wave of
> the future. There are lots a novel ideas that has never made it in the
> past. Express Cards maybe one of them. Remember 3 inch floppies? IBM's
> MCA (sp?) bus? 2.88MB floppies? Etc.

The notebook manufacturers love it because it eliminates the CardBus
controller. I don't think that there is a PCI-Express to CardBus
controller yet, so if the notebook chipset lacks a PCI bus, that means
yet another chip, a PCI-Express to PCI bridge, to use the existing
CardBus controllers. Since the 1394 MAC is usually not in the chipset
but in the CardBus controller, once the PCI bus disappears from notebook
chipsets, there will be a PCI-Express to CardBus and 1394 chip. Low end
notebooks are already losing the PC Card slot, but the higher end
notebooks will keep it for quite a while.

SMS wrote:
> The key question is what are you going to be using the thing for?

I am going to use it for basic home computing stuff (email, web, etc.),
and I'll probably be doing some software development on it (C# and SQL
Server database). I don't foresee needing a bunch of different PC
Cards.