One Dead Dell= One Heck Of A Live Acer

[LowThudd]

Well, I have been off for a while for a couple reasons. About a week and a half ago my Dell took a dump in a big way. I finally went to my parents house so I could get Addys from PMs to send out some PIFs only to find I had been banned temporarily. PM me for info, I won't discuss it in open forum. But anyhow, after about a week of managing my finances I picked up this Acer:Acer® Aspire AS7741Z-4815 17.3" Laptop | Staples® This thing kicks ....! Much better than the Dell I got(which died one month out of warranty!), at about the same price I paid for the Dellstructo. lol Just wanted to let people know what happened and that I am not dead, dismembered or in jail(as someone suggested. lol). Just wondering if anyone else has an Acer or other Windows 7 machine and care to discuss it. As much as I hated Vista, Win 7 seems pretty good. Only problem I have is that I had to do a search just to find the Mouse Settings. WTF?! That has always been easy to access from the right click on the desktop. Other than that I see huge improvements in Win7 over Vista...have I mentioned I hate Vista? lol A comp tech friend of mine loves his Acer Netbook, or I wouldn't even have considered this brand. But after checking out MANY comps in the $500 price range, you just cannot touch this thing for performance. And the display is UNBELIEVABLE, sound is fantastic! Kay, so I am happy now. I was never happy w/ my Dell 100%, and it just got worse the older it got. A bit disapointed that it only lasted a year, my first laptop lasted to this day, and still functions...somewhat, even though the batt expanded and nearly blew after the first year. I am rather amazed that the old P2 still functions at all after 13 years. Hopefully this Acer will hold up better than my Dell.

EDIT: The comp did not come w/ any backup discs. Windows or otherwise. Does that seem just wrong or what?

 

[LowThudd]

Just found it on their website(Acer), they want to sell me a recovery disc for $20, but they are not yet in stock. That really sux. Anyone know if there is another way to get a win7 recovery disc?

 

[Kobudo]

I would try Ubuntu 10.04 on that laptop, but I'm weird. ;-)

Most versions of Windows have the option somewhere in there to make a recovery CD on your own. Here is a google search that leads to a few different tutorials.

 

[notsoogood]

I won't buy one without a backup disc if I can help it. Hubby works on computers as more of a hobby but he see's what Dell puts in their computers. All of the cheapest parts they can get. But if you try telling people they still go out and pay good money for one even though you tell them that they can get twice the computer for the same money if they would buy something else. Never ceases to amaze my husband. Then he's the first one they come crying to when a hard drive or power supply goes out. Acer's are pretty decent computers. I prefer Toshiba myself. Congrats on your smart purchase!!

 

[LowThudd]

I won't buy one without a backup disc if I can help it. Hubby works on computers as more of a hobby but he see's what Dell puts in their computers. All of the cheapest parts they can get. But if you try telling people they still go out and pay good money for one even though you tell them that they can get twice the computer for the same money if they would buy something else. Never ceases to amaze my husband. Then he's the first one they come crying to when a hard drive or power supply goes out. Acer's are pretty decent computers. I prefer Toshiba myself. Congrats on your smart purchase!!

Good to know! Yea this thing blows the Dellstructo away in every way possible, for the same money. Effing rediculous. When I used to do Q&A work on computers years ago, Dells were second best only to Gateway. I guess things change. I looked at a couple Toshies, but after testing DVDs for 8 years and seeing litterally dozens of their players bite the dust very quickly, I just don't trust the name. Maybe their computers are better than their DVD set tops, but I really didn't like the feel of them, or the audio. The keyboard on this Acer is just incredible, and being an aspiring Screenplay writer, that is really the only thing that matters. Ironic that that is the one thing on the Dell that failed completely. lol At least I got one script out of it. Makes it worth what I paid for it a year ago just for that, but I'll never buy a Dell again.

 

[notsoogood]

Have had not one lick of problems on any Toshiba laptop we have had, but I will agree that the sound is not as good as it could be.

 

[skri11a]

My experience with Acer has been less than stellar in the past, but I've already had to clean up a couple of the netbooks and those seem like pretty solid little machines for the price.

I've never particularly cared for Toshiba's either. I've never had any real failures with them, they just seem to be under-performers when compared to similarly spec'ed systems. I do still have a 7 year old Toshiba Satellite running Fedora (8? 9?) with no problems.

As for Dell. Don't buy from their "Home" line. If you buy from their small business line, you'll get much better quality. One rep told me that the consumer line was assembly line produced with nothing more than a power-on check. The business line of machines are supposedly stress tested and guaranteed to work out of the box.

I purchase all Dell's for our office. In the 6 years we've been a Dell only shop, the only failures I've had, have been the consumer level laptops (inspirons). I haven't had a single problem with servers, workstations or their optiplex line of desktops.

Just my .02

 

[LowThudd]

Dell pro line is way out of my price range. $500+tax+recycling fee was my max expendeture. I won't mess w/ Dell again out of principle anyway. If they are building shotty Home equipment and using the business line as advertizment of quality, that is kinda like bait and switch...you know?

What problems have you had w/ Acer?

BTW, the Acer software had a Backup Disk making program, so I am burning my own right now. The Em Effer needs 4 DVD-rs! lol No wonder they didn't bother to send discs. Oh well, cost me $2 for the DVD+Rs, all I'm out is some time.

 

[skri11a]

Dell pro line is way out of my price range. $500+tax+recycling fee was my max expendeture. I won't mess w/ Dell again out of principle anyway. If they are building shotty Home equipment and using the business line as advertizment of quality, that is kinda like bait and switch...you know?

What problems have you had w/ Acer?

BTW, the Acer software had a Backup Disk making program, so I am burning my own right now. The Em Effer needs 4 DVD-rs! lol No wonder they didn't bother to send discs. Oh well, cost me $2 for the DVD+Rs, all I'm out is some time.

Unfortunately, any business class pc does exactly what dell does. HP does it with their consumer line and before Lenovo bought IBM they did the same thing.

Acer (mind you, this was at least 10 years ago) was the entry level of entry level. They used the cheapest components and had almost non-existent support. Next to e-machines (again, at that time) they were the worst manufacturer. We were guaranteed to get back half of all the acers we sold.

Anyway, that was a long time ago and like I said, I've had to clean up a couple of the Acer One netbooks and they were abused by their owners. They were easy to use and quick for their specs and just seemed a lot better than what I remembered.

 

[LowThudd]

Unfortunately, any business class pc does exactly what dell does. HP does it with their consumer line and before Lenovo bought IBM they did the same thing.

Acer (mind you, this was at least 10 years ago) was the entry level of entry level. They used the cheapest components and had almost non-existent support. Next to e-machines (again, at that time) they were the worst manufacturer. We were guaranteed to get back half of all the acers we sold.

Anyway, that was a long time ago and like I said, I've had to clean up a couple of the Acer One netbooks and they were abused by their owners. They were easy to use and quick for their specs and just seemed a lot better than what I remembered.

Well aware of Acers faults 10 years ago. But things change, and I am telling you this is one solid FAST machine. It is twice as fast online as my Dell was, but that is probably due to the Acer having a 64bit OS and IE is 64 bit as well.

 

[illuxion]

I have 2 acer netbooks, one for me and one for my rugrat, and I love them. An AO521 and AO721, both are amd k125s with Radeon 4225s, win7 pro x64(anytime upgrade from home premium). The only difference is that one is 11.6, the other is 10.1. I bought the 521 but found it a bit too small and gave it to my son then picked up the 721 and threw a 120g OCZ Vertex 2 SSD in it and upgraded to 4gig of ram and I LOVE IT. Great little netbook with decent battery life and enough gonads to actually play blu-ray isos without a hitch. They both play Avatar without a single dropped frame(the highest bitrate blu-ray that I know of). I play WoW occasionally and while I have to turn the graphics down compared to my dual GTX460 gaming rig, it runs quite well considering it is a netbook. My only gripe is the glossy screens, when will manufacturers learn, they SUCK. I also have a monster workhorse of a dell that I like also, except that carrying it is miserable. It's a precision M4400 with QX9300, 8gig, 120gig Vertex 2 SSD with a 500gig drive in the optical bay, FX770(essentially an 8800GT), Win7 ultimate x64 and a MONSTER battery Dell calls a "slice". A "slice", conjuring images of thin and sexy, but the thing is the same size and weight as the laptop itself lol. It's one of the meaner laptops I've come across, especially for its time, but it's heavy as hell and I travel too much to hassle with it. Last year I visit 6 of our Asia plants in 3 weeks lugging that thing around with me and I had enough of it.

We spends millions a year with dell, so I'm a bit of a biased Dell ....., averaging a 40% discount makes them pretty sweet for me, and the support is great. I wouldn't touch the entry level dell with a 10' pole, but their mid range stuff isn't bad, and the enterprise stuff works well. I love the ProIT support from them, global warranty without having to transfer the warranty. I don't have much experience with Acer so far, but I love the little netbooks.

If someone were to ask me what to buy I usually play dumb and don't give a direct answer to anyone who asks for personal advice as I don't want to be blamed for my opinion. Something you learn being the IT manager of a company with a few thousand people lol. I used to build PCs for friends and family, but then came having to support them. No thanks, I'd rather my mom get frustrated talking to the India call center after she kills her computer for the third time that week. I love my family and friends, but when you deal with support every day like I do, I have to stay away because I don't want to end up hating them lol.