Help me choose : Acer Aspire 5672 or Travelmate 8204?

[jaydeep]

Hi friends,

It may have been asked before a number of times. I am asking it once more since by now there are many owners of these two laptops and they can help me decide. I can not decide between these two models : Aspire 5672 and Travelmate 8204. I have read good reviews about both laptops. My main use will be heavy computation(Fortran, Mathematica, Maple etc.).I prefer a laptop with nice screen, latest DVD players/burners, lot of ports(DVI,VGA, USB, smart cards, firewire etc. etc.), fast hard drive, decent sound quality, a built-in webcam, long battery life and which generates much less heat and runs quietly -- no noisy fans(this is the most important factor since I shall use it in a seminar/conference).

So here are my questions for you. How fast are HD's of these two laptops? Do they run @ 5400rpm? Can anybody tell me about their battery life? I would like to give a presentation for say 1.5 hrs, want to perform some moderate computation using Mathematica for an hour etc. Most importantly, do they run quietly?

Any other info will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance

[BOFH1971]

obviously the 8204 if you can afford it, better graphics card and higher resolution screen

strange smiley keyboard tho :)

[hodgie_ns]

I can only tell you about the 5672 that retails at Compusa, model comes installed with 2G ram and a 5400rpm 120G hdd. Ive been using xilinx and wireless almost exclusively. Seems durable enough, i carry it around in a book bag with no problems, on battery it's pretty consistent 2.75 hours of editing and compiling time. Seems fast, touchpad gets noticably warm but stays quiet when the fan comes on. I'm glad I bought it, I hope you get what you need!

[tallan]

Your comment about fans is telling: the fan in my 8204 is quiet enough, but it's on pretty much all the time. Not noisy, but there. Battery life has been very good, almost 4 hours with most stuff turned down or off.

I like the smiley keyboard; only took me about a day to get used to it but YMMV.

[skypine27]

better graphics card and higher resolution screen

If you ask me, and many other people, the higher resolution screen on the 8204 is actually a big disadvantage.

For those who don't know, with an LCD display you can't change the Windows desktop resolution w/o greatly losing picture quality. And the native res of 1680x1050 is NOT well suited to a 15.4" screen. Windows text and web browsing are very tiny. And watching a DVD full screen also creates a much larger picture quality loss than compared to the 5672's 1280x800 resolution.

Yes, the 8204 is a far better machine for playing games. However, for general windows environment and watching DVDs, the native resolution of the 5672 is alot easier on the eyes. (nicer screen quality too)

Try changing your 19 or 20" desktop CRT to a res. in the same 1600x1000 area, and then ask yourself if you could live with the small text and windows icon size. Then try playing a DVD full screen at that res. And then consider that on the 8204 you are dealing with a 15.4" screen!

[The Doctor]

After having replaced my 8204's screen with a WUXGA (1920x1200) screen I can't go back to lower resolutions. It feels claustrophobic...

[indiekiduk]

If you ask me, and many other people, the higher resolution screen on the 8204 is actually a big disadvantage.

For those who don't know, with an LCD display you can't change the Windows desktop resolution w/o greatly losing picture quality. And the native res of 1680x1050 is NOT well suited to a 15.4" screen. Windows text and web browsing are very tiny. And watching a DVD full screen also creates a much larger picture quality loss than compared to the 5672's 1280x800 resolution.


No no no...you are supposed to choose Large fonts in display settings or increase the DPI and it looks fantastic. But yeh DVDs don't upscale well at all but no biggie just download your movies in 1080p :mmm:

[jaydeep]

Thanks for those comments. I had a Sager 4750 with 17" screen and
1680x1050 native resolution. My wife owns a Sony Vaio with 15.4" screen and 1200x800 resolution. I know the difference. Everybody used say that Sager's screen was gorgeous.

@Tallan, The Doctor :

How heavy is 8204? Though its fan remains on, it's said that it remains quiet. Ca I use it in a library or when somebody is giving a seminar? I had truoble using Sager under such circumstances.

@hodgie ns

Thanks man for the info. It is quite useful. I shall visit US soon, so visiting Compusa will be on top priority.

@BOFH1971 : Your sig. says something different ;) . Tell me about your experience with 5672.

[BOFH1971]

Hiya Jaydeep

my experience with my 5672, its an ok performer, I didnt want to break the bank anymore than I did by going for the 8204, maybe a mistake in hindsight

although I do love my glossy screen.

the x1400 is great for most current games, but I reckon by Christmas I will be wanting more power which will mean my card which is not upgradeable (DOH!) will have come to the end of its usefulness.

I did mistakenly think when I bought the laptop that PCI_Express cards in laptops meant MXM technology, but am wrong there.

Now the only hope for me to upgrade it, is to get another mainboard, maybe even one for an 8204 and swap it out, as the chassis are very very similar if not the same.

The weight of the two machines is not much different either. they both hover around the 3kg mark.

Both are very nice machines and I would recommend them both.

The fact that they can take 4gb Ram and higher specced T2600 core duo's gives them plenty of life on the o/s (vista) programiing, etc market.

P.S. I forgot to mention, I have experienced both machines as we use 8204's at work for DR.

[skypine27]

indiekiduk:

What DPI setting do you use? The standard windows DPI is 96. I have tried one 120, and yes, the windows text size is larger. However, everything appears to be in "bold" font when you do that, and the icons in the taskbar get misshapen. Do you have this problem? Do you use another DPI setting?

And yes, I have also set the text size to "larger" in windows explorer.

[indiekiduk]

Yep the text can look bolder than usual but you get used to it. And yes the task tray icons are quite low res but hopefully more applications will include high res task tray icons soon.

I use the default settings in the factory install of the 8204. I think it was DPI 96, and large fonts but I can confirm that when my 8204 gets back from repair in a few days.

[skypine27]

The Doctor:

Where can one get replacement screens for laptops? I'd consider replacing my 8104 high res screen with the glossy, 1280x800 res screen from an Aspire 5003 or similar. That was much better screen/res combo for watching DVDs and general Windows Operation (if you ask me)

Is there a place that sells various resolution and finish (glossy or matte) screens? And if so, who do you get to actually install it?

Thanks again guys

[PorschePRH]

Is it worth paying another $1000 for a computer that doesn't burn your hands when you use it? Yes. Get the 8204.

[The Doctor]

Where can one get replacement screens for laptops? I'd consider replacing my 8104 high res screen with the glossy, 1280x800 res screen from an Aspire 5003 or similar. That was much better screen/res combo for watching DVDs and general Windows Operation (if you ask me)

Is there a place that sells various resolution and finish (glossy or matte) screens? And if so, who do you get to actually install it?
I just had an old WUXGA panel doing nothing. There are replacements panels available, www.screentekinc.com do quite a lot...

[jaydeep]

Can anybody kindly put a link to their reviews on their respective machines?

[indiekiduk]

Choose neither and get a mac book pro and use this :-)
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

[jaydeep]

Choose neither and get a mac book pro and use this :-)
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Well, I personally feel apple is overpriced for the spec. they offer. Moreover, if I use unix, I would go for linux. Anyway, I don't see any review on Macbook in the review section. I will not go for any review by some other company. Let's confine ourselves to Acer only. I read in this subforum that 5672 produces a lot of heat. What about 8204? Can anybody tell me what are the outputs of mobilemeter for regular surfing and DVD playback on 8204?

[CoolHotCold]

i must say. Given the chance to change my 8204WLMi to a Mac Book Pro does seem tempting. But the keyboard on the 8204 just feels so much more natural and The macBookPro power connecter seems to be catching fire (which is a huge minus) But overall im happy with my decision. You can get close to 3 hours while surfing and office stuff and Screen brightness set on medium. However if you decrease screern brightness and change CPU usage to min you can get 4 hours. Which is Very good. You can also buy a second battery that slots into the DVD drive to give you a extra ~2 hours

[Shol]

Well, I can sort of counter that by saying is it worth 30 bucks to by a laptop cooler so that the heat is not an issue ?

Anyway :)

[tasslehawf]

Is it worth paying another $1000 for a computer that doesn't burn your hands when you use it? Yes. Get the 8204.

Mine doesn't do that, unless you're talking about the exhaust port on the right side of the keyboard, in which case the 8204 has the same problem I believe - and with the x1600 it probably gets even hotter.

[CoolHotCold]

Nope actuall the X1600 doesn't seem to get hot. I've left my 8204 on for about 48 hours now and the exaust air is actually cool. I've had cases where it just blowing cold air out. But it doesn't heat up and the rest of the Computer is Very cool. My Optical mouse is actually hotter then the air comming out

[tasslehawf]

Nope actuall the X1600 doesn't seem to get hot. I've left my 8204 on for about 48 hours now and the exaust air is actually cool. I've had cases where it just blowing cold air out. But it doesn't heat up and the rest of the Computer is Very cool. My Optical mouse is actually hotter then the air comming out

Well the exhaust port to the right of the keyboard on 5672 appears to be for the video card. When I'm just doing web stuff it's barely warm, but when I'm playing HL2 it gets very hot.

[jaydeep]

You can also buy a second battery that slots into the DVD drive to give you a extra ~2 hours

This is a very useful piece of info. Thanks man.

Yes, Shol, I agree with that. But it's kind of cumbersome to use such cooler when you are giving a talk or listening to somebody's talk while checking your mails.

[CoolHotCold]

I'm pretty sure the vent expells heat from both GPU and CPU. Oviously it will get hotter if your doing more extensive stuff, but i can't say that it gets noticebly hotter

[CoolHotCold]

JayDeep. If you can afford to buy the 8204WLMi then i suggest you go for it. It beats A FX-57 ( Evesham Decimator 78FX ) by 2 marks in Sysmark 2004 SE.
I swear it's also the quietest machine i've ever used. My old Time laptop really sounded like one of the fan's blades were broken (they wern't) Which was my reason for upgrading. I've not really regretted it since.

[Shol]

I hear you, however the Antic cooler that I have actually elevates the laptop slightly, and it seems pretty darn inconspicuous :)

Anyway I am happy with it and its working well and it seems to run world of warcraft amazingly :)

[PorschePRH]

Mine doesn't do that, unless you're talking about the exhaust port on the right side of the keyboard, in which case the 8204 has the same problem I believe - and with the x1600 it probably gets even hotter.

Consider yourself very lucky. Mine gets very hot around the mouse pad and underneath on my lap especially with the CPU at full speed.

I know it's not just my machine because many others have the same problem.

[BOFH1971]

yeah the 5672 gets warm, but doesnt bother me
the x1600 wont really run much if any hotter than the x1400 they are the same core the x1600 just has more pipes enabled, and possibly a higher clock speed (which would create a little extra heat)

remember all the manufacturers do the same thing, they produce a core and all the cores that come off the line that dont work 100%, they reduce the pipes until it does work then release it as a cutdown version.

amd did this with their cpu cores, there are posts about upgrading the cpu simply by crossing jumpers on the die plate.
same goes to nvidia and ati cards
the risk overclockers take is that then enable pipes that dont work.

so yeah I expect similar heat from both gfx cores. but obviously the performance gain from x1600 is immense in comparison to the rather crippled x1400

[CoolHotCold]

BoFH1971 which one do you recomend?
The 5670 or the 8204?

[wynand32]

The hottest my system gets is while playing Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion, and I have the multithreading turned on (which then uses both cores pretty heavily). Then, it's blowing out some hotter air from the right-hand vent, and the area along the right-bottom, including the hard drive, gets fairly hot. It's not enough to burn, but it's definitely a bit uncomfortable.

However, under most other use, it doesn't get more than warm.