Acer Aspire 1710 Review - Page 25

It does, I just got mine in the mail the other day.

Yea, she's been raving about new laptops for months now. She showed me these forums and I just spent the last 2 nights in a row reading over and over this thread alone.

p.s. Yea, I'm the guy that wants one soooooo bad! haha

<----For Moey! =)~

From Acer's site: Effortless visual upgrade via a range of optional nVIDIA® GeForce™ FX graphics card, supporting 8X AGP and Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0

This mean there is an upgrade coming soon?

I believe it means that the video card is easily removable via the bottom panel on the notebook. If a new video card is eventually released in a future version of this model, there should be no problem upgrading to it by ordering the card as a spare part.

The statement you referenced also means that if you order the integrated graphics solution (US model 1711x) that you could order one of the GeForce FX Go 5700 64MB or 128MB add-on cards and upgrade the notebook's video without any problem.

Best Europe Price

Can anyone tell me of a store/site with a good price for the Acer 1714 (European model). The best i can find is Acer Uk for 1156 pounds (2785 CAD). Not bad but i was hopeing for better, anyone , anyone ??

i checked out the uk shops online and didnt find anything better either.
but on the acer uk shop it gives two prices, one without vat , the one you quote, and one 250 pounds higher with vat..
do we have to pay vat if we order from the u.s.?

german, www.idealo.de

they have a full selection of 1714 option packages. enjoy

Us 1714

No you shouldn'y have to pay VAT in the US, but shipping and import tax will most liekly end up being even more then the VAT(shipping info on the Acer site,import or US taxes i don't know). But the 1714 is a slightly upgraded model and with exchange rates etc. it may still be a good deal you would have to look into. I am in Bosnia right now for work so getting to the UK or Elsewhere in Europe to buy would not be too difficult for me, and as a 'tourist' it would be VAT free!

P.S. Thanks for the link i am checking it out now.

Try here

is £1154.35

Ok saves u few quid

Got one myself a few days ago - WHAT A LAPTOP

Hey Buzz, i would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the 1714. A review of sorts if you will. Fisrt impressions? What you have done with it so far/will be using it for? ANy info would be great. (i have read throught this whole thread{a few times} so have a good idea already)

I think that the only differnece between the 1712 & 1714 (except that 1 is sold in the US and another in Europe) is that the 1714 has a nvidia 5600 not the 5700 and it uses a 3.4 ghz cpu instead of the 1712's 3.06.

Thanks!

Got any ideas on the old floppy drive 12 vs 11 question?

i dont think the 1714 has a floppy drive, it seems that it has a 6 in 1 card reader just like the 1712

That was my guess too... they swaped'em out one for the other...

Now here is a REALLY REALLY techie question...

Is the Floppy in the 1711 controlled by the original floppy drive controlers or is it a USB type after boot controller?

Cause I KNOW the card reader cant be a pre-dos bios drive.... can it??

So... does the 1711 use the old legacy floppy drive desktop controler and ribbons?

If it DOES then that settles it... I MUST get the 1711 and upgrade it.

I have some older devices that use the floppy controllers and ribbons and I could rig up some NICE externals from them without tooo much of a problem.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy !!

Acer 1710 or Gateway 650X

Ok Guys,

I am really in need of your help. I am having a huge dilemma and I need your input.
I just ordered the Gateway 650X.
In my continuing research I found the Acer 1710 (of course after I already ordered the gateway). I have read this thread twice and it really looks to be a better laptop (except for the weight). I plan on doing Photoshop, 3D Studio Max, Painter, Play Games, see and maybe copy DVDs and just regular computer stuff.

Here are the configs on the Gateway:

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 3.0GHz with Hyper-Threading Technology
Memory: 512MB 400MHz DDR SDRAM (2-256MB modules)
Hard Drive: 60GB 5400rpm Ultra ATA hard drive
Floppy Drive: Modular 6-in-1 memory card reader
Optical Drive: Modular 2x DVD-R/-RW/CD-RW recorder
Expansion Slots: One Type II PC Card Slot
External Ports: (4) USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), VGA, Parallel, TV Out, S-Video
Screen: 17.1" High Resolution WSXGA+ TFT Active Matrix w/ ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 8x AGP w/ 128MB DDR video memory
Keyboard and Mouse: Full-sized keyboard w/ integrated 10-key pad and EZ Pad® Pointing Device
Multimedia Package: Integrated sound and stereo speakers, headphone/speaker jack, line-in and mic jacks
Speakers: External speakers not selected
Battery: High-capacity lithium ion battery with AC pack and 1 yr. limited battery warranty
Modem: Integrated V.92 56K modem
Network Adapter: Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
Integrated Wireless Networking Adapter: Integrated 802.11g wireless networking card
Total System Price: US $2090

The Acer 1710 model I found is US$1899. The configs look obviously better:

This model is configured with a 3.0GHz Pentium 4 processor, a 1MB L2 cache, a 120GB ATA/100 hard drive and 1GB PC2700 DDR SDRAM (expandable to 2GB). In addition to the 533MHz front bus speed, the 1712 contains a 6-in-1 multimedia card reader, one Type II CardBus slot and a DVD+/-RW dual drive. For your communications needs, it features three integrated solutions: 802.11g wireless, a 10/100 LAN and a V.92 56K modem. The nVidia Geforce Go5700 graphics with 128MB VRAM delivers superb images on the 17" TFT LCD display, supporting resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 in millions of colors and a simultaneous external display. The Microsoft DirectSound-compatible audio with dual internal stereo speakers produces lifelike sound. The 1712 comes with a rechargeable Li-Ion battery pack, an AC adapter and a 109-key keyboard with a touch pad. Windows XP Home Edition is pre-installed.

I am worried about what past posts have said about the BIOS. (although I don't understand it)
Does this laptop get hot? I plan on plopping it on my lap while I work out on my patio.
I would be giving up the 17 inch wide screen for a regular 17 inch. Is this a big sacrifice?
I will be living in Maui. There is not a lot of computer help here. Shipping things out of Maui is expensive so I want a computer that is reliable. I have owned 2 gateways and never had a problem which is why I went with them again. But seeing the configs on the Acer is making me really think twice.

Did I "HONESTLY" make a mistake with the gateway? I would appreciate any advise.

Do you have a link to the gateway? I can't find that model on their site..

Big problems here in Iraq. So I got my 3.4 Prescott processor and got the computer running just fine (or so it seems). Then I bechmarked thinking I should see at least a 3-10% difference in scores but when I went to Sandra it was actually slower than my before spec. So I thought maybe it was a fluke so I ran 3dmark 2001 se. again much lower than the 14000 I got before. Now I am down to 8000 with the vid card overclocked to 400/600. Can anyone tell me what I did wrong. I reinstalled the OS with a fresh copy of XP (not the provided disks as I hate all the stuff they install.). I then put the drivers on from the disk except for the vid card drivers which I updated with the latest Omega drivers. Then I installed the benchmarks and two games. (Iron Storm and Call of Duty, both run slow as anything and are barely playable).

Here are my system specs:
3.4 Ghz Prescott
2 GB Dual Channel 400 Mhz Micron Memory with heat sinks
250 GB Western Digital JB hard drive
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy NX
everything else is stock.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am lost.

I will say I thought it was a hyperthreading problem but when I go into the device manager it lists two processors. It may still be this as the problem as Sandra does not list two processors. Please help!!!! I need my game time to relive my stress time!!!!!!!!! Thank you.

Hi Elmolivez,

I have the 1712 with a 3GHz Northwood and during idle, the temperature is around 43C but when I replace it with a 2.8GHz Prescott, then idle temperature rose to 56C at idle. This also causes the fan to go faster and hence noiser. The temperature threshold for Northwood is 70C and Prescott is 80C before it slow down (someone correct me if I am wrong).

What is your temperature reading ? Maybe the cpu has reached its threshold when you ran those benchmark ? You can find out the temperature using MobileMeter.

BTW, did your 1714 comes with a stock 3.4GHz Prescott or Northwood ? Prescott cpu runs very hot and that's why Intel up the threshold. As a result both type of cpu will be operating at different temperature settings and I wonder if the 171x have the ability to detect that and adjust the cpu fan seed to match ? Based on my observation, it did not. So, when you replace with a Prescott cpu, expect a more noisy cpu fan. Is this an issue with the BIOS ?