Deciding Between Acer Ferrari 3200 or Acer Aspire 2025WLMi

It depends what you need. Both lappys use the same video card so gaming performance comes down to the processor. Although the 1.8GHz probably compares to a 2.8GHz P4 I still think the Athlon64 with its 1600mhz bus speed will yield much better performance. So you will get better gaming with the Acer. Having said that, you should be happy if you get 3 hr battery life with ferrari; don't even dream of getting 4. Yet expect 4-5 with acer. Ferrari has better screen resolution yet the 2025 uses all the acer screen technology (whatever that is). They do many things to the screen that increase viewing angle, brightness etc. I'd say everything about the 3200 is better except for the fact it doesn't have a subwoofer and a slightly worse screen.

Get the 2025 if you'relooking for a laptop....Get the Ferrari if you're looking for a desktop that you can take with you (from what I've heard, the battery life is not going to be as great as people are hoping, ie. under 3 hrs).

isn't the ferrari a slot load drive as well?

2025

If you are going to do gaming as you mention in your post I would go with the ferrari 3200.

The AMD processor will kick a 1.8 dothan on that front rumours are it will also kick a 2.0ghz dothan but that remains to be seen in a week or 2.

I am not a great fan of widescreens for gaming as i dont like the stretch option for games that dont support it the wide aspect.

And for some reason the black border option on the 8600 just annoys me feel as though i am being short changed.

And for those games that do support the widescreen - you have to think can the 9700 although a great card perform on the new games at such high res.

I usually drop down to 1024x768 for gaming for performance reasons.

I would save a few bucks and go with the 3200.

I have the Aspire 2012 and as far a build quality goes, this notebook is probably the best built notebook that I've ever had and I've had several including the sager 4780, gateway 505x, compaq x1000, and dell latitude d500. It has a solid feel to it with no flexing. They keyboard is also very nice, 2nd in quality behind the sager 4780. The screen is awesome with great viewing angles and it is very bright. Even though is a wxga, I think that it is the best screen of all the notebooks that I've had. The only negatives with this notebook is the wireless connection and the type of plastic that they used for the palmrest. Though it has a solid feel to it, if your palms get sweaty, it leaves noticeable marks on it.

Regarding the dvd drive, I know that the aspire 2003 model had the slotload drive, but this model has the standard push button pull out drive. I'm not sure what the 2025 has

I have the Aspire 2023WLMi and I have to totally agree with you Your comments are 100% true

The Aspire 2020 series comes with a slotload drive, just like the 2003 model.

clairvoyant, would you mind posting some benchmarks/pics for your system.

Thanks a bunch

Playing games will not give you long batterylife no matter wich laptop you Chose (escpecially with the Radeon 9600 and later). While you are gaming the GPU is the most powerdrain hands down, the CPU will run att full power spec, so minimal power rating (bla bla bla...) will not do a thing for you here. Also the fans will be spinning at full rpm and the screen will probably use more power aswell. So basicly the diffrence the CPU will make while gaming is small to be exact. Basicly you can only see the optimal batterylife on a notebook if it runs idle.

For me to chose a gaming notebook between these two is easy. Besides superior value the Ferrari 3200 doesn't lack any feature and has a really nice screen. Besides, it is thin and light. But above all it is 64-bit ready. The CPU is SOCKET 754, wich gives you a good chance it will be able to upgrade the CPU, not just the RAM and HD. You will find that more games can adapt to the screen aswell and it has higher resolution. Personally I just dont like wide screens, at all...

Maybe you should ask yourself this: Are you willing to sacrifice the extra cash and 64-bit compatible and uppgradable CPU to be able to game a fiew more minutes on battery? Are you planing to be gaming "on the go" that much anyway?

Atleast the Ferrari 3000 has exelent build quallity. No give or flex, not even in the thin screen part. The keyboard is also totaly silent. I just don't think Ferrari would put their name behind a low quallity, flabby, Dell-like product. So why is it so cheap? Well Acer is stepping up their marketing in the U.S and the new Ferrari 3200 is part of this effort. Acer simply has to make a cheaper and better product than their competitors to change their situation here. Sometimes you can get more than what you pay for...

Just my thoughts.

Ramif,

Excellent post couldnt agree more.

Shutty, there are a couple of reasons 64 bit is better than 32 bit processors..

1. The ability for the 64 bit processor to process floating point calculations faster and more precisely than 32 bit processors means software such as gaming and 3d based software that support 64 bit will have significant speed advantages over a 32 bit application.

2. Memory usage a 64 bit processor can use a maximum of 8 gb memory which is far more than their 32 bit counterparts.

Although both of these things dont seem like a major advantage over 32 bit at the moment in the next year or two they will come into their own and all cpu's will be 64 bit architecture.

Let's not forget, when the time comes and you wan't to sell your notebook after, lets say 4 years. No one, and I mean NO one would pay to buy your 32-bit notebook at that point in time. In 4 years all the newest and best software will be 64-bit only. With a 64-bit capable notebook atleast you could make a deal...