Need Help Finding Good Acer Computer

Hello Folks,

'I am in the market for a new system. My Whole life I've only used
HP, Compaq, and IBM systems. Howeve, now I'd like to go with Acer.
One of my friends who is a computer sales person said Acer is second
to none in reliability, quality, and price. He swears that once I buy
an Acer, it will be the last computer I will ever need to buy.

So, I was pretty sold on that. I want to get an Acer. But, who sells
them and who sells them cheap?

I'm looking for a 3 GHZ system, with 2 GB of ram, a 250 GB Hard drive,
and a DVD burner. I play games and my wife wants to use the system
for desktop publishing and image editing work. So, I think I will
need the 2 GB of RAM. The operating system should also be a Vista. I
am using XP now, but my friend also told me I am in the dark ages and
need to upgrade to Vista immediately. So, I will take his advise and
do that too.

So, any advise. would also be appreciated. Also, if any of you have
any other brands I should consider besides Acer, I'm open to your
comments. But, Acer does sound light years ahead of the others.

Thanks,

Chris martin

"Chris" wrote in message
...
Hello Folks,

'I am in the market for a new system. My Whole life I've only used
HP, Compaq, and IBM systems. Howeve, now I'd like to go with Acer.
One of my friends who is a computer sales person said Acer is second
to none in reliability, quality, and price. He swears that once I buy
an Acer, it will be the last computer I will ever need to buy.

So, I was pretty sold on that. I want to get an Acer. But, who sells
them and who sells them cheap?

I'm looking for a 3 GHZ system, with 2 GB of ram, a 250 GB Hard drive,
and a DVD burner. I play games and my wife wants to use the system
for desktop publishing and image editing work. So, I think I will
need the 2 GB of RAM. The operating system should also be a Vista. I
am using XP now, but my friend also told me I am in the dark ages and
need to upgrade to Vista immediately. So, I will take his advise and
do that too.

So, any advise. would also be appreciated. Also, if any of you have
any other brands I should consider besides Acer, I'm open to your
comments. But, Acer does sound light years ahead of the others.

Thanks,

Chris martin

I take it even you must have some doubt as to the advice
you are getting from your "computer sales person" friend,
or why would you be posting this thread. The likelyhood
that a "computer sales person" has a clue about PCs, is
very slim.

Vista has improved some, but many of us still prefer XP
Pro. Dark ages?

Dell, HP, Compaq, and IBM make somewhat proprietary
systems Acer appears to be a little less so. To that extent
it would be an improvement over what you may be used to.

It is still best to build your own system from standard based
componets. Then you know what you have and can migrate
to a newer more capable system by replacing/upgrading only
the componets neccessary.

Intel processors may have an advantage with regard to the
accelerations used for your wife's software, AMD could
claim a slight advantage for your games. Both of you will
appriciate the newer multi-core processors, two cores is fine
for your games but your wife's software will likely want as
many cores as you can afford.

Once you have picked a processor, it's just a matter of
selecting a motherboard. The requirements and options
for your selected motherboard will pretty much define the
rest of the system.

The case and power supply you need will be determined
not only by the requirements of the motherboard, but by
that of all the drives and other equipment you want to be
able to mount and power.

You can get a system that exactly meets your wants and
needs. One built of quality componets, to the limit of your
budjet.

If you ever used an Erector Set, you have all the mechanical
skills needed to construct a PC.

Luck;
Ken

On Mon, 25 May 2009 19:52:18 -0400, Chris
wrote:

Hello Folks,

'I am in the market for a new system. My Whole life I've only used
HP, Compaq, and IBM systems. Howeve, now I'd like to go with Acer.
One of my friends who is a computer sales person said Acer is second
to none in reliability, quality, and price. He swears that once I buy
an Acer, it will be the last computer I will ever need to buy.

That seems a strange claim, most people buy an OEM system
and use it until it becomes obsolete, or of so little value
it isn't cost effective to repair vs buying a new system
again. The same will be true of an Acer.

There's not going to be a substantial difference in quality
between systems from the various major OEMs at the price
points and specs you listed, but I'll comment on those
below.


So, I was pretty sold on that. I want to get an Acer. But, who sells
them and who sells them cheap?

Since anyone can find computer retailers online, I don't
understand the question. If you prefer buying locally, look
in the weekend newspaper ads. If you prefer buying locally
you also didn't mention where you're located.

The curious thing is that your friend the salesman must have
access to Acer systems to make the comments he has, so why
not have the friend sell you a system or tell you where he
thinks you should buy? This post you made is strange in a
number of ways, you've described nothing more than looking
to buy a vanilla computer that could be found anywhere... if
anything Acer are slightly lower quality but on average cost
a bit less, though pricing may vary per region.



I'm looking for a 3 GHZ system, with 2 GB of ram, a 250 GB Hard drive,
and a DVD burner. I play games and my wife wants to use the system
for desktop publishing and image editing work. So, I think I will
need the 2 GB of RAM. The operating system should also be a Vista. I
am using XP now, but my friend also told me I am in the dark ages and
need to upgrade to Vista immediately. So, I will take his advise and
do that too.

There's nothing "dark ages" about XP, it is what most of the
world uses fine. Take what your friend says with a grain of
salt, if he thinks running XP is a problem then he may not
know a lot about using a computer.

However, there is a point to getting the then-current OS
with a new system, as older OS support is eventually phased
out. Not so much support for XP itself, I mean rather
you'll find software developers not supporting running their
3rd party software on older OS. For example Turbotax won't
support Win2k next year, AVG Antivirus won't support Win2k
with their latest version and they never seemed to fix a
problem on Win2k with their prior version even when they
claimed support with it.

Anyway, for long term use you should get at least 4GB of
memory. Memory is dirt cheap now, and you seem to want to
use the system for a long time so you might as well get more
memory now rather than later.

3GHz CPU, 250GB HDD, DVD Burner are nothing special, you're
looking at a small improvement over lowest end systems, but
in these OEM systems they often don't come with a very good
video card, and/or charge too much for the video upgrade.
That in itself is not much of a problem, you can buy the
video card elsewhere and install it yourself, but with the
lower to midrange OEM systems you may also find they did not
use a very high wattage PSU, which may have problems
handling a decent gaming video card.




So, any advise. would also be appreciated. Also, if any of you have
any other brands I should consider besides Acer, I'm open to your
comments. But, Acer does sound light years ahead of the others.

Thanks,

Chris martin


Acer is in the same year as everyone else. Since you are not
needing anything exotic, I suggest setting a budget and
looking online at the various bargain websites that cater to
vendors in your continental region so shipping is lower in
cost. Pick whichever of the major OEMs you find the best
deal on. That can make the price vary by hundreds of
dollars, though with the modest specs you mentioned the cost
difference would be less since the whole system wouldn't be
very expensive, relatively speaking.

As for problems down the road, any of the OEMs have an
occasional problem, compare the warranty length offered and
whether they'll do on-site repairs.

Chris wrote:
Hello Folks,

'I am in the market for a new system. My Whole life I've only used
HP, Compaq, and IBM systems. Howeve, now I'd like to go with Acer.
One of my friends who is a computer sales person said Acer is second
to none in reliability, quality, and price. He swears that once I buy
an Acer, it will be the last computer I will ever need to buy.

Ouch. Did your friend work at a used car lot, in a previous life ?
He has the touch. Computer companies that make "boxes", have
to cut corners on their cheapest systems, if they expect to
"out-cheap" one another.


So, I was pretty sold on that. I want to get an Acer. But, who sells
them and who sells them cheap?

I'm looking for a 3 GHZ system, with 2 GB of ram, a 250 GB Hard drive,
and a DVD burner. I play games and my wife wants to use the system
for desktop publishing and image editing work. So, I think I will
need the 2 GB of RAM. The operating system should also be a Vista. I
am using XP now, but my friend also told me I am in the dark ages and
need to upgrade to Vista immediately. So, I will take his advise and
do that too.

A current generation processor does 50% more work than an old one.
That means a 2GHz current generation processor, does as much work
as the 3GHz Pentium 4 you used to own.

The clock rate still sits in the 3GHz+ region, but the processors
themselves are more effective.


So, any advise. would also be appreciated. Also, if any of you have
any other brands I should consider besides Acer, I'm open to your
comments. But, Acer does sound light years ahead of the others.

Thanks,

Chris martin

The biggest thing I have against Dell/HP/Acer/Gateway, would be the
nature of the software provided. I want to buy my OS separately,
either OEM to save money, or retail version so I can move the
OS to the next computer I build and so on. The pre-built systems
seldom include a real Windows install CD, and the "recovery" feature
erases the C: drive. Which would be my last choice, as a way to
do maintenance on a computer. I want a few more options than that.
I want to be able to do a "repair install" if it is needed.

I'm not going to get into an argument about operating systems. I use
them, until nobody provides products for them any more. For
example, I have a computer with Win2K on it, and I cannot find
a video card upgrade with a Win2K driver. That is a hint that
my copy of Win2K isn't as useful as it once was, in terms
of support new hardware, new games (DirectX updates) and so
on. My current system has WinXP, and that still has sufficient
industry support for my usage.

Vista has some irritating features. There are some desktop operations,
with a long delay between when the user issues the command, and
how long it takes them to complete. The problem is not "slow hardware".
The OS uses "delayed procedures", on the assumption I'm furiously
using the computer for some other problem, while the command I
issued is running on its own. But I don't work like that. I
watch commands until they complete, for simple things on the
desktop. (If I'm copying a 1MB file to another folder, I want
it to happen *now*.) And consequently, certain Vista ways of
doing things, would irritate me.

You may want to review all the software you use, in case some
of it doesn't work well with Vista. If the answer is, you need
to upgrade to a later version of application software, to get
it to work with Vista, that is adding to the cost of your
upgrade.

I built systems from scratch, so I know what I'm getting. I select
the kind of OS I want, and so on. That gives me the maximum level
of control. So far, only one motherboard has eluded my ability to
tame it, and in general, the build process is uneventful.

This would be a run-of-the-mill system.

Q9550 2.83Ghz Quad core $270 (overclock a bit, to get 3GHz, or
spend $324 and get a Q9650)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115041

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $120
One good slot for a video card. Room for a PCI sound card. Has onboard
sound, if you don't want to waste the money on a separate card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128359

Gskill 2x2GB DDR800 CAS4 memory $50 (that is 4GB total RAM - system holds 8GB max)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231219

My favorite CPU cooler (no push pins, used nuts and screws) $37
Try the Intel cooler that comes with your processor first. If you
don't like that cooler, get this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103046

Placeholder for a power supply. This one has two PCI Express power
connectors, for usage with a gamer video card. There should be
enough power for a decent card. 12V @ 52A max, single rail.

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

Hard drive, DVD writer, mouse, keyboard, computer case without supply,
are all items you can "salt to taste".

I used this for my current system WinXP SP3 $138.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116515

It isn't hard to bolt this stuff together. If you want to use
that Coolermaster cooler, you have to decide early in the build
that you're going to use it. The nuts fasten from the back of the
motherboard. The Intel cooler is much more flexible, in terms
of installation. The only downside, is the plastic push-pins
on the Intel cooler can deform, and may not work well if
uninstalled and reinstalled a few times. The cooler with the
nuts and bolts, is there to stay.

What you buy for a video card, really depends on budget and
games. If you bought an Acer, you wouldn't get to make this
choice. I picked this card at random, just so you could look
at a few pictures. You can find cheaper ones. HD 4850 with
an ICEQ cooler. $170. There are so many choices for cards,
you can spend hours reading this stuff.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161245

Cooling air, blows out through the second faceplate.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/14-161-245-S03?$S640W$

The black connector at the bottom of this picture, is a 2x3 PCI
Express power input. The sample power supply I picked, has two
connectors that could be used for this.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/14-161-245-S05?$S640W$

Game benchmarks can be found here, so you can compare the
various cards for sale.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...hmarks,54.html

Total system cost so far, WinXP included. Still need a couple hundred
for computer case, hard drive, DVD writer, and other sundries. I'm
assuming your current monitor can be reused.

270 + 120 + 50 + 37 + 99 + 138 + 170 = $884

A video on installing the Intel processor, is here. This is
for Intel LGA775.

http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/rese...eng/100617.htm

You can also build with Intel Core i7, which is slightly newer
and better product. It all depends on where you want the general
build price to end up.

The Newegg links above, were selected for convenience. You
can also price this stuff locally, if, for example, you want
to be able to go back to the store and get help with your
build. Or the folks in this newsgroup can help you also.

HTH,
Paul

Chris wrote:
Hello Folks,

'I am in the market for a new system. My Whole life I've only used
HP, Compaq, and IBM systems. Howeve, now I'd like to go with Acer.
One of my friends who is a computer sales person said Acer is second
to none in reliability, quality, and price. He swears that once I buy
an Acer, it will be the last computer I will ever need to buy.

So, I was pretty sold on that. I want to get an Acer. But, who sells
them and who sells them cheap?

I'm looking for a 3 GHZ system, with 2 GB of ram, a 250 GB Hard drive,
and a DVD burner. I play games and my wife wants to use the system
for desktop publishing and image editing work. So, I think I will
need the 2 GB of RAM. The operating system should also be a Vista. I
am using XP now, but my friend also told me I am in the dark ages and
need to upgrade to Vista immediately. So, I will take his advise and
do that too.

So, any advise. would also be appreciated. Also, if any of you have
any other brands I should consider besides Acer, I'm open to your
comments. But, Acer does sound light years ahead of the others.

Thanks,

Chris martin




Sorry, but your friend is wrong.

Nothing at all special about Acer computers
and no matter how good it is, it will surely become obsolete some day,
just like everything else.

Additionally, assuming you are now using XP...
there is no good reason to upgrade to Vista...
they still don't have all the bugs out of it...
and I'm not sure they ever will.

I am not saying it's a horrible OS...
but thus far I don't see anything better about it than XP...


Also, considering the price of RAM is so cheap...
if you are going to be using a 32bit OS, you might as well go with 3
gigs of RAM.

There is a good chance you could just add RAM to your present machine
and get a few more years out of it.

philo wrote:

Chris wrote:
Hello Folks,

'I am in the market for a new system. My Whole life I've only used
HP, Compaq, and IBM systems. Howeve, now I'd like to go with Acer.
One of my friends who is a computer sales person said Acer is second
to none in reliability, quality, and price. He swears that once I buy
an Acer, it will be the last computer I will ever need to buy.

So, I was pretty sold on that. I want to get an Acer. But, who sells
them and who sells them cheap?

I'm looking for a 3 GHZ system, with 2 GB of ram, a 250 GB Hard drive,
and a DVD burner. I play games and my wife wants to use the system
for desktop publishing and image editing work. So, I think I will
need the 2 GB of RAM. The operating system should also be a Vista. I
am using XP now, but my friend also told me I am in the dark ages and
need to upgrade to Vista immediately. So, I will take his advise and
do that too.

So, any advise. would also be appreciated. Also, if any of you have
any other brands I should consider besides Acer, I'm open to your
comments. But, Acer does sound light years ahead of the others.

Thanks,

Chris martin




Sorry, but your friend is wrong.

Nothing at all special about Acer computers
and no matter how good it is, it will surely become obsolete some day,
just like everything else.

Additionally, assuming you are now using XP...
there is no good reason to upgrade to Vista...
they still don't have all the bugs out of it...
and I'm not sure they ever will.

Just my two cents worth if there is nothing wrong with your pc wait until
windows 7 comes out. From what i have seen it runs well and fast and you
can run it on 512 of ram. The rc version is out and can be downloaded from
windows for free this rc version will cease to work from June 1st 2010.

darklight wrote:
philo wrote:

Chris wrote:
Hello Folks,

'I am in the market for a new system. My Whole life I've only used
HP, Compaq, and IBM systems. Howeve, now I'd like to go with Acer.
One of my friends who is a computer sales person said Acer is second
to none in reliability, quality, and price. He swears that once I buy
an Acer, it will be the last computer I will ever need to buy.

So, I was pretty sold on that. I want to get an Acer. But, who sells
them and who sells them cheap?

I'm looking for a 3 GHZ system, with 2 GB of ram, a 250 GB Hard drive,
and a DVD burner. I play games and my wife wants to use the system
for desktop publishing and image editing work. So, I think I will
need the 2 GB of RAM. The operating system should also be a Vista. I
am using XP now, but my friend also told me I am in the dark ages and
need to upgrade to Vista immediately. So, I will take his advise and
do that too.

So, any advise. would also be appreciated. Also, if any of you have
any other brands I should consider besides Acer, I'm open to your
comments. But, Acer does sound light years ahead of the others.

Thanks,

Chris martin



Sorry, but your friend is wrong.

Nothing at all special about Acer computers
and no matter how good it is, it will surely become obsolete some day,
just like everything else.

Additionally, assuming you are now using XP...
there is no good reason to upgrade to Vista...
they still don't have all the bugs out of it...
and I'm not sure they ever will.

Just my two cents worth if there is nothing wrong with your pc wait until
windows 7 comes out. From what i have seen it runs well and fast and you
can run it on 512 of ram. The rc version is out and can be downloaded from
windows for free this rc version will cease to work from June 1st 2010.






Though hopefully Win7 will work better than Vista,
it will still require quite a bit of RAM.

per MS, 512megs will be the minimum for Home Basic...but I suspect it
will need a lot more to run well.
Of course RAM is no longer expensive, so that should not be a factor in
deciding

On Wed, 27 May 2009 09:04:59 +0100, darklight
wrote:


Just my two cents worth if there is nothing wrong with your pc wait until
windows 7 comes out. From what i have seen it runs well and fast and you
can run it on 512 of ram. The rc version is out and can be downloaded from
windows for free this rc version will cease to work from June 1st 2010.


Windows 7 may arguably end up better than Vista, but there
is also something to be said for geting a more mature OS
with a service pack or two released for it already. This
could be particularly true with an OEM system with which the
buyer depends on infrequent OEM driver releases or original
factor images based on fewer known problems.

darklight wrote:
philo wrote:

.... snip ...

Additionally, assuming you are now using XP. there is no good
reason to upgrade to Vista. they still don't have all the bugs
out of it. and I'm not sure they ever will.

Just my two cents worth if there is nothing wrong with your pc
wait until windows 7 comes out. From what i have seen it runs
well and fast and you can run it on 512 of ram. The rc version
is out and can be downloaded from windows for free this rc
version will cease to work from June 1st 2010.

The wrong 2 cents. Ignore MS, install Linux. Much cheaper. One
suggestion - order a free installation CD from www.ubuntu.com

--
[mail]: Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
[page]: http://cbfalconer.home.att.net
Try the download section.

"Chris" wrote in message
...
Hello Folks,

'I am in the market for a new system. My Whole life I've only used
HP, Compaq, and IBM systems. Howeve, now I'd like to go with Acer.
One of my friends who is a computer sales person said Acer is second
to none in reliability, quality, and price. He swears that once I buy
an Acer, it will be the last computer I will ever need to buy.

If that were true there would be a lot of people still using IBM PC's.
Work on a realistic life time of 4-5 years if in business, 5-6 years for non
demanding home use and budget accordingly.
They are a machine, they wear out and better ones will come out.


So, I was pretty sold on that. I want to get an Acer. But, who sells
them and who sells them cheap?


Lets get one thing straight sales persons in gerneral are 'not' to be
believed.
Their idea of best and reliable revolves around quickest time to sell with
the biggest margin.
i.e. their back pocket 'not' your best interests.

As for Acer as a brand, nothing special, no better or worse than HP/Compaq,
IBM, Dell or even you local OEM PC shop.
It all comes down to how much you pay and a little bit of luck.
Note a cheap machine is never going to be as reliable as you want nor have
the 'quality' you expect.



I'm looking for a 3 GHZ system, with 2 GB of ram, a 250 GB Hard drive,
and a DVD burner. I play games and my wife wants to use the system
for desktop publishing and image editing work. So, I think I will
need the 2 GB of RAM. The operating system should also be a Vista. I
am using XP now, but my friend also told me I am in the dark ages and
need to upgrade to Vista immediately. So, I will take his advise and
do that too.


As others have said, unless your PC is going to die very soon, now is not
the time to buy a new PC unless it comes with a free upgrade to Windows 7.
Windows 7 will be available retail from 23 October this year and reports
suggest it is going to be a more user friendly OS than Vista.
My own experiance wit Windows 7 RC1 on an old 2500 Barton PC with 1 GB of
RAM tends to agree with that.


So, any advise. would also be appreciated. Also, if any of you have
any other brands I should consider besides Acer, I'm open to your
comments.

Work out what 'you' expect to have in a new PC, write it down then go
shopping.
Be cynical when in big box mover stores, they have a well deserved
reputation for being economical with the truth.


But, Acer does sound light years ahead of the others.

Nope! just another big brand.
That's not to say you won't have a good experience with an Acer, many people
are very happy with their Acer's.
But to say they are light years ahead is pure PR "bulldust"


Thanks,

Chris martin