Buying new Laptop - need advice please

Hi there,

I'd like to buy a new Laptop but I need some advice, if you don't mind.

My budget is around 500-600 euros.

The one I have an eye on is this one:


Acer TravelMate P259-MG-549Q

Price: 549€

Display: 15.6" LED HD 1366x768 pixels Active Matrix TFT Colour LCD

CPU: Intel Core I5-6200U (Dual Core 2.3 GHz 3MB)

RAM: 8GB DDR4 2133MHz (maybe it is expandable to 16GB, not sure)

Storage: 500GB Serial ATA 5400 (which I would replace with an SSD 500GB)

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 940MX 2GB

Operating system: Windows 10 Home (64 bit)


Questions:

1) My major concern is how good is Acer as laptop manufacturer? This would be my first Acer computer if I finally buy it.

2) Regarding performance and gaming, Path of Exile is probably the most demanding game I play. Would this setup be enough to run the game decently?

3) Finally, one thing I hate about laptops is the overheating. Would having a SSD reduce the overheating usually present in laptops?



I appreciate your help in advance.



Last bumped on Aug 21, 2017, 10:19:39 PM
1. In your price range, most laptop brands are much the same, in terms of price/performance, build quality etc.

2. POE will run nicely on that laptop.

3. The SSD instead of an HDD will only make a slight difference to the temperature (but will make a nice difference to the performance of POE). The CPU and GPU are where all the heat (and overheating) come from. Buy an air duster (can of compressed air), and use occasionally in the laptop's vents (to reduce build up of dust in the fan and heatsink fins). Also, use the laptop on a hard surface, to ensure the rubber feet keep it raised (to improve airflow). If you have to use it on your lap, put it on a breakfast tray.
Favourite armour? Hmmm, I forget it's name, but it's that scarlet one that whatsherface wears when she wants to look splendid.

I like Marmite.
Last edited by TúrinTurambar on Jul 23, 2017, 7:30:46 AM
i have the same configoration only its laptop from asus( https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-K501UQ.184756.0.html ) not acer, it handles the game very well.
Personaly i don't have a ssd only normal hdd and it works just fine !
Last edited by zmajmkd on Jul 23, 2017, 8:36:58 AM
with 3.0 update coming with the performance improvement

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1916033

safe to say that laptop capable of running poe much smoother.

But in my opinion, i would recommend try look for laptop with at least 4 core 4 thread with gtx 950m above, more expensive but future proof, easier to play any future game.
Looks fine to me. A change to SSD is a great idea for performance, but not so much for heat.

Whatever you do end up buying, I always recommend that the first action be to perform a clean reinstall of Windows without all the 3rd-party crap that typically comes pre-installed on laptops. They've been known to bog down otherwise decent hardware, cause strange system bugs, and are generally useless. Fortunately, if you're swapping drives you'll likely be doing this anyway. (And to be clear, I don't mean running the standard recovery option that some laptops come with which will install all of their crap alongside Windows again.)
Regarding SSD, I recently got a new laptop without reading the fine print, only to find out that the ssd is sata. I found it out because it was noticeably slower than nvme ssd's I've used. Keep in mind that if you're swapping out a HDD for SSD, it will be sata and not on par with nvme or nvme m.2 ssd's you may have tried.

Thanks to everyone who commented on this thread and helped me decide.

Finally, I bought the following laptop:


Acer Aspire E5-575G-56X9

Price: 600€

Display: 15.6" LED backlight 1366 x 768 / HD

CPU: Intel Core I5-7200U / Dual Core 2.5 GHz (3.1 GHz) / 3MB cache)

RAM: 8GB DDR4 2133MHz (expandable up to 32GB)

Storage: 256 GB - M.2 2280 SSD

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 940MX 2GB

Operating system: Windows 10 Home (64 bit)



This is the best laptop I could afford. I hope my new adventure with Acer computers goes well.

Thanks again for the help.

Next time try pc bazaar

gl
surprised no one has said this yet but if your laptop is just for home use then DO NOT buy a laptop especially if its for use for gaming, laptops tend to fall apart after a few years, performance usually deteriorates due to the cpu overheating, getting dusty and just generally being weaker as a laptop cpu vs a tower pc, with a tower pc there are so many more benefits like being able to upgrade your motherboard, cpu, screen mouse keyboard, ram ect ect. if you are dead set on getting a laptop im going to assume you need it for taking away on trips ect then you will generally pay a premium of 200% more for the same spec and quality vs a tower pc but like i said once you by a laptop you are stuck with it no upgrades no easy fixes they usually cost more to fix also. sorry to be the bringer of bad news and ill properly get flamed. not sure if links are allowed on here but iv had a acer laptop before albeit it was a lower end model and it started to really fail and the keys paint ect started to fade after a few years and started to slow down even after wiping ect.

you can try looking at a place like pcspecialist for a "gaming laptop" i believe they use generic laptop shells but install what ever you choose as components to put into the laptop i heard they outlast the mainstream laptops you buy from mainstream secondary retailers.

good luck with whatever you choose anyway id be sad to hear in a few years you felt you wasted your money, i really urge you to think about going down the tower pc route still. :) you can even swap and change gfx cards as the years go by. although there are new external gfx cards coming into play these days for laptops but they require thunderbolt connections and thats kind of a premium for laptop and again the gfx cards in external bays are not the cheapest.
These are close to your budget, you can compare the specs

https://pc4u.org/best-laptop-under-500-dollars/

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