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A "what do you think of these specs?" thread

    • 316 posts
    February 19, 2017 4:03 PM PST

    Edit: This thread can be about anyone's specs questions, feel free.

    Hey all,

    I'm getting a budget laptop, and have found a couple. The first seems to be a great deal:

    $580 Acer Aspire E 15

    • Intel® Core™ i5-7200U processor 2.50 GHz
    • 15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080)
    • Nvidia® GeForce® GTX 950M with 2 GB Dedicated Memory
    • 8 GB, DDR4 SDRAM
    • 1 TB HDD + 256 GB SATA SSD

       Pretty sure I can immediately put another 8gb of RAM into the second memory slot. The second choice:

    $800 Dell 15.6" Gaming Laptop

    • Intel i5-6300HQ 2.3 GHz Quad-Core (6M Cache, Turbo up to 3.2 GHz)
    • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5
    • SSD: Sandisk z400s m.2 2280 256 gb
    • 16gb RAM

       I can install another SSD or an HDD into this one.

     

    The real question: do you guys think the Acer will play Pantheon well enough? I know it's too early to say definitively, but judging from your gut? I know the Dell would be a bit better, but it doesn't seem better enough to justify an extra $200.

    I'm primarily looking for a work computer, but I'd like to be able to play Pantheon without worry at mid+ settings. Do you guys think it'd be important to get the Dell? Or perhaps a better option I haven't considered? $800 is pushing it.

    Thanks!

    Also, anyone else feel free to post your spec questions, if you'd like. This thread doesn't need to be only about my question.


    This post was edited by Alexander at February 19, 2017 4:08 PM PST
    • 422 posts
    February 20, 2017 7:07 AM PST

    Alexander said:

    Edit: This thread can be about anyone's specs questions, feel free.

    Hey all,

    I'm getting a budget laptop, and have found a couple. The first seems to be a great deal:

    $580 Acer Aspire E 15

    • Intel® Core™ i5-7200U processor 2.50 GHz
    • 15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080)
    • Nvidia® GeForce® GTX 950M with 2 GB Dedicated Memory
    • 8 GB, DDR4 SDRAM
    • 1 TB HDD + 256 GB SATA SSD

       Pretty sure I can immediately put another 8gb of RAM into the second memory slot. The second choice:

    $800 Dell 15.6" Gaming Laptop

    • Intel i5-6300HQ 2.3 GHz Quad-Core (6M Cache, Turbo up to 3.2 GHz)
    • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5
    • SSD: Sandisk z400s m.2 2280 256 gb
    • 16gb RAM

       I can install another SSD or an HDD into this one.

     

    The real question: do you guys think the Acer will play Pantheon well enough? I know it's too early to say definitively, but judging from your gut? I know the Dell would be a bit better, but it doesn't seem better enough to justify an extra $200.

    I'm primarily looking for a work computer, but I'd like to be able to play Pantheon without worry at mid+ settings. Do you guys think it'd be important to get the Dell? Or perhaps a better option I haven't considered? $800 is pushing it.

    Thanks!

    Also, anyone else feel free to post your spec questions, if you'd like. This thread doesn't need to be only about my question.

    The Acer will most likely be able to play Pantheon on medium settings at least. One thing to watch out for, you assume that the memory is one dimm and one free dimm. Unless it says this flat out (which you don't mention if it does) it could be that the mobo only has a single dimm slot, or that the machine has two 4gb dimms. You may not be able to increase the memory at all, or at the least might have to buy a full 16gb set of memry (8gb dimmx2). 8gb of memory would be PLENTY to play any game. The things that will slow down performance are going to be GPU clocks and system memory clocks. The processor in both are very much ok for any game. I'd say the extra 200 might be better spent trying to upgrade the SSD to a larger size, or replacing the platter drive with another SSD and spanning the two SSDs. That is, if you plan on having more than just Pantheon installed.

    All in all, the Acer would be a fine machine.

    • 38 posts
    February 20, 2017 10:17 AM PST

    I've never been much of a fan of gaming laptops, but I think now they are much more viable because of the better pricing on i7s and the new Pascal cards. I actually just built a custom laptop through cyberpower. They have really good deals if you keep an eye on the site.

     

    I built the following for around 1300 during one of their specials and I can say I've been very please with their laptop performance: (their 1060 version was around $1099 and 1050 version around $800)

     

    17" Full HD- 1920x1080

    i7-7000HQ 2.8 GHz (6MB cache, turbo 3.8 GHZ)

    16GB DDR4/2133 MHz

    GTX 1070 6GB

    1 TB SSD

     

    In my opinion you can find some good specials and deals around for a build with a 1050 or 1060 your laptop will be good to go for most everything (you can find 1050Ti for the same prices as 960s but you get a 20% performance increase...), especially with a slight over clock on your processor. I'd definitely check the reviews for their cooling pathways though, wouldn't want the thing overheating within an hour of play. 

     


    This post was edited by Witter at February 20, 2017 10:21 AM PST
    • 38 posts
    February 20, 2017 12:04 PM PST

    As for the memory 8 gigs should be enough to play Pantheon. I haven't played a game yet that caused my usage to go over 6 gigs of ram if thats all you are using it for. Personally I don't overclock as it is harder on your pc parts. I would compare it to putting rocket fuel in a Escort GT lol..

    If you are considering the 800 dollar one I highly recommend building your own desktop and hookiing it to your tv. Don't listen to the haters a TV will work fine I used a 32" for years... Tv's are 60 hertz as well. You can get much more performance from 800 on a self builit desktop over a laptop. Don't forget the worst part on your pc is the bottleneck and the last place you want it is on your video card, ram, or mobo..

    If you want real help building a pc or gettiing the best bang for yuor buck you should hit up the reddit forums for computer building some of the repliies you get back will get you some great deals.. I Iwould consiider this method even if you want a laptop.  

    I think the Acer will perform poorly if at all.

     

    I hope this helps.

     


    This post was edited by Bardee at February 20, 2017 12:09 PM PST
    • 595 posts
    March 1, 2017 9:41 AM PST

    This might give you a bit more to chew on.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Bi_iT1zzQ&list=WL&index