Acer AS5740-5780 15.6" Core i3 Laptop with HDMI $500

Is a good deal?

Yes , it is. For someone didn't get MSI laptop several days before, this is also a good substitute.

The price of electronics are dropping like the globally warmed temperatures. LOL.

damn too good a deal. i've seen lotsa core i3 laptops but none comes this close in price. most of them are $640 upwards.

i got a dell with similar specs (14.1" tho), and even with MS employee discount, it comes to 670 with tax.

intel HD gfx card may be integrated, but it's pretty good (better than radeon 4200 and way better than GMA X4500 HD) because it's right in the processor chip itself. don't expect to play crysis tho.

however, if you want the best bang for buck, and you're willing to pay a little more, go for core i5 (core i7 is slightly better but drains the battery), whose HD gfx also happens to perform the best amongst i3, i5 and i7. fyi turbo boost only exists on i5 and i7, and for most practical purpose gives only slightly better performance, not worth the extra money (i'm saying if you're tight on money go for i3)

also if you think core i's are going to greatly conserve battery, think again. i've seen some benchmarks. about a little more than 2 hours with dvd + wifi. some performed under 2 hours.

dell has a good preconfig laptop with core i3 + awesome class 3 discrete gfx card but only 2gb ram at a cheap price. forgot the model; you can look it up. it's about $624-649 pretax if i remember correctly.

for the ones who like durability, wait for lenovo's t410i and t510i's. i suspect they'll be pretty cheap for a core i laptop.

again, damn, this is one fine and cheap laptop. BUY IT. i've owned an acer. overheats easily but that's because i used to live in hot climate. screen hinge is also a little fragile.

It's very similar to office max deal from last month, which has 320 GB HD instead of 250 GB for the same price. I am typing these using that laptop. Pretty good quality, too. I think this could be slightly cheaper since Gateway at bestbuy for this price is also 320GB hd.

Most of the specs look ok to me except the 128MB dedicated graphic card? unless you don't care about how everything look on your screen this is important. I guess for $500 it's ok...not a good deal.

The rams of the office max model was ddr2
the one at office depot is ddr 3 expandable to 8 gb. Video card is gma hd up to 1754 mb dvmt not just 128 ,I bought it . Display looks really good . 250 gb hard drive is not too bad .

Quick Q, my top concern is the heat dissipation. I don't wanna heat up my lap. Is this a good one in this subject?

I've used it at least 10 hours non-stop and can't feel a little warm. I would say the heat is not a problem on this laptop. Mine is still new though.

how much does it weigh

should buy warranty?

I think it's a good deal. I just got one yesterday. The only bad thing is firefox is not working on it.

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