San Jose (CA) – Acer has set its focus on Dell and Hewlett-Packard in 2009: Already the third-largest PC manufacturer in the world, the company reportedly wants to surpass Dell – and pricing appears to be main strategy to attract buyers.

Calling an $1800 notebook a bargain is a stretch by any measure. But put Acer’s new Aspire 8930G-7665  next to its very few rivals and it is clear that it is in a class of its own. The Aspire is Acer’s new flagship model and competes in a niche of 18.4” devices with a quad-core processor. The only other notebook that can be purchased in a similar configuration from a large manufacturer at this time is HP’s HDX18t, which is significantly more expensive.

For $1800, the Acer system includes an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000 CPU (which is clocked at 2.0 GHz by default, but runs at 2.53 GHz in this notebook, according to Acer), 4 GB memory, Nvidia’s 9700 GT graphics chip, a 500 GB hard drive, a Blu-ray disc drive and Windows Vista 64-bit. HP’s 18-incher (with a 2.53 GHz QX9300 CPU) will cost about $2550 in a comparable configuration, Dell does not offer a quad-core processor with its 17” XPS series and the company’s performance unit Alienware offers a 17” model with a 2.53 GHz CPU and hardware similar to the Acer for at least $3550. However, Alienware offers more configuration options, including SSDs and dual-graphics, if you are willing to spend more than $4000 on a portable computer.

It is interesting to note that Alienware charges $1200 alone on the upgrade from a dual-core P8400 to the QX9300 processor, while HP takes $950 for the same switch. Intel charges a tray price of $1038 for the processor. The CPU specifications provided by Acer (12 MB L2 cache, 1066 MHz FSB) indicate that the Aspire 8930G-7665 uses the QX9300 CPU as well – which makes the notebook an interesting value, given the enormous cost of the processor. In comparison, a standard Q9000 CPU is priced at a tray price of just $348.     

Love Acer!

Dec 29, 2008 15:04     

Acer, Asus, and Tashiba make the best computer on the planet! I am so excited about Acer's new powerful laptop for my graphic design and video editing. I bought my first Acer laptop last year and love it! It is so reliable and I can leave it on 24 to 48 hours straight and it never has any problem with heating, which is extremely rare. Great for my P2p file sharing on line. :-). I will never buy Dell and HP computers for the rest of my life. They are total suck. Great article and thanks for bring this to my attention. Keep up the great work! Have a great New Year holidays. Tom

Khmu report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

Other laptops?

Dec 29, 2008 15:42     

Why no mention of the cheaper Asus G50VT-X2? ($1350) It's got great gaming graphics (nVidia 9800GS), 4GB RAM, 320GB HD (7200rpm) and the Intel Core2Duo P8600 (2.4GHz)... so what if the screen is 15.4", it works just fine and the hard drive is plenty (who needs 500GB unless you're storing your entire dvd collection on your computer?)
Mark report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

some respect for Acer but hp

Dec 29, 2008 18:05     

I know that acer is possibly most reliable laptop in the market but currently am using an hp laptop for some dc projects and it is pretty tough too. running wu's for days non stop in one core and hp laptop is still alive and running. :)
Frank report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

this is the problem with Acer...

Dec 29, 2008 23:16     

they undercut the price of all their products to seem attractive to buyers but their quality is crap. They constantly break. I'd personally spend the extra money and buy the HP and know I will not only get a better product, but better quality and service than with Acer.
cabose369 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

So...

Dec 30, 2008 01:32     

I still hardly see any need for a quad-core in a desktop, let alone a laptop. Even if you did have some need for a quad-core, on a laptop you'd probably get a whopping 1.5 hours of battery life? Sure you get more overall horsepower but when it comes to per-core speeds, quads are a joke (not to mention most apps don't even support multiple cores). And agreed, Acer makes really flimsy and cheap laptops.

Anonymous report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

HP Pavilion dv2000/dv6000/dv9000 and Compaq Presario v3000/v6000 Series Notebook PCs - HP Limited Warranty Service Enhancement

Dec 30, 2008 04:25     

check out this url, http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr...77&dlc=en and find a similar Acer url.? or anyone wanna try to say Acer hide the truth? To be frank, my sister own 1 of the HP notebook which "does not detect wireless networks and the wireless adapter is not detected in the Device Manager". Some people say that's due to nvidia's lead bump issue which i do agree. Hopefully, the same problem won't come back as they supposed to use better materials upon fixing the lead bump.

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@Frank

Dec 30, 2008 13:18     

I'm running BOINC in a Lenovo Thinkpad almost 24x7 and no problems so far (knock on wood). What I do to keep temperatures low (and possibly not hurt the laptop so much) is set in preferences to use 2 cores, but only 50% of CPU time. This way I do the same amount of work as 1 core and 100% CPU time, but way cooler. Also SpeedStep is enabled, so during the idle seconds the CPU clock drops to half its Hz.

Alejandro report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

e-commerce is getting more and more popular. this c...

Jan 28, 2009 03:12     

e-commerce is getting more and more popular. this creates the need of having good tools to help shoppers make right decisions while buying online. reizit.com is a place where shoppers can recommend or bury a product, share experience and discuss shopping deals.
Rose report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0