Fantastic price for this high specc'ed laptop. ONLINE ONLY. Expires 7 am tomorrow (5th November)
Full specs at http://www.acer.co.nz/ac/en/NZ/content/model/NX.MEPSA.010 (I matched using the model number)
Great specs for the price (though I'll never buy another Acer laptop - last one fell apart just after 12 month warranty expired).
You could always try to email supplier and state your ACL rights under s259(3) to get a refund if it is a major failure, (read s260 to see if your circumstances constitute a major failure). They might not be that helpful but if you don't speak up then they won't know there are problems with their products (they might pass it onto the manufacturer if a lot of units of a specific model have problems) are and the feedback loop to improve their products will be non-existent.
with these new laptops is there a spare slot to put in another SSD drive? Or do you have to remove the DVD drive and put in an optibay and stick the ssd in that
Generally you'd want to replace the HDD with an SSD and put the 1TB HDD into a portable hard drive enclosure.
Nah, replace the optical drive (dvd) with a HDD/SSD. Who needs cd/dvds anymore.
Won't the optical drive generally have a slower SATA connection that the main HDD bay, though?
Depending on the laptop, go back as little as 3 years, and most optical drives were still PATA (no, really: http://superuser.com/questions/272560). Would be a complete waste to stick the SSD in the optical drive bay and the HDD in the main hard drive bay.
Good price, but I've had bad experiences with buying Acer for family members.
On the other hand, Lenovo's I've purchased have taken all sorts of abuse and survived until retirement.
How does this compare to the Harvey Norman deal from the other day? https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/166942
This is a 3rd generation chip, versus the 4th gen from that deal. Is there a big difference between the two chip sets? The Harvey Norman deal had a lot of haters so wondering whether this is any better.
I am also interested in whether there is a spare slot for a SSD.
Looks like a pretty good deal. I've had bad experience with Acer before though. Quality wasn't that good and the keys come off and wasn't very strong, but that must have changed to the better over the years I suppose. For this price it's a great deal.
Don't know why people would buy a NUC. Notebooks are cheaper by the time you buy OS, RAM, HDD, ODD, KB, monitor.
…and honestly, how many people don't already have an old laptop that could be used for whatever you'd use a NUC for?
People buy NUC for the smaller size mostly. I believe power consumption is also lower compared to a laptop. Also upgrade options are better compared to a laptop! Laptop is mostly use and throw.
And when NUC is used as a media player, you would just need RAM + SD Card + media remote extra.
@Phoebus - it's a good point, but for a media centre, a nuc is better given the option of vesa mount to the back of the TV. A laptop is harder to hide
Better? Well that is subjective. I need an Ethernet port. Does a NUC have DTS-HD support yet? NUC is therefore no a viable option.
Again subjective a cheap 2nd hand dual core desktop units pop up must cheaper than both on Gumtree. I would sooner buy one of these or Amazon Fire TV.
I have one similar, next gen chip. What people don't understand is that laptops at this price point are not meant to be portable. They all come in cheap flimsy plastic housing, of course they fall apart!
These things are OK with some light travel but apart from that, it's going to be sitting in one spot for most of its life and certainly not making a daily trip to work / uni / beach. If that's not what you need, buy something better.
My viewpoint is a little different to yours. Although I agree that most of the entry level to medium priced laptops are mainly plastic and not built as strong as more expensive business class models, if you put your laptop in a decent bag and are careful with it ( ie not rough ) then you should still get a decent lifespan out of it. A couple of things to keep in mind, always put down laptop gently ( preferably on a cushioned base raiser ), open/close lid carefully ( often with two hands or in middle ), go easy on mousepad and keyboard ( no need to bang ), and avoid excessive pressure on power lead/usb sockets etc.
Even better to put laptop inside a thin sleeve, then in laptop bag. this avoids scratching and better protection all round. I have been moving laptops around from room to room, table to couch, in out car to other places for around 8 years with 4 various laptops with nothing broken. For me accidentally dropping it is my worst fear. Also jerking on power cable/socket and knocking usb keys/inputs seems to risk wear and tear or worse.
The lower entry model Acer laptops for the last year or so have one of the better build casings around.
http://www.dell.com/au/p/inspiron-15-3541-laptop/pd?ref=PD_O…
Inspiron 15 3000 AMD A4-6210 APU Quad-Core with Radeon™ R3 Graphics
$499
Another laptop under $500 (sale ends today. 6th of Nov 2014)
I think this one has better performance.
Maybe the Dell is better in graphics (I don't know) but it's over 11% more expensive for an AMD CPU with benchmarks only 2/3 the performance of the Intel.
Good price for what you get.
There's also this as another option ( Newer, slower CPU but better Videocard and uses less power )
http://shopap.lenovo.com/students/au/en/laptops/lenovo/g-ser…
Lenovo G50 - $479.04