Acer Aspire 8930 gaming laptop eyes-on
By Darren Murph 
posted Mar 5th 2009 8:28PM
posted Mar 5th 2009 8:28PM
posted Mar 5th 2009 8:28PM
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Wow, why acer is making so many laptops? cool! :D
It seems as if Engadget has seen there first 18 inch Laptop. But yea, it might be too big.
I fully expect something that big to be packing dual displays.
Personally as long as the laptop will sit on of those trays onj a plane it is fine by me.
Regardless of your Mac/PC bias, I think it is time that all laptops/netbooks that include an optical drive make it slot loading. The silly flimsy tray that there is never room for in cramped areas is just dumb now. I could care less about it for aesthetic reasons, just practicality. Imagine if your car cd player required you to eject a tiny flimsy tray and then snap in a disc on a little spindle... seriously just switch over already.
i concur 100%. im always afraid of breaking the little tray.
Have you used a slot loading drive? You must still have room to slide the disc in, and you can't exactly do it at an extreme angle. In fact, chances are you can slide a disc onto a tray easier than into a slot loading drive simply because of the dip inherent in a tray. Additional down sides are that slot loading drives tend to be louder as well nor can they fit any smaller discs. None of this really matters, but besides looks a slot load drive is really inferior in every way. But looks go a very long way on something that is used increasingly less and less. My M1330 has a slot loading drive and I think it looks great and since I use the drive about once a month it's downsides don't matter really, but your argument was just full of wrong.
Bear in mind, that slot loaders will drive up the cost.
Besides, the slot loading drive wouldn't be any better in cramped areas, than the tray.
You would still need to make room to insert the CD perfectly horizontal.
Just saying....
I'd take a slot loading drive too over a tray any day.
Also, slot loading drives (except for the Wii) hate mini CDs. You wouldn't want to stick one of those in there. They're not as easy to replace either.
*facepalm* geez, this is why the crappy tray has endured. "but, but, what about my precious mini-CDs" and "but, but, the CD has to go in straight." Seriously? I can count on one hand how many mini-CDs I have owned and none of them are important. As for the angle guy... it's a freaking laptop, you can tilt *it.* I've spent plenty of time on cramped buses and planes with both slot and tray drives, slot-loading is always better. Oy.
If you can tilt the laptop then you can take care of the tray. Both place you at risk of damaging the laptop. The entire point of this is that a slot loading drive is not always needed, especially when it could increase costs. There is a reason you often only find slot loading drives on premium models (Apple, Dell's XPS, etc), they're not the same cost. We're talking about an Acer laptop here, if you're buying it then you are clearly willing to cut some corners. This is one of them. Think logically, please.
By that logic a tray loading SD card bay would be superior to a slot.
I'll keep my slot loading drives, thanks.
B.C. that is stupid. There is no suggestion of such in my comments nor would any logic (which I used) hint at such. First, let's start with the fact that SD cards or any flash memory for that matter is an entirely solid state affair from card to reader. Optical drives on the other hand are entirely mechanical. When you have a slot loading optical drive there is an increased number of parts (that are more expensive) necessary in order to load and spin the disk. A tray for an SD card would simply be a plastic caddy, everything else would remain the same. So from a purely parts perspective they're entirely different. Secondly SD cards are of the same size, optical disks vary, needing different design measures. Thirdly, optical media spins and the nature of a tray with a SPINNING objects means they're quieter, SD cards are once again solid state.
So, in conclusion your comment was entirely worthless and shows once again that the vast majority of Engadget users have little to no idea how the technology they use actually works.
Skrying, I have a slot loading drive in my 3.5yo Acer.
Anyway, slot loading drives are a bag of hurt. They have a higher failure rate. Can't clean the lens, can't remove a stuck cd, can't...
Gah...
smokin hottt
ZOMG! New gaming laptop with no backlit keyboard?! Say it aint so!
// Sarcasm off.
At least they made full use of the extra width by sticking their media controls there (without taking away the numeric keypad. I think its nice since it doesn't offset the keyboard and leaves it mostly centered.
Now that I've seen 18.4 inch, I find 17 inchers a bit lame. Funny how perception affects judgment.
look at that power plug. jeeeeez. overkill much?
Um..im pretty sure thats a lock added on, so no one steals it or drops it.
why does it have a glowing light and is right where a power port could be then?
not to mention the power-cable looking cable
Well if you go to your local computer store, they will probably have this lock on it. The light is coming from the acer itself. My dad has an acer and glows just like that around the power input cord.
Thats the lock port if you look at the additional pictures you will see its a comb lock with 3 or 4 numbers you need to turn and line up to unlock. And on the other side of the laptop you will see the black power cord that comes out of the laptop and goes down into the whole behind the laptop with power cords from the other two laptops behind it.
I already have that laptop lol. Maybe its a Canada thing. Very nice for blue ray movies and the 5.1 "surround" is nice with deep bass via the TUBA in the back. Get lots of comments on the media console too.
what kind of graphics are there in it ?
how much did it cost you, and how's the gaming on it?
9700m GT DDR3 with 512mb VRAM
or
9600m GT DDR3 with 1gb VRAM
And neither would run Far Cry 2 smoothly on ultra-high and AA on... right?
The 9700M GT is much faster. It is a very rare occurrence for memory to hold back a video card... ever. The one exception on the market these days is probably the HD4870 512MB and even then that is very rare and a level of performance nowhere close to possible in current laptop video cards. As a general rule of thumb the memory on a graphics card should be your last area of concern. It has not played any significant role in the performance equation for nearly a decade.
TareX, hard to tell if that is sarcasm or not but, yes that's right.
Then what video card confirguration would play this game smoothly on Ultra High and AA on. Desktop/Laptop... I don't care.
Because seriously if I'm dishing out that amount of cash for a gaming laptop/desktop I'd like to know at least a game from last year runs smoothly on maximum settings.
Any current desktop GPU that costs $150 or more. That gives you the HD4870 512MB and up, you can get faster but that's just insanity. There is a great difference between a desktop graphics card and one inside a laptop.
you guys haven't seen the original HP HDX, have you? It makes this look mid-sized.
I see Rocket Dock!!!
Its not really a gaming laptop considering by enthusiast standards, the same sized Asus W90 instead is with its HD4870X2, of course its cost is higher.
*insert obligatory "But can it play DOOM?" comment here*
*insert obligatory "Will it blend?" comment here*
There, I think I covered it. Ha. Now you can't make them. :D
I have this exact laptop (if you can call it that, more like a suitcase) and it is a piece of junk. Two weeks in the keys stop responding to my key strokes. I send it in, get it back, and three days later the wireless completely dies and the empowering technology button stops working. Should have stuck with Sony, but I saw that price for all those goodies and couldn't help myself.
I have owned this laptop since Dec 08. It hasn't missed a beat, and is a great laptop at a great price compared to similar 18 inch laptops from HP, Toshiba, or Sony. I use it as a Blu-ray multimedia centre hooked up to my Sony Bravia Full HD TV.
I'm also having these same probs, I've had to re-install the wireless adapter about 5 times in a month so far, and the keyboard doesn't respond so well.
Acer Aspire 8930 or HP HDX 18, which has similar specifications and price. Which one would you buy?
From what I've heard and researched, the HP HDX 18 has better components (or better choices, anyway):
- More configuration choices overall in the HP
- HP offers three choices for quad processor - two with 12MB of L2 cache (rather than only one choice in the Acer, which has the bottom of the line quad in Intel's lineup - the Q9000 with only 6MB of L2 cache)
- The HP offers up to 7200rpm HDDs; the Acer offers only a 5400rpm HDD (it had been advertised as 7200rpm, but it's only 5400rpm)
- You have many software, theft protection, and warranty choices with the HP; not with the Acer
- You have the option of a Blu-ray burner with the HP; not with the Acer (Blu-ray BD-ROM only)
- You have an integrated HD TV tuner option with the HP; not with the Acer
- With that said, the Acer offers a newer model graphics card than what's in the HP HDX 18... HP really needs to upgrade the video card (hopefully to the new NVidia GeForce 280M GT. Eventually HP will, but who knows when?)
Does this mean that the Acer isn't a good machine? No, I don't think so. You're getting a lot with the Acer, but reviews are mixed. Some love it, some think it's sluggish (undoubtedly because of the lower end quad and slower HDD). HP offers the Q9000 quad, too, but for $50 more, you can upgrade to the better performing Q9100 (which isn't just a higher clock speed, but offers double the L2 cache).
The HP is going to cost more, but it has more choices, faster components, better support and warranty service, and I believe HP's build quality is better overall. Beyond this, you'd have to see for yourself and decide what's most important to you and whether you're willing to compromise in some areas. I've looked at both these machines, too, and have decided to buy the HDX, but not until they upgrade their graphics card... and yes, I could be waiting for that for a bit, but with all the new mobile graphics cards being released, I believe (and hope) that HP will offer an upgrade within the next couple of months.
Hope this helps.
no specs
When i first saw the photos i thought that thing on the side of the display was a tiny icon screen for games that maybe would show ammo count or something then i noticed it was just a part of there features information.
It would have been cool to have a little fold out strip display where you could keep track of stuff.
Cassini, my 8930 came with a HDTV tuner. Your comparison with the HP is otherwise good. However, I think the 8930 is definitely better value than the HP considering that the HP costs a lot more than the Acer 8930 for similar specs.
Oh it did? Internal? The one on the HP is integrated, but I'm unsure about the Acer.
The HP is more expensive, you're right, and I pointed that out, but that's due to some of the things I mentioned above. HP finally did upgrade the video card (although not to the 280M like I had hoped... but we'll see). They also added an option for a backlit keyboard (which I believe every manufacturer should offer standard).
How's the Acer working out for you? Looks like a nice system.