Basic laptop, hence Vista Basic

For those who are not sure about Acer quality,
I have a Acer desktop built in 1990 that still works today, haven't had to replace any hardware, this Acer machine was obviously well engineered and made for the long haul. I've owned it since 1998.

That was partly the reason that, when I wanted a laptop 3 years ago, I bought an Acer laptop. It works just fine as expected. It might run for 20 years also. ( With desktop machines I build my own, but I'd buy and recommend an Acer desktop to anyone ).
But I paid $836.00 for my $1200.00 retail laptop. Dual core AMD, 4GB DDR2 Ram, and a 768MB nVidia graphics card pushing a high res 17" widescreen. So there is a price comparison for those expecting a dual core 4GB laptop that can play games.

I've been happy with Acer products, at least before they bought Gateway/eMachines. Acer has always been a Great Value for the price. Although I can't vouch for them since they purchased Gateway/eMachines, they've always before been a great deal for me.

As noted in this thread, if you're looking for a dual or quad core portable gaming machine with 3.4GHz, 8GB DDR3Ram, 250GB HD, 1GB Video card, then you are looking in the wrong thread and at the wrong price point.

This basic 1.6 MHz machine is just made for checking email / tweeting and web surfing from the airport/McDonalds hotspots, or from your bed, at a very low price point. It doesn't need a dual core CPU for that. FW'ers, of all people, should not be surprised about this machine not being a gaming rig at this price.. especially for a laptop.

It could be that, after these basic single core configurations sell out, we might not even see it being sold anywhere anymore. This configuration is being squeezed out between the Netbooks, and the dual core laptops with 4GB ram and dedicated graphics cards. ( I believe that Windows 7 requires a dedicated video card as a basic system requirement ).
It could be that, before long, basic entry level laptops might just be dual core /4GB machines, but with a starting price of $350.00.

One more thing - about the free Win7 upgrades. Upgrades have never been as good as full fresh installs. IT Pros always recommend a full fresh install of a new operating system over an upgrade. Problems arise when we try to change one thing into another. Maybe you are willing to deal with that major difference because the "upgrade" will be free.
I myself prefer a solid, reliable system without issues.
Not to mention that, if you keep your computer for any length of time, you know you'll have to be re-installing the operating system every 2 to 4 years on average, due to corrupted files, hard drive issues, etc.
If you're going the upgrade path, you'll be re-installing 2 operating systems every 2 to 4 years ( the original OS, then the upgrade OS... then your programs, pictures, etc ).
So I'll pay the $120.00 for the full Win7 software when the time comes.

Just my dozens cents on this deal.

All in all, a full laptop from a builder that has earned my respect for less than $300 is a good deal, as long as you don't expect it to be a super powerhouse and you just use it for it's intended use... light-weight and reliable mobile connectivity.
It'd make for a great inexpensive laptop for kids going off to college.

This deal is region specific. Can't find it in the DC area Staples ad for next week.

StingyMan said:This deal is region specific. Can't find it in the DC area Staples ad for next week. neither in phx or philly.

Bruceslog said:One more thing - about the free Win7 upgrades. Upgrades have never been as good as full fresh installs. IT Pros always recommend a full fresh install of a new operating system over an upgrade. Problems arise when we try to change one thing into another. Maybe you are willing to deal with that major difference because the "upgrade" will be free.
I myself prefer a solid, reliable system without issues.
Not to mention that, if you keep your computer for any length of time, you know you'll have to be re-installing the operating system every 2 to 4 years on average, due to corrupted files, hard drive issues, etc.
If you're going the upgrade path, you'll be re-installing 2 operating systems every 2 to 4 years ( the original OS, then the upgrade OS... then your programs, pictures, etc ).

Couldn't agree more!!!!! There's absolutely nothing better than a PC with a freshly-installed Windows operating system on a clean hard drive. You've got a far better chance of a perfectly-running machine, and in my experience it actually takes LESS time to backup files, wipe a drive, and reinstall an OS than to do a "dirty" upgrade and let the machine grind away for hours trying to sort out where stuff from the old OS needs to go on the new OS. ALSO, you get to shed all the programs and crapware you downloaded and installed and used once or twice, and you're more assured of a virus-free and spyware-free PC.

Frankly, I think the ability to go through the exercise of cleaning a drive (by either reformatting or securely wiping) and reinstalling an OS is a greatly under-appreciated skill. This is yet another reason to have a second HD in any computer that you use regularly -- if you have one installed (presumably for the backups you're making regularly like a good computer user should) then it's truly simple to do a wipe or reformat and then perform an OS upgrade on your main drive.

P.S. If you want to go the reformat route, your PC can do that on its own. If you want to wipe a drive, there are plenty of free drive wiping utilities out there for download.

All So Oregon Stores have it, I guess they think we are the poor people.

not available in San Jose, CA either

Yuyak said:I'm confused. I thought this doesn't start until Sunday and as far as I can see they haven't posted next weeks circular yet. How is it that everyone's reporting availability?

EDIT: Nevermind. Sorry, I didn't know about the "sneak peak" thing.

Check the SNEAK PEAK on the respective store's Staple's web site. You might have to look at a few store as the local store doesn't have it but both stores 35 east and west do...

I dunno. The tf-20 processor is a single core processor.

My 2 local stores have the Acers, but no sales till Sunday. Boo Hoooooo