Arch Linux

milomouse

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Registered: 2009-03-24

Posts: 940

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Acer AS7552G-6061 or Asus N43JF-A1. Advice before purchase.

I've been searching for months, at least a few hours every day until I've narrowed it down to these two laptops and have come to a standstill. Not sure if this is the right place to ask but I thought it would be worth a try since I'll be installing Arch Linux on it anyway.

The contenders are: Acer AS7552G-6061 ( Newegg / Amazon ) & Asus N43JF-A1 ( Newegg / Amazon )

-> The Acer ($749) has AMD Phenom II Quad-Core N950 (2.1GHz) with AMD Vision Ultimate, ATI Radeon HD 5650, 500GB 5400, HDMI, Acer 3Dsonic sound, 1600 x 900.
-> The Asus ($999)  has Intel Core i5 460M Dual-Core (2.53GHz) (but no AES instructions ), nVidia GeForce GT 425M, 500GB 7200, USB 3.0, eSata, HDMI, Bang & Olufsen ICEPower audio, 1366 x 768.

I understand about the hybrid graphics but that doesn't concern me too much since I don't play computer games but I do watch a lot of video and want to record my television shows to the hard drive. So, I really like the AMD Quad-Core processor (at 2.1GHz, wow) and a large screen (1600x900) with AMD Vision Ultimate (good for recording live tv and outputting to HD television, especially high-def picture-in-picture, but I'm pretty sure GeForce GT 425M does this too), but I'm also drawn towards the Asus because of Bang & Olufsen sound system, USB 3.0 + eSata, and also because I've had good experiences with nVidia in the past.

As a note, I mostly use my laptop to rip larges amounts of video for my personal collection (for travel purposes, etc). and listening to a large music collection which are mostly FLAC, AIFF/AIFC or raw samples which is why I like the idea of the ICEPower audio. Anyway, they both have their upsides but I'm just wondering anyone elses opinion on the matter as I'm torn between the two. Even input on processor vs processor (though I believe they attempt different methods. pure cores vs threads?), or graphics vs graphics as far as video and television/dvd ripping. I don't mind the price difference and I'm pretty set on either one of the two (not other laptops unless they're really similar, in which case I've probably already scoped them out). I feel like I've done exhaustive research on each of them but they still have their pros and cons so it's kinda up in the air for me to just pick one, so here's where I ask your advice.

Thanks for reading. :} (if this is the wrong forum area, please relocate)