Ferrari 3200 vs Vaio A170

[cloud9respect]

Which of the two configs are better for someone who will use a laptop for programming, some 3d games (like tron), and web browsing. The laptop will sit on my lap most of the time.

Stock Acer Ferrari 3200 or

Bottom of the line Sony VAIO A170 (256MB, 40GB, 17" awesome display, 64MB Radeon 9700)

My work will front me just $2,000.00 eacvh year to purcahse a computer and I have decided to purchase my first laptop. I am a DBA and know allot about PCs, and not anything about laptops. I also have some questions:

Are either of these laptops socketed? I mean can I upgrade the processors?
How tricky is it to find and install 60GB 7200 rpm drives in either of these?
Has anyone heard of any newer laptops for $2k or less that beat both of these?
Does the A170 battery life REALLY last 3.5hrs?

HELP!!!

Thanks.

-Tim

[Venombite]

From the 2 units you listed, I'd normally say go for the Pentium M unit, but in the case of a 17" model, battery runtimes aren't that great. I've read in the Sony forum that they only get 2-2.5hrs of usage on the Dothan CPU (can't remember which one). With those kind of runtimes, you're better off with an AMD64 CPU. The AMD64 in the Ferrari will probably give you more computing power than the Sony and you also get 128MB of video memory. I've also heard that the low-power versions of the AMD64 will give you approx 3hrs of runtime. Of course you'll get less if you are playing games on it.

-vBulletin-

[AJVETT]

i recommand the Acer ferrari i was going to buy 1, the AMD 64 that is it in has great power behind it and the Low voltage AMD 64 should give u good battery life, as it runs at a low wattage then most AMD 64 mobile processors. i dont know about the A170 from sony judgeing by what u say it could be a centrino, but between the 2 choices i'd pick the acer hands down.

i was using an AMD 64 laptop for a few months it was problem free very stable and Very fast, for what i used it for. Gaming mainly

[AJVETT]

do u think the Fans run a lot less often, Venom on the Low voltage AMD 64? When its plugged in/or on battery?

[Venombite]

Normally when the unit is switched from AC to battery, the CPU clock should lower itself to save power, but it depends on your power management settings. The lower it goes, the less heat it will produce, therefore the fans should run less. With the NX7000 I had, it would do the exact same thing.
If you set the power management to the lowest setting while connected to AC, they it shouldn't run too much. Of course, if you start playing games or do anything that's CPU, GPU or HDD intensive, the fan will kick in more often.

-vBulletin-

[AJVETT]

the thing is on the Zx5000 from HP the Desktop CPU will not throttle down on Battery it just stayed pegged at 3200 Mhz, power modes arent effecting the CPU. This isnt a problem for me since iam plugged in most of the time, and i can get 2 to 3 hours on battery anyway.

[PoKid]

I'd like to know which you choose because I'm wrestling with getting the Ferrari myself. However for the 2k you're spending I think I'd rather have some more processing power. Especially since the HD is so slow. Does anyone else have any say on this?

Also... no one answered your question about how hard it is to replace the HD on this unit.

for 2k does anyone else have any recommendations. I'm in that same budget range and trying to get something in that neighborhood.

Only thing I like alot about the ferrari is the weight. Compared to other desktop replacements I think this one is a little lighter.

As to the question about the speed of the processor.
Athlon 2800+ is about 2 ghz right?
Pentium M 2.0ghz 755 chip is actually faster than 2 ghz when you compare it to other chips. Because of the new way intel made the Dothan chips. I've been doing alot of reading and supposedly you get about 18% to 20% increases in speed on the ghz. So it should run at about 2.4 ghz.
Anyone with real world exp on this?
Anandtech did some review on this against some athlon 3200+ and 3.2ghz p4 and it actually did really well.

quote:

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Originally posted by cloud9respect
[br]Which of the two configs are better for someone who will use a laptop for programming, some 3d games (like tron), and web browsing. The laptop will sit on my lap most of the time.

Stock Acer Ferrari 3200 or

Bottom of the line Sony VAIO A170 (256MB, 40GB, 17" awesome display, 64MB Radeon 9700)

My work will front me just $2,000.00 eacvh year to purcahse a computer and I have decided to purchase my first laptop. I am a DBA and know allot about PCs, and not anything about laptops. I also have some questions:

Are either of these laptops socketed? I mean can I upgrade the processors?
How tricky is it to find and install 60GB 7200 rpm drives in either of these?
Has anyone heard of any newer laptops for $2k or less that beat both of these?
Does the A170 battery life REALLY last 3.5hrs?

HELP!!!

Thanks.

-Tim

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[AJVETT]

if it were me i would change out the HD, for a Hitachi 7200 rpm Drive, and maybe a gig of ram.