[buchanan]

i was about to recommend this to a friend who wants a new laptop.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-...4957970&sr=8-1

it seems cheap and nicely specced with 2gb ram and a nice cpu.
he wants to spend £500 max so i thought it would suit him.

scrolling down the page i read some user reviews and saw this user review:


"DO NOT REFORMAT your HD as the previous reviewer suggests. You cannot uninstall the Acer software because Acer notebooks need ePower to run for the fan to be controlled. If you don't have ePower active the notebook will overheat (this fact is confirmed by Acer technical support). This also means that your computer will run slow (ePower is a resource hog) and you have to use Windows Vista plus Acer ePower and there are no versions for Windows XP or Linux/Ubuntu. "


i find it hard to believe that you need this software to keep the laptop running well and i can't recommend him a laptop which he can never reformat (he may well want to put his own xp on there instead of vista so if correct this could be a problem)

does anyone know if this is rubbish and the laptop could be re-installed with windows whenever, or if the user review is right, in which case i will look for another laptop


cheers guys

[serverguy]

I think this is the download link for it.
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=418

So not sure what that other person was on about.

I use XP and the installer started but as I don't have the Acer framework (also downloadable) I couldn't finish the installation so cannot say for definite.

But then I found this and I don't think you have any need to worry.
http://komku.blogspot.com/2007/09/ac...nd-aspire.html

Also, I'm afraid Amazon's not working here so I can't actually see the page so can't comment on the laptop.

[Cew27]

i used to have an acer with epower and i don't think it makes a difference, plus the recovery disks that come with it let you re-install the os without loosing epower

[buchanan]

ok thanks then, i'll tell him to go for it and not worry

[Gazmondo]

The laptop seems good, too, only £419.99 now.

[buchanan]

thats what i thought too gaz,

he called me today and told me he bought this one
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-...5777607&sr=1-2
pretty nice for the money too

[philthomas]

Nice spec for the money.

The larger HDD will give him plenty of space for another partition, if he wants to dual bott with XP

[buchanan]

yeah i wouldn't mind one myself

don't think he'll be doing any dual booting or anything strenuous but i wanted to find the best specced machine possible for his money

[philthomas]

Yep .... I've been thinking of a new Laptop ...... will have to see if they reduce any more for Easter deals.

.... also I meant to say the ePower issue is not an issue. I've got an Acer Aspire 1680, that came with ePower and it's been formatted twice, (without ePower) and it's still going strong.

[Desertfish]

Well it's currently going for £399 on Amazon. Only problem is: It's a Acer...