Looking at new Acer laptop, have questions about Turion x2 and Nvidia 8400M G Turbocache

Hey hey hey.

I've had my Acer 1652z for almost two years now and its getting a little bit long in the tooth so I'm thinking that it might be time to jump on the dual-core/vista band wagon. Anyway I'm not fully up-to-date these days on PC hardware and performance so I might need a bit of help from those in the know about what I can expect from all these new fangled components.

At the moment these are the specs of the laptop I am using;

Current Laptop
Pentium M 735 (1.7ghz)
2GB DDR2
ATI X1300 (64mb, up to 512mb Hypermemory)
100GB HDD (4200RPM)

Now I've seen an Acer Gemstone 5520G on offer in the UK which I think looks like a very good deal. The specs are;

Possible Future Laptop
Turion X2 TL-58 (1.9ghz)
2GB DDR2
Nvidia 8400m g (128mb, up to 896 Turbo Cache)
250gb HDD (5400RPM)

Now I know that clock for clock an Intel Core Duo will urinate all over a Turion x2, but would I be correct in guessing that I would definitely see a jump in performance from my PM 1.7ghz? Also how do the 65nm Turion X2s perform with regards to heat output and battery life? My Pentium M tends to stay around 50-55c when I'm just going about my normal useage (WMP, Firefox, uTorrent etc), would a Turion x2 run cooler than that?

As for the Nvidia 8400m g, I've looked at a few benchmark/game tests and it looks like I'd see a noticeable difference in performance coming from my X1300, so I'm happy with that. I was just wondering if it was possible to turn off the TurboCache memory. If not it isn't a deal breaker since its not like I'm going to have 700MB instantly grabbed by the GPU on startup, but it would be nice to know. Also if anyone has some personal feedback they can offer on the GPU then that would be just great, perhaps what games/resolutions/detail levels you play at. I do most of my gaming on my Xbox 360 now so I won't be looking to play graphically intensive games on my PC, just the occasional blast on some RTS/Economic management type game.

And if anyone has experience with these new Acer Gemstone laptops then that would be great. I've read around the forums and seen pictures from various people, I think they look pretty swish, and I understand they have pretty decent speakers (for a laptop anyway) which is a definite bonus since after work I usually do my marking listening to some tunes on my laptop, better speakers would definitely be welcome!

Anyway, I've probably written too much, but I would appreciate any help from you guys or dolls

 

The Turion 64 x2 will definitely provide a performance boost over the Pentium M, although heat and battery life should remain relatively similar as they are not as power-efficient as the Core 2 processors.

Turbocache memory only works as you need it, so it's not going to be taking that memory away unless there's actually a use for it during gaming or another GPU-intensive task. The 8400M G is going to struggle with the newest games, although it's still capable of running even Crysis at lowest settings.

 

The TL-58 will crush the PM you will see improvement especially when multitasking. The heat well My TL-52 95nm runs at 50-55 the 65nm is supposed to be a little cooler how much I do not know. It looks like the 8400m G is about up to a 100% improvement over X1300 on newer games.

 

If the 8400m g can play Crysis at low settings then...well knowing have intensive that game is on current systems it will have already exceeded my expectations of the laptop!

Whn I got this laptop I was playing games at about 1024x600 at lowest possible detail (ie, textures, no dynamic lighting, DX7 mode etc) so even if I have to play brand new games at that sort of detail then I'd be happy enough, its rare that I play the latest PC games anyway.

 

Bumping up for the folks in a different time zone!

 

Yes youll definately see an improvement in the CPU regardless of brand. Get an intel if your really doubting the AMD

Tell me which game your planning to play. I might know if its possible and at what settings.

 

I don't really have any games in mind, I tend to play the action stuff on the Xbox 360 now, the only games I tend to play on the lappytop are stuff like Sim City, Civ 4, C&C etc... Management/RTS style games.

There isn't an Intel-powered laptop in my price range that would offer me a laptop with as many features as this one does. The only one that comes close is a Samsung R60 that has a T2330 (1.6ghz) but then that only has 160gb HDD and a Radeon 1250 (compared to 250gb/8400m g), I don't think the trade-off is worth it.

 

You will see a considerable increase in performance going up to the X2. Heat wise, they are ok although you may see a small dip in battery life. As mentioned in other posts, the turbo cache is only used when required so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Having played around with the new gemstone laptops, they look good on the outside (i'm not a fan of them when their open but tastes differ) and feel very durable. All the specs look good and will make a fantastic upgrade from what your currently using.

 

Well I managed to find an Intel laptop for the same price that almost offers pretty similar features. Fujitsu-Siemens AMILO Pi 2515. It has 250gb/2gb of HDD/Memory as the Acer but it has

Intel Core Duo T5250 (1.5ghz)
Intel GMA X3100

Now, I'm guessing that if I want to keep some light gaming as an option I'd be better off with the 8400m g in the Acer rather than the X3100 option?

 

I'm getting ready to buy a new laptop (approximately the same specs as the one that Sionyboy was talking about,the possible future one), I just wanted to know if there is any big difference between a Turion X2 64 processor and an Athlon X2 64 processor in terms of performances and temperature ? Does the Athlon get hotter, I mean HOTTER, faster than the Turion ?