Acer Aspire 5920 User Review

Acer doesn't hide its aspiration to dominate the notebook market using the same formula that got Dell to first place in the past with its Inspiron line, top specs for the dollar. The "Gemstone" is their latest line and the Aspire 5920 is the top model. But does it deliver?

My chosen notebook was the Acer Aspire 5920-6313 equipped with the following specs:

• 15.4-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) CCFL Crystalbrite (glossy) screen
• Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz , 667MHz FSB)
• 2GB DDR2-667 SDRAM
• 160GB 5400 RPM SATA HDD
• HD DVD / DVD-RW drive
• Nvidia Geforce 8600m GT 256MB DDR2
• 802.11a/b/g WLAN
• Two Speakers and a built-in subwoofer
• Windows Vista Home Premium

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Reason For Buying

After looking for a desktop replacement notebook with gaming capabilities I found the Acer 5920-6313 offered unparalleled specs for the money. At the time of purchase it beat even the Inspiron 1520 when compared in a spec-to-spec analysis. Acer: 1, Dell: 0.

Buying Experience

Best Buy had the Acer 5920-6313 for $1,049 but I missed that deal so I had to find mine on ebay. I bought one from "HD Gamer store," one of the many aliases of a company called Dealtree which specialize in Best Buy returns. But instead of getting the advertised "Like new in its original box" I got a non-working, physically broken notebook with no box or accessories what so ever. This company wouldn't take responsibility and fix the problem so I had to send the notebook to an Acer certified lab, pay extra cash for the repair and wait for another five weeks. The tech determined the notebook screen to be faulty with no relation to the physical damage which wouldn't have happened anyway had the notebook been in its original box and not so poorly packed, but still Dealtree refused to acknowledge their fault and take full responsibility.

In short, this was the worst ebay experience to date but there is another reason why I'm telling you all this. While waiting for the notebook to come back from the lab I bought another 5920-6313 from a different seller. That allowed me to pit two 5920's in this review as well as comparing the original screen with the replacement screen on the repaired unit.

Build and Design

Acer marketing named their new Aspire line style "Gemstone" but we'll call it the pebble. A rounded, dark outer form combined with the yellowish gray stone-like inside reminds me of natural river pebbles. However, nature stops when it comes to the keyboard area. The somewhat eccentric keyboard has a high tech look combing lots of blue LEDs, grooved geometric lines and angles including a slanted space bar.

You can love it or hate it but you have to applaud Acer for the innovative style, especially in contrast with Dell's 1520/1720 styling statement which mainly consists of different colors for the lid. Another point for Acer.

Too bad the pebble doesn't come without design flaws. The glossy lid looks quite nice with the "floating" Acer logo but is a finger print magnet. The lid prevents any rippling to the screen and is opened with a car boot like handle, but it isn't as easy to use as the traditional slider. In addition, I don't feel comfortable applying more upward pressure to the handle when lifting the lid all the way up so I only use it to free the latch and then raise the lid by holding the non-moving screen bezel instead.

drop shadow logo (view large image)

lid handle (view large image)

The lid hinges, while solid, pose another problem. They tilt the screen backwards and down so it's blocking part of the rear side, resulting in no ports aside from the DC jack. When the lid is open it's harder to plug in the power plug (properly built with a 90 degree angle to reduce possible stress on the DC jack). The lowered screen also eliminates a proper vent that could have been located there. Acer: 2 Dell: 1.

lid hinge (view large image)

I feel the need to address some claims concerning the right side USB port proximity to the optical drive tray. Using a USB mouse the tray is free to open and close without touching the USB plug. However, it is sometimes hindered by the mouse cord ... but that's not that big of a deal. The notebook in general feels pretty much solid as it should be for its size and 6.6 pounds weight.

Screen

Acer boasts its Crystalbrite screen with 220 nits brightness and 8ms response time and the screen is very bright indeed. Unfortunately, that is all I can say in favor of this screen. There is very little contrast to the point the blacks are only dark grays at best. Even though it can not display proper blacks the screen manages to be annoyingly reflective. The problem is compounded by the poor viewing angles at all directions, did I say angles? I meant an angle.

You would think it's just a bad screen but luckily (or unluckily if you ask me) we can compare two Acer 5920 screens side by side. In the image below the notebook on the right features the original AU Optronics panel and the notebook on the left is the replacement Chi Mei Optoelectronics panel which shows no real improvement.

To be fair, most consumer laptops today exhibit glossy screens that sometimes sacrifice black and contrast for vivid colors in an attempt to lure in buyers. Still, I'd rather have a choice of a matte screen with deeper blacks and high contrast. No points awarded.

CMO 1526 left AUO 2774 right (view large image)

Speakers and Microphones

The sound system on the pebble 5920 is composed of two speakers hidden under a stylish grill located above the keyboard and a subwoofer built in the underside. The combination produces acceptable results that are well above average for notebook sound. However, having a Dell notebook with a subwoofer in the past I expected a more impressive leap out of a newer notebook. The attached Realtek sound driver has an abundance of options and settings though.

Speaker grill (view large image)

Subwoofer (view large image)

Having a volume dial is a good thing, but the dial has no feedback nor resistance which makes it move at the slightest touch and hard to set to the right volume. It also lacks a "stop point" so you can't know when you reached the top/lowest point unless you are using the on-screen volume display. Its location in the front under the lower "lip" means it isn't easy to reach when the notebook is resting on your lap. Likewise with the headphone ports location at the front which always strike me as prone to stress damage.

For video conferencing Acer included a built-in VGA web cam into the lid handle with built-in microphones on each side. Nothing spectacular but all in all not bad for a 15" notebook. Acer: 4, Dell: 1.

webcam with 2 mics (view large image)

Keyboard, Touchpad and Media Controls

The weird looking keyboard is on par with today's average, however, it has a noticeable amount of flex in the right shift area which should not appear in a modern notebook of that size and weight.

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The even surface touch pad is responsive and easy to use thanks to the texture and wide aspect ratio, it's so wide I sometimes found myself inadvertently moving the cursor. Fortunately, you can switch it off and on with the designated FN+F7 combination. Acer managed to squeeze in a third middle button that is supposed to act as a four-way joystick for quick scrolling and navigating.

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As expected from a media notebook there are plenty of shortcut buttons on the keyboard sides for turning the wireless communication on/off, launching a web browser, email client and the Acer arcade. The right side has a blue backlit media player touch panel.

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On Acer's behalf, it looks like the entire palm rest area, keyboard, touchpad and buttons are made of solid non-painted plastic which hopefully means it will not wear off after a while. You may think this gray hue isn't attractive but on the bright side it will look gray even years from now. Add (or subtract) a point for that.

Ports and Features

The 5920 spec list continues with a rich selection of ports: quite an achievement with the back profile blocked. Again I wish some of the ports (like LAN and video ports) were in the back.

As fitting a proper entertainment notebook Acer combined a HD DVD drive with a HDMI port as standard. Now surely that's worth a point.

Front profile view: CIR port, memory card reader, dual headphone out, microphone in, and volume dial. (view large image)

Left side: VGA out, LAN, modem, 2x USB 2.0, HDMI, S-Video, USB 2.0, firewire, express card slot. (view large image)

Right side: Kensington lock, RF-in (on select models), USB 2.0, HD DVD drive. (view large image)

Back profile view: DC jack. (view large image)

Software

The amount of bloatware preinstalled with the notebook was quite bearable, but let's take a closer look at Acer's "empowering technology." Contrary to what you might think, pressing the "empowering" button does not turn you into a strong black woman, instead it opens a nice looking control panel with an assortment of Acer utilities designed to help beginners take control of their laptop:

• eNet for networking management
• ePower for battery optimization
• ePresentation for external display
• eAudio controls the Dolby home theater sound effects
• eDataSecurity protects data with passwords and encryption
• eLock limits access to external storage
• eRecovery backs up and recovery of data (as well as creates factory restore disc)
• eSettings for system information and settings

Along with there "empowering" tools Acer includes Arcade deluxe, a media control center. All in all it's not a bad package for the novice user, even if there is no real technology here and the name is plain silly. No points awarded because we are not about competition when it comes to bloatware.

empowering button -- you go girl. (view large image)

XP compatibility

This is a new review category I made up. Nevertheless, in a world of Vista-only notebooks it is useful to know whether you'd be able to run your favorite proven OS on your new 5920. Well, you can and quite easily as the supplied Vista drivers are compatible with XP. Thanks to some tips from NBR forums members the install process was even easier, updating the bios to the latest version allowed switching the SATA interface to IDE. Then it was a simple XP install using an old XP SP2 disc. Surprisingly the laptop worked quite well (webcam included) even before I installed the Acer drivers. I have yet to find a way to get XP working in SATA ACHI mode which might be the cause of the HD Tune test results.

Performance and Benchmarks

A distinctive advantage of the 5920 is the Nvidia 8600m GT video card, while not the DDR3 version it's still one of the fastest 8xxx GPU available at the time of the review and certainly the top in the 15.4" form factor segment. In addition, it comes in a MXM II slot with easy access, another high point in the specification. Playing games proved once again that even the low T5250 was not the limiting factor in this setup, meaning you don't have to spend money on a higher CPU for that purpose alone.

Having two identical 5920's I was able to pit them against each other it those benchmarks, one running XP Home SP2, the other keeping the original Vista Home premium install.

Notebook / CPU	XP/Vista wPrime 32M time
Acer Aspire 5920 (1.5GHz Intel T5250, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB )	63.218s/57.564s
Dell XPS M1530 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.485s
Portable One SXS37 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz)	41.908s
Sony VAIO NR (Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz)	58.233s
Toshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	38.343s
Toshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.299s
HP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)	40.965s
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz)	76.240s
Zepto 6024W (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)	42.385s
Lenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.705s
Alienware M5750 (Core 2 Duo T7600 @ 2.33GHz)	38.327s
Hewlett Packard DV6000z (Turion X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)	38.720s
Samsung Q70 (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2.0GHz)	42.218s
Acer Travelmate 8204WLMi (Core Duo T2500 @ 2.0GHz)	42.947s
Samsung X60plus (Core 2 Duo T7200 @ 2.0GHz)	44.922s
Zepto Znote 6224W (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2.0GHz)	45.788s
Samsung Q35 (Core 2 Duo T5600 @ 1.83GHz)	46.274s
Samsung R20 (Core Duo T2250 @ 1.73GHz)	47.563s

PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance:

Notebook	XP/Vista PCMark05 Score
Acer Aspire 5920 (1.5GHz Intel T5250, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB )	3,880/3,821 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	5,412 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	4,616 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,591 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

HDTune results ( XP/Vista ) :

Same HDD, different interface (view large image)

Heat and Noise

Having so many ports limits the air vent to the lower left side, and the lid design comes back to haunt us as it limits the space allocated for the back vent profile. The result is somewhat warmer than appreciated inner idling temperatures with the CPU hovering at 50+ °C and the GPU in the 60°C area.

Under load the left side gets noticeably hotter with the GPU peaking to 90 °C and once freezing on me. The notebook might be designed to handle that amount of heat but I'm still uncomfortable with that. Both machines exhibited erratic fan behavior which would come on at full power for a short burst every few seconds. I'd much rather have it work constantly at a low rpm, keeping the notebook cool and quiet as the fan is silent by itself.

I couldn't find a way to enable speedstepping in the bios. NHC doesn't show the CPU to throttle down while CPU-Z shows only 33% slowing to 1000Mhz and SpeedFan wouldn't control the fans. The 8600m GT driver will not allow throttling down on DC power either, nor to downclock the GPU speeds.

This is where a proper ePower management should have let me control the fan operation and speed as well as enable an aggressive CPU and GPU throttling. It has some sort of CPU power options but I have not seen any big difference. All points melted down.

Its packing heat -- literally. (view large image)

Battery Life

Interestingly the XP unit reported an estimate of 3:04 hours on a full battery and maximum screen brightness loosing about one percent battery power every two minutes idling, while the Vista unit reported an extra hour with a 4:10 hours estimate. Yet another unfulfilled promise by Windows Vista.

Conclusion

Despite its many flaws the Acer Aspire 5920 is one of the best buys today thanks to its rich specification, wealth of features and relative low price. I believe a proper new bios would solve the fan issue and CPU management, and a new Nvidia driver should let us use powermizer to reduce GPU heat. That leaves us waiting for a decent LCD panel from Acer or getting one of those LCD films to enhance the blacks. Like its name suggests, the Acer 5920 gemstone is truly a diamond in the rough and with a bit of polishing would shine.

Pros

• Best bang for the buck

Cons

• LCD bright but not brilliant
• No sufficient CPU/GPU throttling
• Annoying fan

 

Hi

I posted instructions to load the ACHI driver after you have installed XP here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=160161&page=2

 

This notebook is head to head with Dell Inspiron 1520 and one of the most popular notebooks in SE Asia as Acer has bigger market here.
I have heard that there is some versionof 5920 that comes with 8600GT GDDR3? Is it true?
Oh..odd spacebar though, anyway nice review

 

Nice review.
The performance of the Acer Aspire 5920 deserves much applause. For the specs you get, its very, very cheap. I also like that it includes a MXM II slot so graphics card upgradaiblity is allowed.

But, design is highely opinionated - especially the interior. I'm sure BMW (co-designers of the 5920) could have made a much better design - actually, there cars are normally ugly as well .
Also, build quality is better than previous Acers but still below its rivals. The slight flex on one side and also clicking of the touchpad buttons when pressure is applied to a closed lid are all amateur problems.

To bad really, I was going to buy one but am happy I didn't!! Theres more to a laptop than just performance although I have not a argument with the price which is incredibly good.

 

Nice review, I don't quite understand the section that says the 8600 doesn't throttle on DC power...the laptop is always on DC power...

 

Nice review, very unbias for a User Acer review.

 

I think newer GPU can throttle down though the notebook is connected to the power outlet. For example, web browsing and typing on Microsoft Office don't need GPU running at full speed...

 

Yes, but the reviewer said DC power. The laptop is ALWAYS running on DC power.

Battery = DC power

Outlet -> Power brick = DC power

 

Sorry? I don't quite see what you are trying to get at... Surely that should be a promise kept by Vista?

Aside from that, an excellent read!

 

so an inspiron would have better build quality than the acer, from what I read in the review?

 

I can attest this is an excellent HTPC computer which I've had for half a year. I've had it permanently connected to my 1080p LCD panel via HDMI. It's silent enough, cool running and records HDTV OTA without a hitch thanks to it's great GPU.

However, as a laptop it's really nothing exciting and I wouldn't ever buy it for laptop functionality. It's very thick and I don't find it particularily attractive with really annoying touchpad feel and "clicky" buttons.

 

I think that this review could use some improvement. The "strong black woman" joke is unnecessary and a little out of line. Additionally the writer goes off-topic many times throughout the review, telling readers about his experiences on eBay, which do not tell the potential consumer anything about the product. I think that it would be best for the writer to adopt a write the review as a casual report without the stand-up comedy or off-topic stories.

On the other hand, the reviewer does a good job of pointing out various flaws that consumers may not realize until they buy the unit, such as the USB port placement, volume dial, or display quality.

 

Work in a Detroit hospital and it's not terribly out of line.

 

Lesson learned: Don't ever buy used notebooks.

 

Thanks for everyone input ,

I knew some won't get it , it is in no way meant to offend anyone . Its a joke about the silly "empowering" term and also a homage to a Kathy Griffin show called ... "strong black woman" .

DC power from the DC jack ( or plugged in if you like ) , otherwise its battery power . The driver would not let me use powermizer on DC power .

Thanks , I try to bring all the little points that a potential buyer might not notice at a glance .

Doesn't look so in this version ( 5920-6313 ) .

I know , you are one of the forum members I thanked to in this review , I followed your instructions but still get a blue screen when I switch to ACHI in the bios , so I left it in IDE for the time being .

That was a shot at Vista promising to be better OS , the Vista unit claims 4 hours but delivers only 3 like the XP unit .

Oh I bought the 2nd unit used , cost me less and was in great shape compared to the 1st . I'll never buy anything from Dealtree again ( see their resellerrating ) . I thought it is worth mentioning to warm others .

 

I've heard a consensus that the "Gemstone" design is very ugly , I must be one of the few that finds it very attractive. I don't have any bias for/against Acer, never had/used one. But the laptop looks quite good to me, I'll give it that.

 

It's no Sony SZ, but it's design is pretty nice. That said, if I didn't need the graphics card, I would have spent much less on something lighter and more stylish. An acer travelmate or samsung R series

 

Acer Aspire 5920-6313 equipped with the following specs:

15.4-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) CCFL Crystalbrite (glossy) screen
Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz , 667MHz FSB)
2GB DDR2-667 SDRAM
160GB 5400 RPM SATA HDD
HD DVD / DVD-RW drive
Nvidia Geforce 8600m GT 256MB DDR2
802.11a/b/g WLAN
Two Speakers and a built-in subwoofer
Windows Vista Home Premium

Was going for $799 at Futureshop a couple of weeks ago. I ran to the store when I found out, but it was too late. All gone.

Can you imagine? There are some seriously happy 5920 owners up here. Lucky bastages!

 

He is right you know, the reviewer meant AC power or plugged in

Battery is DC.

Outlet is AC which is converted to DC through the power brick.

 

Wow..that's a steal. Everyone needs a multimedia notebook should pick it up when there a sale like that again.
For $800, you'll get 8600GT(though a DDR2), roomy HD, HD-DVD,subwoofer

 

Nice review .

By the way, did you install the latest BIOS? The latest BIOS solved the heat problem for me.

 

I liked the look of the Gemstone line, but it always reeked of something a little rotten and I'm relieved to see this review bear that out. It has a spit and shine to it, but no actual quality construction, and that's really the difference between something like a Sony SZ or an HP and the Gemstone...the former two are about as sturdy and well built as they look.

 

I'm not sure I like the "point" system in this review. If you're going to compare and give designated "points" to two competing laptops, you should've at least seen and personally experienced using the laptops being compared. At least that's what I expect from a serious review.

Also, the statements on battery life are confusing. You mention "estimated battery life" but what was the real measured battery life? How long did it really last in XP? Vista? "Estimated battery life" doesn't matter because it's not that accurate anyway.

And lastly, real-world tests would've been nice. You bought this as a DTR so it would've been nice if we could see how well it managed the things and tasks you threw at it. Like FPS screenshots from some games or something like that. You didn't even post a 3dMark06 score.

Anyway, I guess I'm also one of the few people who actually kinda like these "Gemstone" designs. Not exactly a fan, but I don't passionately dislike it.

 

Yeah , I did so first thing while and it didn't seem to help (V3.708) , today I did it again in the XP unit and the fan seems now to go into low speed mode .

I'd still rather have it working constantly at low speed rather then turning off now and then or bursting into high speed .

Please note there is not a conclusion saying the Acer is better then the Dell or vice versa , In fact near the end all the points are "erased" . The points were added for a lighter reading as well showing why I choosed the Acer ( mainly better specs ) .

I didn't want to repeat this test as other made it before and at this stage we ALL know what the 8600M GT can do . When I write a review I try to show the reader some hidden aspects he can't see by looking at such test , for example that the notebook froze once during gameplay , I think it is more helpful .

I tried to avoid expressing my personal taste in this review , I'm not crazy about it but it can grow on you . At least it isn't dull like the 1520 Inspiron or tasteless like the XPS 1730 .

.. I still think "DC power" is a suitable term for plugged in power , when unplugged its simply "battery power" . Feel free to annoy me with other questions

 

I agree. Acer should have stuck with their old chassis design. It was recognizable - from the lowly $400 models to the better built and fancier Ferarri models.

Rather than a new, fatter and clunkier design, they should have refined the old one. Dell, Lenovo, HP and Apple all stick with a design for a while.

 

I managed to pick one up online, initially it had said "0 left", thankfully checked again a few hours later and 1 popped up! Very nice little laptop for $799, that is for sure. Nothing else could touch it in that price range, especially with the 8600.

Steve

 

Yep. I liked the older Ferrari models (and the TM 8200) but this Gemstone is disturbingly poorly built. Its not too much to expect a decent keyboard and mouse buttons in a $1100 machine, really.

 

I see your point now. In this case, the review should be amended to make clear the point that even though the estimates were different the run time was the same. Currently, it comes across as the unit having greater battery life under Vista.

 

I think the T5250 is a bit too old and should have re-test this model with T7300 or 7250 at least. In Asia , this model is usually configured with thr T7300 or 7500.

There is also 4920G series in Asia , which is almost same as this model but with a bit smaller LCD.

Any way, this is the first time I saw an English review on any of acer lappies...........they should 've been reviewed more often considering their market share and quality.

I hope the 4720 or 4320 also gets reviews soon.

Finally, IMHO, I can not beleive that he thinks Dells have better BQ than Acers , I think Acer BQ is fantastic although most of Acer notebooks have very noisy fans even can tell that in a noisy store by just palying with them for a munite.

I can think nothing that Dell does better than Acer, especially in the world market.

But many HP Pavillions are cheaper and better configured(with more RAM) than Acer Aspires in many places I've been to, so I exchanged my Acer 4920G(T7250 , 1GB, 160GB HDD, Linux BE , ATI Radeon HD X2500) to HP Pavillion DV2626TX(T7500, 2GB, 250GBHDD, Vista HP, NVIDIA Geforce 8400M GS).

I also found the Acer 4920G's LCD to be much inferior to that of the HP pavillion DV2626TX with much narrower view angle vertically.

I hated HP but now it is hard for me not to love the Pavillion especially I got it less than 1000 US.

 

I would NOT take this notebook with a higher CPU because :
1. Like I suspected from the start it is heating to much to my liking as it is .
2. The T5250 is fine btw and as I pointed out it is not the limiting factor even in the newest games at medium settings .
3. The T5250 model gives the best value for money .

I did not say so , I merely pointed out that the Dells dull design is more practical . The BQ has ups ( no screen rippling ) and downs ( keyboard flex ) .

 

Hi,

I came across the present model of the 5920 that comes with a T8100 and I am comparing it to the Dell XPS 1530. The difference in price is astounding (the Acer is $500 less, but I am not sure about durability). Is it worth me going for the DELL?

Here are the comps, Dell first:
smaller hard-drive space (200 Gigs) but better built. It comes fully configured with all the software that I need and professional support and accidental damage protection for 4 years. Total cost including tax and shipping is $2000.

Acer has a larger hard-drive (250 Gigs). I will have to purchase all of the software independently and configure it myself. Comes with 3 years of support and accidental damage. Total cost including tax, shipping and software is $1500.

Does it make a difference that the XPS is T7700 with a 7200 rpm hard-drive and the Acer a T8100 with a 5400 rpm hard-drive? Also, the Acer comes in 17 inch and a 320 GB hard-drive for just $150 more? All this with Vista Ultimate.

Your suggestions greatly appreciated

 

I would get neither. Both laptops have annoying problems.
Acer = flex in parts and overall build quality is not good.
Dell = the screen is rubbish. The odd one is said to be good, but the rest are poor.

 

Jam12 summed it up pretty well . I'd say both are equally good

Price wise it looks they will come close too , I like the 7200RPM drive better then the Penryn upgrade .

 

I would buy an Acer 5920 in a minute (Newegg $749) if I could get it with XP.
Only available with the "Boat Anchor" Vista. Anyone know where I could get
one with XP installed?
Thanks in advance

 

Afaik there are no XP versions in the US , fortunately XP drivers are available , check out the threads in the Acer forum for detailed information .