Notebook Hunter

Anonymous_3965468486051569 (User): It is impossible to find a Mac of equivalent specifications for anywhere near a comparable price.

Notebook Hunter Editor (APC staff): In short, no, not even close. The Apple notebook nearest in price to this Acer this month was a 13in Macbook with a Core-2-Duo chip, 2 GBs of RAM and 250 GB hard drive, on special at Myer for $1,199, which was about $100 less than its normal retail price. But a spec-for-spec comparison between Windows machines and Macbooks doesn't tell the whole story. When you buy into an Apple, you buy into the Apple ecosystem and the cachet of the Apple brand. You get the notebook plus superb integration with Apple consumer products and a raft of easy-to-use sofware (versus the crapware that normally comes on a PC).

kencorn2009 (New user): I bought one of these from DSE two weeks back at $1099. What they didn't tell me is that it also qualifies for an Acer Cashback of $99 until 31/03/2010 !!! Just go to www.acer.com.au/cashback

kencorn2009 (New user): I bought one of these from DSE two weeks back at $1099. What they didn't tell me is that it also qualifies for an Acer Cashback of $99 until 31/03/2010 !!! Just go to www.acer.com.au/cashback. $1000 flat, now that's value!!

guanaco_brisbane (New user): Although the article refers to the Core i5 430 as "the entry level of Intel's powerful new mainstream quad core processor", I believe this CPU is actually dual core (see http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mobile-core-i5-arrandale,2522-2.html)

Notebook Hunter Editor (APC staff): You're absolutely right. Intel's product naming policy takes some deciphering. Core-i5s based on quad core architecture are the 7xx series, while the rest, 6xx, 5xx and 4xx are dual core. The Core-i5 7xx series are actually the same processor as the Core-i7 8xx series, based on the Lynnfield architecture for desktops and servers. The difference is that the Core i5 version has hyperthreading disabled. Also meant for desktop PCs is the Core i5 6xx series, which uses the same socket, but is dual core and has only 4mb of onboard cache. The remaining 5xx and 4xx Core i5s (including the Core i5 430M in the special above) are based on the Arrandale architure which is meant for notebooks and have two cores and 3 MB of L3 cache. Also, it's important to bear in mind that not all Core-i7s are quad core. The ones based on the Arrandale architecture for notebooks are actually dual core, designed to provide performance in mobile computers. So why are there Core-i5 and Core-i7 families when some Core-i5 CPUs are actually closer to some Core-i7 CPUs than some other Core-i5s? As Intel sees it, all Core-i7s have hyperthreading while Core-i5's do not. So when you're choosing between a Core-i5 and Core-i7, you have to decide whether you need hyperthreading, an Intel technology that provides improved support for multi-threaded applications, such as video encoding, gaming simulations, graphic design and server apps such as databases.

Maximus.Psychosis (New user): As you can see, THG shows a 4 thread system (yes dual core with HT) and in the OS it will clam it to be 4 "processors", that is where i think they may have got confused by it...