My New Acer Aspire V3-471G and Tips for Canvassing Computers

The impulse-buying devil in me strikes again as I’ve bought a new laptop just after one night of contemplation. It all started when I just thought of canvassing prices on a whim, and that maybe I could set a budget on one next year. But seeing how the prices dropped since the last time I checked, I couldn’t resist going to Gilmore the next day. There I met my destined Acer Aspire V3-471G at PC Options.

I’m not bragging about this- impulse buying meaning I’ve literally used up almost all of my resources in Perfect Renders to get this beast. Why do such a seemingly stupid thing? Well, I’ve been needing a strong laptop for onsite / same day editing in like forever, but I’ve been ignoring that fact because I could just rent out my brother’s for the meantime. But that accident where a kid knocked over my bro’s laptop and permanently damaged it, while on a client wedding, was the last straw. So I had to cancel allocating my budget to camera equipment in turn. Hopefully I’ll still get the slider and wide angle lens when the year ends though. Hopefully lol.

The specs of this machine can be considered beast for only 35,500 PHP. That’s just basically how much my Core2Duo laptop cost six years ago. If everything goes well, rendering SDE videos will be faster than ever.

Here are the works:

Processor : Intel Core i7-3630QM processor (3rd Gen)
Chipset : Mobile Intel HM77 Express Chipset
Memory : 8GB DDR3 (Upgraded from 4GB for +850PHP)
Hard Disk : 1000GB
Display Screen : 14″ HD 1366×768 resolution Acer CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCD
Video Type : NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M with 2 GB DDR3 VRAM
Audio : Optimized Dolby Home Theater V4 audio enhancement
Optical Drive : 8x DVD Super Multi Double-Layer Drive
Battery Type : 48 W 4400 mAh 6-cell Li-ion battery pack
Network Interface : LAN: Gigabit Ethernet, Wake-on-LAN ready
Wireless LAN : Acer InviLink™ Nplify™ 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™
Bluetooth : Built-in Bluetooth 4.0
Card Reader : Multi-in-one Card Reader
Camera : Acer Crystal Eye HD Webcam with 720p HD audio and video recording
USB 3.0 port with Power-off charging, (2) 2.0 ports
HDMI port with HDCP port
External Display (VGA) port

So how did I end up buying an Acer? Two reasons.

1.) It was the cheapest in its line of products with the same hardware and level of performance (although there’s that NEO with the same specs plus 16GB RAM for only 33,500 PHP, but the Acer looked more sturdier). The price difference isn’t really that big with its MSI, Lenovo and Asus counterparts, but you have to do your homework. With literally hundreds of laptop models to choose from, some lower-end ones being more expensive than some higher-end ones, you’d probably want the best bang out of your buck.

2.) I’ve developed a trust for this brand because even now, my six year old Acer Core2Duo laptop is still alive and kicking under mom’s everyday gaming needs, even after hundreds of videos produced, years of countless hours of hardcore video rendering, gaming, on-the-field usage, etc. This Taiwan laptop made from China is pretty badass, if you ask me.

It took me awhile to narrow it down to my Acer. When canvassing for computers, of course one has to consider its hardware capabilities. For the main event, there’s the processor, RAM and video card- the holy trinity of computer specs. The hard drive space along with all the other features are only secondary.

The next step would be considering how well each from the holy trinity would do with each other. For example, there are cases where a faster processor with a normal video card would lose to a lesser processor with a better video card in terms of performance. This is what gave me a headache. Another dilemma: would a 3rd Gen i5 with a better graphics card be better than a 2nd Gen i7 with more RAM? And how the hell can you tell which graphics card or processor is better in the first place? Will the better hardware be worth the extra cash? Wait, it depends on what I will use it for? You’ll be bombarded with all these unlimited questions and combinations of hardware as you search online sites and forums until you BSOD yourself.

After all that mind-fcuking, the pricing comes in. Now, your previous decisions will be screwed all over because of the limited budget you have. You may have to sacrifice performance to compensate with the amount of money you have lol. You really have to have an experienced friend who can guide you when buying, unless you don’t really care about money and just want a working laptop. Pricing varies per merchant: some more expensive than others. But it’s advisable to go canvass in PC Options, PC Corner and PC Express at Gilmore, then compare. Villman? They’re kinda expensive, if you ask me. The laptop I bought was priced 40k there.

Anyway, I think this is a good buy- a good investment overall. I’ll update you with how this baby performs once I’ve taken it for a few HD editing spins here and there. If you’re planning on buying a laptop or computer and don’t know what to get, leave a comment or message and I’ll try to accommodate you the best I can!

P.S. If you’re no social elite with lots of money, by all means DO NOT GET AN APPLE MACHINE :p

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