I'm basically trying to decide between several laptops:

1) MSI vr600x:

Intel Core Duo T2080 (1.73 GHz, FSB 533 MHz, 1 MB L2)
2048 MB DDRII
160GB SATA 5400 rpm
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950
full keyboard (numerical part too)
No OS
Price: 910$

it comes with a lot of gifts - a bag, tv tuner, bluetooth, web camera, mouse...

2) ACER Aspire 5720-1A2G16Mi

Intel Core2Duo T5250 (1.5GHz/2MB/667FSB)
SantaRosa platform
Intel 965PM chipset
2GB DDRII (2 x 1GB)
160GB HDD SATA (5400rpm)
DVD-RW dual layer
Intel GMA X3100 up to 358MB DX10
Vista Home Premium
Price: 980$

3) ACER Aspire 5520G-6A1G16Mi

AMD Athlon64 X2 DualCore TK55 (1.8GHz/2x256kB/Tyler)
nVidia nForce 630M chipset
1024 MB DDRII (1 x 1GB)
160GB HDD SATA (5400rpm)
DVD-RW dual layer
NVidia GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB GDDR2 DX10
Vista Home Basic
Price: 960$

4) ACER Aspire 5520-5A1G16Mi

AMD Turion64 X2 DualCore TK53 (1.7GHz/2x256kB
nVidia nForce 630M chipset
1024 MB DDRII (2x512MB)
160GB HDD SATA (5400rpm)
DVD-RW dual layer
NVidia GeForce 7000M 256MB dedicated system memory
Linux
Price: 770$

5) ACER Travelmate 5320-051G12Mi

Intel CeleronM 530
(1.73GHz/1MB/533FSB) 64bit
DDR II 1024 MB (1x1GB)
Intel GL960 chipset
120GB SATA (5400rpm)
DVD-RW DL
Intel GMA X3100 up to 358MB shared
Linux
Price: 670$

6) ACER Extensa EX4220-051G12Mi

Intel CeleronM 530 (1.73GHz/1MB/533FSB) 64bit
1024 MB DDRII
Intel GL960 chipset
120GB SATA (5400rpm)
DVD-RW DL
VGA Intel GMA X3100 up to 358MB shared
Linux
Price: 640$

I would use the laptop for programming, multimedia (audio and video editing), web surfing, maybe watching movies....i have no gaming intentions but since i would like video processing would a dedicated vid card make a difference or would an integrated one suffice ?

The preinstalled OS makes no difference to me, since i will wipe it out anyway and install one myself (I'll choose my OS, thank you very much..) - a linux distro, not sure which one, though...

Which manufacturer is generally a better choice ? Acer or MSI ?

Mine is a Acer Aspire 5100-5840. I am very happy with it. I is AMD64x2, 2gig ram, ATI 1100 video, 160gig drive. I have great success with it under linux. I use RHEL5 and bits and pieces of other distros as well. The wireless was Atheros based so Madwifi took care of that. ATI drivers for the video, The sdcard reader portion works with the latest kernel mmc_block modules. No support for memeory stick reader as of yet. The stupid cam works butI never use it. Most Acers have about 3 different types of chipsets for the camera. So that varies from model to model.

Some post I did on my webcam and sdcard reader.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...3/#post2923960
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...5/#post2915448

I myself perfer AMD64 but intel duo is ok. I would not go centurnio.
Nvida would be a better choice over intel or ATI.
For what you want the speed is not really dependent unless you are doing alot of video editing then the faster the better. Surfing the net requires little power. Watching dvd as long as the video card has a little over 16mb then that works well with little power.

the thrid one looks the best to me. Better video, processor and speed and the ram being a single 1gig stick so adding the second one is ready without losing an exist memory stick.

Brian

There are a few post from google on this notebook number 3 in your list.
here is one. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=584890

Brian

if you do not play 3D games or use other sophisticated video stuff I always would prefer integrated intel graphics since it works instantly with linux and you are not dependent on binary nvidia or ATI drivers. also some problems with using xbacklight, randr and other features works better without a nvidia or ATI card. I myself have a NVIDIA.

Thanks for the replies....

So if i were to choose integrated intel graphics, which is better:
GMA 950 or GMA x3100 ?

And what about processors ? Is an AMD64 X2 faster than an Intel duo ?

EDIT: Never mind the graphics card question, did some research on that, x3100 proves way better in all tests...

They are both good processors. I just would not get one with centrino.

Brian

Don't know a lot about MSI, but all the Acer laptops I've seen are CRAP. My school tried to go cheep and bought around 100 of them and I'm always fixing the stupid things...

Love my nice piece of CRAP.

Brian

Brian1:

Centrino is a platform, not a processor (many modern Intel Core 2 Duo systems are 'Centrino' - this just means a Pentium-M or Core processor, with the chipset and wireless being particular Intel components to get the Centrino certificate). I presume what you are referring to is not to buy a Celeron?

moljac024:

Don't bother with the Celeron's - pay the extra and go for a proper processor (Turion or Core (2) Duo). (So, basically, knock 5 and 6 off your list).

I'd also recommend dropping 3 - if you're going to buy a laptop, buy a proper mobile processor (either AMD's Turion, or Intel's Core) - desktop processors in laptops are not much fun.

That should narrow you down to just 1, 3 and 4.

(Also, the "Linux" note I'd be dubious on - unless otherwise specified by your retailer, Acer are known to ship "Linpus Linux" on some of their machines without Windows - no proper Linux drivers, and no X - basically, a waste of space i.e. don't assume just because it says Linux you won't have to install another fully fledged distribution yourself).

ibm thinkpads, toshiba and sony have a good linux support....

Well, the first thing i will do (whatever laptop i buy) is wipe the hard drive clean, make my own partition layout and install my own linux distro of choice...

Thanks for the tips all, i think i will go with the MSI one

My fault I was thinking Celeron.

Brian

I have a Travelmate 5520G and it's nice. Costs under 800€ (including VAT 22%) and has 2 gigs of RAM, Radeon HD 2400 XT & Turion X2 TL-58. I can recommend it from first-hand experience. I know it's not on your list but it's a real bargain for the specs it has, battery life of some 2-3 hours is a real downer, however.
Haven't tested linux-friendliness yet (thats why I came to this forum after all to seek some known issues), but the BIOS settings available are quite limited and that kinda bugs me.

The slightly curved keyboard these travelmates have is really nice once you get used to it, really eases the typing and long periods of usage. I haven't even touched the fullsized wireless keyboard I usually used with notebooks after getting accustomed to this. That's really one thing to consider when having travelmate as a alternative.

Thanks, i went with the first one (the MSI) and it's really great.... Have it running fedora 8 (+ windows xp inside VirutalBox) and it's just great. One thing that annoys me is the hard drive clicking when it's idle but if i disable power management for the hard drive with it's silent