Acer Aspire V3-551G-X419 Notebook AMD A-Series A10-4600M(2.30GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory 750GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi AMD Radeon HD 7670M

Pros: I like the way the keyboard feels. Have not had this long enough to list many pros.

Cons: Defective usb port on arrival. Don't like where this is going.

Pros: Price, looks, capabilities.

Running Starcraft 2- HOTS on high settings in quickmatch, though I would lower it for bigger maps, and games like Desert Strike where there's a ton of units and bases.

Battlefield 3 is running pretty smooth on medium graphics, but the textures were auto set to ultra. Game hangs up now and then, but it still MUCH smoother than Xbox!

Windows 8 runs fine, system runs pretty cool. I have a cheapo cooler under it, but the machine runs cooler than my old laptop.

Paid 520 for the machine, couldn't be happier at this point.

Cons: Little bit of bloatware, had problems updating the AMD grahpics, I had to use the auto detect feature on their page.

Not much literature regarding the functionality of the machine on ACER's homepage, or google results. Wanted to apply a fix that claims to upgrade the hard drive speed, but when running the program, the program doesn't recognize the hard drive.

Very little, if anything to be upset about with this laptop.

Other Thoughts: If you're looking to do gaming on a budget, this is your rig. Don't expect to be running ultra anything graphics wise, but for the price you can't complain.

Pros: Very Good Gaming! Minecraft gameplay is amazing. On full settings it ran at 70 fps. I flashed linux on it later (mint 13) and it ran minecraft around 140 fps on full. It is very impressive. I don't like the linux as much so I bought windows 7 ultimate and flashed it and it ran around 120 fps. Very smooth. Never Lags. I really love this laptop and will definatly recommend it!

Cons: Windows 8 is terrible in my opinion. Use linux or Windows 7. I prefer ultimate/Professional

Other Thoughts: Overall this is a great laptop. I would rather have this for its performance than a apple. The Price is remarkable! I love this laptop.

Pros: In my previous review, I said that this laptop did not play games well due to stuttering.

Well, after installing Windows 7 and updating the drivers for all devices (as well as the firmware for the hard drive), I am pleased to report that games run much better now!

CS:GO runs great on high settings, as do most games now. Metro 2033 runs at a steady 60fps on normal settings, which is actually very impressive, all things considered.

Cons: I don't know why it wasn't performing this well sooner. Drivers? Windows 8? Some combination of the two?

Other Thoughts: I'm not telling you to install Windows 7, but you should probably install Windows 7.

Pros: Low Cost, Decent Graphics, Decent amount of ram, Great CPU if you know how to utilize it. Runs rather cool even under hard stress.

Cons: Windows 8, Hard Drive, 4/2 ram sticks.

Other Thoughts: Windows 8 was nice. Alot of people are this and that and windows 8 sucks. But it doesn't. In the short time I ran windows 8 the only real noticeable difference between W8 & W7 was the start menu. Don't be discouraged by it being Windows 8 if you are used to windows 7. The change from XP(if you are not familiar with windows 7) is kinda big but again don't be discouraged by this, its a great OS.

The hard drive in this thing is slow as they come, highly recommend changing out to a SSD. On that note, cloning the original hard drive to a SSD to keep all the Acer bloatware and windows 8 I found impossible with free programs, there is one program that was like $40 that will do it. I personally did a fresh Install W7. The Bluetooth drivers are not listed on Acer website for Windows 7, just use the windows 8 and uninstall the software that comes bundled with it the drivers will remain installed and it works fine.

Ram, Rather then using 2 x 3 gig sticks to make 6gigs they opted to toss a cheap 2gb stick in with a 4g stick, not really an issue but the cheapo ram will probably fail early its a very very off brand stick. Would suggest getting a quality 8 gig ram set 2x4gb.

People dis the graphics on this thing, but until any of them have changed to a ssd do not judge them. The Hard drive in this thing is the bottleneck of it all. Runs most games on high with decent fps(30-60). The Integrated graphics isnt horible it will run games on high with low fps 10-30 and save a ton of power if you game on the go using battery. However the dual graphics will greatly improve frame rates over the integrated graphics.

CPU, Love the new A-series cpus. Not a complaint here at all. Runs Very Solid, fast as can be.

Pros: -Laptop took about 1 hour to fully install Windows 8 upon first boot up and create a backup for it as well.
-Fast startup approx. 20 sec.
-Little bloatware(McAfee, Kindle, Wildtangent, and maybe like 5 other apps)
-Can run latest games on Med. to High settings(Crysis 3, Tomb Raider,)
-Doesnt get too hot
-Very Light

Cons: -Body attracts fingerprints easily(buy a cheese cloth just for this)
-Feels so light, I dont think it would last through a fall.
-The second day I used it...it crashed when I was restarting. Took about 5 mins to restart.
-My portable programs didn't work with it. (PS, AE, etc...)

Other Thoughts: I know for a fact that this is the best laptop you can find for $550.00. Acer is known for being very affordable. The fact also that it's only got AMD graphics and Processor. Both of which is very good. The dual grahics don't stutter very much like the older version did. I recommend this laptop for anyone looking to do graphic design, animation, and gaming with a tight budget. I will post of another review after I test some games on it.

Pros: This is a very powerful laptop at a steal of a price. Trinity APU's are excellent, and this one is the best of the bunch. You'll have more than enough power to playback 1080p h.264 and play older games.

This laptop is also very well designed. The screen hinges and keyboard feel sturdy, and the build quality overall inspires confidence. Not to mention, it's actually pretty light!

Cons: Unfortunately, this laptop comes up just short of being able to play new games. I blame the anemic 7670M, which to my understanding, is just a rebranded 6670M. As another user pointed out, it was a poor decision to go with 2GB of DDR3 VRAM as opposed to 1GB of GDDR5.

Dark Souls runs very poorly, exhibiting framerate drops and intermittent stuttering (even with DSFix). CS:GO runs well overall, but also exhibits intermittent stuttering. Don't even think about Serious Sam 3.

I think the stuttering may have to do with the way Turbo Core is implemented, since it seems to constantly jump between Pstate0 and 1.

Other Thoughts: While this laptop does unfortunately cut corners in more than a few areas (slow hard drive, mediocre ram, subpar display), it more than makes up for it with its build quality, battery life and raw power. Besides, there's laptops that cost over twice as much as this that also rock 5400rpm HDD's and bottom of the barrel LCD's, so it's not like this laptop opted for those cheap components because it's a cheap product; it's because it has, sadly, become the norm.

Had this laptop come with a more powerful discrete GPU (perhaps a 7730M?), it would easily be a 5/5. Unfortunately, the underpowered GPU takes an egg off what is otherwise a great laptop. And for the price? You'll be hard pressed to find something better.

Pros: Good speeds makes boot quicker than my old laptop. Internet surfing is quick. Light, and battery last a long time.

Cons: Design is horrendous. Buttons too spaced apart,gloss finish makes it get grimy after single use, not 1080p, and gaming graphics suck. Didn't know that it doesn't come default as dual graphics, have to set yourself. Gets hot pretty quickly and one fan makes clicking sound when running. This is already a replacement from the one that I originally recieved. Had to wait a month and a half before I was able to use my product because of multiple RMA's. In all had my pc for an hour in month and a half. After three RMA's finally had it decided that it was a full replacement. Newegg customer service sucks and will not be purchasing another Laptop from them.

Other Thoughts: Make sure to set the graphics before doing anything and decide on whether you want to clean the laptop everyday after use before buying this thing. Also be aware of the fact that it's a chance to be faulty from the box and Newegg will take months to fix whatever it is

Pros: Good laptop for its price.

Cons: Windows 8. Removed it and installed Windows 7, everything went well except the HD WebCam, This webcam looks nice on the local PC, but when used in Skype, totally FAILS, its like its recording @ 640*480, and there is no webcam software to change it, at least none that I can find. (I'm not even sure who makes the webcam to look for any)

Other Thoughts: If your looking for an inexpensive laptop that can play games decently, this is for you. However if you plan on using Skype, then this might not be for you.
(Note, tested on Windows 7 Ult. which was installed after getting rid of Windows 8, results with Skype and Windows 8 may be better)

Pros: Long battery life with a Samsung 840 SSD.(4-6 hours YMMV)
Fits a Swissgear bag comfortably.
Handles any modern computer task.
Plenty of expansion ports (for a laptop).
Integrated DVD drive.
Sharp modern screen.
Trinity setup with discrete GPU

Cons: First, the gloss finish on the laptop makes it look nice, but it is slippery. I would have been much happier with a matte finish.
I spent extra $ on laptop upgrades I wish I could have paid extra for. The spare 750GB 5400RPM drive is useful for portable storage but the ram it came with I have no use for.
Not quite a gaming laptop, unfortunately even with impressive hardware specifications. Previously mentioned software - 40GB image.
I would have been much happier with 1GB of VDDR5 than 2GB of VDDR3.

Other Thoughts: As far as gaming performance, I play World of Tanks. My minimum requirements were a "high" view range (not maximum) and minimum (low and off) HDR graphics and maintaining a minimum of 30FPS. This laptop maintains 25 FPS, with occasional drops into the teens.

I have spent the last week trying to eek every bit performance from this laptop - with varying results. AMD crossfire is supported but not used by the developers of the games I play. I believe it to be more of business politics and less of software engineering feats.

The single thing ASUS could do to improve this already manufactured laptop is better reliability of the AMD trinity "turbo core". The games I play are single threaded, and I see 10-15 FPS jumps when one of the cores is running at 3.2GHZ. If this feature would be stable and not shift through PStates on every core every couple of seconds, it would bring this laptop up a considerable notch. I am not asking for world peace - just flatten out already available performance.

Upgrades purchased :

ADATA XPG 8GB SODIMM DDR3 memory
Samsung 840 256gb SSD
Rosewill notebook cooler