I'm looking for a notebook, it would be used for internet browsing, watching movies and playing some games (nothing too extreme, simcity, something like dragonage or The sims 4 when it comes out at 1600x900). I'm on a rather tight budget though. I found the ACER aspire V3 with a i5-3230M CPU and a GT 740m GPU for 700€. I have no clue about laptop parts, and I couldn't find any reliable laptop benchmarks, at all.....
So, would this be a decent choice? How are the ACER laptops quality wise, I would really like something that runs cool and doesn't overheat as soon as you start to play a game. Are there far superior alternatives I'm totally missing here? Thanks in advance for your input, it's really appreciated.
That is decent enough. I have experience with an entry level Acer like that (540mGT 1GB with nvidia optimus -integrated intel), and it's thermal paste has gone bad in 5-6 months. You'll have to either be prepared for heating problems if that happens or just replace it yourself, it's easy if you carefully follow the service manual to disassemble it. It still holds after being somewhat manhandled by my niece, age 10, it's build quality was decent (the keyboard and case feels like flimsy plastic but it's actually good).
There are superior alternatives! http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosII/ Configure that puppy with the 1366x768 matte or the 1080p non-ips glossy display and 4gb ram(uprade it yourself later) i7-4700mq quad core 740m ddr5 vs 750m ddr3 I don't know which is faster but they give you either for no price difference(help guys?) 1tb seagate sshd arctic mx-4 thermal paste intel-n7260 nic/bluetooth no OS required/pirating saves 79 euro and gives you headroom for 1080p display if you choose it.
Okay, it seems that for 660€ I could get an acer aspire V5 with an i5 4200u and a GT750m, 8 GB of RAM, full HD ips screen and 500GB of storage. Seems good for the price when compared to other prebuilt laptops here. But is that CPU really fine for light gaming? Dual core 1.6 GHz? Also, some more user experience with ACER laptops would be awesome.