Gaming What should I do with this acer laptop?

[jDSX]

I got a couple of laptops for $40 last week, one of which I like the acer but has a broken lcd panel screen I am using it along with my external tv monitor. The other is netbook without a working battery atom zxxx series= crap. Cannot think of any reason to use the netbook for anything at this point.

Here are the specs of the acer

aspire 5745 model.

Core i3 350m @ 2.27ghz
4gb of ram
500gb hdd
windows 7

Should I get the screen fixed an make it my main laptop or strip it for parts? I like it for being a intel laptop that is hard to come by here but don't like the fact of leaving it sitting on my desk all the time also not sure how good the first gen core i series are in mobile form when it comes to playing older games and emulation on?

 

[VinsCool]

I'll definitely strip it for parts hahaha

 

[FAST6191]

Processor has not mattered much for games in years. There are some exceptions but for the most part it is all about the GPU as long as you have enough RAM (and 4 gigs will do, though someone has likely upgraded that from 3 so make sure they have not stuck a really slow stick in) and I am seeing mixed between models as to what that has. If intel then I hope you enjoy humble indy bundles (you might get something more mainstream just about done but it would be "technically it can") if something else then we get to look further, or more accurately you can look at the graphics card charts to see what games run at.

Amazon if I do the silly search lists the screen for $45 (probably plus shipping), I am sure if I went for model numbers and a proper vendor that would be lower. Can't remember the last acer of that line and vintage I replaced a screen on but I do not recall any traumas either. If you can replace a hard drive or know how to strip for parts then you can replace a screen.
I would then probably fix it for me or if someone I know needed a laptop for a little while, probably would not fix it to sell to anybody that would come back annoyed if it did not work in 3 months. Then again I would probably not sell a second hand laptop. For me I might even find a cheap SSD to stick in there.

On the netbook the lack of a battery is troubling. However they make OK terminals for things that will not work on tablets but need a slightly fuller fat windows.

 

[jDSX]

I'll definitely strip it for parts hahaha

I already did scraped the netbook since it was beeping everytime I went to boot it up lol

Processor has not mattered much for games in years. There are some exceptions but for the most part it is all about the GPU as long as you have enough RAM (and 4 gigs will do, though someone has likely upgraded that from 3 so make sure they have not stuck a really slow stick in) and I am seeing mixed between models as to what that has. If intel then I hope you enjoy humble indy bundles (you might get something more mainstream just about done but it would be "technically it can") if something else then we get to look further, or more accurately you can look at the graphics card charts to see what games run at.

Amazon if I do the silly search lists the screen for $45 (probably plus shipping), I am sure if I went for model numbers and a proper vendor that would be lower. Can't remember the last acer of that line and vintage I replaced a screen on but I do not recall any traumas either. If you can replace a hard drive or know how to strip for parts then you can replace a screen.
I would then probably fix it for me or if someone I know needed a laptop for a little while, probably would not fix it to sell to anybody that would come back annoyed if it did not work in 3 months. Then again I would probably not sell a second hand laptop. For me I might even find a cheap SSD to stick in there.

On the netbook the lack of a battery is troubling. However they make OK terminals for things that will not work on tablets but need a slightly fuller fat windows.

Thanks @FAST6191 for the suggestion, however the screen replacement is too much of a risk in ordering one (I'd have to get it from Thailand rip) I might as well look out for another model that has a lcd panel screen and use that one, find it in a recycling center or second hand.

 

[Armadillo]

I'd ignore the screen, keep it hooked up to a tv and make it my htpc/anime machine . i3 will handle 10bit anime stuff nicely .

 

[jDSX]

I'd ignore the screen, keep it hooked up to a tv and make it my htpc/anime machine . i3 will handle 10bit anime stuff nicely .

I..what?

 

[FAST6191]

I..what?

Some of the anime peeps drank from the same well as the audiophools and people that buy monster cable and decided to encode their anime using 10 bit H264 -- it is great if you are a video maker/video editor but for end user use there is so little in it if you do it right. Said 10 bit H264 does not decode with hardware accelerators on anything really so it is all software and thus that means all in CPU. Accordingly it can be a CPU killer but the core i line can usually handle it for sane resolutions.

 

[Armadillo]

Yeah, the above pretty much. Pointless and annoying for the end user.

In regards to software decoding, I don't think it's that much of a power hog. Even my old x4 955 can do hi birate 1080p 10bit without issue, about 35% cpu utilisation. Kodi's wiki suggest even a Core2duo can handle it fine.

So either the decoders have gotten better and more efficient or the whole "cpu hog" comes from mobile/low power areas, where typically it would be hardware, because the processors are meh or there is a ton of people still using ancient cpus in the desktop space.

350m is a mobile processor, but still has enough. I have one in a laptop and it typically sits around 60% while playing 1080p/10bit. So I would use the machine for that .

 

[emmanu888]

I'd say upgrade the RAM, 8GB is what i would recommend and a SSD if you can afford it.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I'm gonna go with the other people saying HTPC on this one. Rip the screen off completely and mount the keyboard/component housing somewhere under the TV and install OpenELEC on it/set up Windows to boot straight into Kodi