We have two, both running after years of service. One is stock and running the Windows 7 32 bit upgrade. What I would recommend is changing the DVD to a compatible one (I put a Blu ray player in) and then changed the hard drive for a seagate hybrid one, now it is running Windows 7 64 bit. All is running fine and the Turion x2 2.2 GHZ processor is bullet proof. The only downside to it's age is that the ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics Card is a little slow compared with some modern laptops but it will run video in 1080P and is still quite good considering this was a £300 laptop when I bought the second one new. The speakers are also fine when you get the volume up though we tend to watch film on a 46 inch 1080P monitor so it's normally going down the HDMI line.

The laptop came with Vista and an option for a free upgrade to Windows 7. During the upgrade process I ran into issues with Comodo Firewall/Security. Once that was sorted out (by disabling some of the Comodo components) the laptop worked beautifully. Loads of space, tons of memory and a very good display. Great value for money from Ebuyer for £379 (+£12 for the Windows upgrade delivery.

i think this Acer Aspire 5536 laptop is great, very usefull easy to use

When the time comes to buy a laptop, the sheer abundance of choice is daunting. The range of specifications and manufacturers leave you reeling. For me, I had to start with price and see what I could get for my money. I set a target of under £400 and set off. Straight away, the Acer Aspire 5536 stood out on the web site I was looking at. At £350 the specifications look fairly good. AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64 2.1 GHz Dual-Core processor, 3Gb RAM as standard, 250 Gb Hard drive, 256Mb (Shared) graphics, and 802.11n (draft) Wireless networking. Installed with Windows Vista Home Basic. I could find nothing in the price range that appeared to touch this. I know with Vista RAM is king, so the installed 3Gb snatched it.

The first thing you notice is the screen. The 15.6 Widescreen Acer CrystalBrite offers a great picture. Reading text is far easier than my desktop TFT monitor with good contrast and the image just seems to jump out at you. The keyboard is well spaced and also incorporates a number keypad. The touch pad incorporates multi finger gestures including enlarge and shrink (like the iPhone) There are 4 USB 2.0 ports (2 on the left and 2 on the right) as well as VGA and HDMI output (Configurable as separate desktops if required). A DVD R/W drive, Ethernet (10, 100, 1000) and modem but no firewire. When you fire it up, it boots quickly and I have been pleasantly surprised by the responsiveness of Vista basic. It lacks some of the polish of the Home premium lacking the glass effect and Aero theme, but as these only serve to consume resources and make your machine run like a dog I am happy. The build quality seems to be good, I don't feel that I am going to snap anything accidently.

In conclusion, I am really happy with this laptop, and would be happy to recommend it. The only minor flaws, are that the smooth top cover picks up fingerprints really easily and that there is a button (and keyboard shortcut) for bluetooth although it isn't installed in this version of the model.