Sum n substance:

Thumbs up:The feature set is midway between mediocre and brilliant, well equipped, cost effective, room for upgradation, multi card reader, HDMI FireWire ports.

Thumbs down:Integrated graphics, low power supply of 250 watts, just add a few bucks more and you could get an all together swish and better desktop.

Inside the trunk:
Processor type: Intel Pentium E5200 / 2.5 GHz

Multi-Core processor technology: Dual-Core

RAM: 4 GB / 8 GB (max), DDR3 SDRAM

Hard Drive 1 x 640 GB – Standard – Serial ATA-300

Graphics Processor / Vendor Intel GMA X4500 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0

Sound output mode 7.1 channel surround

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS:

Razzle- Dazzle:When I first had a look at the Acer aspire, it kind of put me off. Yeah, it’s got the same old conventional black design which most of us are bored by now. But as they say, looks are not always everything… here I go ahead with the rest of the design. It’s got a honeycomb pattern which is kind of new but doesn’t exactly match upto the design sensibilities of the other desktops on the shelf. Probably the only saviour in the looks department for this desktop could be the blue –LED power button which gives it a space odyssey kind of a look. Like the Dell Studio XPS 435 even this one has a built it tray at the top where you could store your iPod or Bluetooth device while syncing it. The case does have a lot of room for expansion. Apart from the DVD+/-RW, there’s a second 5.25-inch drive bay and it does have room for a second hard drive.

Inside Dope:

Going on to the actual performance of the Acer: we put it through a few tests… like the Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test, Apple iTunes encoding test, Multimedia multitasking, Cinebench test and compared it with the other on the shelf desktops like the Gateway SX2800-01, Asus CM5570-AP002. All the testing led to a simple straight forward conclusion… the Acer is not as fast as the Gateway and also it dallies behind in the budget competition.

The Acer can easily brag about its features which include: HDMI video outputs, standalone optical digital audio out, and a spattering of USB 2.0 ports. As far as external storage connections are concerned the Acer comes packed with a device-friendly FireWire 400. The power supply of around 250 watts is a major bummer because it leaves little scope for any kind of upgradation. I was pretty much impressed with the assorted array of multimedia apps.

Nitty- Gritty:I wouldn’t say that this an awesome desktop or anything even close by. But it’s a slightly more than mediocre desktop with probably more of an economic value. Also it doesn’t have much to offer from a gamer’s point of view. A 300-watt power supply prevents more than a midrange 3D graphics card upgrade, but even a $150 3D card would turn this system into a respectable bare bones gaming system. The best point in this case is that it won’t lead to soaring electricity bills. So go ahead if you’re lacking the dollars and need a decent enough desktop laden with vanilla kind of features.

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