Acer Aspire L310 E63W

All desktops that we've received so far have been full ATX sized cabinets. The Acer Aspire series consists of full, as well as small size cabinet desktops. We have the latter form with us today. This Aspire sports a petite body compared to the regular that one sees, and can be placed any where because of its style. But as they say, what matters is the beauty within. When it comes to computers, we first need to look for something that can fulfill our needs of work or study and entertainment, games etc. Read on to find out how this style-body performed.

Bundle

Acer Small factor Cabinet

Desk-stand

Keyboard USB

Mouse Optical USB

Mouse Pad

Manual

Software CD

The system has Media Center preloaded but the very fact that you get a wired keyboard and mouse the system looses the whole media center concept.

For testing we received the System with the Acer AL2216W LCD otherwise there is no display bundled with the system and has to be purchased separately.

Specification

Processor: Core2 Duo E6300 (1.86 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz FSB)

Operating System: Genuine Microsoft" Windows" XP Media Center Edition

Chipset: Intel 946GZ

Memory: 512 MB DDR 2 533 MHz

Graphics: Intel GMA 3000

Audio: Embedded high-definition audio with 7.1-channel audio support

Storage

Hard Disk Drive: 160 GB SATA @ 7200 RPM

Optical Disk Drive: 8X DVD-RW CD-RW Super Multi Drive (Slot Loading DVD Writer)

I/O Devices

Acer Multimedia Keyboard

Acer Optical Scroll Mouse

Communication

LAN Connectivity: Integrated 10/100/1000 MBPS Ethernet Controller

Wireless LAN (802.11 b/g)

I/O Ports

Front Ports

2 x USB 2.0 Ports

IEEE 1394 port (4-pin)

Card Reader 5-in-1 (SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, XD)

Headphone and microphone jacks

Rear Ports

4 x USB 2.0 Ports

IEEE 1394 port

Audio jacks (7.1 Channel & MIC)

DVI port

VGA port

Kensington lock slot

Dimensions

Chassis: Silver Steel Color - 25 cm (H) x 20 cm (L) x 6 cm (W) 3-litre housing

Bundled Software

Norton AntiVirus

Adobe" Reader"

CyberLink" PowerDVD"

NTI CD-Maker Gold

Acer Empowering Technology: eRecovery Management, ePerformance Management, eDataSecurity Management, eMode Management; One Button Recovery (OBR).

Design

The Acer Aspire L310 E63W is a neat and elegant looking hardware. After easily installing the desk-stand in under a minute, the cabinet can be placed standing or sleeping on the table; there are rubber-feet placed on one side of the CPU, and also under the desk-stand to prevent it from scratches.

The cabinet has a silver and chrome finish with off-shades of grey which makes for a nice a combination. The ventilation for the small components is taken care of completely by the steel meshes in the front and on the right side (when you're facing the front of the CPU) closest to the processor housing. The front of the cabinet comprises of the slot loading DVD Writer. Thankfully, there is an eject button provided, so you don't have to face troubles as seen with Macs.

The ports on this side are orderly tucked behind a flap. On the same side, the chrome lines hold LEDs that denote Network Activity (LAN/WLAN), Disk Activity, and Power on.

Performance

The overall performance of the Acer Aspire L310 E63W wasn't too satisfying. Even though it has a Core 2 Duo processor, there is no way that will alone boost the performance of the computer. It is an over all combination that matters. In this product's case, just a measly 512 MB of RAM, that too shared with the on-board graphics, making the Aspire L310 E63W quite sluggish. We opened about 6 windows along with tabs, toggling back and forth between them left the computer frozen at times. The system comes bundled with Windows XP Media Centre Edition. While using this OS, scrolling and listing of songs and video took time. I had to wait for names and album art to show up.

Coming to games, the on-board graphics from the Intel 946GZ chipset is not even worth mentioning. It's best to stick to games like Quake 3 and Counter Strike which don't demand much of graphics. Don't expect 100 fps in CS either. If you add another 512 MB of RAM, the system would have been better to a great extent in most of the other applications, if not gaming.

Conclusion

The Acer Aspire L310 E63W (less the monitor) sells for Rs. 41,499 plus taxes with a 1 year onsite warranty. Here, the price basically shoots because of Core 2 Duo. There are AMD versions of the same available, which are reasonably priced. The same configuration, with an AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ processor, and an nForce 6150 chipset motherboard can be fetched for 30K. There is also a full blown version available with a TV Tuner, Vista Home Basic, and a wireless keyboard and mouse that will cost 36K, which is still lesser than this Intel option. But even all of these come with just 512 MB of RAM, there is only one option from the series that is Linux loaded, and has 1 GB of RAM priced at 30K. So as you can see, only the AMD options seem to make sense here. As for this Intel version, I wouldn't want to opt for it even if it were bundled with another half a gig of RAM. The price of RAM is at an all time low and Acer should seriously consider bundling 1 GB to complement the other quality hardware they use. That would boost the performance significantly and in turn, its value.