Acer AcerPower M8 - Athlon 64 3500+

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Fast
Design	Satisfactory
Manufacturer Support	Satisfactory
Ease of use	Very easy
Value For Money	Good

Advantages:	Good value for money
Disadvantages:	A DVD Writer wouldn't have goe amiss

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

My experience of this PC I will admit is limited as I only had it delivered on Monday of this week. I will however convey the my opinion of it so far.

I will list the technical specifications and how useful I have found them to be. Please note that this is a purely "budget range" machine so obviously it doesn't have all the flashing lights and ringing bells that are available on some PC's.

Processor:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+:
The processor uses 64bit technology and a L2 Cashe of 512mb. This by no means a very fast CPU by today's standards, but then bear in mind this is a budget price machine. I mainly use my machine for MS Word, Excel, E-mail and on line gaming. In terms of stability, The machine copes well even with multiple applications open. It does struggle a bit however if you try and play back DVD movies while having other applications open in the background.

RAM:
512Mb DDR II Sdram 533Mhz:
Considering the lower prices of memory these days, 512Mb is a bit measly, but then you do have to consider the initial price you are paying for the PC. I made the decision to upgrade to 1Gb as it was offered for a mere £35 extra if i purchased at the time. With the extra memory the machine performs well, although I think the upgrade has made a significant boost, and well worth the cost. Further upgrades are possible and the PC will accept up to 4Gb.

HARD DRIVE:
80Gb Serial-ATA 150 @ 7200rpm:
Whilst the hard drive is not massive, it is more than adequate. On my old PC I had a 60Gb drive and even with loads of photo's stored on it, the most I ever used is 20Gb. Performance of the drive is good, the read / write speed is fast, and surprisingly quiet when running.

OPTICAL DRIVE:
CD-R / DVD ROM Combo:
Although this is a budget price PC, in my opinion this was penny pinching gone a bit to far. The price difference between a DVD ROM and a DVD RW is very negligible, I feel sure Acer could have included a DVD writer and still kept retained the budget price. Fortunately I already had an external writer, but I can see where this could sway the balance for potential customers.

SOUND:
On board sound card, nothing special, no 5.1 surround or anything, but then it does the job, namely provides stereo sound. Obviously if you want something special, you can always add it at a later date, or buy a higher priced PC.

GRAPHICS:
On board graphics, again nothing spectacular but does the job. I have used my PC for gaming and there are no obvious drawbacks, it copes well. However for anyone wanting to use high performance games, I would say an upgrade would be a must.

INTERFACE:
8 x USB (4 front + 4 back) For a low end price PC I did think was quite impressive and most budget range PC's only tend to have 4 or 6 USB ports at most.
1 x Parallel printer port. (does anyone still use these??)
1 x Serial port
1 x Line in audio 3.5mm
1 x Line out audio 3.5mm
1 x Ethernet (LAN) port

OPERATING SYSTEM:
Windows XP SP2:
I was somewhat surprised that the machine is supplied with XP and not Vista. However, again I presume that this is cost driven. Also as I understand it, Vista is a very hungry resources swallower and maybe not as well suited to the spec the PC. On the plus side XP is a proven and stable operating system with all the bugs ironed out.

SOFTWARE:
Not much I'm afraid. The PC is supplied with NTI-CD maker and Adobe reader. NTI -CD maker is not a bad programme. It allows you to record audio, data and video cd, and is a very easy programme to use with a friendly interface. Again you can't really expect to pay £300 for a PC and get £150 worth of software to go with it.

UPGRADEABLE?:
Obviously this is an entry level price PC. For anyone wanting just a basic PC for everyday use then this is certainatley well worth a second look. For those buying on a budget with the intention of upgrading later than there is scope for you to do this. On the outside there is space to add further CD / DVD drives and extra floppy / Zip drives if required. On the inside the main board has 4 x Dimm slots for memory upgrades, 2 x PCI slots and 1 PCI express slot.

WARRANTY:
Obviously this depends on where you buy from and what kind of deal you can screw out of the supplier. The standard warranty is 12 months which in most cases due to the cost will be return to base rather than on-site warranty.

To summarise, as I stated above I have only had my PC for a little under a week. In that short space of time I will say that I am very pleased with what I have got for the money. The Acer Power M8 is a budget price PC with no frills or flashing lights, but if you want a basic every day reliable PC, then I would definitely recommended this to you!