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I was offered a limited choice by the insurance company, and eventually settled on the Acer Idea 510 as this gave the best value for money, or so it seemed.
Initial thoughts were impressive. Its one of the only systems I have seen that has the same footprint as a DVD player being as ... Read review
Advantages: Great concept, Compact Design, Reasonable Hi-spec (Vista Capable), Relatively quiet. Disadvantages: Gets hot, crashes, doesn't always power on, Noisy HD, IR Receiver, Noisy SCART, Expensive
...and eventually settled on the Acer Idea 510 as this gave the best value for money, or so it seemed.
Initial thoughts were impressive. Its one of the only systems I have seen that has the same footprint as a DVD player being as it is only approx 60mm high and 260mm deep.
Construction seems above average with all but one of the front panel buttons feeling positive to the touch. The inclusion of a VFD display, and a slot ... ...supplied with some extras from Acer themselves as well as Norton AV 2007, and PowerDVD and CyberLink utils.
However whilst all this sounds good so far, there are a few annoying niggles that prevent this from being a great system.
Firstly the fans, there are 3 of them. On the LHS you have one 50mm for the CPU and one 50mm for the Geforce Go 7600. These both exhaust air to the outside. On the RHS there is one 50mm on the ... more
Having built two Media Center PCs previously and after one of them being damaged, I decided to buy a ready built system with the insurance money.
I was offered a limited choice by the insurance company, and eventually settled on the Acer Idea 510 as this gave the best value for money, or so it seemed.
Initial thoughts were impressive. Its one of the only systems I have seen that has the same footprint as a DVD player being as it is only approx 60mm high and 260mm deep.
Construction seems above average with all but one of the front panel buttons feeling positive to the touch. The inclusion of a VFD display, and a slot loading DVD-RW is nice and the front panel buttons help when you loose the remote!
At the back there is an array of connection options, including HDMI, DVI, SCART(Composite only), 7 Channel sound output, optical and co-axial out, gigabit ethernet, USB and Firewire ports, Aerial in and out(pass through) and an connector for the wireless aerial.
Powering the unit on results in reasonably loud wooshing from the fans before they slow down, but a lot of clicking from the unenclosed and hardmounted 250gb hard drive (WD2500JS SATA). In order to reduce the noise from the Hard Disk to an acceptable level required the use of a 3rd party tool to turn on AAM(Automatic Accoustic Management) to the max (255). But I would also recommend trying to rubber mount this as this model seems to vibrate alot.
In use the system is fairly responsive, and the provided keyboard is fine for most uses. However although it is an RF keyboard (better than the Microsoft IR MCE Keyboard) it does not have enough MCE specific keys to be easy to use in lieu of the MCE remote. The remote itself is the cheap OEM MCE Remote and as such is not a learning remote, so cannot be used to control the volume and on/off of your TV.
The quality of the TV recording is fine, as good as my other 2 MCE PCs that used a WinTV Nova-T 500 MCE and a TWINHAN card.
It comes supplied with some extras from Acer themselves as well as Norton AV 2007, and PowerDVD and CyberLink utils.
However whilst all this sounds good so far, there are a few annoying niggles that prevent this from being a great system.
Firstly the fans, there are 3 of them. On the LHS you have one 50mm for the CPU and one 50mm for the Geforce Go 7600. These both exhaust air to the outside. On the RHS there is one 50mm on the inside of the 120w PSU pushing air from inside the case through the PSU to the outside. Whilst they are not to noisy in normal use, they are audible and being 50mm (usually used in industrial units and therefore hard to source quieter replacements) they also use intel standard 4pin headers utilising PWM, again hard to replace. There is no height in the case to use larger fans.
In principle the cooling works quite well. The hard disk is cooled by air being drawn over the disk by the CPU and GPU fans. However whilst the CPU, HD and PSU only get relativley warm, the GPU is almost always hot at around 60 degrees C. This initially seemed to cause an issue whilst the unit was on a shelf in a tv unit that was enclosed on three sides with no where for the hot air to exhaust efficiently, this appeared to cause a couple of lockup of the GPU and the PC with Live TV and sound freezing with an unpleasant noise. To resolve this I removed the back of the TV unit so the back was completely open, and I am happy to say it hasn't happened since.
However the primary reason I think for this problem is the design of the case, as it seems to be the same case as used in the Idea 500, which does not have a cut out in the grill for the GPU fan (absent in the 500). This means the exit path of the fan is 1/3 to a 1/2 blocked by the case resulting in recirculation of hot air back into the case!
The other problems lie in noise apparent in the SCART output, which affects both the desktop and the TV output, so not likely due to the TV card but more to inadequate shielding. And a really annoying problem, where the PC does not always boot from OFF. It seems to hang with no video output and the HD at idle when trying to post. This occurs 2 out of 3 times, and I can only think this might be down to an inadequate 120w PSU Combined with a T5500, and 7600 Go and the full size harddisk, plus the three fans etc.
Whilst the IR receiver is built in to keep the lines clean, it has a narrow field of view and requires the user and remote to be directly in front of the unit for it to operate.
Hibernate and Standby are not reliable.
This unit is going back to Acer for repair to try and resolve some of the issues above, and If I can I will comment once it has been returned.
So in conclusion its a great idea (pun intended), but poorly executed and needs a re-design by Acer or user intevention that would invalidate the warranty (and there are warranty stickers on the case and the memory door (SO-DIMMS) underneath. At £800 a go this is a very expensive risk!
metcaa1 21.03.2007
Ciao members have rated this review on average:
very helpful
Review of Acer Aspire iDea 510
Speed
Reliability
Memory / capacity
Range of Extra Features
Design
Manufacturer Support
Instruction manual
Ease of use
Value For Money
Quick review of Acer Aspire iDea 510
I've owned one of these for 18 months. It's brilliant. The only negative is that it is just like a PC insofar as it needs maintenance. Reboot it weekly and generally don't use it as a PC but as a media centre (after all isn't that why you want one?) and it'll be fine - so long as you don't expect the shear simplicity of a dvd player. If you already own and successfully use a PC, buy one. Expensive - yes - but worth every penny. TV, TV recording, Music, Photos, Internet, Films and games all in one place - unsurpassed. ...
scuba-Doo 18.10.2008
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Acer Aspire iDea 510
Quick review of Acer Aspire iDea 510
Excellent product I have owned one since it was released and this unit has been switched on for months on end with no major issues. I have just (May 09) swapped out the power supply and upped the memory to 4 gig and I am going to load Windows 7 release candidate.
Other positive qualities the quietness of the fans.
The range of inputs on the rear.
Near silent running of hard drive
The concealed front panel including card reader.
10 out of 5! ...
enigma4u2 13.05.2009
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Acer Aspire iDea 510
Quick review of Acer Aspire iDea 510
Apart from the bluetooth never working the machine was OK for six months, if you can put up with having to reset every other week. Then it went wrong. I returned it to Acer and it came back a week later apperently OK. 24 hours later the same fault returned. Once again back to Acer who did nothing for 3 weeks. Finally I insisted they return it to me and I have taken the problem up with the retailer. Acer were worse than useless in this matter. Buy one of these at your peril!!!! ...
wilsonbob 22.07.2008
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Acer Aspire iDea 510
Quick review of Acer Aspire iDea 510
It used XP MC OS. It also has Nvidia GF7600. This is one of the best slim product to solve all of ur homework based project. increase the memory to 2x1GB Corsair XMS and 400GB HD and U can do anything what U like with this product. All !! ...
nine9thtails 02.09.2007
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Acer Aspire iDea 510
Advantages: Looks SHARP!!! Has almost everything "IN THERE" (TV, FM,++) Disadvantages: Not too user servicable.. but then we haven't had problems. Sooo...
...I give kudos to the Acer Group. The Aspire 510 is one we can place in our customers homes. Set it up. Teach the nuances of it and how Media Center works, and move on to the next customer. NO call-back thus far for hardware-related issues. I came about this unit quite by accident. I can't build units fast enough. And we needed a supplier reliable enough to take the strain off of me. Yet one that could think outside of the box and provide us with forward ... ...a time if need be. Acer kept coming up at or near the top of the list. Their Aspire 510 has won awards from third parties that have like me, have no ax to grind. Business is business. Crashes... none. Lock-up none thus far. Problems..... No. Suggestions..... We would like Acer to spec the Aspire 510 with more (2 gigs ) memory STANDARD for Vista. But that is not a deal breaker. The Dual core T5500 is plenty fast!!! And a recent release. Cool, yet ...
Rogerpjr 10.04.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Acer Aspire iDea 510
CompactFlash Card type I, CompactFlash Card type II, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Microdrive, MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card
Monitor
Monitor Type
None
Graphics controller
Type
Plug-in card
Graphics Processor / Vendor
NVIDIA GeForce 7600
Video Memory
256 MB
Digital Video Standard
Digital Visual Interface (DVI), High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)
Multimedia functionality
TV Tuner Type
Dual digital/analogue TV
Digital TV Reception
DVB-T
High Definition TV
Yes
Audio output
Type
Sound card - integrated
Sound Output Mode
7.1 channel surround
Compliant Standards
Dolby Digital 5.1, Digital Theater Systems (DTS), High Definition Audio
Keyboard
Connectivity
Wireless
Features
Built-in touch pad
Operating system / software
OS Provided
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Software
NTI CD-Maker Gold Edition, CyberLink PowerDVD 6, Adobe Acrobat Reader 7, Norton Internet Security 2006
Manufacturer's product description
Put the Aspire iDea 510 in your living room - and bring home a complete entertainment center! Cutting-edge technology and innovative functionality let you enjoy a fully integrated multimedia environment, while the stylish design of the Aspire iDea 510 blends perfectly into your modern living space.
