Acer Veriton M464

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Fast
Design	Satisfactory
Manufacturer Support	Needs improvement
Ease of use	Easy
Value For Money	Good

Advantages:	fast and powerful, energy efficient, large storage space, future proof
Disadvantages:	graphic card

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

...or is it mighty?

When I look at this PC's configuration I am wondering in which category would I put it. Is it for games or would it rather fit in an office? Is it just for internet browsing and emailing or just for listening to your music?

It is for everything!!

Let us have a look inside it:

In fairly decent case you will find

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 / 2.5 GHz with 4 CORES and with only 95 watts of power input will give you pretty impressive performance and with 6 MB of cache memory on it it's unstopable. (Cache memory is a very very fast memory, much faster
than RAM - more means better)

This processor is a must-have if your hobby is ie. complex photo editing or video editing or if your job is to process large databases.

(Please note that some older programs may not be able to use all four cores this processor offers you and may use only one so make sure your software is always up-to-date.)

It also supports 64-bit computing which means you can run 64-bit operating system and programs on this computer. This is good if you want to use ie. all of this computers 4GB of RAM. On the other hand most of today's programs are 32-bit which means they will not take much advantage of 64-bit processing. And some
32-bit programs will not work if you try to run them under 64-bit operating system.

(I run 64-bit OS on my PC and from my experience I must say that I had only problems with some rather old 32-bit software and games)

While 32-bit operating system is able to use only around 3.25GB of RAM, majority of programs will run here.

This processor is future proof!

Motherboard: (or main board) NVIDIA nForce 630i supports maximum of 4GB of RAM so there's not much room for memory upgrade but don't worry, - for a long time you will be in no need of doing so.

4GB of RAM is a LOT.

Apart from other useful features such as network interface, DVI-Digital and VGA connector for your monitor and/or TV it also has 8 hi-speed USB ports which is absolutelly perfect if you need to connect all other devices such as printer, web camera, mobile phone transfer data cable, external harddisk and so on.

Hard Drive: 640GB of storage space is certainly enough for tons of videos, thousands of photos and music tracks on top of your programs, games, databases etc.

Optical storage: DVD-RW will allow you to store and back up all kinds of your files on DVD or you can basically use is for watching movies or listening to music cd's.


Graphic controller: NVIDIA GeForce 7050 is integrated (on the motherboard) and in my opinion it's the weakest part of this otherwise great machine. This is the only reason that makes me say that this PC is not for high-end top-spec. games. It will run most of today's games but do not expect too much. You may want to upgrade this part (but ask specialist first).

Audio Output: integrated sound card with 7.1 channel surround sound output mode is a standard these days and unless you are after real crystal sound from you
music or games there is no need for improvement.

Power supply: providing 250 Watt makes this PC very efficient to run. But again, if you want to add another harddisk or graphic card in the future - 250 watts may not be enough to support it.

This system comes with preinstalled Windows Vista operating system and some pretty good choice of additional software (see product information).

No monitor. I believe that most people already have a decent monitor so I will not use this as a disadvantage. Yes. Even with its price tag.

Warranty is limited to - 1 year - carry-in.

My verdict: ACER Veriton M464 is perfect for private companies and academic institutions where large calculations are being performed, huge databases are being accessed, and complex problems are being solved. But this is also why would it be a great choice for anyone's everyday use and because of it's tremendous speed and power it should give you peace of mind for years to come.