Affordably Hoping on to the HD Bandwagon
Slipping back down to third place in the first quarter of this year was Taiwanese computer manufacturer Acer, who had managed to just barely overtake Dell for second place in worldwide notebook PC sales in the last quarter of 2007 (though Dell has reclaimed the lead again by a small margin). Thanks to its acquisitions of Gateway and Packard-Bell, Acer has also pulled ahead further from close rival Lenovo in the PC sales race. Q1 sales figures have also indicated that Acer was 0.3% off obtaining the magical 10% number of worldwide global PC sales that only HP and Dell are currently capable of achieving.
While some of its success can be attributed to the takeover of Gateway and Packard-Bell, it was mainly Acer's aggressive pricing strategy which has allowed the company to make vast inroads into the competitive PC market. Indeed, Acer has shown a willingness to pack lots of nice hardware and features into their products while selling them at affordable levels. One such examples of this strategy would be the Acer Aspire X3600 high definition media crunching desktop computer, which features a quad-core processor, 3GB of memory, a HD-DVD/Blu-ray Combo Drive and a 22-inch widescreen LCD monitor, all for just over S$2000 in a small package. So read on to check out what we think about this lightweight contender.
 Standing tall and proud is the Aspire X3600 machine, which features an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor running at 2.5GHz, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, 500GB HDD and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400XT. |
Acer Aspire X3600 Specifications
Processor and Chipset
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 (2.5GHz, 6MB L2)
Intel G33 + ICH9-DH Chipset
Operating System
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premum
System Memory
3GB DDR2-667 (1 x 2GB + 1 x 1GB modules)
Video
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400XT
256MB DDR2 VRAM
Up to 1GB Hypermemory
HDD
Seagate 2.5-inch SATA (ST3500820AS)
500GB, 7200RPM, 8MB Buffer, SATA-II interface
Optical Drive
DVD SuperMulti Double Layer, Blu-ray Universal (LG H20N OEM)
Communication
Integrated Ethernet LAN
WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g
Audio
Dolby-certified Home Theater Technology with 5.1 surround sound, featuring Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Live, Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Digital Stereo Creator, Dolby Headphone, Dolby Virtual Speaker technologies.
S/PDIF digital support.
Front Panel
Power Button & LED
4 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x IEEE 1394 port (4-pin)
1 x headphone and microphone jacks
1 x Multi card reader (MMC, SD, MS, MS PRO, XD)
Back Panel
4 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x IEEE 1394 port (6-pin)
5 x audio ports
1 x S/PDIF output
1 x Ethernet (RJ-45) port
1 x DVI-I port (with DVI-I to D-Sub adapter)
1 x HDMI port
1 x S-video/audio/video input (optional)
1 x FM antenna input (optional)
1 x TV antenna input (optional)
1 x IR blaster (Optional)
1 x Kensington Lock
Dimension & Weight
85.5 mm (W) x 255.8mm (D) x 345mm (H)
Bundled Software and Accessories
Wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse
Intel Viiv Technology
Acer Empowering Technology (eRecovery, ePerformance, eDataSecurity, eMode Management)
Acer Arcade Live
Adobe Reader
Microsoft Office 2007 60-Day Trial Preloaded
NTI CD & DVD-Maker Gold
NTI Backup Now!
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