INTELCORE2 Duo E6420,2GB,160GBBrand: Acer
Binding: Personal Computers
Features: - With True Enhanced Performance.
- Latest Technical Development.
Awesome little critter - my initial impressions [Posted on 2008-02-21]
Pros: Small. Quiet. Relatively fast. Small. Cute. Both VGA and DVI outputs. Partitioned drive (C system drive, and empty D drive). This partitioning is fantastic, as that's how I always set up my drives, so I was saved having to do this. All I had to do was shrink the C (system) drive, and enlarge the D (Data) drive (done in Vista's Computer Management, under Control Panel in Administrative Tools). Have I mentioned that they're small?
Cons: The drive size (160GB) is pretty small by today's crop, and the memory (2GB) is too small (for my needs). No big deal, as I was planning to upgrade both of these items when I got my units (yes, that's plural, as I bought 2 of them, 1 for myself & 1 for a friend - and then I bought a 3rd one, also for myself). So far I've only managed to remove the top plate on one of the PCs, front plate and then lift the chassis top a small amount, to see that it contains a regular 3.5" SATA drive, and 2 sticks of laptop memory. So the upgrades will have to wait until Acer's tech support (hopefully) tells me how to remove the chassis top enough to change the items.
Also, the bloatware is there, but I just uninstalled all of them, which included all the Acer software, Norton's bloated Internet Security cr@p (just my opinion), and a few other programs.
Ordering & shipping: I purchased all 3 units through Amazon, and they were processed & shipped by ANTOnline. Amazon's product description, prices & order process were painless, fast & fantastic (as always). As for ANTOnline, a few of my Amazon orders in the past have been handled by them, and were shipped out fast (the same day) & without any problems. Likewise for these orders, which ANTOnline processed almost immediately & shipped out within hours the same day, with delivery the following day. Also, the packaging arrived in good shape & without any damage.
Other thoughts: I knew about the bloatware and the small drive & memory before I bought the product, so I still give it 5 stars, as I knew what I was getting before I placed my orders. My PCs will be on 24/7 but not doing much heavy work, as their purpose is to be my web server (with not that many visitors, so not working that hard) and FTP/mail server (not much work on that unit either). They're not cheap, so hopefully I'll get at least a couple of years' use out of them.
Also, there's various models (with different item numbers) of this product. These consist of models with Windows Vista and Windows XP, 1GB and 2GB of memory, and models with & without built-in 802.11b/g wireless. All 3 of the units that I bought were model VL460-UD6420C, which contained Windows Vista Business (32-bit), 2-GB of memory (2 laptop-type sticks of 1GB each), and without the built-in 802.11b/g wireless option.
All in all, although I've only had these 3 PCs a week or so, I'm very pleased with them so far. Again, hopefully the quality will permit them to last for at least a couple of years.
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