The mid-range desktop is a dying breed. With most consumers choosing laptops anyway, the principle reasons for selecting a desktop in any respect are to get below the $500 mark, get maximum performance for gaming or other media applications, or just to have a semi-permanent?installation with a bigger screen than you an get while mobile. At $699, the Acer Aspire M3 AM3970 represents one among a handful of models caught somewhere within the middle: a better?processor?and more RAM to get more oomph than budget desktops, but not lots that it is a serious threat to machines towards the $1000 mark. Let?s examine how this one stacks up.
Hardware
Aesthetics are secondary for a normal desktop, but as they go, the AM3970 is decent. A steel chassis is surrounded by glossy black panels at the front and top, with only two subtle blue LEDs for power and drive status ? a plus in my book. The power?button?is placed oddly at the upper left corner of the precise side, making seeing and using it tricky in the event you place your computer at the floor or to the proper of your monitor. At the floor is definitely where it?s intended to be, with four USB ports plus a headphone jack and line in at the top of the pc. The eject button is likewise at the right side, implying that the pc is meant to be beside or below the user?s desk and to the left, and leaving little choice otherwise. Once placed there, using the SD/MicroSD/Compact Flash/XD/Memory Stick card reader becomes a chore, due to the black-on-black inlaid slots.
Move around to the backplate and you will find all of the standards, with a generous helping of USB ports. The four ports at the top are paired to 10 (count ?em, ten) at the back, leaving all however the most compulsive of plug-and-players well covered. Two of those ports use the hot USB 3.0 standard ? a pleasing touch. a couple of ordinary PS/2 ports are present for all you old-school Model M and Intellimouse enthusiasts. Our review configuration (AM3970-UR11p) came with discrete graphics and the on-board integrated VGA and HDMI ports disabled, with a DVI port and another HDMI taking their place at the expansion slot. Slightly below which you get a WiFi PCI adapter to go with the gigabit Ethernet port, complete with detachable antenna.
Moving directly to internals, the?AM3970 comes with a three.0Ghz Core i5 2320 CPU, 8GB of DDR3 memory (2?4 DIMMs) and a 1TB traditional harddisk. Compared to similarly priced desktop models from Dell and HP, Acer offers you identical components with a further 2GB of memory. Along for the ride are a regular DVD-RW drive and a discrete AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics card. Popping the access panel off requires a screwdriver (no thumbscrews) and while pre-built desktops like this one aren?t often made with expansion in mind, a reinforced back panel and a good amount of room inside should make that straightforward enough for people that wish to upgrade components in a while.
A mouse and keyboard are included, naturally. It?s hard to debris up an optical mouse, however the keyboard deserves special attention ? and never in a great way. Long travel at the keys combined with a glossy backing will make cleaning a nightmare, and the mushy feedback had me reaching for my spare Microsoft model shortly. That?s rather?disappointing, especially when put next to the quite respectable keyboards Dell tends to incorporate.
Software
Acer includes the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, the simpler to exploit that 8GB of RAM. Bloatware on basic desktops could be a problem, but on the?AM3970 it?s better than I?ve seen elsewhere. Acer appears to be favoring static and simply deleted desktop shortcuts for just a little promotional cash, that is fine by me. You continue to get a couple of extras that aren?t?strictly?called for, including the obligatory Microsoft Office trial and Bing bar, Norton Backup, Nook and Ny Times readers, Evernote and Skype. With all that during there it might had been nice to determine Chrome or Firefox, saving me a download.
With the exception of McAffee?s nagging reminders, auto-starting software is blessedly limited and mostly silent. The rather?superfluous?MyWinLocker encryption software, Norton Backup and Acer?s Clear.fi sharing service are the only real other hangers-on inside the Startup tab. All things considered, it shouldn?t take much for even intermediate Windows users to get the?AM3970 running exactly as they wish it, with no less than tinkering ? though I note without surprise that neither an OS install disc or or restore disc is included.
Performance
The combination of a Core processor and lots of RAM makes standard tasks basically effortless on any modern machine, and such is the case here. But due to a bit extra memory and the discrete Radeon HD 6450 card, the?AM3970 is slightly more capable than its competitors who lack one or both. It is going to handle processor-intensive talks as much as and including some light video editing conveniently, and HD video playback is smooth in both local and online playback.
System ? Acer Aspire M3970| Acer | Desktop | |
| Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) | ||
| Acer Aspire M3970 | ||
| Intel Core i5-2320 | ||
| GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7 | ||
| 2.99 GHz | 1 | |
| 4 | 4 | |
| 32.0 KB | 32.0 KB | |
| 256 KB | 6.00 MB | |
| 8.00 GB DDR3 SDRAM 666MHz | 99.8 MHz | |
| American Megatrends Inc. P02-A2 | ||
| Integer | Processor integer performance | 9102 |
| Floating Point | Processor floating point performance | 15858 |
| Memory | Memory performance | 7476 |
| Stream | Memory bandwidth performance | 7137 |
That Radeon 6470 won?t get you very far with the most recent PC games, unfortunately, and the aggregate of a single DVI and HDMI jack means you will need to get creative with cables and/or adapters if you wish have a couple of monitor. That said, simpler games like Team Fortress 2 and such should function just fine.
Wrap Up
While there is not much demand for the product category, the M3 AM3970?definitely?stands out in its limited field. Generous memory and discrete (if only just) graphics give it a performance boost that can satisfy most, and a ton of USB ports and a roomy interior make it suitable for hardware enthusiasts seeking to expand. Software load is comparatively light, and Windows regulars will feel right at home and unusually unburdened. The odd ergonomics of the case and downright awful keyboard are a topic, but ought to be easy enough to regulate to (or on the subject of the keyboard, replace). All in the entire Acer is a superior choice for those needing desktop-class power without breaking the bank.
Check out the original source here.
Source: http://www.tywigs.org/gadgets-reviews/acer-aspire-m3-am3970-review
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