Acer Aspire Desktop PC $349 on Web, $289 in Store w/ Monitor

[HomeAppraiser]

Originally posted by: Saku
Homeappraiser, I saw a few of the PCI exhaust fans at CC. I was thinking about getting one, I asked the sakes rep about them and I don't think he really knew much about them. He said I would be fine with a a regular case fan.
I think at a minimum you should get an exhuast fan for the case.

My 7600gt idles around 53, which isnt too hot. Ill attach a zalman cooler onto it later when I want to overclock it.
Look to see what your temps are to guage how much cooling you actually need.

We got the EVGA 7600GS because it was there and cheap after rebates. The 7600GS does not have a fan. I installed an 80mm silent case fan, but I think it is too slow and too far above the video card to help much. I want to have a fan blowing across the GPU heat sink fins or one of those rear exhaust types. The next time I will be in the big city to look of one is the weekend of the August 25-27th.

My 7600GS idles between 55C & 58C and has only gotten up to 68C after my son has been on City of Heroes all nite.

Saku have you added any RAM to your Acer yet?

 

[Saku]

Yea, I put in two 256mb stick of PC2700 in the other two slots. I had them left over from my old comp, its runing pretty fast. CPU-Z shows dual channels and 1024mb of DDR.

heres some specs on the cpu:
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/8546/cpuzsempronye7.jpg

edit: you get my pm homeappr?

 

[Powermoloch]

Hehe I got a great deal @ best buy atm...those who got out of luck with this deal...check out the Emachines for $ 215 ~

 

[LDegrelle]

Set up my system last night. Of course no software CD's come with the computer - is it possible to get these through Acer?

Any one else wipe the machine clean and rebuild it? Without the Windows CD I was wondering how feasible that is.

Lastly, what DVD's have people got to work with that burner? I've tried -R +R and +RW and they all get spit out.

Whats up with two 80GB partitions???

 

[AnyMal]

Originally posted by: LDegrelle
Set up my system last night. Of course no software CD's come with the computer - is it possible to get these through Acer?

Any one else wipe the machine clean and rebuild it? Without the Windows CD I was wondering how feasible that is.

Lastly, what DVD's have people got to work with that burner? I've tried -R +R and +RW and they all get spit out.

Whats up with two 80GB partitions???

1. Acer puts bare minimum of third party software, deleting shouldn't take you long at all, much less then do a complete reinstall. Don't forget to run Windows Update and install all the latest security patches.

2. This system does not have DVD burner. It plays back DVD's but burns CD's only.

3. Two partitions is standard Acer setup. It can easily be changed via Disk Management. I always recommend two partitions minimum to keep OS separate from your apps and files in case you ever need to reinstall or repair Windows but don't have your files backed up.

 

[Powermoloch]

Originally posted by: Saku
Yea I heard the zalman fans work very good on hot vid cards. Powermoloch, do you have the evga one too?

yes I do Saku, evga 7600GT KO

 

[digifad]

Just wanted to post a big thanks to the OP and others on here. I picked up the 17"LCD package yesterday. If anyone is looking, there seem to be plenty in NoVA.

I decided to get this PC to upgrade mine P4 2.53 on P4PE, and give my old one to my son. I know it is not a huge step up, but this PC has more potential in the long run. I had a hell of a time getting my current SATA drive to run as primary on this PC due to needing the SATA drivers that for some reason would not install via WinXP Repair install. Finally got it all up and running with WinXP Pro, 2 HDs, DVD burner, etc. Now I just need to track down a decent vid card. And a few fans.

The system seems to run pretty well so far, but I have more testing to do before making a final judgement.

 

[digifad]

A bit off topic, but since it has been mentioned on here, what is the difference between the evga 7600GT KO and the evga 7600GT CO? ... is it just that the KO is overclocked?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications...tails.asp?EdpNo=2207285&Tab=0&NoMapp=0
versus
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications...tails.asp?EdpNo=1945413&Tab=0&NoMapp=0

 

[Saku]

The KO has a larger all copper heatsink which is supposed to help cool the card better. There have been more bad reviews on the KO than the CO and the prices of the two are now the same, which is kinda confusing. I think both cards come with the same clock frequencies. Either way, if youre going to overclock it you should put an aftermarket cooler on it.

 

[digifad]

Thanks, Saku. I went with the KO. I don't plan on OC'ing, so we'll see how it goes!

 

[imported_tomm]

Last week I brought one of these Acer T160 systems. It is for my daughter for normal college work. It is the frist pre-installed system for me. What is the best way to set up, make recovery disks etc. Is there a website that discusses preinstalled systems.

Tomm

 

[HomeAppraiser]

The Acer will prompt you for CD-Rs to make the recovery disks durring the set-up.

Edit: In case you missed it last week CC has an upgraded Acer T160 bundle on special this week for $389 after $90 in rebates. Acer Aspire Desktop PC, Acer Monitor, Lexmark PSC Pros: AMD Athlon? 64 3500+ instead of the Sempron and a larger 200GB SATA hard drive. Cons: Comes with a 17" CRT, the junk Lexmark PSC, and $90 of Mail in rebates.

For $100 more you can upgrade to an Acer Aspire? Desktop PC (ASE360UA381M) with ? AMD Athlon? 64 3800+ ? 250GB SATA hard drive ? 1GB of DDR memory ? Dual DVD drives.

I don't know if upgrading the monitor is an option.

Good hunting.

 

[dxpaap]

Anymal & LDegrelle:

1. Question - the 160gb drive has only one 80gmFAT32 partition - suggestion is to just create a 2nd 80gb FAT prartition?

Wouldn't it be better to just create a large NTFS formated drive?

2. Question - with no system disk, how is one to reinstall - except for creating a backup with the ACER emergency backup utility. BUT the ACER utility instructions said it only works on FAT32 formated drives. SO that pretty much forces us to stick with FAT formated drive.

Any known work arounds? If we bought the system w/ the OS, shouldn't ACER or Microsoft provide a system disk (even if it is an extra charge)?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated

Dave

 

[AMD K9]

Wondering if anyone called Acer for disks for installing a new hard drive. I installed a new Seagate 300GB SATA drive. Can't get the drivers installed but I can get XP installed. I tried the drivers from NVidia and they run through setup ok, but once you reboot, Windows still is looking for disks for new devices. Any thoughts? I can get the sound to work but not the ethernet / internet.

 

[dxpaap]

If you have any luck w/ acer, please post - I'd like to get XP install disks from the purchase also

thanks

 

[HomeAppraiser]

Here are two links to the drivers:

http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/desktop/aspire_e360.html

or try

http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/...teid=7293&areaid=7&formid=3394#results

and search for Desktop T160.

In other news I got one of those pci slot fans to put under my EVGA 7600GS and it brought the temps from 53C to 68C down to 39C to 45C max!

Edit: I don't think ACER will give you a Windows install disk, I know HP won't. Just use an OEM disk of Windows XP Home and type the license number on the side of the case in when prompted.

 

[AMD K9]

My main reason installing a new hard drive is I never like a big C: partition, as well as my preferrence for NTFS, seems much faster and defragments far less than FAT32 in my experience.

 

[HomeAppraiser]

OK, let us know if those drivers work.

CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and you're good to go.

 

[AMD K9]

Home appraiser I tried going there a week ago and when I saw the pan america site and when I typed in Aspire T160, the results page showed results for an Aspire E360 so I assumed their site goofed and I was SOL. I guess the E360 is the same as the T-160?

In any event I downloaded the nvidia chipset/ethernet driver I will try in a few minutes.

 

[AMD K9]

Just wanted to note I did get all the drivers working finally. If you have one of these systems, do yourself a favor and download the drivers now so you have them. That's the only way to ensure you don't have a boat anchor if your hard drive crashes (which would render the recovery partition useless). Runs MUCH smoother in NTFS on a smaller 10GB C>Partition.

I did this test install on a different Maxtor 100GB IDE drive (the one in the hot deals a week or so ago) that I will ghost back to the Seagate 300GB. With an extra 512MB of RAM and perhaps a graphics card I have an AMD alternative to my Dell Dimension 4700c. Pretty close performance wise but as of now the Dell wins 3.0ghz Pentium 4 w/ 1.5GB RAM.

 

[LDegrelle]

Anyone try overclocking this board? I see in BIOS you can change FSB but it didnt do anything for me. I am running some older RAM, so I dont know how that affects it.

Any idea if any difficulty swapping new board - any propritary connections in case or such to worry about?

THANKS!

 

[AMD K9]

I thought every computer manufacturer like HP,Compaq,Dell,Gateway etc all use proprietary connections to the motherboard. I've tried installing aftermarket boards in 2 Dell case and the connections are proprietary, same with 2 HP's and one Compaq I have seen. Assuming the Acer is the same.