14 DAY TRIAL // Acer has been quite active on the mobile PC front lately, but the company appears to have decided on finally offering something palpable for the desktop segment as well. Specifically, the Taiwanese PC supplier has delivered the Aspire X3 and Aspire M3 consumer desktops. Unlike some of the recently unveiled PCs, however, these machines don't do their best to cram as much performance as possible. Instead, they seek to strike a good balance between performance, compactness and price accessibility.
The Acer Aspire X3 series uses a small form factor casing that is only a third the size of traditional PCs. It is powered by an AMD Athlon II or Intel Pentium E5500 processor, backed by 4GB of RAM and integrated graphics, namely the NVIDIA GeForce 9200 or the Intel GMA X4500HD. There are also a 640GB HDD, 9 USB 2.0 ports, a HDMI output and a PCI Express x16 slot.
The Acer Aspire M3 uses a microtower casing and is meant for multitaskers. It has an Intel Core i3 or Core i5 CPU at its heart or an AMD Athlon II chip, as well as a 1.5TB hard disk drive and up to 6GB of RAM, depending on user preference.
There is also the ATI radeon HD 5570 graphics card, as well as HD 5.1 channel surround sound. The system also has 12 USB 2.0 ports and a HDMI output.
“Our new Aspire desktops are great all-around workhorses offering practical technology in an intuitive design,” said Susan Hu, senior manager, retail desktop product management for Acer Canada. “Engineered to efficiently multitask, manage office productivity applications and digital media, these systems tout industry-leading components and expandability, making them a practical addition to a dorm, bedroom or home office."
Acer has already made these products available in Canada and has given them starting prices of $449.99 CAD for the Aspire X3 and $569.99 CAD for the Aspire M3.