6 Responses to “Best Buy: Acer AspireRevo AR3700-U3002 Slim and Compact Desktop Reviews”

1. James F. Strasma "strasma" says:

   January 20, 2012 at 12:56 pm

   214 of 216 people found the following review helpful:

   
   What a bargain!, October 5, 2010

   By 

   James F. Strasma “strasma” (Chicago, IL) –
     
   
     
   
     

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Acer AspireRevo AR3700-U3002 Slim and Compact Desktop (Personal Computers)

   This is just a quick note to fill in a couple of details not in the listed specs, now that I’ve actually received and set up 2 of these. The version of ION graphics is listed on the box as “GT218-ION” They work perfectly, so far as I can tell for You Tube HD (and Hulu) videos. (I did first upgrade Flash to version 10.1.) The “wireless” mouse and keyboard work via a nano-size dongle installed in a USB port, and are fine up to a distance of about 5 feet. They are seen by Windows as 2.4GHz, but are not listed as Bluetooth. Both the VGA video to a 20″ 1600 x 1200 pixel LCD PC monitor and the HDMI video to a 46″ 1080p (1920 x 1024 pixel) LED TV work fine. (I did reduce the resolution slightly on the TV due to the TV’s overscanning otherwise hiding the edge of the PC display screen. I’m sure the overscan can also be adjusted in the TV settings to resolve this without reducing resolution, but didn’t find the place to do so quickly enough.) Speed is listed as 3.5 on the Windows Experience, compared to 2.1 on our Asus Eee PC 1000 running the 32 bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium. (These new PCs run the 64 bit version.) These are marvelously quiet. The only time the fan is ever audible is for a moment during the initial power-on sequence. I had no trouble installing our Samsung USB DVD player. Just plugged it in and it was immediately recognized. Likewise, pointing to my HP 2605 networked color laser printer – found and configured automatically. (One suggestion: when the printer installer offers to update its list of printer drivers, let it.) It wasn’t initially clear how I would reinstall everything if the hard drive ever fails. The PC didn’t come with any media to be used for that. (I later discovered the included program eRecovery creates an image of the factory setup on 3 DVDs, with a fourth DVD for drivers, and easily made a set on DVD+RW disks, using the above-mentioned external DVD driveSamsung USB 2.0 8x DVD Writer External Optical Drive for Mac and PC SE-S084C/RSBN (Gloss Black).) Another day in and I’ve removed some of the unneeded pre-installed programs, disabled unwanted startup programs with msconfig, installed Microsoft Security Essentials, Firefox (along with add-ins Firefox Sync, NoScript, Flashblock, and BetterPrivacy), and Microsoft Office 2007 (2010 comes pre-installed, but would have cost me extra.) Windows Update has found and installed dozens of security upgrades. Day 3: Telecommuted using this PC today. The VPN link was fine, as was management of a remote database application and a GoToMeeting that included both audio and video. Nothing I did today spiked CPU utilization about 40%! I also checked electricity used, and found it usually under 25 watts, barely more than the 20 watts used by our Asus Eee PC 1000 netbook, despite this Acer having more cores (2 rather than 1), faster clock speed (1.8GHz in place of 1.6GHz), and a 216GB hard drive (rather than 40GB of SSD.) Both 802.11b WiFi and Gigabit Ethernet Internet links work fine. I’ll keep adding more as I finish configuring these, but wanted to post now in case anyone else has been wondering whether these actually exist and are any good. The answer is yes! Update: Two weeks in, this has still been a perfect choice for both of us. Everything is now configured just the way we like, and a full system backup made, just in case. (I used our USB external DVD+RW drive, but any external USB drive with enough space would do.) For anyone wondering whether the standard 2GB of RAM is enough, neither of ours has yet used even half of that yet, even though one of our PCs typically has a dozen windows open in different applications simultaneously. Highly recommended!
2. Scott Kendall Mcfadden says:

   January 20, 2012 at 1:16 pm

   113 of 119 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Flash performance == good : Silverlight performance == not good, October 18, 2010

   By 

   Scott Kendall Mcfadden (oklahoma) –
     

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Acer AspireRevo AR3700-U3002 Slim and Compact Desktop (Personal Computers)

   The unit is very small and generates little noise and heat. Just be sure to not block the exhaust vent like I initially did (otherwise the fan will run harder and louder). This has several USB 2.0 ports but no ESATA port (unlike previous models). Connected to my Samsung 40 inch LCD TV via HDMI and runs well. The power button on the front is a bit mushy / unresponsive so you must press it firmly and in the dead center. Acer claims the wireless card is a LITE-ON WN6602R with an RaLink RT3390 chipset. Currently running unit with a Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 Dual Band Wireless router. Win7 says my wireless connection is excellent and shows 4 bars / 150mbps. Flash 10.1 video performance is acceptable (not great but acceptable). Silverlight 4 performance is woeful. This is unfortunate because Netflix uses Silverlight to implement their streaming video. Netflix is very choppy to the point I can’t tolerate it. In contrast, my PS3 and Roku are flawless in streaming Netflix over my wireless network. Don’t think I blame Acer so much as I blame Microsoft for lack of hardware acceleration support in Silverlight 4. Come on Microsoft, you are on version 4 of Silverlight and still don’t have hardware accelerated video? Adobe Flash 10.1 does and so should you. Be sure to ditch Internet Explorer in favor of Google Chrome on this box. Google Chrome runs circles around I.E. 8.Possible upgrades for this box might be increasing from 2gb to 4gb RAM. Here is what Acer shows for the memory: Support Memory size per socket: 1GB,2GB Support memory type: DDR3 SO-DIMM Support memory interface: DDR3 800MHz Support memory voltage: 1.5V Support to parity check feature: Yes Support to error correction code (ECC) feature: No Pin: 204 pinAnother option might be to replace the traditional hard drive with a SSD. I suspect an SSD would speed Media Center up quite a bit.Update: 11-12-2010 I attempted a few tweaks to facilitate a better viewing experience: 1. Upgraded from 2gb to 4gb RAM 2. Switched win7 resolution to 1280 x 720 3. Upgraded NVIDIA Driver to 260.99 4. Upgraded from I.E. 8 to I.E. 9 beta (Some netflix is viewable some is not. Family guy is fine while Discovery Channel Dirty Jobs is very choppy).Update: 12-6-2010: Good news. ScottGu (Microsoft VP) announced on his blog (12/2) that Silverlight will finally be getting GPU support when Silverlight 5 rolls out. Check out Scott Gu’s blog for more details. This should help with Silverlight / Netflix viewing.Update: 01-08-2011 Still waiting for Silverlight 5. Thought I would post some more specs in the meantime:Windows 7 Scores Processor 3.5 Memory 4.8 (with 4gb ram) Graphics 5.0 Gaming Graphics 5.7 Primary Hard Disk 5.8Update: 12-11-2011 Installed Silverlight5 and tried my usual test of running Netflix in latest Google Chrome using Dirty Jobs by Mike Rowe / Discovery. The experience was initially slightly better but eventually intolerable. I may repeat this test in IE9 and see what happens. I also plan on trying the Zotac Nano out as well. Update: 12-31-2011 Switched to a Zotac Nano. It is slightly more powerful. See my review on the Nano: Zbox Nano, Sff, Fusion, E350
3. Wade Thunborg says:

   January 20, 2012 at 1:46 pm

   66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

   
   What you get for the extra $150., October 6, 2010

   By 

   Wade Thunborg –
     

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Acer AspireRevo AR3700-U3002 Slim and Compact Desktop (Personal Computers)

   The Acer AspireRevo AR1600 cost $199.99 at Amazon.com. The Acer AspireRevo AR3700 costs $349.99 at Amazon.com. I purchased both for home use. I am not a “Power User.” What did I get for the extra $150? Was it worth spending more for a dual core microprocessor and newer operating system? Does it have enough power to justify the higher price? Here is why I believe the answer is yes. There is no built-in wifi with the AR1600 unlike the AR3700. The AR1600 is sold with Windows XP and the AR3700 with Windows 7 Home Premium Edition. While few of Microsoft’s costly changes are great improvements (Of what real use is the Aero theme or the Ribbon?), it is a more smoothly working operating system. The AR1600 handles most tasks easily, but it couldn’t operate a WinTV HVR 850 usb tv tuner card. It worked perfectly with the AR3700. (This is the major reason for my purchase of the AR3700.) The AR3700 also comes with Windows Media Center. The AR1600 was adequate for everything else. P.S. 1) Both the AR1600 and AR3700 have nice keyboards, but I find them a bit too small for extended keyboarding sessions, so I use a full-size Logitech keyboard. 2) In your favorite search engine, type “Replay AV8″. It’s an inexpensive stream-recorder program. I wouldn’t own a PC without it.
4. AdamSmythe says:

   January 20, 2012 at 1:49 pm

   108 of 123 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Worth considering., November 23, 2011

   By 

   AdamSmythe –
     

   This review is from: Toshiba Satellite R845-S85 14.0-Inch LED Laptop – Graphite Blue Metallic with Line Pattern (Personal Computers)

   UPDATE on November 24, 2011. This is a relatively new laptop from Toshiba, without any reviews posted before mine, so I wrote what follows to try to supply some information to people who were trying to decide whether to take advantage of a one-day Amazon special. That special is now over, and this computer is currently listed for its regular Amazon price, which is about $150 more than it was on November 23rd. With the large number of sales of this model recorded yesterday, hopefully reviewers with hands-on experiences to share should show up in a while.[Original review follows:] I am writing this review on a day [November 23, 2011] that this laptop is an Amazon featured special, and at its special price I think it is definitely worth considering. Since there are no hands-on reviews to consider and you only have today to decide on the special price, I suggest that you compare this model with the very popular Toshiba R835-P56x, which is also available on Amazon and has lots of reviews. I will summarize the comparability of these two laptops in a moment, but suffice it to say that they are in the same ballpark regarding features and performance. For today, at least, the R845-S85 is being offered at a significantly lower price.The R845-S85 has a slightly larger screen (14 inch versus 13.3 inch), a similar Intel Core i5 processor (Core i5-2430M versus Core i5-2410M), has 6GB of RAM (versus 4GB), similar integrated graphics, same hard drive (640GB), similar ports, same optical drive, the same Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit operating system, and features a claimed 10 hour battery life (versus 8 hours). One potentially important disadvantage compared to the R835-P56x is that the R845-S85 weighs 4.2 pounds, versus 3.2 pounds. The more you carry around your laptop, perhaps the more this difference will be meaningful to you.Simply put, there is no such thing as a laptop with the longest battery life, most powerful processor and graphics capabilities, strongest construction and lowest price. You need to decide which features are most important to you and then narrow your selection accordingly. If what you want is a model with good processing capability, relatively light weight, good battery performance and an optical drive–all at a very good price–then this R845-S85 model is well worth your consideration.Full disclosure: I own the Toshiba R835-P70, which is the R835-P56x (that I used as the comparison above) with Wi-Max capability added. I have had no problems with it, and for my use (mostly business) its combination of features make it the best laptop I have owned.One more thing: There is an interesting suggestion for an external laptop speaker buried in the comments section (I think it’s about the 16th comment). Since laptops, especially smaller ones like this, are not known for having high quality speakers, you may find this speaker worth a look.
5. George P. Burdell "The Baydestrian" says:

   January 20, 2012 at 2:00 pm

   26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Value Packed, Fully Loaded 14 inch laptop, November 28, 2011

   By 

   George P. Burdell “The Baydestrian” (San Jose, CA) –

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Toshiba Satellite R845-S85 14.0-Inch LED Laptop – Graphite Blue Metallic with Line Pattern (Personal Computers)

   I bought this Laptop when it was the Amazon Deal of the Day for $599. I couldn’t be happier with this purchase, especially at that ridiculously low price point. Instead of going over all the specs, I’ll highlight some pros and cons of this laptop for potential buyers.Pros: - Construction/Look: The chassis and chiclet keyboard (spill-resistant) feel real sturdy and of high-quality. The construction of this laptop doesn’t have a cheap “plastic” feeling like some laptops out on the market. - Battery Life: The battery life on this 6-cell battery is unbelievable, especially for a 14′ laptop. For the first few charge cycles, I’ve been able to consistently get over 7 hours of battery life surfing the web and playing music with headphones. The ecoUtility app really helps with prolonging battery life. - Intel WiDi capable: I really wanted a laptop with this capability so that I can wirelessly stream to my TV while working on my laptop. Note that you need to buy a WiDi adapter to connect to your TV/display (~$100). - Performance: The i5 processor coupled with 6GB of memory gives this laptop plenty of juice for 99% of computing activities. - SIZE of hard drive: 640GB of space is more than you’ll probably even use. - Weight: 4.2 pounds and just about 1 inch thick makes this laptop pretty portable. - Optical Drive: This may not factor much for some people, but as more and more companies opt to remove optical drives from their laptops, it was nice to see Toshiba put in a full DVD burner/drive on this machine. - Connectivity: 1 USB 3.0 port AND capability for USB Sleep-and-Charge (charge stuff while laptop is off) AND an e-SATA/USB combo port AND an HDMI input is awesome! - Value: For the 600-800 price range for a 14 inch laptop, you’d struggle to find a laptop with this much under the hood.Cons: - No Bluetooth: a tiny external USB dongle runs for about 10 bucks, but I wish Toshiba would have built-in a bluetooth receiver. - Screen: 1366 x 768 resolution (720p). Not bad by any means, but for a 14′, It would have been nice to see a higher resolution offered. - Speakers: Sound can be a bit tinny at loud volumes. Noticably better than Portege R835 speakers though. - SPEED of hard drive: the 640GB hard drive only runs at 5400 rpm. I would have liked to see that be at 7200rpm or even a SSD drive, but all things considered, I can’t complain much…just a nagging annoyance. - Bloatware/Volume of Apps: Toshiba seemed to have cut down on the total amount of bloatware they put on this machine but they have too many apps pre-installed on this machine for my liking so I ended up manually uninstalling some that I knew I would never use.I would DEFINITELY recommend this laptop to anyone considering it at the $600-800 price point, as you’d be hard pressed to find significantly better deals. As another reviewer said, this is basically the 14 inch version of the Portege R835-P81 laptop (also sold on Amazon). That’s just a smaller version (13.3′ 3.2 lbs), but overall there are a LOT of similarities, even with the look. If you’re in the market for a laptop with comparable specs but want something smaller, check that out. I hope this helps potential buyers out!
6. victor says:

   January 20, 2012 at 2:43 pm

   21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

   
   A quality and powerful laptop, November 28, 2011

   By 

   victor (los angeles, california) –

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Toshiba Satellite R845-S85 14.0-Inch LED Laptop – Graphite Blue Metallic with Line Pattern (Personal Computers)

   First let me tell you that this laptop not only looks good but it’s also powerful, Thin and light weight. I watched a bluray file and a 1080 mkv file at the same time with no stutter and with only 18% CPU load. My Quad core Desktop would start stuttering when I do this and cpu load goes to 100% (it’s a Q6600 intel quad core cpu) Had to instal java 64bit edition and directx runtime environment. Just make sure that whatever software you’re instaling is 64bit compatible. had to increase color saturation to add more color but led display looks great. Tweaked touchpad settings a little bit to make it the way I like it. Theres an eco button that doubles your battery consumption to 10 hours with light use but dims the display brightness but you’ll get used to it. Also it seems that pushing the eco button disables one core of the cpu. The computer wakes up instanly when you open the lid and resumes whatever it was doing. the wifi is very strong and picks up a lot of networks. Hard drive is easily accessible, only two screws. It runs very cool. I ran two 1080p bluray files at the same time through wifi N streaming from another computer with ease and no stutter. This laptop looks thiner in person and looks good. you can carry it with one hand from the corner and it doesn’t bend like some do. you have esata, usb 3.0-2.0 combo. The speakers are loud, just make sure you enable loudness in audio properties and also select equalizer and increase the treble a little bit. No inputs in the back. when you rest your hands on the laptop wihile typing feels solid. Keyboard is very nice and I’m pretty picky when it comes to keyboards. After adjusting the color settings in the onboard video properties I watched the planet earth bluray streaming from my media server the display was crisp and clear with vivid colors like I was watching my 1080p led tv. Here’s the color adjustments that I’m using, Saturation 10, contrast 1, brightness -2 for better contrast and see the difference. You get what you pay for applies with this laptop.