I recently found myself wanting a new laptop. Which has a tight budget and nominal needs, I knew it wasn't going to be simple to find a product that would do what I need to and still be within my price range.
As a Network Technician plus a Web Designer, I needed a machine that might have enough storage to be able to store all my programs, projects for my purchasers, and still be qualified to handle an occasional temporary operating-system backup from a buyer's machine. The qualifying candidate also had to have a decent amount of RAM along with a reasonably fast processor to maintain with the demands of multitasking and using Studio MX '04 each day.
At first, I checked out the auction sites, your refurbished outlets, and the wholesale warehouses. I found a couple of good deals for beneath $500, but nothing that might handle the processing download that Studio MX 2004 would place on it. The average product had 256MB of PC133 RAM, a 20GB HDD, and also a 1. 0GHz Pentium brand. Not too shabby for the student machine, but for daily service inside the fields I work inside, not nearly enough space or power maintain with my demands.
I quickly realized a new laptop would be needed so as to meet my needs. Realizing that most decent laptops cost over $1, 000, I wasn't expecting a tremendous amount when I started shopping around. However, to my surprise, a local retail chain had a particular running on the Acer Would like 3004WLCi for $600 from $150 rebate. This was the most notable end of my spending plan, but the specs were a lot more than what I thought I would find in this price structure.
Quick Specs:
AMD Portable Sempron 3100+ (1. 8GHz) w/ 256K L2 cache
512MB DDR333 SODIM MEMORY (expandable to 2GB)
60GB 4200rpm Hdd
15. 4 Wide Screen WXGA Monitor
CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combination Drive
3 USB a couple of. 0 Ports (1 top / 2 side)
The front Audio / Microphone jacks
Included Microphone / Speakers
Included Audio Controller
Integrated Video clip Controller (up to 128MB shared)
Included 56Kbps Data/Fax Modem
Included 802. 3 10/100 Ethernet NIC
Included 802. 11b/g WiFi
Greatest screen resolution: 1280 by 800
External monitor maximum resolution: 2048 x 1536
One particular type II PCMCIA Slot
AC Power Adapter / 4-cell lithium-ion battery
1. 5"Hx14. 3"Wx11"D or 6. 2lb. w/ Battery pack
Microsoft Windows XP Dwelling SP2
OK, before I type in the Pros and Cons of this system, let me initially say this... As a Network technician, I'm a bit of a stranger to Acer products and solutions. I've seen them in advance of, but I've never made use of them. In an field dominated by Dells plus HPs, Acer seemed more associated with an "off-brand" to me. Understanding that, I wasn't expecting a tremendous amount for my money. The good news is, I was not upset, but neither was I actually entirely wrong.
Also, it can be worthy to note which before I used the machine, XP Home was trashed simply XP Professional SP2 and I went through the system and performed several minor software performance tweaks to the operating system; all of which is often performed using the native Or windows 7 Pro utilities.
Pros:
The Acer Aspire 3004 WLCi is often a reasonably powerful system with regard to $600. Even at the first $750, this system is hard to beat inside the performance department. The Sempron 3100+ model is surprisingly fast plus capable. It handled running Dreamweaver MX 2004, Fireworks MX 2004, Ms Word 2003, Microsoft OneNote 2003, Chrome 1. 5, Internet Explorer 6. 0, Firefox 8. 5, Resize Visitor, CPick, Java JRE, NOD32 Anti-Virus, Hotmail Popper, as well as some system services and minor utilities running inside the background simultaneously and could not complain or produce whatever unacceptable sustained CPU consumption spikes. This is partly due to generous and fast 512MB involving DDR333 RAM, but having said that, the processor surprised the following long-time AMD user.
The 60GB harddrive provides an ample amount of storage for average clients. It is on the lower end of my specifications, but sufficiently large enough to address all my installed software package, over 12GB of service software essential for service calls, all my own client projects, and it still has enough space left over to easily accommodate a good 20GB client system backup.
In addition, this system has a great Broadcom WiFi controller. Inside my 3 story townhouse, containing excellent insulation, this system works extremely well anywhere in my home which includes a signal strength of "Very Good" to "Excellent".
The system is ergonomically presented. I have rather massive hands, and most modern notebook computers are entirely too small to do to realistically use for any extended stretch of time. Usually, within 20 or a half-hour, my wrists and hands start to ache from trying to hold a very unnatural position so as to type the documents I'm perfecting. Not so with a Aspire 3000 series. These laptops have a very relatively large chassis using a keypad that is almost ideal for someone with large wrists and hands. I've actually found i can type nearly mainly because fast (roughly 35wpm) with this laptop as I are able to on my desktop system who has an ergonomic split laptop (40wpm).
Cons:
If you desire a Multimedia system, or in case you plan to do every graphics intensive gaming, go on looking; this system just isn't for you. Even with all the widescreen WXGA display, this machine is not perfect for watching DVDs. The integrated video controller is only acceptable and the monitor requires plenty of "fiddling" with and discover the "just right" position for viewing. Furthermore, the glare for the screen of this device is terrible. I've found that generally in most brightly lit rooms I'm spending more time straining my eyes to check out past my own depiction. Also, the viewing angle is unimpressive. If you make an effort to view the screen from anything greater than 15 degrees in whatever direction, you're either investigating a washed out or negative variation of the original. I've never been a major fan of LCD. I've always felt that an exceptional CRT always looks improved, but this screen is more reminiscent of a LCD of three years ago than a new product.
The integrated audio and video controllers can be a definite sore spot at the same time. I've always preferred business expansion controllers over integrated controllers, playing with this price range, I knew I'd personally be stuck with the so-so quality of an integrated controller. No surprise here. As usual, the high quality and performance is sub-par with your controllers, but for this needs, they do the work. However, if you plan on listening to any audio playback during this machine, you had better pack a quality set of headphones. The tiny speakers for this machine are terrible appearing. Again, no big surprise.
Now, about battery life. I don't know who was the boss of defining this aspect of your machine, but they need a checkup from the guitar neck up. Battery performance for this machine is absolutely inappropriate. Unless you tune the system down significantly, it is very difficult to squeeze above an hour of real usable time out of this system's battery life. The maker states that it may run for 1. 5 hours for the battery. I've never been able to obtain more than an hour out from the unit. In this era, this is not suitable. Fortunately, there are very few occasions when I have to use this system where I'm not near to a power outlet.
My only other major complaint is deficiency of expandability of this product. You get two SODIM memory card slots (filled with 256MBx2 sticks from the factory), three USB 2. 0 ports and a type II PCMCIA slot on this machine, and that's them. No internal expansion capacities, no firewire, no serial or perhaps parallel connections, and you can not swap out the combo drive easily. Given the retail price range of this technique, I'm really not pleasantly surprised, but I am somewhat disappointed. Fortunately, there are an abundance of USB adapters available that let me do whatever is important.
Summary:
If you just need a basic system for succeed or school related responsibilities the Acer Aspire 3004WLCi is actually a solid performer that are designed for average use with efficiency. I would definitely highly recommend this unit to college students or traveling professionals who need an affordable, user-friendly laptop, but who tend not to plan on using their particular laptop on batteries commonly, or who do not intend on playing many games or perhaps movies. For the price conscious consumers out there, this system is definitely worth the money. In my humble impression, you get more than anything you pay for, but not by much.
