Customer Reviews

Acer AX1301-U1302 Desktop PC (Black)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

i ordered this from amazon on friday and got it saturday for $3.99 as i'm on that prime shipping option.

let me tell you something, this computer is well worth the money! i'm thinking about getting another one as i do a lot of photo shop.

anyways, well worth the money! this is the 4th acer i've bought in 3 years, all 4 still run great! acer and amazon are awesome!

Small enough to fit just about anywhere, the Aspire X1301-U1302 desktop computer satisfies both my Video Streaming Server needs as well as my Gaming needs.

It has HDD decent storage space and RAM. The supplied keyboard and mouse are fair (I really prefer Logitech!) and the integrated video is adequate. Which brings to me to my real reason for writing this review!

I wanted to upgrade my video to something a bit better. My budget wasn't the biggest, so I chose a MSI nVidia GeForce GT 210 512 MB DDR2 PCI-Express Video Card I thought the performance enhancements would allow me to better enjoy Borderlands and Velvet Assassin and I really liked the idea of the passive cooling scheme. The problem is that Acer didn't leave enough room for that particular card. Man, that sucker is HUGE, truly MASSIVE. I would have needed at least another 1/2 to 3/4 inch before I could even get close to fitting the card into the slot. In the end I had to return it (sorry Amazon!) and I ordered a PNY GeForce 9400 GT 1024MB PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card. It is not passively cooled, but I'm sure it'll fit once it gets here.

If you are thinking about buying this system and might consider a video upgrade you will want to be aware of the space limitations.

If you're looking for an inexpensive computer that's easy to set up, this is it. The were a few minor issues. It only came with a trial version of office. The computer's blue L.E.D. brightly flashes when it is in standby, and I find the vertical load DVD player a little annoying. On the plus side is its compact size and the fact that it didn't come preloaded with tons of unnecessary stuff.

I was shopping around for a PC for my girlfriend's family because their Dell finally died after 9 years (actually it was just the PSU and CPU fans that all of the sudden stopped working so it was overheating big time). So I found this Acer and was checking out the specs and was really impressed with everything under the hood for only $400. The hard drive actually turned out to be 1 terabyte instead of 750GB, it comes with 4GB DDR2 RAM, 2.7 GHz dual-core, and an integrated Nvidia 9200 graphics chip.

I spent a lot of time researching what the Nvidia 9200 chip was capable of but there was not much on the internet or youtube which could display what it could and could not do because there were often times videos of laptops with this line of chips. After receiving the computer I decided to bring it up to speed and test out some games on it. First up was Age of Mythology which it ran flawlessly, Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne also plays pristinely on all high settings (1366x768). I finally installed Lost Planet Colonies and it auto-detected medium settings to my surprise but the game was running at like 5 fps which is unplayable. I lowered all of the settings to low and the resolution to 800x600 but it made pretty much no difference, it may have been running at 10 fps but it was dreadful.

The bottom line is that the 9200 chip is a fantastic all-purpose chip but do not expect to play 3-D games on it even at low settings. I think that this is primarily due to the fact that it has no dedicated GDDR of it's own so it has to borrow memory from the RAM sticks. I think that it would be able to play World of Warcraft on low settings with like 20 fps but that's it. If you expect to do some gaming then I would seriously suggest that you spend another $100 or so to get a PC with a decent graphics chip/card in it.

One of the biggest ways that the Acer made up for the 9200 chip is that it has an available PCI-e x16 slot in the top of the case so you can upgrade this machine if you want, just make sure to get a low-profile card because this case is a slimline. The top of the case has ventilation holes so that a graphics card can blow air out of the case if you install one.

Miscellaneous:
The overall aesthetic appeal is pretty good, nice and shiny, with blue light trim. It has more USB ports than i can count which is awesome, the HDMI port is a huge bonus if you have a 1080P TV, it is really small and weighs in at about 13 pounds. My girlfriend's family could not be happier that I found them this PC.

I would recommend this PC to any family that does not do medium-heavy gaming. Did I mention I received this in the mail within 36 hours of ordering it and shipping was only 4 bucks!!

Been running this little box for a week now and it's great! Speedy without a big price tag. I had a couple issues with some of my software moving to the 64 bit system, but those software companies all had fixes and everything runs fine (and faster). The size is great, can put it anywhere with no problem. Looks great - very quiet. I lucked out as they must have run out of 750GB drives the day mine was built as I actually got a 1TB drive - sweet...

As for the couple reviews that had DOA boxes - I'm surprised mine works as it took a thrashing from UPS... I was watching out my front window when the truck arrived. I literally saw the box FLY out from the back of the truck and slam down up front by the door. I said to myself "I sure hope that wasn't MY computer!" - it was... but it works fine. So the DOA may possibly be the delivery! Mine took at least one big slam and works great, so there's something to say about that.

And last, Windows 7 is great - I've had it on my notebook since it was released, it's just much better, faster and more intuitive than previous versions. Runs like a champ on the new Acer.

A friend of mine who is not very computer literate, needed help with an eight year old computer I had built for her. After talking things over, we came to the conclusion that she would be much better off with a new state of the art machine that could take advantage of the leap forward in Internet and computer technology.

After conducting some in depth research, my recommendation was to purchase the Acer AX1301 from Amazon, which she did.

Yesterday, I installed the machine and was very impressed with its ease of operation and extremely fast performance.

After removing the Trial Software, of which there is a minimum, you can then proceed to install your own software without having to worry about clogging up the registry with unwanted data.

My friend was happy as a lark and is already having lots of fun previewing streaming movies from Netflix!

Unfortunately, Acer must believe the purchaser already knows how to set up a computer without any detailed documentation, because other than a rudimentary pamphlet, you are mostly on your own.

Other than that, this little gem is a perfect choice for general computing and Home Theater applications.

Buy it, you won't be sorry.

I love this computer. Windows 7 wasn't as difficult to understand as I thought, plus I bought the manual. Unfortunately my DVD burning suite doesn't work with Windows 7 and my Adobe Elements 7 doesn't work. Otherwise it's a great machine and I'm loving the 750GB hard drive for digital scrapbooking.

I retired from the computer industry - over 25 years in the business. I always built my own systems from components. This is the very FIRST "computer in a box" that I purchased (for my wife). If I ever need another one or someone asks for my recommendation, it will definitely be this one. Out of the box, booted up clean and the initial first time setup was a breeze. Since this was the first time using Win-7, I was a little slow in finding where all the custom configurations were located, but that was MY fault, not that of Acer or Win-7. One slight little mishap - I got up at 3:00am and noticed that the screen was at the login prompt, the computer had rebooted itself obviously. Oh Lord I thought, those negative reviews about this machine rebooting itself was true. Not so .. The machine was factory configured to automatically update itself which called for an auto-reboot afterwards .. whew!!

The small footprint Acer box is a very good value. The price was right and it is fast and has plenty of disk space and ports. It is so small that I even put it on top of my desk for easier access to its USB ports and the CD/DVD disk drive.

I would have awarded five stars except that Acer support said it could not help if 3rd party hardware is involved. I had added a graphics card in an attempt to use two monitors. The motherboard vga port went dead when the second vga port was added. Heck, I was not asking about the new port, but about the dead port on the Acer motherboard. I could have been satisfied if the "support" guy had said it is normal for a second port to preempt the first port, but noooooooooooo, he would not even continue the conversation.

I'm a computer professional and was able to solve the problem myself, but that's another story. pjs

My second Acer computer. Bottom line, advanced hardware, HDMI input, no technical problems selling for a low price.