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Product Description
The Aspire 5520-5908 Notebook . AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-55 (512 KB L2 cache 1.8GHz) 1GB (512/512) DDR2 667 SDRAM 120GB hard drive integrated Super-Multi drive(DVD+R DVD-R DVD-RAM) 5-in-1 card reader 15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800) Acer CrystalBrite Technology NVIDIA GeForce 7000M 256MB VRAM. 802.11b/g WLAN gigabit LAN V.92 modem Windows Vista Home premium.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Decent, but problems DO exist,
By
This review is from: Acer Aspire AS5520-5908 15.4" Laptop (1.8 GHz Amd Athlon 64 X 2 Dual Core TK-55 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) (Personal Computers)
I received my Aspire 5520-5908 on 1/29/08 and overall I am fairly happy with the product so-far.
A few things to note with it right-away. It lacks RAM which should be upgraded because doing so makes this laptop run almost twice as fast. I upgraded the RAM to a total of 4GB, which cost me an additional $90.00. I decided on a RAM upgrade after only 20 minutes of having the laptop in my hands. I also un-installed the default installation of Vista Home Premium by repartitioning and formatting the hard drive. After re-installing Windows 64-bit Vista Business Edition, I then used the drivers available from Acer.Com's support section to get things "up and running." Adding the RAM and installing a fresh operating system allowed this computer to run at its full-potential while also freeing up enormous amounts of disk space. I can't suggest-enough to anyone buying this laptop to add RAM to it. This laptop will only run to about 1/3 of its potential speed capabilities, simply because the system itself is a memory-hog by design. The integrated video card, as an example uses a portion of the system RAM. This means that by default, the 1GB of system RAM gives 768MB of RAM to the system, and the other 256MB of RAM is given to the video card. One "good" thing about this arrangement is that after installing additional RAM, you can actually give this video card another 128MB of RAM if you so wish. 384MB for a video card is actually pretty-good, and is so-needed in Vista because of the Aero interface. the video card, for those wondering is NVIDIA's 7000M, which is reputed to be a fairly-weak video card, even for laptops. I don't see that as much of a problem as some would. For those playing cutting-edge video games and or D/V editing software, that may be an issue. For the average user though, this card is actually a lot more than sufficient. Here are the problems that exist... Despite my best-efforts to find a suitable driver that would work, I still could not get the TouchPad working nicely on this Laptop. The TouchPad seems to be a sore-spot with all owners of Laptops in this series from Acer. I should mention that this problem existed when the Laptop was running under its default installation, and didn't become any worse under the new installation. Unfortunately, it certainly didn't get any better. In fact, I'm not sure a driver is the issue here, as many people on various technical forums discussing this issue have said that this is a hardware issue and that software (like a driver) isn't going to have any impact on it. The specific problem with the TouchPad seems revolve around its sensitivity and its periodic insensitivity. At times the TouchPad will hang, and this was one of my main motivators in acquiring additional RAM. After a hang, it seems to become "confused," and any additional attempts to move the pointer on-screen are met with what appears to be a fristrated Touchpad. Sometimes the pointer will not move at all, other times it will actually move a portion of the way, and then move backwards and away from your intended target. Probably the most-annoying aspect of all this is when the Touchpad buttons seem to be possessed by a three year-old pianist with too-much energy. If one has any screens of importance open when this happens, this becomes an impending-disaster. Because the pointer will begin to move on its own in-tandem with the buttons which seem to be furiously "clicking-away" will do things like close the application you're working with, fill in each and every checkbox in-sight, and cause general mayhem to your work. For a demonstration without having to buy this model, hand your current laptop to any child under age four, and ask them to type you a document as quickly as possible. The results would be similar I'm sure. THE included RAM, as I stated is woefully inadequate. Until this was upgraded, I don't think I've run-across a laptop that ran so painfully-slow. The pre-installed software is more nuisance than benefit to anyone with serious work to accomplish. It should be noted that this is a very multimedia-focused laptop, and the included software is geared in that direction. For those who wish to *watch* (not edit) video, listen to music, or surf the web, I'm sure this laptop in its default-state would be great for that. The included version of MS Office is a 60-day trial, and unless that's something you plan on paying for (or already have a license for) should be un-installed. The running services that MS Office employs will be needlessly taking up processing power once this trial times out. Despite those issues, I fully-recommend this laptop. At the price it's currently being sold at, this laptop is more than worth the money. With the few upgrades it needs to run at its full potential, and with a bit of work playing with the software, it becomes a reliable and powerful machine.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strong recommend for parents of children who want or need a learning tool computer for schoolwork and just for fun,
By Durling Heath "Durling Heath" (Cohoes, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Acer Aspire AS5520-5908 15.4" Laptop (1.8 GHz Amd Athlon 64 X 2 Dual Core TK-55 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) (Personal Computers)
Just like the buyer of any product, he or she must consider the product's usefulness for the intended purpose. For example, a person would not buy a backhoe to dig a flower garden just as a person would not buy a hand spade to dig a foundation for a commercial building. The same rule applies to the Acer computers.
Without question, Acer has identified a market niche that includes people who want a nice, decent quality, functional computer to use for Internet access and perhaps for some word processing. For these purposes, the Acer computers are a very good value. On the other hand, a computer user who hopes to load large, space-consuming programs will be sorely disappointed. (That, of course, would be like buying a hand spade to dig a foundation.) The Acer is at a price point that the specifications and accessories are minimal, including the only single gigabyte RAM, the Athlon processor - not exactly and "Intel Inside," and just a 120 gigabyte hard drive. For not-so-computer-savvy computer user, (a group which, for better or worse, includes your humble correspondent,) that means that the computer is not very fast and it does not have room to store very much information. However, for older elementary school students, middle school-ers, or high school students, the Acer is perfect. Again, at a price of $[...], which a buyer can very likely find on-sale for as low as $[...] if he or she looks hard enough, the "what-you-get" is at least as much as the "what-you-pay-for." This buyer was concerned that the installation of an anti-spyware and anti-virus software would make the small computer even more unwieldy in its use, but that has not been the case. The two young scholars, [...] frequenters, and little on-line chismosas, who are the primary users of these little Acers have had very few complaints. However, one of the owners might suggest NOT to leave the computer accessible to her three-year old brother, who removed 90% of the keys with amazing speed and dexterity. (The vast majority of the keys were very easy to replace, though.) In all, this Acer computer is good value, pretty durable, and mostly problem free. I would strongly recommend this brand to parents of children who want or need a learning tool computer for schoolwork and just for fun.
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Weird behavior,
By
This review is from: Acer Aspire AS5520-5908 15.4" Laptop (1.8 GHz Amd Athlon 64 X 2 Dual Core TK-55 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) (Personal Computers)
I actually have the Acer Aspire 55220--5912 (that is 5520-55551222). I hope you see the problem already. There is something weird with the keyboard that it types multiple characters and jumps around the page and within the textmeSometimes it "hops" up a few lines and enters the characters there or selects random text and deletes it; see the previous sentence! It quickly becomes unintelligible! I am a professional copyeditorrr, and this makes the computtter practiiically unusable! I wrote to Acer and reccceived no response. So I guess I'm stuck with this until I can afford to buy something else. TTTrust me, ittt won't be an Acer!
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