Thread: Acer Aspire Revo

Nettops are great for consumers who are looking for an entry level computer with low power requirement and just enough power to run basic programs. However, at times even these consumers require slightly more power in their PC, mainly for multimedia purposes. Now, if you need to run a 1080p full high definition video and jump forward to a specific scene, you require something more powerful than the basic Atom setup. This is where 'ION' comes in. ION brings in the power of an NVIDIA 9400 graphics to the nettops.

The Acer Revo desktop which is powered by the ION chipset is a great value for money proposition. This sleek PC comes with a webcam, wireless mouse, wireless keyboard and a set of tiny, but decent speakers. The compact design allows the CPU to be attached to the back of an LCD monitor using the standard VESA mount holes. The unit sports an e-Sata, audio ports, memory card reader, a total of 6 USB ports, HDMI out, Ethernet and D-sub video out. There's no optical drive (neither built in nor supplied), so you'll have to buy an external one if you need it.

Basic specs include an Intel Atom 230 processor running at 1 .6GHz, 2GB RAM and NVIDIA ION graphics. It comes preloaded with Windows Vista Home Premium which makes it great value. We ran our benchmarks at a resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels to match it up against a standard desktop and although it didn't give an outstanding gaming performance, it can beat any standard Atom-based nettop hands down. It gave 1231 3DMarks in 3DMark 06 and scored an impressive 1852 in the graphics test of PCMark05. In the game test, it was able to run UT3 at 10FPS in 1024 x 768 pixel resolution with high settings. With a resolution of 800 x 600 and medium settings, UT3 ran at a playable 28FPS.