Acer AR3610-U9012 Desktop Computer (Dark Blue)

Comments about Acer AR3610-U9012 Desktop Computer (Dark Blue):

I bought two of these for Christmas presents this year.

They work awesome as a small HTPC hooked up to HDTV's and 5.1 (optical) Audio Receivers. They are great for media playback, web media streaming and Windows 7 Media Center.

Acer needs to ship without all the bloatware, or have a option to restore to Windows 7 bare.

Comments about Acer AR3610-U9012 Desktop Computer (Dark Blue):

I was looking for a small footprint, quiet nettop running Windows to replace the proprietary media player connected to my family's primary television. I decided to go with a Windows-based unit rather than buying another proprietary streamer (e.g., Popcorn Hour) because there is so much content out there that is accessible via the web, but that is only available on platforms that can handle its DRM. Examples include Netflix, MLB[@], Hulu, etc.After looking around, I decided that an Ion-based nettop was the ticket...and this unit looked like a great deal. So, after owning it for a month, how has it worked? In a word, awesome...which is why finding this unit in stock anywhere right now is a challenge.More details:* Elegant *very* small unit* The included wireless keyboard and mouse are decent. Not fantastic, but very decent. They look somewhat cheaply made, but work great...and are small enough to fit on a lapboard, which is great for the living room.* Ships with an external pair of "speakers"...and they shouldn't have bothered.* OS includes a *massive* amount of bloatware...which took me about two hours to uninstall. I may eventually reformat...but I don't see the need at the moment.* Does not ship with a recovery disk. Instead, it has a recovery partition...and software that prompts you to insert a blank DVD into the drive to burn a backup copy. Yeah, very nice...if you had a DVD drive...but this bad boy doesn't. I really would have preferred a disk instead of the speakers...or, at the very least, have the ability to download it...but no dice there either.* Ships with Win 7 Home...and Aero is insanely smooth on this unit. In fact, the entire OS feels very usable...thanks to the Ion and Atom 330...but installs and uninstalls are sloooooow.* Flash performance was fair (not good) initially...but got *much* better after I installed the latest 10.1 beta and the associated beta NVidia Ion drivers. Now Flash rocks and uses very little CPU when not full screen. Full screen is also watchable...but it taxes the CPU more...and Adobe and NVidia think that this is an issue with the beta plugin/drivers...and hope to have it resolved soon. Oddly enough, Hulu desktop works great full screen...but I personally find that UI annoying.* Netflix streaming (using Silverlight) is great...and I hear that it will be getting better after Netflix optimizes their streams to take advantage of some recent MS GPU-leveraging enhahcements.* Windows Media Center is fantastic for the living room...but will be even better after you buy a WMC-compliant remote control to pair with this unit. Until then, you will need a lapboard for the wireless mouse and keyboard...or get used to leaning over your coffee table.That all said, for this price, this unit cannot not be beaten...for the moment. ;)

Comments about Acer AR3610-U9012 Desktop Computer (Dark Blue):

Needed a small footprint media PC for my living room. Hooked up an external USB Blu-Ray DVD player and I'm all set for under $400. Now, with the beta of Flash 10.1, all of the streaming online video works great (Youtube, Hulu, etc.)