Acer AspireRevo AR1600U910H Black/White Desktop PC Windows XP

D. Kline on Sat, 12th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Acer and 55” Sharp LCD
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I was searching for an inexpensive computer to connect to the family LCD TV to stream video – Tvland, Netxflix, Hulu etc. This was the perfect choice once I attached a wireless keyboard & mouse!! Setup was extremely easy, Acer had included seperate directions to connect and configure the computer to work with LCD panel.

Gonnie on Mon, 14th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



No good title, so: awesome PC! will have to do
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This review is directed at WEBSITE BUILDERS who need a SERVER:

This Acer PC is fantastic. I was very skeptical at first about buying it, but boy am I glad I did. Our family (extended and immediate) had decided to start a family website to be able to keep in touch easier since we are scattered on the map a bit. Since I am the best with making websites and understand computers, I decided to purchase this PC and make it act as a server.

Some very important info to know:

If you are starting a website like me, you should know that this PC comes with Windows XP Home Edition; to use the Windows-based server features, you need Windows XP Professional Edition. The features are not installed in the Home Edition version and the only way to obtain them is by installing Apache if you don’t have access to Windows XP Professional.

I, at first, was very disappointed when I discovered the above information and believed that my money was wasted. But I was determined to get it to work for me. Since I couldn’t upgrade to XP Professional, I switched to Ubuntu 9.10 (the most recent version as of this review being written). I tried their Windows installer, which worked, but it only let me use 30 GB of space on the Hard Drive. So I installed Ubuntu over top of Windows (I must have been completely insane to even attempt this!). The process was rather painless but it was difficult without a CD Drive built in. That’s now installed and I had no trouble whatsoever with any of the drivers (unsure about the audio because it’s not used). Everything was pre-packaged in the Ubuntu install. The PC has been able to handle multiple connections at once and still be fast!

I’m glad that everything worked out well because I really, really wanted to give this five stars! And I am extremely happy that I can give 5 stars!!!

~Gonnie

***WARNING*** – I WOULD NOT recommend even attempting to install another Operating System unless you are very sure of what you are doing! I believe that I was very lucky to have it work, and I will NOT guarantee that it will work for you!

J. J. McKenzie on Tue, 15th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Awesome HTPC using XBMC – Full 1080p playback
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This little box has got everything you need to playback full HD 1080p content.

With one setting change (give more memory to the Graphics Processor) and XBMC Live you can be up and running within a few minutes, enjoying all your HD media with this awesome little box.

XBMC Live can run off a USB thumbdrive, so you don’t even have to install anything onto the system (Although you will more then likely install XBMC once you have tried it).

It will also work with Boxee, with full HD playback thanks to the Nvidia Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) that this machine uses.

10/10 – A fast easy inexpensive way to have an amazing HTPC in your Home.

Check out the video’s on YouTube for XBMC and the different ways that it will wow you with the Acer Revo.

David J. Delaurant on Thu, 17th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Good idea, a few peevs
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This PC works just fine right out of the box. Things I especially like, in addition to the low cost, are the low power consumption and quiet operation. It seems to be a pretty decent piece of hardware for the intended purpose.

The things that bother me are marketing/packaging issues: there’s a load of trial crapware to delete and no real documentation, only basic setup instructions. Even Acer’s website documentation is just hype and basic setup.

More annoyingly, no recovery disk is included! Every PC should include one of these, unless you’re planning to discard it if the OS or HDD eventually become compromised. If you want a dedicated recovery disc, you have to order it from Acer for $15+tax. Including one in the first place would only have cost Acer pennies, and forcing customers to order one is an insult, so I don’t understand their thinking here.

B. Stamler on Fri, 18th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Just as advertised!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Bought this for my mother-in-law and it’s just what she needed. A basic computer for light work and internet.

MonkeyBoy on Fri, 18th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Amazing HD MythTV Frontend Box
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This thing is simply amazing. I am using this as a frontend for a HD MythTV system running Linux. It took some tweaks to get audio out over HDMI and get the hardware decoding to work but now that it is I’m watching HD playback at up to 1080p with no hiccups from the Revo. You could be in the HD DVR business just by getting an Acer Revo (upgrade the memory), Silicon dust HDHomerun dual tuner (another amazing product), an old beige box computer to hide in a closet for the backend work, PC StreamZap for remotes, and some large hard drives. All said and done easily under $500, probably $400. I haven’t even mentioned the size! It’s tiny. I think I’ll buy the mount to hide it on the backside of the TV and make it completely disappear. Some said it makes noise. I have not heard a whisper. Granted I don’t try to sleep in the room with it, and the living room is a little bit large, but for me this thing is dead silent. I have to walk around to the other side to make sure the power light is on to make sure it’s running.

I left the provided XP installation on in a dual boot manner. Mythbuntu nicely non-destructively squeezed itself on to the system. As some said, XP is quite a bit bloated, but these people at Acer need to recoup their costs somehow and for the most part the bloatware uninstalled without complaint. I can’t say too much about performance in XP other than it worked as well, but mine spends most of its day in Linux running MythTV.

Aaron J. Mcfarland on Sun, 20th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Excellent HTPC for XBMC
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I recently purchased this machine to be used as a HTPC. I completely removed windows from the machine and installed xbmc live version 9.11 on it and it runs wonderful with no lag whatsoever and doesn’t require any extra drivers to work. I used the lifehacker article “build a silent, Standalone XBMC media center on the cheap” which is a great guide if you are interested in setting this up. I used the following remote that works perfectly with xbmc live with no issues Noah Company MediaGate GP-IR02BK Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate MCE Remote Control, 2 Channel IR (Black). I was able to get this set up for around $230. If you are interested in setting up a XBMC machine this is the way to go.

Donald Paulson on Mon, 21st Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Not bad for 200 bucks
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Works great with netflix and abc nbc cbs etc. Only complaint is poor video on HULU. Don’t know if it is hulu or acer, but anyhow a dissapointment.

Really like the unit and the quality of video on my 50 inch screen.

ByronW on Tue, 22nd Dec 2009 12:00 am 



very impressed
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
What a great little PC. It replaced a much larger, older PC I’d built in what was (several years ago) a “micro” case. I converted all my music (hundreds of CD’s) to MP3 format years ago, before most knew what that was all about. the old case fit into my entertainment center fine, but I’ve been wanting something smaller and newer for a while now. This little box delivers perfectly. It’s using the wired network connection I’d put in for the old unit to connect to my router for internet, and the other PC’s in the house. It runs netflix movies to my 50″ Plasma great, as stated in other reviews, just be sure to have the tv powered on before booting up the PC so it “sees” the hdmi device for audio out to the TV. Of course, it plays music through the living room stereo as well as the older unit, and we use it in the living room with a remote 15″ monitor for internet, email and online banking. Even with just the 1GB RAM it came with, it runs very well, boots up and shuts down fast, does all I need very well. The toughest part of the install was getting rid of ALL THE JUNK SOFTWARE. Just be prepared to spend 45 minutes or so in the “control panel” “add,remove programs” area. I built one of those mentioned “micro” pc’s for my 80 + year old mother a couple years ago for basic internet and email too, when it’s time to upgrade that, this will be a perfect solution for her too. If you aren’t gaming, or multitasking, video editing, etc, this is a great little PC.

Steven Austin on Tue, 22nd Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Perfect to connect into work through RSVPN
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this little computer to replace my Sony VAIO which is several years old. I have two left over monitors so this system is perfect. I use the Acer to connect in to work through an RSVPN connection. The Acer is quite fast, much faster than my old Sony VAIO. I also loaded Open Office on it to do some home spreadsheets, Christmas labels, other stuff. This system is perfect for my use. It is sufficiently powerful, completely quiet, totally effective. My only very minor gripe was that it was loaded with trial-software and games that I had to spend about an hour running through and deleting.

Cheers Acer!


cardiffman on Wed, 23rd Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Nifty little box
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have only had one problem with this box since I got it, and that was that when I was using it with a flat panel that I wasn’t sure it was compatible with, I couldn’t tell by looking at the box that the power was on. I think that was because the power button doesn’t look like the sort of power button that lights up when the power is on. Of course once the power IS on, you can tell.

I could also object to the quantity of preloaded software, but I am using it with XBMC Linux so it doesn’t matter.

I installed XBMC Live onto a USB stick by using UNetbootin with the xbmc.iso linked from the Lifehacker blog. UNetbootin doesn’t change the syslinux.cfg file to reflect that you want to boot from USB, so you have to change that file’s “boot=cd” text to “boot=usb” whereever it occurs in that file. After you make this change, you can use the stick as a LiveUSB install.

I also upped the graphics chips’ ram to 256K. I haven’t upgraded the system RAM to allow the graphics chip to use 512K.

Installed/configured as above and booting from said USB stick, the box and XBMC plays very cleanly over gigabit Ethernet from the file server (Samba).

The included PowerDVD software also did a pretty good job with those same files and server.


Edmund N. Durden on Thu, 24th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Sweet Little Computer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
For about $200, you can’t beat this little guy. We use it for email and internet access, and it does a great job. Plus, it is really small and does not take up any space.

Daniel A. Friedman on Fri, 25th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Amazing value HTPC
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
For $200 you really cant find a better HTPC. This machine will easily run 1080p video in any format, including MKV. This works out of the box, despite having only 1gb of RAM and Windows XP. I recommend using Media Player Classic to run videos, since I saw some lag with VLC and Divx player. I still can’t believe how well this works for the price.

L. Cook on Sat, 26th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Great Media PC replacement for loud oversized desktop pc
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I was amazed of the size and how quiet it was, now I can watch netflix and other videos without the excess noise from my other desktop pc. Haven’t tried any HD videos yet but I am sure they will play fine. It was a little tricky to update the ram had to search online a little to find how to open it and you have to take the motherboard out to swap out the HDD which I tired but never could get it to come out so I just decided to use the esata port which was nice. Had no trouble getting the audio through the HDMI like some of the other reviews just switched playback device to Nvidia high def audio.Speed wise its enough for what I use it for. I can use my other desktop for more intensive tasks. The price can be beat was considering the dual core upgrade they just came out with but it was over a $100 more and didn’t think I would need it. Finished up with a fresh install of windows 7. All in all I highly recommend it.

Gamer on Sat, 26th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Amazon lied about shipping charges and did nothing
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
Item was to be shipped with no shipping charges as ad indicated. However after purchase of item I was raped for shipping and handling charges. Computer works very well but Amazon is criminal. Numerous attempts to resolve this situation have gone ignored. Buy Pc’s from Newegg NOT Amazon.

Luis Felipe Gonzalez Diaz on Sun, 27th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



The cheapest media extender / Nettop PC out there
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is the best budget Nettop PC / media extender out there under $200. Hardware wise is not that impressive you get what most manufactures ships as low end configuration in their respective lines of Nettop and Netbooks but the big difference here is nvidia ION graphic card you get with the Acer Revo. If you are looking for a media extender or just like to play HD home movies this Nettop is the best choice for the money. The ION graphic card will play 720p video with good quality and minimal impact in the processor load. 1080p not so much…. with this high resolution you will get a lot of frame skipping making it unwatchable.

Is important to know that this model does not comes with wireless keyboard and mouse nor the VESA mount. I does comes with a wired keyboard and mouse and a clear plastic vertical stand. All of those are very flimsy and cheap looking but usable. You also get a LOT of useless software and games on a trial basis (total waste of disc space if you ask me)

It would be nice that they ship this with Win7 since is a pain in the b… to share files over my home network since all my other laptops and Pc’s are using Windows 7 by now.

As I need it to connect this to my wireless network I purchase the Medialink – Wireless N USB Adapter – 802.11n – 150Mbps -Windows 2000 / XP / Vista 32-Bit / Vista 64-Bit Compatible it works well most the time, but it tends to loose signal when I download heavy files using my torrent client (yes I forward the ports and make the proper firewall exceptions) I’m not sure if it is a hardware / software incompatibility related to the Acer Revo or the Network adapter is not working well. Basic web surfing seems to works well though.

You got a total of 6 USB ports 4 in the back 1 in the top and the last in the front behind a rubber cover, 1 e-sata port in the front, 1 media card reader in the front, Ethernet port 10Mbps to 1Gbps, This Nettop works on 35 watts 12 volts power supply that’s much less than you average PC (500 watts or so). You get little to no heat coming out of the Revo, the sound level is really low too actually is hard to tell if is on or not unless you see the blinking lights.

If you have any Netbook you have a pretty good idea of the performance since this Nettop have Netbook guts inside. One thing I notice is that the processor have dual thread so it may seem a bit faster than you average Netbook the task manager even show the processor as if it was a dual core processor (which is not).

I have this Nettop for a month now and I am pretty happy with it. Works well for web surfing, Open Office applications, and other basic computing tasks. I would like it better if they included some nice things like wireless card, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, vesa mount, and Windows 7. Of course if they include all that the price will be much higher so I can’t complain too much.

J. Bernauer on Sun, 27th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Great 2nd PC especially as Home Theater PC (HTPC)
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Pros: HDMI, eSATA, SD reader, ION graphics, expandable up to 4GB of RAM!!! Quiet fan, Solid stand when installed properly (listen for the click)!!!

Win XP – yes, this is a PRO

Runs Netflix instant movies perfectly, Hulu is slightly choppy, but 100% better than the netbook this replaces. I suspect wireless was the major issue on the netbook and the ION graphics improves over the Intel GMA950 too. Runs Office perfectly, surfs the web perfectly. Plays flash games perfectly. Basically, this PC does 90% of the things computers are used for perfectly. HDMI audio plays fine on my Sharp LCD.

No need for a CD drive. Either use a USB thumb drive OR network to your Primary PC workhorse’s drive.

Cons: Cover is difficult to remove, but not impossible. It just takes some patience.

Substantial bloatware (junk software & trial games). McAfee AV makes this thing crawl at a snails pace. That was the first to go and speed improved dramatically. Dumped the Carbonite and Winlocker junk too. Each of the trial version games has to be removed individually. After removing all that I put Advanced System Care and AVG on to clean it up and keep it clean.

Other Thoughts: This is not a PC for editing audio/video or gaming and anyone who complains about that is an idiot for buying this PC. (Many found on other sites) All of the negative reviews of this PC are from people who didn’t research before buying… or tweaked them into oblivion. I’m a geek and I like to tweak things, but I don’t see any reason to switch to Linux, Vista or even Win7 when XP is stable and familiar. For an HTPC this doesn’t require any tweaking!

I will be adding some RAM when I get around to it, but I don’t have any issues yet that require it.

This is a computer–XBOX is a gaming system. Apples and oranges… don’t be swayed by reviews to the contrary. This is also a much better PC than the Lenovo Q100 (and others) for the same price… see Pros above.

The R3600 with Atom 330 is faster but also over $100 higher in price (like all PCs with the 330). Again, this is a great 2nd PC. If you need a faster processor than the 230, you need to use your Primary PC workhorse.

Jim Yoder on Mon, 28th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Multiple cpus??
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought a R1600 in December 2009 – I can’t locate the model number beyond that on the computer itself anywhere.

I like it alot – for all the reasons listed here – appearance, size, price, speed, function, quiet, HDMIout…and more. I recommend it for all these reasons.

Here’s the thing: the Windows system lists multiple ATOM processors for this machine! In the control panel/system/device manager – specifically 2 ATOM 270 CPUs – that is the only place I can find any reference to multiple CPUs. I have already opened the case, in prep for adding more memory, and while I can NOT visually see two CPUs, this is not conclusive since the CPU area is covered by the small fan – everything looks just as the user photos in this AMAZON review above. So I remain puzzled at this point…and await the idea and observations of others…

Frankly, multiple ATOM processors is great idea, but maybe this just some sort of dual core functionality… I’d to see the number of ATOM CPUs confirmed/denied somehow for this REVO 1600…

David B. Diel on Tue, 29th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Bad Acer
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I got this computer the end of november and the hard drive crashed 2 days later. Can’t find a number or address to get an rma so what now? Gee Amazon, how does one return a faulty item from you or get it fixed? No Phone # No Address No nothing. Glad I got a 1 year warranty, it may take most of it to find where to send it.

D. Diel

Matthew B. Hunt on Tue, 29th Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Bye bye cable
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My goal is simple: a small, quiet, inexpensive HTPC. I considered the more expensive cousins – the 3600, 3610, and the eee 1501, but the reviews I read for this and the low price made me willing to give it a spin. _This box comes far closer to nailing that than I expected_ Your cable company should be very, very worried.

Here’s a breakdown of what I’m using.

SYSTEM SETUP: HARDWARE AND OS

I blew away XP and installed Windows 7. I also went with the IOGear wireless keyboard that has a built-in trackball and pause buttons. A regular remote would be nice but the combination of small keyboard with the start/stop/pause and trackball is much more powerful without being clunky and huge – an extra $50 well spent. IOGear Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel, 2.4GHz Wireless GKM561R (Black)

I also used a 4g SD card I had lying around for ReadyBoost to goose things a bit.

SOFTWARE

I installed the flash 10.1 beta, which seemed to make a big difference. Have tried Amazon Video on demand – streaming and downloaded, Netflix, and YouTube.

PICTURE QUALITY

The picture is very clear on full HD. Basic DVDs play back fine. The challenge is with full-HD, full-screen, full HD: periodic “stutter” in this case is very distracting. Dropping the screen resolution to 1360×768 makes the problem go away for Netflix. Since the resolution of live-streamed-video is lower anyway, this is not a loss. This fixes the problems in almost all cases and video quality is quite high. [Note: I have not yet tried Boxee or Hulu desktop but expect them to be similar. ]

OTHER

Amazon Unbox seems to be a bit of a pig: after installation, it runs a service constantly in the background, consuming extra resources this box doesn’t have to spare. If you use it, make sure to kill the service in the background, as it seems to contribute to the stutter.

Browsing is OK but the 1g of RAM is an obstacle here – open up a couple of tabs and you’ll soon feel the pain. [ I'm using a 4g flash card for ReadyBoost but plan to add another gig to address. ]

I don’t have sound working over the HDMI cable yet – forums indicate this can be done but disappointing it requires tracking down.

SUMMARY

Solid HTPC machine: you can’t beat $250 for small, quiet machine with HDMI and a decent wireless keyboard [*see above for keyboard I am using - the keyboard included is not wireless]. Don’t go for full HD for streamed live ‘net content, use flash 10.1, and don’t bog the box down with anything nonessential, and odds are you’ll be quite happy with the results. These caveats are more than reasonable for a box that is half the price of its competition: 5 stars.

Joe on Thu, 31st Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Love It
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This machine does everything one would expect it to do, and more. I use it as my streaming server for my internet radio station, also for recording sessions with the band (I’m a soundman).

I’ve had no issues with flash that other’s have had on any website I’ve gone to.

I am not a gamer, so the speed of the machine and memory is perfect for what I use it for. I love the small form factor for taking it along to practice, etc. Combined with a 22 inch monitor, its beautiful! I LOVE the keyboard. It’s full size without the number pad- learn to use the top row of numbers for cryin’ out loud!

I already had an external dvd drive, two external hard drives; space is not an issue. If there were a downside, it would be all the extra garbage that is installed on it when you get it. I removed all the trial crap, killed all unnecessary services and the thing is a screamer! Also, a restore disk instead of a partition- that eats up part of the 160gig- would be nice.

My wife has been eyeing it lately, “I sure like that small lil’ computer!” I guess I know what she will be getting for her birthday!


Gene Montgomery on Thu, 31st Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Great Little Box for HTPC Use
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought the Revo 1600 to run Ubuntu 9.10 and XBMC, and for that purpose it excels. It is connected to a Monoprice HDMI switch that is connected to an Onkyo TX-SR705 receiver, which is connected to a Sony KDS-60A3000 TV.

I booted into Windows only long enough to make sure the unit actually worked, but that was long enough to notice all the unnecessary programs it had pre-installed. Ubuntu loaded (from a USB flash drive) without a hitch.

Because my Revo is for HTPC purposes, I use the following with it:

1. IOGear USB 2.1 Bluetooth Micro Adapter GBU421

2. Logitech PlayStation 3 Cordless MediaBoard Pro (it’s branded for PS3 use, but it works well with a PC)

3. Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote Control

In order to use the Harmony remote, I have a generic Media Center IR receiver connected to the Revo. It was necessary to install (and configure) lirc, which isn’t installed by default with Ubuntu. The Logitech Harmony software includes support for Media Center remotes, so I had no problem getting the 880 to work with my setup.

I also added 2GB of memory to the unit (OCZ OCZ2M8002G PC2-6400 CL 5-5-5-15 DDR2 800MHz SODIMM 2GB Module). After installing the additional memory (thanks for the picture on how to open the case!), I changed the memory allocated to the GPU to 512MB.

After adding the nVidia VDPAU repository to Ubuntu, loading the 195 driver, and rebooting, I was in business. The nvidia-settings utility includes an overscan compensation feature, which helped with my TV.

In order to use the nVidia 195 driver with MythTV 0.22, it is necessary to get a later build of the MythTV frontend from Jean-Yves Avenard’s site (the version in Ubuntu’s repository will try to make you uninstall 195 and use 185).

Using some scripts found on various sites, I was able to launch both XBMC and MythTV with only remote key presses, which eliminated the need to use the keyboard for media purposes.

The Revo 1600 sits neatly hidden behind my TV and is very quiet. It works well for what I use it for (XBMC and web browsing), especially considering its price. Highly recommended.

Richard G. Higgins on Thu, 31st Dec 2009 12:00 am 



Great replacement solution when on a budget.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
First: Excellent price and delivery. While I purchased this for my younger sister to have as a replacement for her outdated desktop, it is a very basic system. I knew that, I only mention it so that you can plan ahead and pick up an external drive as well if interested. After all security updates were installed and all programs updated, the hard drive had about 140gb left of available space. That is without any additional downloads of programs added. I am going to pick up a separate hard drive to store music on for my sister, but the system itself is great and works quickly with Firefox as its browser. (we chose Firefox for added web security, but it comes pre-installed with IE). This little desktop hard drive, is compact, and works quickly when browsing the internet. It has performed well when watching shows online via hulu.com or other such website. I have not tried streaming HD content other than on Hulu, but overall I love the purchase. I am very pleased and will recommend the computer to others.

B. Ellis on Sat, 2nd Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Great Value + Surprising Performance
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this machine because the reviews said it was nice and quiet. We run a small business out the home and have a VOIP PBX system that I prefer to keep on a separate machine and like to keep noise at a minimum. I did not expect much from this little guy but was pleased at how well it preformed. I have since placed it in the home theater as a media center PC and it is doing double duty as the VOIP PBX. It doesn’t skip a beat.

I did fresh Windows 7 install… Believe what you hear about removing the crap-ware that comes with the machine if you decide to use XP that comes with it. I also added an extra 1GB of ram to bring it up to 2GB. If you load Windows 7 be sure to get the updated drivers directly from the Nvidia site.

I am not sure how long this will last, but at this price point it is hard to go wrong.

J. Conroy on Sat, 2nd Jan 2010 12:00 am 



I love it! I just can’t get my HDMI audio to work.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I read the review on lifehacker and knew this was the HTPC solution for me. I had been looking at AppleTV but hadn’t pulled the trigger and now I’m glad I waited. Rather than installing XBMC from USB, I chose to install the windows version and keep XP so that I could net surf too. I plugged the Revo in to my Samsung LN40B540 via HDMI. The first thing I noticed was the overscanning. With the included nvidia tool, I was able to solve this by slightly reducing the resolution of the TV. If my TV is fixed pixel, why would there be any overscanning? I had the same overscanning problem on 1080p and 720p. PROBLEM SOLVED.

The problem I have not been able to solve is getting audio through the HDMI connection. I read in a forum post that I could fix this if I disable the realtek audio device because the computer would default to nvidia high def audio. I did this but then I had no sound device even though the nvidia audio said it was enabled and working fine. I temporarily solved the problem by connecting my audio receiver via the headphone jack but I still want HDMI audio. Anybody else go through this? If so, how did you fix it?

Judy Degraffenreid on Sun, 3rd Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Think carefully before you buy
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Purchased this for my husband for Christmas so he would leave my computer alone. If you don’t mind getting technical help from someone whose first language is not English, then this is for you. I called for tech help, couldn’t understand him and could barely hear him for all the noise in the background, when he got rude I hung up. The computer is very lightweight as are the mouse and keyboard, they are all three very compact. Perfect for a child or to take or keep in ones RV. It is not a heavyduty use computer that is for sure. I bought my granddaughter one of the laptops and she loves it. I have purchased Emachines in the past and was very well pleased with them. So far this particular computer is still on my wait and see list, and falling rapidly to the bottom.


Jacob Koch on Sun, 3rd Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Cool small pc
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bourght it to work together with our TV in the livingroom and it works perfect for that. Combine it with a wireless keyboard with a trackball and you can get your Daily Internet fix from the sofa. It streams télévision and radio as planned. Do not use it for heavy excell tasks or new games – but if you can live without this you got yourself a nice pc for around 200 USD

Mark on Sun, 3rd Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Got it for XBMC and love it!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I got the Revo to run XBMC and it does, perfectly. I originally started with the original xbox and then moved to XBMC on AppleTV and now to the Revo and the Revo is by far the best since it plays HD movies flawlessly. I picked it up with a Windows Vista Certified Media Center MCE Remote Control and Infrared Receiver for Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate and it worked with XBMC out of the box. Installing XBMC on the Revo also was super easy, I didn’t even boot into XP just installed it via the XBMC Live CD.

WK on Mon, 4th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Good for 1080P!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Bought this ION based PC for viewing HD material by connecting it to a LCD TV using its HDMI output. For that purpose it is fantastic! Play 1080P and 720P material with no problem. Audio out through HDMI is also OK. It is important to use software player that supports the video hardware acceleration e.g the free Media Player Classic – Home Cinema edition. It is small and very quiet when running, thus making it very good as a video entertainment center.

The only down side is the slow processor which makes it less suitable for anything other than casual web browsing and word processing. For the price, it is a good buy.

yancruiser on Tue, 5th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



I (almost) love my Revo
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I’ve now had my Revo for 1 month and there are lots of things I like about it and several things I don’t like.

Revo is small, quite, low powered and simple. No fan noises nor excessive heat at all. I notice the “thumping” of my external hard drive during seeks more than anything coming out of the Revo.

The ION Graphics and HD 5.1/7.1 sound over HDMI work great (when they work). When running video of any kind, you absolutely need to latest codec’s which supports ION. For Flash video, only 10.1 pre-release works. WMP 11; Unbox as well. You can tell it is working by 2 things: no hope of HD video output without it; CPU constantly peaks at 100% without it as seen on the Task Manager on the performance tab. Playing MKV/MP4 on H.264 is generally smooth with some streaming play “pausing” (testing on Amazon On Demand in HD ). Streaming supports up to your 100T speeds through a wired network cable. Anything Hulu runs fine.

I added an external Bluray player which works with my PowerDVD 8 Deluxe [OLD VERSION]8 . Flawless and as good as any Bluray with DTS True HD. Getting 5.1/7.1 sound needs an upgrade though.

Advice: Don’t try to upgrade ANY nVidia drivers without planning for a long outage as you most likely will lose your HD Sound. Just google “acer revo no hdmi sound” and you will see others struggling with this. I made the mistake of updated my ION video driver directly from nVidia and lost my sound until I did a “Restore to Factory Settings” operation packaged on a hidden partition on my Revo in order to get HD sound back. The nVidia HD sound device is not selected by default, so you always need to go into the Control Panel -> Sound … and select it. What happens after I updated my video driver is that no matter what sound drivers I installed (even driver roll back), the nVidia HD device never shows up anymore. A friend told me that I would have needed to uninstall every nVidea driver; do a driver cleanup; then reinstall all of the latest drivers in order to get that to work again. Frankly, I haven’t tried this yet as it already sounds really painful.

Haven’t tried Linux yet, but tempted to see if that flips me over to loving this device. Otherwise, I can’t complain about the price. It brings a PC onto my home theater which is nice for doing email etc. I often debate if I should have gone the other way – bluray plus streaming video support. But then you get locked in to what your bluray will (or will not) support.

Randy Given on Thu, 7th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Great as Cheap Server
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I needed a cheap reliable computer to user as a server for my weather station. It had to run Windows XP because our other three computers were all 64-bit Vista and the weather station wouldn’t work with them (the manufacturer still says they’ll never write 64-bit drivers).

Anyhow, all I needed was a server. While setting it up, I was thinking this was a nifty little setup that I could even use for day to day stuff if needed. The keyboard is smaller but fully useable, not cramped like most small systems. The processor seems pretty quick and my Internet download speeds were good (20Mbps+) on it (the CPU processing power does make a difference).

The only thing to watch for is that there isn’t a DVD drive. You could connect one to a USB port, but I didn’t need to. Oh, and the mouse and keyboard take up two of the USB ports. It takes up very little desk space. It’s super quiet, but then I wasn’t maxing it out by any means. Just a great little computer.

A purchase that I’m really glad I made.

Arthur Simon on Fri, 8th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Hard to complain at this price, but I still wish I’d got the dual core model
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve had mine for two months. It’s hooked up to an Olevia 32″ LCD tv monitior. I use the Revo to surf the web, and as a home theater pc. I upgraded the ram to 3Gb (it’s literally a snap, search youtube for a helpful video) and installed Windows 7 32bit Home Premium. I also bought a IOGEAR GKM561R wireless keyboard with the integrated trackball. Everything is working well. I don’t have any HMDI audio issues with my Olevia TV, and stuff looks great via the VGA connection as well. I find surfing the web on my TV from the couch pretty comfortable : )

Now that the prerelease of flash 10.1 is available, and there are new nvidia ion le drivers to go with it, hulu desktop looks great even in the highest quality setting. For stored content, I’m using Media Player Classic Home Cinema. I’m streaming hi-def video over my home network using the homegroups feature in Windows 7. Planet Earth at 1080p starts to glitch, but it looks great at 720p. All other 1080p videos that I have look great when streaming over my home network.

Boxee doesn’t work with the nvidia ion gpu yet, but I think that will be fixed in the coming months. With a fully functioning Boxee, this thing is going to be killer.

I wish Acer would make a cheap VESA bracket available so I could mount it on the back of my TV.

I don’t have much to complain about, but for what I paid for Windows 7 and the upgraded RAM, I could have bought the dual core version, the R3610, which comes with a wireless keyboard, Windows 7 and more RAM. Oh well.

Bryan Allen on Sun, 10th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Revo me this
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a great HTPC / server. I’m running Ubuntu 9.10 with XMBC and Boxee (haven’t settled yet), motion(webcam), subversion, and apache2. Local and streaming videos play perfectly. 1GB is plenty of RAM for my setup. For desktop use, I’d throw in another 1GB, but for HTPC use, 2GB of RAM is useless. I ran tests, trust me.

Let me explain the fullscreen Hulu tid-bit. I’m running Adobe Flash Player 10.1 pre-release and the Nvidia drivers (185.xx.xx) from the Karmic Koala repo. I’m currently hooked up via the VGA port & still waiting on my HDMI cable to arrive.

At 1920×1080, Hulu is completely unwatchable in fullscreen and barely watchable on low quality, standard size, in a browser. So what did I do? I’m running a 960×540 resolution. Yeah, that’s right videophiles, you heard me, and I’ve never been happier! I can’t tell any visual difference, now flash video plays fullscreen very watchably on my 42″ 1080p tv.

If Adobe starts to act like they care about Flash Player, I may go back to full resolution. The NVIDIA ION LE is a beast. I was on the fence for a while between the ar1600 and ar3600. I’m very happy with the ar1600 so far. It has exceeded my expectations.

Bryan P. Brentwood on Mon, 11th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



WOW
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I gotta tell you, this little pc is about the size of a linksys router.It just blows me away how small this is. Man, what a little power house! I hooked it up via hdmi to my 46 Panasonic for a little media pc. It loads faster than I expected. It has windows XP sp3, SD card reader, audio-mic ports in front, 4 USB ports in back. No optical drive. Were the heck would they put it!! There is a SATA port in the front to do a external, maybe a Blue Ray, or have a tandem hard drive. It is equipped with a 160GB with 1 GB RAM. As far as streaming video on sites like Hulu and Netflix, surprisingly the intel Atom processor doesn’t skip a beat. For $199 this little pc gives a good bang for a buck.

Denise Cappellano on Tue, 12th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Help??
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I hate to sound nieve but just purchased for my son’s birthday and think I have made a big mistake. Nothing in the Product Details states you have to have a monitor or tv. I thought it was all you need. Am I missing something. Another thing is there are no detailed instructions.

Patrick Sprunger on Tue, 12th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



great deal
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a steel. So many people buy computers with a lot of extra stuff they dont need. This is priced great and will do any web surfing, Word processing and email for far less money. I watch netflix on demand and it works great. I added 1 gig more memory just for good measure and boosted the internet explorer priority in the processes screen and hulu is very watchable as well as the network tv websites. Add a wireless keyboard like i did and compute from the couch on your big screen tv. Its a great computer for an even better price

Fieldhouse on Tue, 12th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



So far, so good
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased the Aspire Revo R1600 for the sole purpose of replacing my original Xbox running XBMC. It appears to be very capable and has met all of the expectations I had. Hardware accelerated graphics on XBMC Live via VDPAU is working great. Content that used to choke the original Xbox and even the AppleTV running XBMC works flawlessly on the R1600. I did swap out the single stick of memory for a matched pair of SODIMMs but I actually installed slower DDR2-667 memory instead of the DDR2-800 that originally came with it because that’s what I had lying around. PassMark performance tests showed a single module of the DDR2-667 to be almost exactly the same speed as the stock DDR2-800 and the two DDR2-667′s definitely blew the single -800 away.

PassMark scores are actually lower on Windows 7 than they were on the default XP build but Windows 7 is much snappier than XP. I am using the 512 MB video memory setting in BIOS to boost the video performance but you wouldn’t want to do that if you only had 1GB RAM installed.

The only complaint I have is that the box is so new Acer doesn’t have any documentation online and the VESA monitor mount is nowhere to be found. I’d buy one if someone had them for sale but Acer doesn’t even list them on their website so I don’t even have a part number.

The R3600 / R3610 comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse but the mouse and keyboard included with the R1600 are very small and unobtrusive. I currently have the box configured to boot off a 4gb usb thumb drive straight into XBMC Live and only have a IR receiver attached – keyboard and mouse stored in a drawer just in case. The article on lifehacker sums things up pretty well – you almost don’t need to dig through the xbmc or avsforums threads to get things up and running.

Size-wise the R1600 is thinner and lighter than the AppleTV. The pictures are deceptive because the keyboard and mouse, while smaller than “normal” are also angled oddly in the picture. The keyboard is actually about four inches wider than the R1600.

The case comes apart easily after removing a single screw on one side – just fit your fingers in the groove between the light and dark colored plastic pieces and gently pull, working your way around each of the sides until the side comes off. An integrated IR port would have been nice but for $199 I’m not going to complain.


B. Adair on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Second W7MC HTPC plus soooo much more
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is my third Nvidia Ion setup and I am rather suprised. My other two setups are Atom 330s (which does run a bit faster) not Atom 230s so I was a little apprehensive. I purchased this unit as a second HTPC to hook to a 1080i/720p 36″ LCD in our loft. My main HTPC has all of the music, recorded tv, and movies on it’s hard drives. I purchased this unit to stream video to over my Home Group (Windows 7 lingo for your secure home network). To start I registered the unit and upgraded it to Windows 7 Home x64 with one of my upgrades from a family pack. This can be easily done by copying the setup disk to an external hard drive and making the drive active. Then just change the bootup options in the BIOS (DEL key) to “Boot from USB” and the rest is a snap. Don’t forget to switch it back after your it’s first restart. There are detailed instructions on the web if you need help. I upgraded the memory to 2gb for $18 which again was very easy. I really had to search to determine the memory setup out of the box for this unit. It comes with 1gb (all on one SODIMM card) of PC2 DDR2 800 memory. So the upgrade was just an additional 1gb SODIMM card. It took 5 minutes. I also changed the BIOS setting to use 512k of the memory for the GPU instead of 256k. While in the BIOS I set my computer to automatically bootup at 7:00 am. This is one of the big advantages of using an Ion setup, it uses so little power (less than 30 watts) so that you can leave it on all day. Of course, it drops into sleep mode (SP3) when not in use and I turn it off myself at night. I also added a 1gb flash drive and set it up to be used as a FAT32 Ready Boost drive for caching. Just helps it to run a little faster. So my total setup to a Windows 7 Media Center was about $80 and well worth it. It works great on my TV and streams all my content easily over my Gigabit wired home network. With the coming release of Flash 10.1 this system will have no problem with web based HD also. I didn’t try 32 bit Windows 7 so I can’t say much about it. And this system has to have the extra 1gb to run 64 bit. It is realllllllly slow without it. I did also order a media center remote control for $25 which works great. Get an external DVD drive (or Blu-ray drive), an external data source, and a wireless keyboard/mouse combo (I was perfectly fine with the wired version it comes with since my kids will trash it anyway)and you have a very good computer for very little money. These systems have no problem with web surfing or MS Office 2007 so they make great kid/dorm computers. Also, I have no problems with the HDMI output to a Visio LCD. Enjoy!

D. Berkowitz on Thu, 14th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Lack of HDMI AUDIO Support with all LCD TV’S
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Was excited to set this machine up with the sole purpose of being an HTPC. Inside the packaging it comes with a supplemental instruction page explaining how to change the AUDIO OUT from realtek to nvidia HD sound.

HOWEVER, this option was not visible when plugged into our Philips 52″ Display.

A call to acer was a waste of an hour which resulted in a call routed overseas and was of no help.

A call to nvidia went to level 2 tech support and they had no idea either.

after searching around the internet for “nvidia no HDMI audio support” I learned this was a common problem, especially with Philips TVs.

Then, in the driver release for nvidia’s ion LE version 191.07 (page 25) I found this excerpt

Using HDMI/DisplayPort Displays that do not Support Audio

Some HDMI/DisplayPort displays do not support audio, or have issues with current

NVIDIA graphics cards.

The NVIDIA driver attempts to identify such displays and automatically disables the

audio. For example, the NVIDIA driver disables HMDI audio for all Philips HDMI

TVs, as these have been identified as having issues with current NVIDIA graphics

cards.

There may be cases where either the driver disables audio even though there is no

problem, or does not disable the audio when in fact the audio does not work. The

following sections describe these situations and provides guidance for handling them.

Nvidia is aware of this problem enough to print this in a driver release but not enough to know over the phone or find a solution.

It would have been nice for Nvidia not to block philips tv’s and let you try it for yourself. This EXACT TV works perfectly with an e-machines using an ATI board so it’s 100% not the TV that is not working.

It is with this that I caution anyone looking to purchase this machine to be used as an HTPC to make sure your exact TV will support HDMI Audio Out with the nvidia board.

***UPDATE***

I purchased a Pioneer VSX-819 Receiver to run the audio from the HTPC to the TV and it works. If anyone has an issue with their TV, spending a few hundred extra gets you a work around.

Paul Peterson on Fri, 15th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Great HTPC
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased this to be my Home Theater PC using Windows Media Center. I figured if it didn’t work, I could use it as an additional computer in the home. Comes installed with Windows XP which for normal web/email would work good. For what I wanted, Windows 7 would work better so I gave it a shot. Contrary to what some have said, this thing will run Windows 7 and run it well. The install went off without a hitch and after downloading and installing the Windows 7 drivers from Acer’s support site, I was off and running. Connected to my Plasma, I am now able to access all of my stored digital content using Windows Media Center. Movies play in full 1080p without missing a beat. As noted on other sites, this unit does not play Flash video, used by YouTube and Hulu, very well. This is due the fact that Flash does not yet fully support video offloading to the GPU. This support is due out early next year with Flash version 10.1.

One word of caution here. If you plan on buying this for a HTPC, make sure your HDMI connected display supports HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection).

latt on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Great Value
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a great machine for what it’s designed for. I was looking for a small form factor machine to replace several larger desktops that have reached the end of their life-cycle. I was just about to invest in a Mac Mini when I came across this machine. At 7″ this machine is small, light, and quiet. It’s energy efficient and is perfect for the new user who doesn’t do any tasks that require large amounts of memory or processing speed. We connected the machines to our LCD TVs and added a wireless keyboard and mouse and away we went. I’m glad Acer decided to go with the XP OS because I have a Netbook and the Vista OS is horrible for that form factor. If you’re looking for a high-end machine to do memory intensive tasks then this machine may not be for you. But if you’re looking for a machine to surf the net, sent emails, write papers and prepare presentations, then you should seriously consider this machine. With 6 USB ports you will have plenty of room for expansion prior to adding a USB hub. It has gigabit Ethernet built in so if you have a wired network, you’re all set. The only thing I would have liked this machine to have is wireless built in. I added a USB wireless card and it works well, but at the cost of using a USB port. Again, despite not having wireless, this machine is a “steal” for the price!!!

Amberrose Beal on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 12:00 am 



Great HTPC
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I know some people will use this aa a small form pc for everyday use, but I’m only reviewing this from a HTPC perspective. Right now its connected to my network wirelessly and Im streaming my movies to my flatscreen tv. Its great for viewing Hi def content, I thought theres no way a processor this slow could ossibly playback through HDMI clearly. I was pleasantly surprised, after a bit of setup it streams ANY format thrown at it through HDMI. I loaded windows vista on this because of windows media center wich really helps with managing all my movies, music and pictures. The only issue is viewing flash video online, dont get me wrong it plays the video reasonably well but you will notice the stuttering at times on the video. Flash currently is not configured to run on these new processors so viewing flash online will be an issue until flash 10.1 wich will be released some time early next year. The processor isnt strong enough to handle high end computing tasks like video editing or photoshop, but this isnt what this pc is made for. Coupple of notes about setup, it comes with windows xp home but that OS may not provide as much sophistication as most people would like, I installed vista on this pc pretty easily. You must have either an external dvd drive or a usb drive with at least 4 giggs of available space. If your using a usb drive you must load the OS dvd on a diferent pc and then copy the files over to the usb drive, afterwards connect to this pc and start setup while in windows xp. Also please remember to load all the drivers needed if you install a new OS. [...]

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