Acer Aspire AS-L310-E63

We have with us Acer’s small form factor PC or the mini-PC as Acer likes to call it- the Acer Aspire AS-L310-E63. One of the major concerns for a small form factor PC is heat dissipation. All computer components produce heat and due to the compact nature of the system, it gets difficult to get proper air ventilation as compared to a normal sized desktop chassis. But the recent Core 2 Duo processor line-up from Intel runs pretty cool as compared to its infamous predecessors (remember the prescotts? They were popularly nicknamed as press’hot’s for the heat they produced!).

In the recent small form factor PCs we have seen manufacturers using mobile platforms. Mobile platforms are for laptops. One of the biggest constraint of a mobile platform is its crippled performance as compared to its desktop counterparts. In the AS-L310-E63, Acer has used a desktop 1.86 GHz, E6300 Core 2 Duo processor with 2 MB L2 cache and a 1066 MHz FSB. The E6300 has a 65 Watt TDP (Thermal Design Power). In comparison, its dual core predecessor, the Pentium D 840 running at a clock speed of 3.2 GHz had a 130 Watt TDP. The point here is that the newer Core 2 Duo processors run much cooler and hence can be used in a small form factor PC.

A popular brand that has been producing Small Form Factor PCs for quite sometime now is Shuttle. Not that it’s taken a back seat now, rather it has matured into a more robust brand with excellent cooling and noise dampening techniques, attained over years of experience. The Acer L310 is at par in terms of performance but lacks expandability due to lack of expansion slots. Let’s have a closer look.
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Design and Features

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**Front Panel
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Acer claims its chassis to be 1/10th the size of a normal chassis and 1/4th its weight. We didn’t go into actual measurements, but we managed to get a side by side shot next to a normal sized mid-ATX chassis and by the looks of it, the Acer appears stunted!

Acer AS-L310-E63 vs. a mid-ATX chassis

In the looks department, the Acer is a stunner. Clean lines with steel accents and a matte silver paint job make it look very neat. The front panel has a set of two USB ports, a firewire port, audio and microphone jacks and a card reader that are concealed by a lid. The front panel also houses a slot loading 8x DVD writer and indicator lights. The system can also be rested horizontally but will require removing the vertical base.

Back Panel

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It uses 1GB of 533 MHz DDR memory with another slot to spare and comes with a 250GB 7200 rpm SATA desktop hard drive. Other notable features include 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi module from Broadcom, Gigabit LAN, an external TV tuner and both DVI and VGA outputs.

External TV Tuner & Windows Media Center Remote

It comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system. Since the launch of Windows Vista, most of the new PCs have been coming with Windows Vista and we would have ideally expected it to come with Windows Vista Home Premium operating system as it has the media center functionality. The Acer L310 also contains the Windows Media Center Edition remote control. Also included in the bundle is a multimedia keyboard and an optical mouse.

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Performance
The 946GZ chipset comes with Intel’s GMA 3000 graphics chip integrated into its northbridge. The GMA 3000 is inferior in comparison to the GMA X3000 and intended towards business users using Intel’s vPro platform. It has hardware support for pixel shader 2.0 and is powered by a 667 MHz core. It is able to address up to 256 MB of system memory and can run Windows Vista Aero. The Acer scored an overall score of 3408 PCMark05 points. It’s a good score and could have been much higher with a better graphics solution.

On the temperature front, the CPU idled at around 45-46 degree Celsius and went up to 56 degrees at load. Not the best of temperatures but very much manageable especially with a SFF system.

Conclusion
At Rs. 40,000 plus around 4-5% for taxes, the Acer AS-L310-E63 is a very compact, good looking, feature rich and powerful machine. And with the plethora of additions like Wi-Fi and an external TV tuner card it makes for good value too. Of course a conventional desktop system in the same amount of money could give you more powerful components complete with a mid-level graphics card but then the size would have to be greatly compromised.

Another concern is the bundling of the system with Windows XP Media Center Edition. I would have ideally liked it to come with Windows Vista Premium which incorporates the media center functionality. Upon calling the Acer representative we figured that a new model with Windows Vista is around the corner. I would recommend waiting for it.

And finally, a slight word of caution, the system price doesn’t include a display. A 19-inch wide-screen LCD will set up back by around 11,000, taking your total cost incurred to about Rs. 51,000.
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Specification Table