30.12.2009

The Acer 3610 is a very impressive bit of kit, so first things first. Out of the box you get the actual unit, which is a very small 18cm by 18cm by 3cm. You get a footstand for vertically mounting the unit, a monitor mount kit and a wireless keyboard and mouse with batteries. There is no monitor provided. Nor is there an internal DVD/CD.So what are you going to use this for? Pretty much everything other than playing games. It does actually quite a good job of that as well, especially older games but it will be hit and miss. It works as a very good multimedia centre courtesy of the quite stunning Nvidia ION graphics chipset.This sets it apart from your standard Atom machines with Intel graphics.This machine's predecessor was voted across the board as the premier Atom powered nettop. There is no reason to believe the same will not happen for this as well. Especially when you consider it runs Windows 7 64-bit, which not only looks prettier than Vista, it works a whole lot better. At 64-bit it will also make use of this machines dual core processors and potential 4GB memory (the one I have comes with 2GB).In use it makes practically no noise at all, even when you are asking quite a lot of it. There are six usb ports, an eSata port. Optical audio out for hooking to an amplifier, the normal 3.5 audio and mic sockets, a single VGA and HDMI socket. WiFi and Ethernet.Although I use this for my everyday desktop applications which are general browsing via Google Chrome, Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver, and OpenOffice. I also use it as a media centre in my study to watch movies either streamed from my windows home server or off the local disk. It will play 1080p high definition content with no issues at all.The only video playback issues I had are with Flash Player in youtube and iplayer etc. This is because Flash pumps graphics via the CPU which is not upto that job on this machine. Adobe are now beta testing a Flash you can download that pumps graphics through the graphics processor. This works absolutely fine here with the ION.It also comes with a monitor mount so you can attach the Revo to your monitor, although it relies on your monitor stand not using the VESA mount. If your monitor stand does use the VESA mount you will not be able to use this monitor kit.The one downside to this machine is the amount of bloatware that comes pre-installed. It's full of childrens and general games I will never play, a raft of microsoft office products you have to pay for and a myriad other stuff. It does come with a very useful recovery software that you should make use of as there is no install or re-install CD that comes with this.As an aside. I knew this was not going to come with an internal CD or DVD drive. I just so seldom use them anymore. If you do use a CD/DVD drive and are getting the Revo then there are a load of good external drives for under 40 pound. I would highly recommend the LiteOn models.I think I might have gone on a bit, end of the day. A great bit of kit if you do not want to play commercial games. It may seem a little trite to mark this down from its deserved five stars to four because of the amount of bloatware on the machine, but it took almost three hours to uninstall that lot. It really is annoying. So listen up Acer.

22.1.2010

I bought this for my parents who were getting stressed out with a dilapidated laptop. I can safely say I'm actually rather jealous.First of all, here's a list of additional things you need to get a fully-functioning desktop computer out of this:- Monitor, VGA input (or a TV with HDMI/VGA input)- Speakers, 3.5mm stereo input (or optical audio amplifier)- USB CD/DVD drive (DVD-RW recommended)Regarding the monitor mount mentioned in J. Potter's review - I believe that it IS a VESA standard monitor mount, and have attached my unit to the back of a Samsung Widescreen LCD monitor. Admittedly, it took me a while to figure out how and led to me unnecessarily taking the mount apart trying to work out how it did attach (you need to slide a piece of the mount upwards to reveal the screw-holes).I did this the early hours of Boxing Day though, so wasn't at my best. Once attached however, it looks great, and doesn't protrude above the screen at all. It looks like an all-in-one now.Echoing J. Potter's review, this unit really is extremely quiet. You don't even know its on - a massive improvement over every other computer my parents have had. This makes it great for watching media through the various on-demand internet TV services. You will get some stutter watching direct from BBCiPlayer (particularly HD), but that is not due to the R3610 but rather bandwidth, server and software issues at the BBC end.Bad points about this machine:- no recovery disc included, you have to make your own using a DVD-RW drive. I didn't have one to hand so am somewhat nervous about recovery should something horrible happen. I believe you can get one from Acer customer services but they charge something like £40 to send you a disc.- as mentioned by J. Potter, the amount of 'stuff' (software) on the machine is pretty annoying and takes a while to get rid of. The games included are particularly awful and a pain to uninstall.Those are the only things that spring to mind, I really am very impressed with this little machine, particularly because it runs Windows 7 so well and was so cheap. Many people get these to stick on the back of a LCD TV to facilitate on demand TV over the internet and a media centre, which is kinda what is was designed for.For what my parents use it for (internet browsing, the odd word-document, internet TV), it really is perfect. I'd hesitate to ask much more of it however - but if you want to play games or use demanding graphics software you shouldn't be looking at this anyway.Oh and a tip for people who can't get the mouse/keyboard to work - there's a tiny USB adapter inside the battery compartment of the mouse that needs to be plugged into the machine in order to get the mouse and keyboard to work. This is briefly mentioned in the instructions but many people seem to not see this.

14.6.2010

I think this is a case of "you get is what you pay for". Don't expect the world from this mini PC because on some fronts it won't deliver. In other words, this is not a gaming PC..!!! I brought one to use as a media centre in my living room, to replace 2 freeview boxes and an ageing LiteOn PVR.2 things to note: The dongle for the wireless keyboard and mouse is found in the battery compartment of the mouse. You need to dig it out and bung it in one of the many USB ports. Nowhere in the documentation does it say anything about the elusive dongle, so shame on you Acer.2nd, this PC is NOT whisper quiet. Come on, it's a PC and needs cooling. So yes, there is audible fan noise.

24.5.2010

I was after a PC to use in my living room so it needed to be as small and quiet as possible whilst being capable of playing back any media that I throw at it.Performance:This dual core ION based PC may only be a fraction of the speed of a modern full desktop PC but it happily handles web browsing, HD video playback, media streaming, and pretty much everything the average user may require. Being atom based, I wouldn't recommend using it for video encoding or gaming (with modern games) but day to day stuff should be fine.Footprint:The Revo makes less very little noise, far less than some laptops that I have owned. Size wise, this thing is tiny although the stand provided makes it appear larger than it should so I have mie laying flat.

27.2.2010

The Acer Aspire Revo R3610 is a small piece of hardware with impressive specs and comes at a price you cannot easily ignore when it comes to buying it.First of all let me say the product was delivered in just 3 days after the order was placed.So, apart from the specs which you can easilly find anywhere, in my personal opinion and relative recent experience using the Revo, i can tell you this: It is ideal for browsing, chatting, emails and as a media entertainment center. If you are interested in any of the above then you should definately consider. It connects via HDMI to a wide screen TV and when it comes to HD playback it does a very good job provided you use the latest nVidia graphics chipset driver along with the 10.1 beta release of Adobe Flash player plugin and active-x,

17.4.2010

It is quieter than my laptop, just a whisper close up in a silent room. A little bigger than it looks on screen, about the same height and thickness as a 350 page paperback and about 25% wider. The mouse and keyboard are rather cheap looking and the range is not brilliant with it hidden behind the TV at normal viewing distance. A USB extender cable is recommended. It will connect happily with my router in another room via wi-fi but it's better if you can run a Cat 5 cable. Connected to my 37" LCD TV by HDMI with resolution set to 1080p the edges of the screen disappear; the Windows taskbar is out of sight. Then I discovered the Overscan on the TV was on by default. Switch it off in set-up and all is perfect.

27.5.2010

The Acer Revo is a fantastic little Nettop and runs Windows 7 perfectly happily.I purchased mine to act as an Internet TV which should have been fairly simple. Unfortunately, this heavily relies on Adobe Flash, which basically sucks. I totally understand why Apple won't allow it on their devices.The problem is that as the Revo's Atom processors won't cope with HD TV on their own, Flash needs to use the excellent ION graphics chipset instead. However the only version of Flash that actually does this properly at the moment is 10.1 Beta 1. Everything else (including later releases of 10.1) ignores the ION, at least for iPlayer purposes, and so is unusable.Still,

24.4.2010

Wanted a PC to connect to my TV. Aspire Revo 3610 seemed to fit the requirement. I have had it for five weeks now and and I am glad I chose this one. It is hardly noticeable in living room. Detected my home hub straight away and I was connected to the internet within minutes of swiching the Acer on. There is no Optical drive and I had to connect external drive to make the back up discs. As I have other computers in the house, not having an optical drive was not a problem. Besides for around £30 you can get a decent external drive if needed. Wireless mouse and keyboard have a decent range and I am using both from a range of 15 feet without any problem.

26.2.2010

This is a small gem of a PC -It has the smallest(!) processor, the Atom, and is a very compact package. Wireless mouse and keyboard, allied with Wi-fi network, mean few trailing wires, though it has enough USB ports for anything you need to add - like a DVD-ROM, which is rather useful, if not a necessity.So, small and portable, but is it powerful enough? Yes, unless you need real bit-chomping abilities. Net-surfing, downloading and viewing video - even high-definition - is fine, as are most office-style apps. Suits Windows 7 just fine, so is truly modern in concept as well as functionality.It remains to be seen if the Revo is built to last.. but I've had no problems so far. The power switch isn't the best,

5.4.2011

I was thinking about spending a grand on a Mac. But in the end, I decided to go for this dinky little machine and spend the savings on a road bike. I'm really glad I did.I work in the IT industry, so when I get home all I want to do is surf the net, check my e-mails and write the occasional Word document. This PC is perfect. It bolts onto the back of my screen, makes no noise and has a reasonable performance. It was necessary to delete quite a lot of rubbish from the standard build but it didn't take too long.The wireless mouse is great, the wireless keyboard less so. But after a few weeks I've become used to it.I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good computer but doesn't want to spend

28.2.2010

Nearly everything good has already been said about this machine. Essentially it's a Netbook without a screen but a good one!! The only minor problem I had was figuring out quite how to fit the screws to the monitor mount but with that overcome, all went well ;-)) The keyboard is too small for my liking as there is no numeric keypad but the supplied wireless keyboard and mouse work well. I would have thought the USB wireless module for the latter could have been integrated leaving another USB socket free. My first experience of Windows 7 too and overall, a swift little machine after I deleted all the unwanted software supplied but don't push it too hard. Good graphics on my 22" LG monitor.

1.3.2011

Bought a similar model, the Packard Bell imax mini N3600, same specs, same machine,just rebranded as packard bell.. quick thing.. its underpowered.. so i did the following to optimize the performance:- Uninstall all unwanted programs and games- Install TuneUp Utilities 2011- Install CCleaner- Install Media Player Classic Home Cinema.- Install Microsoft Security Essentials- Defragment, Disk Cleanup, Delete Browsing History, Run TuneUp and CCleaner, on a regular basis.The machine will run like a charm after this. Definitely a bargain. Bought a Seagate Expansions 500GB Hard Drive for my media purposes, coupled with a 24" LG Full HD gaming monitor, and a 2.1 Logitech speaker system.

20.4.2010

Absolutely astonishing piece of kit. Almost silent, came with 64bit Windows 7, fits on the back of a monitor with VESA mount, uses HDMI so you don't even need speakers if your monitor has them. And the price is ridiculous. All in, with a 24" Acer monitor £450 - not at all bad.I use one attached to my main TV via HDMI for media including iPlayer and streamed content on home network with external DVD drive for movie playback, and have another in my office at work on the domain (wiped this one and put Win 7 x64 Pro for that) with 4Gb RAM & 500Gb HDD. Just fantastic. No clutter on desk, almost no noise. Couldn't be better.Can't recommend it highly enough.

5.6.2010

I simply use this pc to watch on demand television, it is placed behind my monitor and only has one browser window open at a time really - it of course manages with this fine, and I am happy paying the money for this. There are some problems though - it comes with a mammoth amount of bloatware! It takes a long while to remove, at least two hours. As well as this the hard disk drive is incredibly noisy and it constantly making whirring and clicking noises (just did one as I type this on my Macbook!) The fan is quite noisy also.All in all, it's ok if you can put up with the noises and you are looking for a small low powered PC.

16.11.2010

I bought this machine to use iPlayer and others on the TV. It has done that very competently but to my amazement it plays back HD video files off my Canon 5D Mk2 (1080P quicktime) without a shudder or a jolt, something that my 3.5 year old Macbook Pro that cost me nearly £2000 will not do. I paid £249 here but I have seen them cheaper still on amazon. Yes, there is a lot of bloatware and Windows 7 is still a bit clunky compared to Mac OSX but the performance you can't argue with. Being really picky the wireless mouse and keyboard are flimsy beigeware but hey, what can you expect.

Acer Aspire Revo R3610 (92.NVEYZ.UNN) - Reviews

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