Play unveils AspireRevo launch date Online retailer Play.com has begun accepting UK pre-orders for Acer’s recently launched AspireRevo Ion-based small, cheap desktop PC. Acer_Aspire_Revo_Play Play UK names the AspireRevo day, and prices According to the retailer, four models of the machine will be released on 18 May for between £180 ($267/€201) and £330 ($ …
YOU CAN'T "PRE"-ORDER (well, you could, but it's stupid....)
Ordering is something you do BEFORE you get something, i.e. you place an order to get something. Therefore a pre-order is ordering your order !! It doesn't make sense, it's rubbish.
It may be on "pre-sale order", fair enough. But it is not on "pre-order". Exactly the same way you can't "pre-register" or "pre-warn" or "pre-book". You don't post-invoice someone do you? The whole (and dog) seems to have gone mad recently, shoving the word "pre" in front of nearly everything. Sorry, I know it's silly, but it's one of those things that bug me!
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Anyway great price for a media centre, etc - just a shame you can't get a bigger disk on the Linux version (Mythbuntu media server type thing). Mind you, can buy a 250GB pocket USB drive for £50 (from the same site) so would make more then enough sense to buy that separately and discreetly hang it off the back.
I thought the crappy little mobile chip was the first thing you ditched, when you were able to plug a cable in the back? Where is the logic of building a system whose CPU consumes 1/4 the power of the GPU? Marrying an Ion and an Atom has to be the dorkiest idea of the year. The Ion will surely never be able to run at full capacity simply because the atom wouldn't be able to give it enough work to do. It's as if they'd found three separate parts bins from three different fabs, and were trying to cobble something together using the bits.
And they want to run Vista Permium on the more expensive ones! I'm sorry, but as far as I can see, these things are going to run like slugs. You can throw all the GPU and RAM at a problem, you like, but if you stick a toy chip in the middle, it's still going to be a lemon.
However, before you pick it up, is it a pre-palm Palm Pre?
Erm... should probably say something on topic now, or risk angering the Moderatrix.
Have I missed the point of these? Are these essentially a netbook without a screen? They ain't going to replace any desktop usage I can think of, and you can buy a full desktop for the cost of the higher end ones. Also, the AspireOne has an external VGA port and it's portable. I just don't see a gap in the market for these things.
Amusing to see how the comments still manage to tear it a new one despite it having linux/ssd option, HD playback, can run modern games, dual monitor with HDMI support, loads of usb ports, tiny footprint, IR receiver for media centre duties, low power, dirt cheap etc.
It's a complete PC, does pretty much everything that most people will want to use a computer for, and even quite a lot of things that us lot would be interested in.
6 years ago, the powermac G5 was released with similar specs to this little thing.
Top of it's class for the time, cost thousands of dollars and was a hulking great noisy metal monstrosity. Now, just a few short years later, we can get it in a tiny silent box, for 1/10th of the price.
Here's hoping the rate of progress keeps up so I can buy a Mac Pro netbook in 2014 for £200 and use it to read the reg complaints that it doesn't support holo-vision or have a mindmeld 2.0 interface socket on the back. :)
Oh, and the powersaving feature doesn't just have to be for ecotwats, any nerd worth his salt can do rough kwh calculations on everything, can realise that, as a 24/7 machine, one of these things is likely to save over £100/year in 'leccy.
Simple really... its a cheap media server that looks better than most of the rubbish cases manufacturers churn out. You don't want a powerhouse CPU or GPU... something that'll sit there on but not single handedly eating half of your lecy bill.
Excellent to see the Linux version... does it really matter if they list what distro it is tho? Hardly a hassle if its not the flavour of the month... not like you paid for the one on there, just replace it :)
Vista Premium and, say, Call of Duty 4, both at once, on one of these... what sort of frame rates? Anyone care to guess?
Acer, themselves are saying this will be ideal for running "family friendly" games. I think we all know what that's a euphamism for.
I stand by my original comment rearding the disparities in the hardware. Intel claim the Atom uses 2.5 Watts, TDP, running flat out. Nvidia clam 3 Watts, TDP, from the ion, while on idle cycle. So, the GPU, on idle, is consuming more power than the CPU does, when running at full speed. Start using this thing for seriouswork, and the ower consumption quadruples - for all the fact that CPU is struggling to keep up.
And why does a media PC need to be left on all the time, anyway, other than to ensure that the Confikr boys can keep it up to date? Surely, an "ecotwat" would actually consider the "turn it off, when I'm not actually using it" option? Presumably that's what a reponsible ecotwat would do, with the 40 inch plasma screen, that he or she rather otpimistically plugged this thing into?
Furthermore, quoting Intel, again, the Atom provides "half the performance of a Celeron 430", but consider this; putting a 430 in, instead of the Atom, would (by my estimation) add about $5 to the production costs, while offering a real media and light-gaming platform - albeit at the expense of saddling the user with the job of powering it down whenever they are finished with it.
The Atom makes perfect sense, for saving energy, when the energy is coming out of a cheap battery, and is also having to power the display. It does not make sense for saving energy simply because you can't be arsed hitting the off button. Just turn things off, if you want to save the planet: it's not Rocket Surgery.
I rang Acer UK to ask about this pc. The pre-sales representitive had never heard of it and told me he dealt with presales not pre-releases. After interjecting into his diatribe I polietly explained that I understood the difference between the two but surely there must be someone I could speak to in Acer about pre-releases? Well no there is not as they can only discuss items that are on sale. So how can they release a product they do not know exists? Does it turn up in the shops and then someone informs Acer who add it to their list? I am with James Dunmore on this. The whole concept is absurd. Acer's support (if you can call it that) even more so. I will not touch anything with Acer on it now as a matter of principle. As an aside why is it nigh on impossible to buy a small form desktop without comprimising on spec?
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