Acer Aspire AM3970-UR11P

The Acer Aspire AM3970-UR11P ($699.99 list) certainly has an awkward name. Pity, because the desktop strikes a good visual balance between utilitarian and flashiness. It's a tower, but it's not a boring looking tower. Component-wise, the system is pretty much a middle of the road tower desktop with some internal storage capability. It's got some software additions to help Acer fans, like those who bought an Iconia Tab, but ultimately it's a middle of the road desktop with a middle of the road price and feature set.

Design and Features
The AM3970-UR11P is built into a full sized tower desktop chassis, with a mainly black visage. It's got some styling cues to distinguish itself, like a side mounted power button and optical drive releases. It's got space inside for some decent expansion, including space for two additional PCIe x1 cards, two more hard drives, and an optical drive. All four of the memory DIMM slots are filled by the included 8GB of RAM, but 8GB should be enough for even power users at this time. One PCIe x1 slot is filled by the installed 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi card, and the PCIe x16 slot by the AMD Radeon HD 6450 card. The Radeon HD 6450 is an entry-level graphics card. It's not too powerful, but it is DX11 compliant, which makes it more advanced than the DX10-compliant Intel HD Graphics 2000 built into the Core i5-2320 processor. Outside, the system has a plethora of ports: ten USB 2.0, two faster USB 3.0 ports, HDMI-out (on the graphics card), audio ports, PS/2 ports (mouse and keyboard), a DVI port, and Ethernet.

The USB 3.0 ports are key, as they allow you to use speedier external hard drives for extra storage. The USB 3.0 ports are in the back, but four USB 2.0 ports are on the top of the system. The top ?mounted ports are in front of a top-mounted tray, which is convenient if you'd like to park your external hard drive, camera, or smartphone for charging. The HDMI port on the graphics card lets you either set the system up with dual displays, or lets you hook the system up to a HDTV in your den for HD video viewing. The system has ample room for expansion, but be forewarned that the system can only use a midrange graphics card because of the 300W power supply. That said, the included Radeon card is fine for most non-game tasks. The system comes with a standard 1TB 5,400rpm SATA hard drive and a DVD burner, but you can add another two hard drives and another optical drive to the system.

Along with the hardware, the AM3970-UR11P comes with a lot of included software, however most of it could be categorized as bloatware. Just on the desktop, there's a smattering of icons for Acer Games, Acer Registration, clear.fi (connections to Acer tablets and smart TVs), eBay, McAfee Internet Security (a short 60-day subscription is included), Netflix, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Skype. While most of these services are useful, most require an additional subscription or payment. Strewn across the desktop surface, they remind the user of the deluge of ads in a place like Times Square. The whole effect is kind of busy. The same programs plus a bunch of others like Fooz Kids, NY Time Reader, Aupero! (online radio), My Winlocker, and Norton Online Storage are in the Start menu, which is frankly a better place for all these programs. Now some (or all) of these programs may be useful to you, but they clutter the desktop and hard drive. It would be best if Acer allowed you to choose to load them during the initial setup, so you don't have to deal with uninstalling them later.

Performance
The AM3970-UR11P's Core i5-2320 processor, 8GB of memory, and AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics card help the system gain respectable benchmark numbers. The system is pretty quick, with a 1:20 time on our Handbrake video test, and 3:26 on our Photoshop CS5 test. These are comparable to the similarly equipped Dell XPS 8300 (x8300-4004NBK) (1:21 on Handbrake; 3:35 on CS5) ($699.99 list, 3.5 stars) and is a smidge faster than the compact Apple Mac mini (Thunderbolt) ($799 list, 4.5 stars) (1:42 on Handbrake; 3:47 on CS5). It's even within striking distance of the Alienware X51 ($999.99 direct, 4 stars) (1:20 Handbrake, 3:36 CS5). 3D performance is another matter, however. The AM3970-UR11P only shows an unplayable 27 fps on Crysisand 13 fps on Lost Planet 2, similar to the Dell XPS 8300 (x8300-4004NBK) but far behind the gaming-oriented Alienware. Suffice to say, if you want 3D gaming, go with an entry level gaming system right off the bat rather than buying an entry/midrange system and upgrading later.

Compared with the competition, the Acer Aspire AM3970-UR11P comes up as adequate, but unremarkable. It's about as powerful as the Dell XPS 8300 (x8300-4004NBK), but the Dell has a lot less in the way of bloatware. The Alienware X51 is a lot more expensive due to its gaming-class graphics card, but it's a better choice if you want gaming performance, since the AM3970-UR11P can't accept a gaming card later on. The midrange Editor's Choice Gateway DX4860-UB33P ($599.99 list, 4 stars) is ultimately a better bang for the buck, as it is $100 less expensive and has similar performance and features, aside from using integrated graphics instead of the AMD Radeon card. In concusion, the AM3970-UR11P is OK if you're an Acer fan; otherwise, there are better choices out there.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Acer Aspire AM3970-UR11P with several other desktops side by side.

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