Acer Aspire 1710 Review - Page 11

hehehe

you won't be hiding this .....

The best defense is that this lappie is so heavy, they'd probably think it was nailed to the desk.

Guys, I gotta tell ya, you have given some GREAT information in this topic. Way to go! I started reading this post on Monday morning of this week. At the time, I was pumped about this computer and based on all of your info, I ordered it. I got it in Tuesday and have been putting it though its paces. First off here are my likes: Awesome Screen, great speed for laptop, VERY strudy design, Tons of features, 1 gig memory!, Wireless onboard (didnt have to do anything to connect it to my Microsoft Wireless Broadband, it found it and automatiallcy connected), a LOT quiter than I thought, used desktop components mainly and unbeatable price.

Things I dont like: The hard drive spin down was a game killer. I play a lot of flight sim games and online tactical shooters and it would cause the games to pause every 30 seconds for about 5 seconds, not good when flying of fighting! (fixed now with the gracious bios you guys got!), dont like the dvd and sound keys on the edge of the board, "." and "/" keys are too small, speakers and headphone output do not seem consistant (cant seem to get all sounds at equal level), and I dont care for the mouse pad (nothing against it, i just hate those things).

Overall, this computer (with the new bios) is going to run circles around the Dell and even the alienware equivalent (when you factor in price that is). Why spend $1500 more on a computer with only about a 10% performance boost? I showed this computer to fellow engineers and they are blown away by it. Two just ordered one themselves. This is certainly not the Acer I remember from years ago. This is a high quality notebook!

What I wish Acer would do for future support of my notebook? Allow for future video card upgrades, better sound control with the onboard speakers and headphone jack, allow user to turn off front buttons from windows (to prevent accidentally hitting them), and well...... thats about it. I am PUMPED about this laptop! Thanks guys for talking me into it!!!

how did you guys update the bios?
I've made boot disks before but I haven't updated a motherboards bios before. Which file on bookdisk.com did you guys use?
Anything else I should know before I begin?

(being extra careful with my new baby...)

I used drdflash with a USB floppy drive.

don't have a usb floppy... any alternatives?

I simply created a bootable CD image from my Floppy Boot Disk (with the BIOS files on the disk) using Roxio Easy Media Creator 7. There was also mention in this thread of the WinPhlash program from Acer's site.

Acer company policy

just to let you all know the 1714smi is a lovely machine whens its actually running had mine less than 48hrs was playin farcry and pfft it shutdown and that was the end of it,i called acer and they offered to repair it i mean it cost me a fortune and they wanna repair it so i gave them a little tongue lashing but to no avail so the shop where i bought it offered me a refund but being so in love with the machine i ordered another one gluteon for punishment i guess
cheers

Click the link several posts up for WinPhash. Just click and go. Worked like a charm...no fuss, no muss.

This is my first experience running without a floppy too.

Big thanks to Scott for advance on the file!

great... got it working... everything is running flawlessly now.

Oh... and the name of that prog is "winphlash" or something... still got the job done.

Woot, went and got the 1712 and flashed the bios using the winflash utility. Everything is working and I am playing City of Heroes with no HD pausing!

Thanks!

To those of you playing Farcry: What FPS are you getting and at what settings? I'm concerned that the FX 5700Go can't keep up.

By settings I want resolution and high, medium or low in game settings.

If it's playable then I'll order mine (Acer) next week.

Having a 10 hour gaming session with my beast. Finally got it to cross 70 degrees Celsius.

10 Hours wow !! in which game or games ?

Do you use every time and in all games the 1280x1024 or others res too ??

What temp do you have touched max exactly (do you have the 3.0 Ghz right ??) and has the bios forced to slow down the cpu of a 30 % in speed like written in the txt of new bios ?

FarCry fps ??

Thanks Ransaak.

Can you boot off of CF???

What is CF ??

Americas Army.. man I'm sadly addicted. Full res, full detail. I need to get FarCry.

I also tested how quick it cools down. From 71C (gaming) to 55C (web surfing) in 5 minutes. Not too shabby.

Well this has been GREAT. I heard about Acer Laptops for the first time about a month ago at a local Computer Store. The top model in my area is the AS1705SCi. How far is that behind the 1712 series? Also is there anyway to order an Acer over the net?
Thanks, I'll wait for a response.
BG

Check the PCTorque website, they carry this monster. Don't know the specs of the other machine you mentioned.

Here is a link to the product offerings for the Acer Aspire 1700 series (NOT 1710).

http://www.acer.ca/APP/AKC/INTERNET/...5?OpenDocument