The 300-euro PC with graphics turbocharger.

Games, watching HD movies, videos cut: Acer Nettop new PC is almost everything you can, what big PC can do - and yet much cheaper and more economical to be. With blogs ONLINE had the device to show whether it is the marketing promise can be fulfilled.

 

With its HDMI socket seems to be the glittering blue computer to call: "I belong to the living room." And in fact would Acer Aspire Revo well in many a living environment fit: It is small, economical, quiet and at 300 euros even cheap. In addition, he brings almost everything that a modern multimedia PC needs. Only his processor for HD home theater to actually break down, because in the Revo is an Intel Atom, the chip that drives most of Netbook and the economy rather than performance is.

But the Revo is the atom is not alone. His side is NVIDIA Ion technology, the Acer in the first mini-computer is used. You should schwachbrüstigen Intel's Atom processor in moving him off computationally intensive tasks. Above all, however, the graphics performance atombasierter calculator to spice it up so far that they also as a game machine and HD movie player can use. Lauter things for Netbook and Nettops hitherto were limp.

The reason for their failure multimedia: the chips, Intel's Atom to set up the so-called chip set. The routine work is done smoothly, but is not a specialist for fast graphics. And even the atom itself is not exactly a rocket, but he tuckert since its introduction in 2007 with leisurely 1.6 gigahertz to go out. This situation has also not changed Aspire Revo. However, when waived Acer Revo on the Intel chipset used instead Ion NVIDIA chipset - and has a lot to offer. Above all, what the graphics are concerned, nVidia has something different here and much better made than Intel.

Fit for Windows 7

Ten times faster than Intel's integrated graphics should be Ion, nVidia sounds. Given the Revo one could believe it, because while many other games also on Netbook run if you reduced their graphic decoration, running games like Spore on the Revo is significantly faster and graphically appealing. The Games Benchmark 3DMark 06, however, makes clear that we still do not gaming PC from it. 1300 points creates the Revo. A well-equipped four-core machine achieved over ten times as many counters, an atom-Nettop Intel chipset only 35th

These graphics performance ranges from thick to semi-aero look of Windows Vista liquid over the screen to move. Accordingly, the Revo with the ollen Windows XP but with Vista Home Premium equipped. And that is not the end of his flagpole. Who wants to be the Revo betimes to upgrade to Windows 7. Absurd would be the same. The new Windows is expected in the shop, a good third of the cost for what you paid for the entire Revo.

Multimedia Turbo

In some applications, the Ion as a digital graphic turbocharger. Where possible, NVIDIA graphics chip uses the Atom CPU under the arms. Unfortunately this does not always, but only if the software was adjusted accordingly. All other applications are running on the Revo, therefore, just as fast or as slow, as in other Nettops or Netbook.

WHAT IS A chipset?

The chipset is the link between the processor and other hardware of the computer. It provides links to the outside world, regulates the flow of data on the board and includes in some cases even a graphics card. While so far most chipsets consist of two separate units, as the Northbridge and Southbridge described, there are the functions of modern chipsets in part on a single physical chip housed, which lowers costs and space requirements.

For Revo owners should therefore be mandatory, in the network by applications around, with the words "nVidia GPU Acceleration" or similar identification. But then things get established, in turn, without the ion-atom technique with a chip would be unthinkable. With the free software
Media Player Classic, for example, the computer plays effortlessly HD movies in full resolution. And it works well with HD movies from Blu-ray discs. About the HDMI output of the computer provides the video in resolutions up to 1080p, including digital surround sound. To even play Blu-rays you need of course an external BD drive, with at least 100 euros to account for.

As the ion-chip processor-intensive applications on the jumps can be helpful, but other applications that are specifically geared to the abilities of the new chips have been cut, the better. One of them is the video editing program
vReveal. The software makes the graphics chip as its own, for example, blurred or noisy video images to be improved. As for the Atom chip probably would employ several minutes, is done by vReveal ion acceleration in near real time (see pictures stretch).