Posted: 8/2/2010 6:03:55 PM EDT
| I need a couple of computers for a small office. I have never had any experiance with these and wanted some opinions from those in the know. These will be used in a small office with a little network nothing fancy. They will only be used for word processing, billing and internet. There won't be any gaming or other taxing software being utilized. My concern is the price seems to be well below the average. Are these things going to be more trouble than they are worth? |
|
In my opinion you can't go wrong by avoiding Acer. Only about 5 years ago they seemed to go out of their way to make it difficult to contact service (and you'll probably need it, unless they've gone to 90 day warranties), but it looks like they've finally put the phone number on their website. I had to talk to a receptionist to get the number...
However, computer companies change pretty quick, so maybe they've changed. I'll give companies like Dell & HP a second chance, but in my opinion Acer doesn't offer enough to risk dealing with them again - The price difference isn't enough for me. I've had a few crap PC's from HP & Dell, but I also have a lab full of them that run great. I admit that my sample size isn't very good, but half the Acers I have experience with were lemons (as in, the problem wasn't in what I'd consider an FRU. It was motherboard or laptop display or something that the average Joe wouldn't want to mess with), while less than 10% of the Dell and HP's I deal with have any problem at all, much less one that can't be resolved with a drive or memory swap. I've started buying HP's for home lately. I didn't like them a few years ago, but it seems to me that Dell and HP swapped quality rankings. If you aren't looking for business class solutions (and depending on how small the small company is) I'd keep an eye open for sales from the more well known computer companies. If you can pick up one of those at only a little above the Acer price, I'd go that route. Take it with a grain of salt though. I've only owned one Acer and helped out a few friends. I work every day with hundreds of Dell & HP. They are mostly servers, which isn't the same as your run of the mill desktop. Dell wouldn't be around if their business laptops were built the same way the Inspiron line is, for instance. Dell laptops can range from great to crap, you get what you pay for with them, I've found. |
Im posting from one right now. Its about 4 years old, volume buttons don't work, scrolling feature on the mouse pad broke, screws are faling out of the bottom, has to stay plugged in b/c the battery wont hold a charge...etc. I only paid $250 for this summbitch and I'll keep using it until it craps out on me. Then I'm taking to the range.
|
|
Here in My opinion:
Acer = Junk HP Business Line = Old Compaq Business Line = Really good Stuff & best bang for the buck Lenovos = Better than Acer but not as good as HP business line. Dell = About the came as Lenovo The Old IBM = Good but too pricey I've been working on all of this since Before the original IBM 5150 PC |
| I manage a couple hundred Acers. We recently upgraded to the Veriton L480G running Windows 7 Pro. For the hardware it came with, along with Win 7 Pro, they were an absolutely untouchable deal from our vendor (PC Mall). I've had no issues with our older Acer models, and so far so good with this line. |
|
They should be the #1 computer company by the 1st qtr of next year. They're current #2 behind HP in sales.
I have the 1810t 11.6" with a dual core processor that's been my travel laptop for the last 9 months and I beat the thing to hell. It's been a great laptop so far. |
My Aspire is currently out of commision. It quit charging the batter when I plug it in. I believe it's the same thing that happened to the Dell I had before. The connection soldered to the motherboard has become dislodged. Hopefully it will be getting fixed soon on the cheap. I purchased it last August but it's been fucked up since late winter/early spring.
|
|
Quoted:
Is that $300 15 in. Acer at walmart too low end to be reliable? Is there something it can't do that a good desk top can? I'm shopping too. Thanks Spend a little more on something that you won't regret 6 months from now. Hp/Compaq/ Dell/Gateway. Buy RIGHT, buy ONCE. |
|
Quoted: My Aspire is currently out of commision. It quit charging the batter when I plug it in. I believe it's the same thing that happened to the Dell I had before. The connection soldered to the motherboard has become dislodged. Hopefully it will be getting fixed soon on the cheap. I purchased it last August but it's been fucked up since late winter/early spring. Had this happen too the last two of them that I've had. |
|
Quoted: I had an Acer Aspire. Motherboard died right after the one year mark. I may get another one, but not sure I want to throw away the cash if its going to die in a year. Mine went through a couple of motherboards right before warranty expired and a third one about a week after it expired. I bought an HP after that and it is still going strong after 3 years of some serious abuse. |
| Ive heard ACER's are hit or miss on quality. I used to be a big computer guy and really into gaming until my old comp was so outdated that it wouldnt play any new games out. Well the old desktop finally died and i ended up buying an ASUS G72 from bestbuy. Holy shit is this laptop fast, thats all i can say. Its big and bulky but it was built to game on and no travel a whole lot. I guess what im trying to say is that ASUS is a good company(originally made motherboards and videocards so they know the business). |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Check out ASUS...geeks choice without the hype.... I've got two (10" netbook and 15.6" laptop)...great stuff. +1 I have an Asus minibook and was surprised at how nice it was. As soon as my Dell finally craps out on me, I'm getting another Asus. My old Dell Inspiron took a shit on me a month or so ago and I went to Best Buy and the salesman recommended an ASUS. I bought it and I love it, really a great computer. |
|
Quoted:
Ive heard ACER's are hit or miss on quality. They're all hit or miss on quality. I've supported a few, not enough to really say much, but I've had no issues with 'em that weren't user-inflicted. Each product is going to be different. Some lines will have inherent weaknesses, maybe they blow mainboards or batteries at six months like clockwork, whatever. The problem is that by the time you have enough of a track record with a model to call it solid, it's outta date 
|
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Check out ASUS...geeks choice without the hype.... I've got two (10" netbook and 15.6" laptop)...great stuff. +1 I have an Asus minibook and was surprised at how nice it was. As soon as my Dell finally craps out on me, I'm getting another Asus. My old Dell Inspiron took a shit on me a month or so ago and I went to Best Buy and the salesman recommended an ASUS. I bought it and I love it, really a great computer. No experience, but ASUS seems to be all right from what people tell me. Their price is really good to. |
|
Quoted: Here in My opinion: Acer = Junk HP Business Line = Old Compaq Business Line = Really good Stuff & best bang for the buck Lenovos = Better than Acer but not as good as HP business line. Dell = About the came as Lenovo The Old IBM = Good but too pricey I've been working on all of this since Before the original IBM 5150 PC This is all we used to buy and they were great machines but as you said, pricey. I can't tell you how sad we all were when they sold the Thinkpad line to Lenovo (i.e. the Chinese). We went with two lines of Lenovos and the quality was OK but not the same as the old Thinkpads. We now have the HP business line (Elitebook 8530w here) and they are good machines. Still miss that old IBM setup though. |
| I was told to avoid Acer, but I needed a PC ASAP when my old computer time and it fit my budget. It came chock full of adware/bogus programs but other than that it was fine. I reinstalled windows to clean out the crappy original software package and I'm left with a desktop that still functions after 3 years. I just use it for homework, word processing, and browsing the internet, and it fulfills those roles fine. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Here in My opinion: Acer = Junk HP Business Line = Old Compaq Business Line = Really good Stuff & best bang for the buck Lenovos = Better than Acer but not as good as HP business line. Dell = About the came as Lenovo The Old IBM = Good but too pricey I've been working on all of this since Before the original IBM 5150 PC This is all we used to buy and they were great machines but as you said, pricey. I can't tell you how sad we all were when they sold the Thinkpad line to Lenovo (i.e. the Chinese). We went with two lines of Lenovos and the quality was OK but not the same as the old Thinkpads. We now have the HP business line (Elitebook 8530w here) and they are good machines. Still miss that old IBM setup though. Weren't the IBM Stinkpads made in China too? They always did seem to be decent one way or the other. Got one at home I'm working on for someone, I'll check next time I'm there. |
|
Quoted:
My Aspire is currently out of commision. It quit charging the batter when I plug it in. I believe it's the same thing that happened to the Dell I had before. The connection soldered to the motherboard has become dislodged. Hopefully it will be getting fixed soon on the cheap. I purchased it last August but it's been fucked up since late winter/early spring. Yeah, that also happened with my Acer laptop. I soldered the SOB back on, but that was just one of the several problems with the thing. I don't know that the OP is going to have much better odds with any of the bargain-priced loss-leader type machines in that price range. They have to give up something to get them so cheap, after all. And I'd take Acer over eMachine. |
|
I've used Acers in a business environment and at home, but no more. Seems to be very hit and miss as far as component and overall quality / performance. I've seen some that worked great, others that worked for awhile and began having all sorts of problems. The DVD burner in both Acers we had at home suddenly died. I replaced them, but the BIOS never liked the new burners so boot from CD never worked right again. No more Acers for me / us.
I'm not a big fan of HP given that its just COMPAQ crap rebranded. I worked in a BIG (almost 10K desktops) all COMPAQ shop, so my experience is based on a sample plenty large enough to be normally distributed. The high end (read: most expensive) models seemed to work alright, but few places are going to spend the $$$ required to outfit everyone with the best. It's a question of ROI. If your people are only going to be using MSOffice and internet, you're probably not wanting to spend a lot. I will say that HP is probably a slight step up from ACER ... probably. My suggestion would be ASUS. After dumping the ACERS, I outfitted us with all ASUS. My only complaint is all the extra software on the factory install. I consider that to be pretty minor, though, because every vendor I've seen has done exactly the same thing. My 2¢, YMMV, caveat emptor and all that... |
|
Quoted:
I need a couple of computers for a small office. I have never had any experiance with these and wanted some opinions from those in the know. These will be used in a small office with a little network nothing fancy. They will only be used for word processing, billing and internet. There won't be any gaming or other taxing software being utilized. My concern is the price seems to be well below the average. Are these things going to be more trouble than they are worth? they are fine |
|
posting from an acer aspire one- purchased in Jan. 2010. Love it so far even with one issue.
Only issue thus far is a bug in BIOS system. The battery somehow got uncalibrated- it charges up full but the system doesn't accurately measure this. It says 84% at highest and the charge light won't switch green like it should on a full charge. Annoying, yes. But it does get the same amount of time on a charge that it always has. Customer support is direct to India, where they barely speak english and have a tough time understanding the complaint. Their "fix" is a BS BIOS update that does nothing to fix the problem. They can't follow the story of this problem and simply suggest the same "fix" as before...I gave up. For $198.00, I'll take the annoyance of 84% and the wrong light color. Final thoughts: do not buy Acer if you will need customer support or parts. E machines now has the exact same models, which is frightening considering the pure crap they've put out in the past, but Radio Shack has them for $199 this week. I'd probably go with an HP in the future. Make absolutely sure your new machines have windows 7 installed and run microsoft security essentials as your virus protection (free). |
|
I have a 4-5yr old acer that i never had a problem until i dropped it and crashed the hd . I put in a bigger hd maxed out the memory and added windows 7 its as fast as most new computers and i dont see changing it out any time soon,. My dad has the same acer w/o any upgrades never had a problem with it either my mom has the same laptop no problems. I would have no problems buying another acer. My sisters and uncles fancy expensive dells xps's have constantly crapping out motherboards my uncle is on his 3rd and my sister hd and mother board have both gone out.
|
|
Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Here in My opinion: Acer = Junk HP Business Line = Old Compaq Business Line = Really good Stuff & best bang for the buck Lenovos = Better than Acer but not as good as HP business line. Dell = About the came as Lenovo The Old IBM = Good but too pricey I've been working on all of this since Before the original IBM 5150 PC This is all we used to buy and they were great machines but as you said, pricey. I can't tell you how sad we all were when they sold the Thinkpad line to Lenovo (i.e. the Chinese). We went with two lines of Lenovos and the quality was OK but not the same as the old Thinkpads. We now have the HP business line (Elitebook 8530w here) and they are good machines. Still miss that old IBM setup though. Weren't the IBM Stinkpads made in China too? They always did seem to be decent one way or the other. Got one at home I'm working on for someone, I'll check next time I'm there. Don't know the answer to this. I have an older one at home I can checkout as well. I asked my employer if I could buy it when I got a new one and they were kind enough to give it to me after the hard drive was wiped clean. |