Acer Aspire Computer

[phiggins]

I am so impressed by this little notebook computer that I just have to share the information.

First let me assure you I have no affilation with Acer. In fact I worked for HP for 13 years before I retired last year and wouldn't recommend any of their laptops.

I bought the Acer back in July 2009 to be my primary navigation computer mainly because of the low amperage draw, about 1amp. We sailed all the way from Toronto to Guatemala, over 2000 nm with it running nearly all the time and had no problems. After flying back to Canada, I took the Acer with me on a sailing trip from Toronto to Nova Scotia again with no problem.

I run Windows XP on it and primarily run SeaClear but also OpenCPN and Fugawi and my own AIS program all fed by GPS and AIS through Franson GPS gate. The little Acer with its Atom CPU handles it all with no problem.

Granted the screen is small, 10'' but its as big as most chart plotters.

Its coming back with me to Guatemala next month and hopefully I'll never have to use the HP backup computer.

Oh and it only cost $259 CDN at Futureshop. I've seen it lately for $239.

[Vasco]

Yeah, they're pretty good. I've had one for two years but don't use it for navigation. The battery life was a bit short for me and the battery died last month. I got a replacement battery a 7000ma one and now it lasts 8 hours.

[barnakiel]

A netbook you mean? Acer is supposed to be good at them.

I am writing from an Asus 10'' netbook right now. Have had it for like half a year. Does everything our late Acer (laptop) did, only faster. Screen size no issue, the keyboard nearly perfect. Power requirements half against a laptop.

The only thing I found a netbook cannot do for me is web design - the screen resolution is too small.

Cheers,
b.

[colemj]

I picked up the Aspire One netbook a couple months ago at Target on sale for $179. I agree it is a nice computer, but the trackpad and buttons aren't very good. Also, it came with Windows 7 starter and I had a dickens of a time getting XPpro installed on it. We use it solely to run navigation software and it sits quietly out of the way controlled over remote desktop by the Panasonic toughbook screen in the cockpit. Both are running off DC/DC converters. Uses very little power, boots fast and never hiccups. But again, it has a clean, basic install of XPpro with no frilly stuff or crapware (amazing how well computers run without that stuff).

Everything else is done on our Macs

Mark

[Kefaa]

My wife loves hers. Prior to it, her use of a computer was generally under duress. I find the screen too small, but she loves wandering the house with it. No boat experience with it, but I see no reason it would not perform as well as my thinkpad - with a lot longer battery life and a lot smaller investment.

[Henry Morgan]

Anything is better than a mac... My daw stations were half the price, more specs and I don't have to participate in the market machine that is mac (the misconception that mac heads are geeks is a joke). Netbooks are getting decent, I might even trade my laptops and buy a netbook to run each application which will still cost so much less which is still half the price of a mac!

[zeehag]

dang i shoulda gone to target instead of wallys- -i paid almost 300 dollars for mine at wallys in louseyanny....yipes.. nexrt time i go to target....LOL
mine has windows 7 in it---does ok!
uses hardly any electricity so i can play online for hours and not have to recharge boat batts---i live on boat and have had this netbook since march 2010. i also have a compaq and a dell from hell.. laptops.

[Maine Sail]

I have two netbooks. One is an ASUS, and one is an ACER Aspire One which was too good a deal to pass up, $225.00 on sale at Office Max, total impulse buy.

The ACER has 250GB hard drive 2GB of ram and Win 7. The ASUS is 160GB running Win XP with 2GB. Neither of them have ever frozen or crashed. I do not run antivirus software of any kind on them, uninstalled it, and use Mozilla. On these I'd rather have to re-format than run bloated, do nothing "antivirus" software. Have not had a single issue in nearly two years of owning my ASUS...

Both are rather slow when running off battery power unless you adjust the settings. They are designed to optimize battery life. For net surfing these settings are fine but for anything else you may want to plug in or set it for "Max Performance". Doing "max performance" on batteries will take them from about 8 or 9 hours use to about 3-4, if that.

I can, and do, run just about any program I want on either though I generally don't use Adobe Photoshop or other high CPU programs. It runs Picasa 3 with ease, which is what I organize photos with, as well as iTunes. I also have MS Office loaded onto both of them and all programs run fine. The only thing they really lack is a honking processor and internal DVD drive. I often use an external mouse because the touch pads on both of them SUCK!

Netbooks are so cheap I just leave one on the boat and one in the car. If one gets stolen, so be it, they are less than my insurance deductible...

I do think the ASUS is slightly better built than the ACER but have had zero issues with either of them. Both run nav software with no problems. My ASUS does however need a constant 12V supply. NOT 11.5V,V, 13.2V, 14.4V etc. just 12V!!! This is a PITA and I suspect ASUS has changed this on newer models. The 12V only issue required a special DC adapter only sold by ASUS. The ACER takes varying voltages and wants to see 19v, or there about, to charge. 19V adapters are easy to find in an aftermarket DC adapter. I have NO problem typing on either keyboard but I do use about four different keypads/computers a day. My work computer is a Lenovo tablet with a keyboard no bigger than a netbook, my home PC has a very large Logitech keyboard, the Mac is yet another different size as is my 17" laptop and then I also use the keyboard on my Android Incredible, you get used to them all.....

[Darryl]

Likewise, I have an Acer Aspire Aspire One which I have onboard purely for navigation and associated programs.
Mine was purchased around 18 months ago in Singapore. I cannot recollect the price breakdown, but with the 8 hour battery, portable Acer dvd/cd drive and a 16 gig pen drive it came to around USD $500.
All in all, am very happy with the unit. With the brilliance on full, it is easy to read in the open cockpit during the day.
I have found that it disagrees with my dc/dc (12/19V) converter though as it will only charge sporadically. To overcome this I now have a 300w pure sine wave inverter (12Vdc to 240Vac).


Cheers
Darryl
SY Coral Kuching

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by Darryl

Likewise, I have an Acer Aspire Aspire One which I have onboard purely for navigation and associated programs.
Mine was purchased around 18 months ago in Singapore. I cannot recollect the price breakdown, but with the 8 hour battery, portable Acer dvd/cd drive and a 16 gig pen drive it came to around USD $500.
All in all, am very happy with the unit. With the brilliance on full, it is easy to read in the open cockpit during the day.
I have found that it disagrees with my dc/dc (12/19V) converter though as it will only charge sporadically. To overcome this I now have a 300w pure sine wave inverter (12Vdc to 240Vac).


Cheers
Darryl
SY Coral Kuching

I have a 12/19 converter which charges my Acer Aspire without a hiccup.
It was originally for a fleet of computers in trucks.
Rating is 2.5 a @ 19 v. output.

[NotQuiteLost]

Typing from an Acer Aspire One right now. I upgraded the standard RAM to 2g, which made it quite a bit quicker.

All my charts and nav software works perfectly on it. Windows XP for the OS, of course.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by NotQuiteLost

Typing from an Acer Aspire One right now. I upgraded the standard RAM to 2g, which made it quite a bit quicker.

.

I got 4gb ram, and Win7. Love the long battery life

[GordMay]

I’m on an Aspire 4530 dual core (Athalon X2 1.9 GHx) 32 bit c/w 2 GB RAM.
It’s fairly fast, and I'm satisfied.

[senormechanico]

How things have changed.
When I was a kid, all any guy ever talked about was his car.
Dual quads, four speed close ratio trans, positraction, mags etc.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

How things have changed.
When I was a kid, all any guy ever talked about was his car.
Dual quads, four speed close ratio trans, positraction, mags etc.

True. And I didn't know any more of which I spoke then, than I do now.