Acer Desktop PC Aspire AM5621-EQ9300A Core 2 Quad Q9300 (2.50 GHz) 8 GB DDR2 1.28 TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit (English / French)

Pros: Fast, quiet, works like a dream!!

Cons: WHEN IT WORKED!!! I have only actually used the computer for 3 days, other then that it has been between Acer's repair depot in Texas and here!! It started after the first day, when I noticed the recovery disks all said 32 Bit Vista. When I call the help line, and gave them the Part Number, they assured me that it was a typo. Then the PC started shuting itself down, re-booting, then shutting down all by itself. I had to pay to ship it, and after Acer had it for 1 day, they said they reloaded all the software, and it was all better!! I knew they were wrong, and awaited my PC. While re-loading the new programs, I happened to notice that on my 8 gig machine, it said there was only 4 gig available.....BECAUSE ACER REPAIR LOADED 32 BIT VISTA ON IT!!! I got on the phone, and while complaining, 2 things happened...one, they said that in fact I DID have the wrong disks, and they would ship me the correct ones. Then, the PC started it's shut-down and start-up cycle again!! (Cont.)

Overall Review: So they gave me an RMA number, and I packed it up and shipped it back to TX. After it got there, I find out that they suspect the Video Card is bad, but say that it's back-ordered, and they won't get it untill 3 weeks!!! While I'm on the phone with them, I see that if I were to order the same card from NewEgg, it would take me 2 DAYS!!! So I tell the tech that fact, and ask to speak to someone who can speed the process up. After being on hold again, he comes back and says he has canceled the repair AT MY REQUEST, and will ship the unit back to me with the bad card re-installed!! I tell him in no uncertain terms that (because I have no choice) that my unit WILL be repaired by Acer, that I will wait for the replacement card, and that their incompetance will be reflected in any review that I would be writing.

Pros: It's incredible the amount of hardware you get for the price. Runs wonderfully. 64-bit Vista is preinstalled on a separate "factory restore" partition. You have the option of downgrading to 32-bit Vista using supplied CDs if you have any application compatibility problems.

Cons: The Lord help you if you want to change or add any hardware. The case is smaller than it looks - it's a good inch or two shorter in every dimension than my old Antec Sonata. Even though there aren't many expansion cards or anything inside it's very cramped. There are three free 3.5" bays which could presumably hold e.g. extra hard drives but two of them you can't get to unless you dismantle the CPU fan and the third is completely unusable due to the size of the graphics card. There's a kinda strange locking mechanism used to hold the drives which works quite well for the 5.25" DVD drive but is much more difficult to work with for some reason with the 3.5" hard drives. Honestly I have not yet succeeded in being able to remove one of them from the case - even when "unlocked" they seem to be stuck in there and I don't want to break anything by forcing it. Also the included speakers are pretty poor (tinny, no low range) but I assume that's minor for most buyers.

Overall Review: There is no system fan - just a CPU fan, a GPU fan, and a PSU fan - which seems kind of odd to me, but seems to work since the CPU fan is connected directly to a vent in the side of the case. It does make it run pretty quiet (though if it gets hot the CPU fan speeds up and can get a bit more boisterous). I want to give it 5 stars for the quality of the hardware but the case is very frustrating. I like the exterior design (the USB ports on top are convenient) but trying to do anything inside - plug in a new SATA cable, add a drive, whatever - is nigh impossible. I'm seriously considering gutting it and moving it all into my old beatup Antec case, but just considering the effort in unwinding the cables, dismantling the CPU fan, and extracting the hard drives without damaging anything is daunting.

Pros: Fast, Cheap, Couldn't build my own for that much less.

Cons: Airflow is horrible, don't get something for the pci slot, the heat from the graphics card will break anything in that slot. If you decide to get this buy 1 80mm case fan, 1 pci slot fan, some cheap copper sinks for the ram, some zipties, and a very small phillips head. Open it up on arrival, install fans, take the graphics card out and screw the "black casing" off! NOT THE HEATSINK!!, the casing seems to have no purpose but to turn the graphics card into an aluminum oven, for the case fan I would recommend getting a high rpm adjustable case fan with a dial so you can dial it up for graphics intensive jobs and dial it down when you are just watching videos or music. Lastly take the zipties and tie the cables so they are no longer carpeting the mother-ram-vcard and helping them retain heat. If you have more tech knowledge, the thermal paste on the cpu is cheapy and you could probably drop temps by 5-10*c easy. The system is not overclockable, also. 60 dolla fix me upper.

Pros: Quiet, quick, great price for the specs, comes with Vista Home Premium 64-bit, "ASPIRE" logo shines a soft-white when on, 8USB ports, and 4 of them easily accessible from the front, along with mic, headphone jack. Easy setup. 2-3 SATA ports open. Plays today's games! Current Windows Experience Index shows 5.9. I have opened 1500dpi files in Photoshop and it has performed well.

Cons: Bloatware, Acer's Empowering Technology program is unstable (just uninstall it or remove it from the start-up), hard to find information on a system completely missing from Acer's website, comes with 32-bit discs (64-bit is on a recovery partition), case is tiny inside; was difficult to add a new HD because of somewhat messy wires and squished space (had to remove memory sticks to put in the HD, then replace them, had some issues with putting a new SATA cable in, but I have small hands and succeeded eventually), included speakers lackluster, would have been nice if it came with an LCD, awkward buttons on case (nothing you can't get used to), no information on this system on the Acer website, comes with FDD port and not an IDE port, and the 9800GT takes up so much space that you can't use the PCI-e x1 slot. When you remove the front case, you can't insert an HD that way, but you can insert a DVD-ROM that way.

Overall Review: 5 eggs for the quality of hardware. Used system for a good two weeks now. Most of my cons are with Vista, such as not supporting my webcam (found a XP 64 bit driver and it works just fine!), other program incompatibility, nag screens, things like that. For the most part, this is a very awesome system for the price and I would suggest it to anyone who wants these specs for under 1.3K price range.

Pros: Fast and cheap, I can run anything at full settings. So far I have team fortress 2, prototype, prince of persia 2008 and I can run them all at full no lag what so ever.

Cons: At first I got a dead one, but I sent it back and got another one, took a long time because UPS dropped it when I was sending it back and had to file a claim. The computer does get a bit hot, but I don't play games ALL day long so it's fine to me.

Overall Review: Great computer, anyone that buys this computer should thank me also. I contacted ACER support and got them to put this computer eligible for windows 7. So if you buy this computer you can get Windows 7 for free now through acer. Great computer especially for the price,

Pros: Fast processor, 8 gigs ram, 9800gt

Cons: Can accidentally shut down vista cuz of awkward power button. Runs really hot even with an extra case fan (processor is idling at 55 celcius and gpu is at a blazing 75 celcius). Because of the horrible stock fan for the processor, the heatsink gets clogged with dust every couple months. Overall, horrible air flow and tiny case. GPU gets so hot and is so close to my wireless card that the wireless card overheats from time to time and stops working. Whoever wired the thing is mentally challenged

Pros: Great gaming rig. A major upgrade from my previous pc and the $699 price tag can't really be beat, even if i were to try and build one myself. runs Crysis on med-high settings at well over 30 fps. can run it on very high at about 20 fps. As far as other games out there, set everything to max settings and enjoy a nice smooth frame rate.

Cons: My main con has been some issues with the graphics display driver randomly stopping while playing Crysis. I've got everything updated to the most recent drivers but occasionally the game will crash and i'll get an error about the display driver failing but recovering. Also, the power supply is only 400w which is on the low side for a gaming rig, especially on with a quad core processor. If you buy this pc you might want to consider spending 80 bucks more for a 500 w, at least I am.

Overall Review: great pc for the money, just wish it was a little bit more stable running crysis.

Pros: This is a great computer for the price, as everyone has been saying. It was also my first purchase with newegg, and needless to say, I'm hooked now. Lots of HD space 2 HD one of which is partitioned, which is nice. Starts and shuts down really fast. Computer case is fairly well designed and is cool-looking. Pretty quiet when not running a lot of programs or games.

Cons: The speakers and mouse are pretty cheap. I would count on replacing or upgrading them. The fan can get a little loud when it's working a lot, but it's nothing to write home about. 2 of the USB outlets on the top of the case don't work for me, but I haven't had the time to find out why yet. No wireless internet on the computer, so watch out for that if you want it!

Overall Review: All-in-all, can't beat the price for what you get. I got it primarily for every-day use, not video games, but I don't think it would have trouble running them at all. The computer is fast. Thanks to the reviewer below for getting the Windows 7 upgrade! I tried that and it didn't work earlier, so that's a pleasant surprise!