Computers & Electronics

Is this desktop a good price? Acer Aspire Intel i7-2600 (AM3970-EB12P) for $500?

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  • Jul 13th, 2013 3:38 pm
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Sr. Member
Jul 21, 2011
738 posts
374 upvotes
Azkaban
Personally, don't really like Acer.

Also, where do you see $500. I see $650... For that price, this is probably a better deal: http://www.fatwallet.com/Dell-Consumer- ... de-705439/

But if as you said, you are only looking for an upgrade, not gaming. Go with an i3 or at best an i5. You won't be getting anything from an i7 that substantiates the extra price. Also, you are looking at 2-3 year old tech in that system. It's already obsolete
Banned
Jul 26, 2009
4315 posts
663 upvotes
Toronto
Krakenlayer wrote: Personally, don't really like Acer.

Also, where do you see $500. I see $650... For that price, this is probably a better deal: http://www.fatwallet.com/Dell-Consumer- ... de-705439/

But if as you said, you are only looking for an upgrade, not gaming. Go with an i3 or at best an i5. You won't be getting anything from an i7 that substantiates the extra price. Also, you are looking at 2-3 year old tech in that system. It's already obsolete
He is right, a desktop with an i5 will last you just as long as an i7 for surfing and work.
If you don't mind, a decent AMD processor will last you just as long as an i7 for basic tasks such as these.

EDIT: Are you willing to build your own? You might be able to crack the $500 barrier if you're will to go with an i5, if you go AMD you could go even lower (I built my dad a computer for $200 after tax that had an A8-3870k, around a core i3)
i5-3570K 3.4GHz | ASUS DCII 7850 2Gb
8Gb DDR3 1333MHz | 128GB HyperX SSD + 1Tb HDD
Gigabyte Z77-DS3H | Ultra 650W PSU | Dell 22" 1920x1080 LED
The proud owner of a brand new ASUS T100!!!
Jr. Member
Mar 6, 2010
153 posts
22 upvotes
Toronto
Krakenlayer wrote: Personally, don't really like Acer.

Also, where do you see $500. I see $650... For that price, this is probably a better deal: http://www.fatwallet.com/Dell-Consumer- ... de-705439/

But if as you said, you are only looking for an upgrade, not gaming. Go with an i3 or at best an i5. You won't be getting anything from an i7 that substantiates the extra price. Also, you are looking at 2-3 year old tech in that system. It's already obsolete

thanks. linked didn't show up correctly, it's on the bb flyer for tomorrow.
I do have a fair bit of downloading for work and multitasking. Reports I go through are generally in the 1-2gb range.

my computer at work is an i5 so it's enough....just through for the price of an i7, it looked like a fairly good deal.
Just checked the archive, and there seems to be some decent buzz when it went on sale @ $599 last year around september.
Jr. Member
Mar 6, 2010
153 posts
22 upvotes
Toronto
zijin_cheng wrote: He is right, a desktop with an i5 will last you just as long as an i7 for surfing and work.
If you don't mind, a decent AMD processor will last you just as long as an i7 for basic tasks such as these.

EDIT: Are you willing to build your own? You might be able to crack the $500 barrier if you're will to go with an i5, if you go AMD you could go even lower (I built my dad a computer for $200 after tax that had an A8-3870k, around a core i3)
I thought about it but at this price, the time to find, research and assemble the components would probably off-set the money saved. Beside, computers and I don't really get along.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Oct 13, 2002
19368 posts
1071 upvotes
Trust me ... do NOT go for this .... if the spec is trustable, the 5400rpm HD will be a major bottleneck ! Just don't !!
Deal Addict
Jun 30, 2010
3209 posts
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Markham
willy wrote: Trust me ... do NOT go for this .... if the spec is trustable, the 5400rpm HD will be a major bottleneck ! Just don't !!
+1

OP, for your use an i3 + 7200rpm HDD will be faster than this Acer. While it is a great deal for an i7 pre-built desktop, you don't need anything above an i3 for websurfing and general work.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Oct 13, 2002
19368 posts
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What do you have now at home ?
Banned
Jul 26, 2009
4315 posts
663 upvotes
Toronto
cloakster wrote: +1

OP, for your use an i3 + 7200rpm HDD will be faster than this Acer. While it is a great deal for an i7 pre-built desktop, you don't need anything above an i3 for websurfing and general work.
What about maybe installing an SSD on your current system if your CPU isn't too old? My sister's dual core centrino laptop is faster at opening chrome and microsoft word than my quad core desktop in my sig.

Installing an SSD is very easy too.
i5-3570K 3.4GHz | ASUS DCII 7850 2Gb
8Gb DDR3 1333MHz | 128GB HyperX SSD + 1Tb HDD
Gigabyte Z77-DS3H | Ultra 650W PSU | Dell 22" 1920x1080 LED
The proud owner of a brand new ASUS T100!!!
Member
Oct 22, 2005
364 posts
25 upvotes
$769 plus tax for this?


12GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz - 4 DIMMs
Windows 8, 64-bit, English
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 processor (up to 3.90 GHz)

16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW), write to CD/DVD
2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 6.0 Gb/s
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640 1GB GDDR5

Dell Wireless 1703 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0+LE
Integrated 7.1 with WAVE MAXXAudio 4
Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet

Dell KB213 Wired Multimedia Keyboard
Dell Laser Mouse
Etc.
Jr. Member
Mar 6, 2010
153 posts
22 upvotes
Toronto
thanks for the input, i'll hold off for now.
Jr. Member
Mar 6, 2010
153 posts
22 upvotes
Toronto
do you have a link for this?
dj_destroyer wrote: $769 plus tax for this?


12GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz - 4 DIMMs
Windows 8, 64-bit, English
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 processor (up to 3.90 GHz)

16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW), write to CD/DVD
2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 6.0 Gb/s
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640 1GB GDDR5

Dell Wireless 1703 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0+LE
Integrated 7.1 with WAVE MAXXAudio 4
Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet

Dell KB213 Wired Multimedia Keyboard
Dell Laser Mouse
Etc.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Feb 18, 2007
4114 posts
299 upvotes
New Westminster
If your going to buy a premade i would wait til end of month or next month for back to school deals to kick in. for what you need you should be able to get a decent system for under $400 and $500 should be even better - much better than what you have linked.

Since your not a gamer i would even suggest looking at an AMD system - they have a few at the same price that offer better features. even an acer that for 30 bucks more you get a 23' monitor - though it is an acer. there is an HP that looks decent for your needs. Again i still suggest waiting for good deals but there are better now than what your looking at. the only thing that is anywhere decent about the comp you mentioned is the CPU but a CPU isn't the only thing in a computer.
Poor Grammar and being long winded don't fit well together, Oh well.
Deal Addict
Jan 5, 2003
4653 posts
1087 upvotes
Toronto
willy wrote: Trust me ... do NOT go for this .... if the spec is trustable, the 5400rpm HD will be a major bottleneck ! Just don't !!
It's easy enough to change a hard drive. That's not a good reason to avoid buying this system which is very reasonably priced.


>
You could always add a 32 or 64GB SSD and run it with Intel SmartResponse technology where the SSD acts as a cache - exactly what most modern ultrabooks do. that's what I'd recommend doing. It's a drop in replacement as long as you can set the motherboard to RAID mode in the BIOS (should be possible). You then download and install the Intel Rapid Storage driver from Intel and configure the SSD as Intel Smart Response technology in a few clicks.

You could also buy a 128/256GB SSD and reinstall the windows license on that and use the 1.5TB as a data drive. That's another good plan.
-----

OP - for $500, it's a fair deal for the machine. Considering an i7 2600 still costs $250-300 new (granted the 2600 (sandy bridge, 32nm) has been superseded by the slightly faster 3570k (ivy bridge, 22nm), there's essentially little to no performance differenbe between an i7 2600 and i7 3570/3570k.)

You'd be hard pressed to build a machine with new components for that price, considering you're getting an i7 2600, 8GB of RAM, an extra AMD 6570 graphics card (not a great gaming card, but a discrete video card nonetheless), 1.5TB HD and Windows 7. That's definitely not a ripoff. Adding a 64GB SSD and running intel SRT would give you a nice fast machine!
Deal Addict
Jan 31, 2007
4808 posts
1803 upvotes
I think for $500 is a nice deal and will also last down the road. I don't know why users are pointing op to spend more.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Feb 18, 2007
4114 posts
299 upvotes
New Westminster
i don't think it is that great. You notice people saying you can add this or swap that to make it better - that means more money. this is an out of date system with subpar components like a 5400 rpm hard drive(basically only used in laptops nowadays or very cheap computers). like i said just wait if you can for better deals to come through the pipeline.

Also again i would not suggest an Acer unless you just want to buy a $350-400 machine on sale and don't care if it dies within 1-2 years.
Poor Grammar and being long winded don't fit well together, Oh well.
Deal Expert
Feb 24, 2007
15169 posts
2743 upvotes
Stay away from most brand name desktops including Acer.

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