The Acer Aspire M3400: How Much Does $649 Buy?
by Dustin Sklavos on August 5, 2010 3:45 PM ESTAcer Aspire M3400 User Experience and Performance
Okay, so it's clear we're not going to get a whole lot more out of the Acer Aspire M3400 than what we've got (at least not without spending $50 or so on a better PSU). How does that fare at least? In terms of noise, the M3400 is at least fairly quiet, but that's to be expected given the reasonable 95W TDP of the processor and the quiet cooling on the Radeon HD 5450, a card which in and of itself barely draws any power and thus generates very little heat.
One of the benefits of the rapid increase in performance of desktop hardware is the ability of the processor and memory to handle bloat. Microsoft did their share in mitigating it in Windows 7, but Acer's machine doesn't feel sluggish despite the amount of software it comes installed with. OEMs are often able to hit their low prices on desktop machines by being paid by software vendors to include trials on their machines, and the M3400 is no different.
Acer's $649 desktop comes packed with the usual suspects: McAfee, intent on taking over the antivirus market using any means other than actually producing quality software, is of course accounted for here. Norton even makes an appearance with their Online Backup software. The desktop also comes littered with icons for Microsoft Works, a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office 2007, Nero SmartStart, MyWinLocker (which starts in the tray and can't be disabled or exited short of closing it in Task Manager), and then Acer Games, Acer Registration, and even icons for eBay and Netflix. There's Acer Arcade Deluxe, which impressively has nothing to do with games but is instead a way to organize photos, videos, and music. And there's Acer Games, which does include a couple of casual games as well as a virtual storefront for buying other ones.
Honestly, the bloat could be a heck of a lot worse and again, it doesn't really affect the user experience. Dell's software on the Studio XPS 7100 just loved to pop up and intrude at random intervals, and the software on the Samsung N210 netbook I recently reviewed was even worse (due in no small part to the Atom's utter inability to handle even the most minimal of system bloat). The Aspire M3400, on the other hand, is fairly reasonable once you rip McAfee Internet Security's beating heart from the system and show it to its children before setting it on fire and consigning it to the abyssal hellscape from whence it came.
Our performance figures largely reflect that. The only other system we've tested recently is the Dell XPS 7100, which has a six-core processor and an HD 5870 GPU. It also costs twice as much. Outside of graphics work, though, the M3400 certainly holds up well.
| General Performance Overview | ||
| Dell XPS 7100 | Acer M3400 | |
| PCMark Vantage | 6740 | 7601 |
| Cinebench R10 1-CPU | 3596 | 3252 |
| Cinebench R10 x-CPU | 16140 | 11553 |
| X264 720p Encode Pass 1 | 77.29 | 60.58 |
| X264 720p Encode Pass 2 | 24.79 | 18.25 |
The Phenom II X4 820's extra cores help it overcome competition from the Intel Core i3 and i5 dual cores that dot this end of the price spectrum, and we're comfortable saying the processor can handle pretty much any task you throw at it. The 820 is a solid value. If you want a look at how the 820 stacks up against other CPUs, look at the results of the Phenom II X4 920 and the Athlon II X4 630 in our Bench database; the 920 will be slightly faster, and obviously the GPUs are different, but overall it's a decent processor.
| 3DMark Performance Results | ||
| Dell XPS 7100 | Acer M3400 | |
| 3DMark Vantage Performance | 15533 | 1283 |
| 3DMark Vantage Entry | 30856 | 6639 |
| 3DMark06 | 18209 | 3720 |
| 3DMark05 | 22312 | 6645 |
| 3DMark03 | 69538 | 9381 |
Of course, the Radeon HD 5450 couldn't possibly be asked to pull its weight in graphics heavy applications. DirectX 11 or not, it's just not adequate for anything but the most basic of gaming, relegating it to the HD decoding duties the on-board 880G probably would've managed just fine on its own. Certainly you can play any modern game on the 5450 and it's about twice as fast as the 880G, but you're going to be running most games released in the past two years at low resolutions (1366x768) and low settings.
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Rick83 - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
Never expected to see those on consumer hardware in 2010...KillerInTheRye - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
512GB Video Card? HOLY CRAP. I'll take two.numberoneoppa - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
Thanks, I needed a good laugh to start my day. :)Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
SICIt's for doing complex 3D renders. ;)
Aikouka - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
You mentioned the Blu-Ray drive, but I think that might raise the cost too much. I mean, just speaking with NewEgg prices in mind, you'll pay about 3x as much for a good BD-ROM/DVD+RW drive than you would for a simple DVD+/-RW drive. Another problem you hit is the software. Now, I think they typically use older software... I've seen some that I believe are an OEM variant of PowerDVD9. The thing is, this is just another added cost when you can be cheap and just let Windows handle CD and DVD burning with a DVD+/-RW drive :P.I definitely understand your sentiment on the Radeon 5450, although I use that drive in my HTPC (a tad bit different than this...) because passive 5450s were a dime a dozen when I bought it! :)
arnoldra - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
This was an interesting article, and being a new reader to the sight I find it very engaging. After listening to them discuss the possibilities of what you can get if you do a build, I'm eager to know what that would look like. I went through the guides section, and didn't see a "Budget Build Guide". I'm not much of a builder myself, I have friends who have scary towers of power that blaze the latest games in all their glory... but that isn't what I'd be interested in building a tower for. Light gaming, occasional multimedia work (no 3D), and the rest of general web content, watching movies, etc. I'd love to see AnandTech do a guide like that, and even set a price cap. Say 500 bucks?Lunyone - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
I have been waiting for a $500 budget build, but haven't seen one in a while. Another website had one about 3 years ago, but started lifting the budget to "fit" in Intel builds. Not that a Intel build is bad, but they generally are a bit more for similar performance. If your looking for a "Budget" build around $500, your better option is usually an AMD based one (around an AM3 mobo). This will allow you more upgrade paths than current Intel based builds will allow you.Now with your $500 budget do you include the OS or without it?
Do you consider a monitor, keyboard, mouse included or assumed you already have one?
I generally build "Budget" gaming builds for friends/family when I build. Most budget builds assume that you already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and sometimes the OS, but it varies.
I always use a quality PSU (Antec, Seasonic, Corsair, OCZ - most of them) and try to get the best mobo that meets my needs.
Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
It's been my experience that generally when quoting budget builds, you're talking about JUST the machine proper. As Tech Report puts it, the rest are "matters of religion and taste."I will say in recent experience that $500 can buy you an awful lot of machine from AMD.
anactoraaron - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
I may not be too familiar with Acer's desktops (or others for that matter), but 3 things about these OEM's desktops have never changed.1. Poor system case (little to no airflow, everything packed in to the smallest space possible, 37lbs!!)
2. Power supply is an afterthought (shame especially considering the lack of airflow)
3. Bloatware- and in some cases no windows disc (gee, thanks. I wanted to have to uninstall all of that crap again...)
With the PS you really can't do too much for upgrades (already mentioned), and if you do so you will likely fry it (see bad airflow comment). But this thing weighs 37lbs??? I can't remember lifting a pc that was that heavy. IF your grandma wants to edit video she will still call you to cram this thing into her 12 year old computer desk (you know, the tiny little hole that was designed to only fit a tower with no clearance for your hands to plug in all of her cable-shortened peripherals...)
Budgetwise, AMD has always been a better option for CPU and mobo. And I always add the OS into the cost of a system
frozentundra123456 - Thursday, August 5, 2010 - link
I agree with you basically, but at least with the Acer I bought, you do not get a windows disk, but the Acer recovery management system prompts you to make system restore disks the first time the machine is used. I used these disks to restore to factory original configuration when my hard drive failed, and they worked perfectly.