Acer Aspire 1710

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Reviewed by: Xiao Ming Wu
Edited by: Allen Fear

Reviewed on 8/30/04    Think of the Acer Aspire 1710 as a laptop possessed by a desktop. In other words, expect brute-force performance but don't plan on jumping hurdles at airports with it tucked under your arm or taking it away from a power plug for long. This laptop is big, powerful, and heavy, but its high-end components do help future-proof it. While a low-end laptop can quickly become outdated, the power under the 1710's hood will help you keep up with Microsoft's merciless upgrade curve. We think the 1710 strikes one of the best price-performance balances of any desktop replacement.

At a whopping 14.7 pounds, the Acer Aspire 1710 is a behemoth even for a desktop replacement, and the power brick that comes with the unit increases its total travel weight to almost 17 pounds. The full-size keyboard with separate number pad and the ample real estate of its 17-inch screen make the Acer Aspire 1710 feel more like a portable desktop than a bulky laptop.

The 1710 touts a nice set of integrated speakers, including a separate bass-boosting subwoofer in the unit's base. Unfortunately, the speakers are hard to appreciate when the system is running because of the laptop's loud cooling fan. Fortunately, the Aspire 1710 comes with Acer's Audio DJ feature, which lets you play CDs and MP3s without booting the system and starting the fan. A set of volume-control buttons line the front edge of the system, and you can access them even when the lid is closed.

Acer's 1710 is much easier to upgrade than most laptops. A single removable panel on the bottom of the unit gives you access to the system components and makes child's play of swapping out the hard drive, the memory, or the processor. This flexibility helps future-proof the system and makes the 1710 a smart long-term tech purchase.

The right edge of the Acer Aspire 1710 contains two FireWire and two USB 2.0 ports, as well as a pair of audio minijacks. A combo DVD+RW/CD-RW drive graces the unit's left side, along with a generous array of expansion-card slots for PC Card, CompactFlash, SmartMedia, and SD. The rear panel houses a serial mouse connector, a parallel port for a printer, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a modem port, an S-Video port for connecting the 1710 to a TV, and two additional USB 2.0 ports, bringing the total number of USB ports on the unit to four.

You can outfit the 1710 with either Windows XP Home Edition or XP Pro. You also get CyberLink Power DVD for playing movies, iRiverManager for organizing and playing digital audio, and NTI's CD & DVD Maker, which together make for a respectable software offering.

Our test Acer Aspire 1710-series laptop, the Acer Aspire 1712, came outfitted with a Pentium 4 with Hyper-Threading; 1GB of system RAM, though the 1710 series supports up to 2GB; a 120GB hard drive; and an Nvidia GeForce FX graphics card with 128MB of dedicated RAM. In short, the 1710 is a powerhouse, but our tests indicate that it isn't the fastest desktop replacement in the land; those accolades go to the Dell Inspiron XPS. But then again, the XPS is about $1,000 more expensive than the Aspire 1710.

SysMark 2004 performance  (Longer bars indicate better performance)

BAPCo SysMark 2004 rating

SysMark 2004 Internet content creation

SysMark 2004 office productivity

Dell Inspiron XPS

180 

217 

149 

Acer Aspire 1712

150 

179 

125 

Fujitsu LifeBook N series N5010

125 

162 

97 

Unreal Tournament 2004 performance  (Longer bars indicate better performance)

Atari Games/Epic Games Unreal Tournament 2004

Dell Inspiron XPS

48.39 

Acer Aspire 1712

40.56 

Fujitsu LifeBook N series N5010

35.5 

System configurations:

Acer Aspire 1712
Windows XP Professional; 3GHz Intel Pentium M; 1GB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; Nvidia GeForce FX Go5700 128MB; Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB 7,200rpm

Dell Inspiron XPS
Windows XP Home; 3.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition; 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9800 256MB; Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 60GB 7,200rpm

Fujitsu LifeBook N series N5010
Windows XP Home; 3.2GHz Intel Pentium 4; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 64MB; Fujitsu MHT2080AT 80GB 4,200rpm

The Acer Aspire 1710's one-year warranty is on a par with warranties from competing vendors. For an extra $124, however, you can purchase Acer's two-year-extension plan, giving you a full three years of coverage. Acer includes a handy printed and indexed manual for the Aspire 1710.

To find out more about how this product's warranty really stacks up and what you should look for in terms of service and support, take a look at CNET's hardware warranty explainer.

Basic Specs

Product Specifications:
Product Description: Acer Aspire 1712SMi - Pentium 4 3 GHz - 17 in TFT active matrix
Recommended Use: Home use , Education , Small business
Dimensions (WxDxH): 14.9 in x 12.6 in x 2.2 in
Weight: 15.7 lbs
System Type: Notebook
Built-in Devices: Subwoofer , Stereo speakers , Wireless LAN antenna
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3 GHz
Cache Memory: 1 MB - L2 cache
RAM: 1 GB (installed) / 2 GB (max) - DDR SDRAM - 333 MHz - PC2700
Floppy Drive: None
Hard Drive: 120 GB - 7200 rpm
Optical Storage: DVD±RW - Integrated
Optical Storage (2nd): None
Storage Removable: None
Display: 17 in TFT active matrix 1280 x 1024 ( SXGA ) - Up to 16.2 million colors
Graphics Controller: NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5700 - 128 MB
Audio Output: Sound card
Telecom: Fax / modem - 56 Kbps
Networking: Network adapter - Ethernet , - IEEE 802.11g , - Fast Ethernet
Input Device: Keyboard , Touchpad , 4-way scroll button
Battery: Lithium ion
Run Time (Up To): 1 hour(s)
OS Provided: Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year warranty