I do have to admit that I’m a huge fan of these things. Yep, it’s geeky but it’s true! 😉

If you’ve never used one, shame on you! 😀

Well I’ve had a week from hell at work but at least I’ve been able to play with my little Revo thingy which is still knocking my socks off with what its letting me get away with.

Windows 7 is now on it and apart from a log in time issue (very, very slight and feels faster than it was in Vista), I’m still ridiculously happy with the purchase I made. I think this little thing’s dropped in price since I bought it so its now in total bananas territory price wise. If you can spare a couple of hundred, get an R3600. That’s all I can say!

OK, so Windows 7 on a TV. Bit weird not having any proper surface to run my mouse over (I really miss that!) but that’s my setup here in the ivory tower. The features available are pretty good and the OS seems stable enough even on the Revo’s limited shoulders. I think its the upgrade it was touted to be absolutely. Although I never really had that much of an issue with Vista, Windows 7 looks great and seems slightly easier to use. Maybe I’m just dreaming it because its a new OS. Who knows.

On to another rather interesting development, EVE.
The game’s been around for ages now and I knew I’d end up playing it at some point but I had no idea how soon it was going to turn out. As an experiment, I went to www.eveonline.com and downloaded a copy of the game (2 or 3 HOURS!!). The plan was to throw it onto the net top and giggle at the juddering frame rates. I stand corrected. It runs perfectly on the Revo without a single freeze or problem at all. That extra graphics power obviously came in handy. I wouldn’t want to try running it on a net book.

Its a bit confusing but I’ve only been playing the game about an hour so far so you can expect a learning curve. I’ll need to talk to my buddies about how you play it properly, I can’t seem to fly the ship straight!!

It seems I’m not the only one who loves the Acer Aspire Revo R3600.
I was watching the Gadget Show on Channel 5 the other night and saw them review it in a group test. Needless to say, it won! 🙂

Check out their review here.

Not to be outdone by her majesty and her Samsung NC10, it is now my turn to own a cheap bit of computing equipment that blows your socks off.

Instead of going for the netbook route, I decided that I still quite like the desktop idea (mostly due to the fact that I like to work with a monitor and keyboard of my choice, not the manufacturer’s best guess at what I want). Alongside the development of the mobile netbook idea, the desktop variant, the net top has been quietly getting more and more appealing.

Having read numerous reviews, I thought I’d take the plunge and go for Acer’s Aspire Revo R3600. Finding it listed for £250 at Amazon.co.uk, it seemed rude not to give it a go.

I’ve owned it for one day now and already I think its brilliant. OK, so the bundled keyboard and mouse are clacky affairs (not really a problem, I’ve already got my cordless ones so I just replaced them) but it is a cheap desktop, what do you expect. There’s no monitor either so rather than a netbook costing £300 with its screen in the case, Acer didn’t need to spend a penny on the visuals. This means more money for the actual components.

Running Vista Home Premium, it has the capability to scoot off into Media Centre and look all wizzy. I have to admit, I’m impressed with the way it works and the HDMI socket available as an output is just begging for me to attach this to a TV.

Something always has to give however and in this case its raw computing power. Although I’m told it’ll happily render Bluray if you attach a player, I have found that bootup times are a little longer than my old PC (about 2 mins). It being £350 cheaper on the day of purchase however, I think you can let that go. Its only got an Atom processor!

Although I agree that this is probably best suited as a “second PC” or definitely one for the kids to sort out their homework on, I still think that’s selling this little trooper short.
If you’re looking for a tiny desktop PC that sips power rather than gulping it, doesn’t make a sound, looks good, attaches to the back of your monitor,  has built in HDMI and a memory card reader, buy this PC.

I don’t regret this purchase one little bit.
Just make sure you have an external DVD drive, your own monitor, keyboard and mouse!