Acer Gemstone AS8940G-BR101

It’s been a while since I did not test a Powerful and Gaming oriented PC like Acer’s latest Gemstone AS8940G-BR101, but that was really a pleasant surprise and despite some minor stuff this new i7 monster desktop replacement definitively has won my heart.

Specs
- Intel Core i7-720QM
- 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz
- 1TB of HDD at 5400 rpm
- GeForce GTS 250M with 1GB of VRAM
- BluRay Burner (4x)
- 18.4” Full HD LED Backlight LCD.

First Impression
Massive is definitively the word to describe how huge is this thing, just look at the specs, 18.4” Full HD monitor, with a size of 440x295x31/43,8mm for a total weight of 4.6kg. Yep there are no doubts, this Acer Gemstone AS8940G-BR101 is definitively not your average notebook and will be better fit on your desk at the office or at home.

Made to offer you a real powerful desktop experience in the most “compact” form factor our notebook provides a descent user experience, with an acceptable keyboard, and many little improvements made to let you enjoy as much as possible your movies thanks to Acer’s MediaTouch Controls that will quickly let you skip fast forward and pause your videos and music.

Other little nice “touch” on this beast is its touch sensitive keys for the Bluetooth, Wireless Lan as well as its multi-touch touchpad, and even if I really don’t give a XXX about multi-touch touchpads, I however really like its response and the feeling of it… Yep for once I enjoyed using a notebook touchpad!

Huge computer means in this case huge Screen, and our 18.4” LCD that is installed on this new Gemstone is just like the specs of our computer impressive. Although I usually do not like glossy screens, this one was WAY more usable than let’s say Apple Fancy Mirror LCDs, than can be found on their latest line-up of MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Perfect for your everyday usage, the screen however did not have an outstanding contrast ratio and was in fact on the average, acceptable if you are watching a movie, but not perfect when playing games and especially FPS taking place in dark areas or during night missions.

Finally I really enjoy its HD capable (1280×800) Acer Crystal Eye high-def webcam. Perfect for Skype and shooting decent videos even in low light.

Power Wonderland
Not only this PC is huge, but it is also quite well equipped with a powerful Core i7-720QM at 1.6GHz, 4GB of DDR3 (Max 8GB), a GeForce GTS250M with 1024MB of VRAM and its Blu-Ray burner Player, our Gemstone AS8940G-BR101 offers the strict minimum for any serious users.

Now since I do not believe in benchmarks and that I am not interested in them, I just decided to test this notebook like I would use it, with a bit of Games as well as some videos and a lot of Video encoding.
As I am not a PC Gamer and prefer spending time on my XBOX 360 or PS3, I decided to download the latest Trial version of Call Of Duty Modern Warfare and give it a Try. Although I’ve never played this game before on a PC hence not capable of comparing the result with a more “Gamer” setting, I can say that I could not see any difference between my XBOX version and this one, everything in the setting were put to their maximum and I had a pleasant experience without any sluggish graphics or slowdown… As far as I am concerned and for my gaming needs, our Gemstone AS8940G-BR101 specs are just perfect!
Equipped with a Blu-Ray burner and Player with (on the paper) an excellent HomeTheater experience thanks to Acer’s CineSurround sound system and thanks to its five built-in speakers, I loaded the Firefly Blu-Ray in it and gave it a try.

Graphic-wise with PowerDVD 9 and its Cuda engine, I have no complaints, however, the Acer CineSurround sound system is a bit weak and won’t give you the thrill of a real home Theater with its built-in speakers. Once plugged to a real Amp and a real audio system setup, things are WAY better, but still watching a movie “on the go” is definitively just acceptable.

Then my final test was to Rip my Serenity Blu-Ray in HD and see how things were compared to my Desktop i7-920 PC (6GB or RAM, GeForce 9800 GTX+). Here as well, the software that I was using on both my desktop and this Acer notebook took the full advantage of NVIDIA Cuda, and gave a nice little boost when I had to rip High Def videos.

Ripping the Serenity Blu-Ray needed on both my Desktop and our Acer all cores available and they were running at almost 100%. While on my i7-920 desktop it took only 1h25 minutes to convert a ripped Blu-Ray in to a PS3 compatible file, on the Acer the same exercise took 1h more with a total of 2h23 minutes. While this difference, 1h, may look a lot for some, think again, we are here testing a notebook, not a Desktop and being capable of Encoring a Blu-Ray video into a PS3 friendly one in 2h23” on-the-go is quite an achievement.

Conclusion
Impressive Specs, great performance in many areas, the Aspire Gemstone 8940G-BR101 is definitively a notebook that is worth checking if you are in business for a desktop replacement. Sold in Japan below 200 000 Yen, I wish however that Acer could provide a better sound system and maybe a better plastic for our computer casing…

Dell Vostro V13 Core 2 Solo

Adamo laptops are among the sexiest machine available on Dell Catalog, but like every high-end goods, price is an obstacle difficult to overcome for most of us… And when Dell decided to offer a Cheap Adamo, the Vostro V13, we decided that we had to give it a try and found out if our 69,980 Yen Vostro V13 was a pretty good deal after all. Just to let you know Dell Japan as nice offer for a Vista and Celeron 743 powered Vostro V13 at just 12,980 Yen (106€).

Dell Vostro V13 Specs:
- Intel CoreTM 2 Solo SU3500 @ 1.40 GHz
- 2 GB DDR3 SDRAM (1066 MHz)
- Intel GMA 4500MHD
- 320 GB Serial ATA 7,200 rpm
- 13.3” HDF LED Backlight Monitor with a 1366×768 resolution.

First Impression
Directly coming from the Adamo family the Vostro V13 inherit for its big brother handsomeness and quality build. Like the Adamo the Vostro V13 peculiarity reside in the way you will close your computer screen and lid, lying on top of your computer bottom deck.

Receiving an elegant brushed aluminum lid and bottom body, the V13 over all quality is matching our expectation. Add to this a well design and elegant keyboard and mouse pad, the Vostro V13 is just the elegant Business oriented Laptop that many of us would die for.

Minimalistic the V13 is in the other hands a bit means with peripheral. Don’t expect much here but the V13 only features a USB 2.0 port and an e-SATA one. If you are looking forward to plug your computer to your nice 24” Full HD Monitor you will have to do it the good old fashion way with the poor man D-Sub output.
Luckily Dell also thought that it could be nice to add 2 more slot with a SD Card reader and an Express Card/34 port on the side of your computer ant that pretty much it.

Looking forward to enjoy HD video on the Go? You are in luck, since the Vostro V13 features a pretty nice none glossy 13.3” screen with a 1366×768 resolution

Everyday usage.
Unfortunately only available in Japan with a Celeron 743 or a Core 2 Solo SU3500, the Vostro V13 is far from being as powerful as an Adamo, at least for us in Japan, but the good news is that it will just do what it is suppose to do! Now let’s face it, and even if you would have better enjoyed a Core 2 Duo S7300 like on the USA V13 for example, the Vostro V13 has never been made to compete against power user oriented laptop, but has been targeted to business oriented user, where a Core 2 Solo SU3500 with a 7200rpm HDD will easily handle Web Browsing, Email, Basic Office usage and even some basic photo edition even with Photoshop.

If you ever wanted to push the limit of your Business oriented usage and just need to relax for while, reset assure, the Vostro V13 even on its Core 2 Solo configuration will easily handle Hulu Video, as well as HD videos. As for 3D video gaming, well let’s say that Intel’s GMA 4500MHD won’t give you the needed power to play those 3D heavy games, but once again, who will be crazy enough to try such games on such tiny and slim Business laptop whether or not you could get it with a Core 2 Duo CPU.
So far so good, the Vostro V13 is a pretty nice business tool, well built, nice aluminum casing an ultra slim with just 19.7mm, the Vostro has for me everything it needs when it comes for a slim & elegant mobile professional laptop… But as a mobile device, the Vostro has just one weakness… Its battery. Unfortunately unswappable, the Vostro V13 will need to go back to DELL support center if you ever need to change its internal battery, we actually were not capable to remove the computer aluminum bottom without damaging the computer… Bad very bad.

Conclusion.
Despite its poor choice of CPU in Japan, I would die for a Core 2 Duo V13, its unswappable battery, I would still get the V13 in addition on of me setting at the office. Actually using a Vaio G2 series in a Windows Server and Exchange Office environment, The V13 will perform just as well as my G2 Core 2 Duo 1.2Ghz plus giving me the satisfaction to own an excellently build computer and on top of that a very elegant one. And as proof, while writing this review I just placed an order for a Vostro V13 with a Core 2 Solo at 23,450 Yen (196€) to replace my Wife Lenovo 3000 N100 Core Duo 1.66Ghz Laptop.

Fareastgizmos Samsung Launches Its First Terabyte 2.5" Mobile Hard Drive with 8MB buffer memory

Samsung has started shipping its new Spinpoint MT2 1 terabyte (TB) 2.5” internal mobile hard disk drive. Running at 5400rpm speed, the Samsung Spinpoint MT2 drive has a 12.5mm form factor and utilizes Samsung’s proprietary SilentSeek and NoiseGuard technologies to minimize noise levels during drive operation. The performance and reliability features of the Samsung Spinpoint MT2 have been enhanced with an optimized design and improved suspension for multidisc. The new MT2 drive delivers about 20 % increased read/write performance and 4 % lower power consumption compared with competitive drives, and it features shock resistance levels of 400G (2ms) in operation mode and 800G (1ms) when the power is off.

Equipped with Samsung’s exclusive dynamic balancing technology, the drive’s overall stability and reliability is optimized as a high-performing solution. The Spinpoint MT2 features 5400rpm speed rotation, SATA 3.0 Gbps interface and Native Command Queuing functions for advanced performance. The Spinpoint MT2 drive has an 8MB buffer memory and is available in 750GB and 1TB capacity.