NEW YORK — A slew of desktop, laptop
and PCs with ultra-small form factors
were introduced at the end of June.
The new entries include high-end
gaming towers from Maingear and
Acer, along with the company’s Minie
in its eMachines’ brand.
Maingear
added a 17-inch high-end
gaming notebook to its product mix.
The eX-L17 Custom notebook can
be configured with a variety of processors,
up to an Intel Core i7 820QM,
with up to 8GB of DDR3 memory. It
has a Blu-ray reader/writer. Th e harddrive
selection includes up to a 512GB
solid-state drive or 750GB traditional
hard drive.
For graphics, Maingear is offering
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 with
1GB dedicated memory or an Nvidia
GeForce GTX480M with 2GB of
GDDR5 dedicated memory.
The notebook has a built-in seven-inone
media card reader, integrated highdefi
nition audio and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi.
For an extra level of customization,
Maingear has five different laser-engraving
designs to choose from.
Wallace Santos, Maingear’s CEO
and founder, said, “With the multitude
of options available on this
notebook, we are offering
the performance and
quality of our outstanding
desktops in the convenience
of mobility.”
Pricing starts at
$1,899.
Acer
’s gaming PC is the
3D-ready Aspire Predator
AG7750, now available
for $1,999. It comes
in a bright orange and black, gamer-
friendly chassis that is ruggedized,
and it comes with a handle so it can be
transported. The casing also features
LED special-effects lighting.
The Predator is powered by an Intel
Core i7 930 quad-core processor. The
PC comes with a 1.5TB SATA hard
drive with three empty drive bays, each
capable of supporting a 2TB drive, giving
the unit a potential of 8TB of storage,
Acer said.
The computer’s graphics are based on
Nvidia’s GeForce GTX470 GPU with
Nvidia’s SLI technology, which allows
for multiple GPUs to be installed in the
computer. The Predator’s SLI motherboard
has two empty GPU slots, enabling
the owner to upgrade as desired.
Other options include several empty
bays, including a 5.25-inch optical drive
slot, two PCI Express x16, two PCI
Express x8 and a standard PCI slots.
There are 11 USB ports, two DVI-D
ports and two Ethernet ports.
On the notebook front,
Acer announced additions
to its Aspire line, including
a new family of Aspire
notebooks known
as the TimelineX.
The TimelineX series
has four models: the
11.6-inch 1830T, 13.3-
inch 3820T, 14-inch 4820T
and the 15.6-inch 5820T. The
models weigh from 3
to 5.5 pounds
and measureless
than 1 inch
thin.
Specs for the TimelineX series vary
depending on the model, but all can
include Intel Core i3 or Core i5 processors,
Windows 7 Home Premium,
LED-backlit displays, 1.3-megapixel
webcams, multi-gesture touchpads,
802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet
LAN connectivity.
The 5820T and the 4820T have integrated
optical drives and come
configured with 320GB or
500GB hard drives and
4GB of memory. The starting
price for these models is
$749.
The 3820T, which begins
at $729, comes in two
configurations with an Intel
Core i3 or Core i5 processor,
4GB of DDR3 memory
and a 320GB or
500GB internal hard drive. The 1830T
($699) has an Intel Core i5 ultra-lowvoltage
(ULV) processor with Intel
Turbo Boost, 4GB of DDR3 memory
and a 500GB hard drive. A version
of the 1830T is also available for $599
— it features Core i3 ULV confi gurations
with 3GB of DDR3 memory and
a 320GB hard drive.
In addition to the TimelineX models,
three Aspire series were introduced:
The AS5745, AS7745 and
AS8943G. The first two series feature
quad-core processing, 500GB
hard drives, four memory slots, second
hard-disk-drive support, Nvidia
or ATI Mobility Radeon graphics,
multitouch screen technology, LEDbacklit
displays and/or Dolby Home
Theater v3, Windows 7 Premium,
Acer Nplify 802.11 b/g/n wireless and
a digital media reader.
The AS5745 has a 15.6-inch HD widescreen
display (1,366 by 768), while
the AS7745 has a 17.3-inch HD widescreen
display (1,600 by 900).
Both displays are LED-backlit.
Battery life is listed at
3.5 hours for the former
series, with a weight
of 5.72 pounds; the
latter is listed at 2.5
hours, and it weighs 7.1
pounds.
Prices for these models begin
at $699.
Finally, the AS8943G,
which is meant for
multimedia
users
and gamers , features
an aluminum cover,
CineCrystal 18.4-inch LED backlit
display with 1080p HD resolution,
Dolby-optimized Acer CineSurround
sound system with five built-in speakers
and a dedicated subwoofer, Blu-ray
Disc drive and an HDMI port.
Specs of the AS8943G series include
Intel Core i7 quad-core processors,
4GB or 8GB of memory (with the
ability to support up to 16GB), ATI
Mobility Radeon HD5850 graphics
support, and 1GB of dedicated video
memory. Additonally, they include full
DirectX 11 support, a 500GB SATA
hard drive, dual-hard-drive support,
eSATA and Firewire ports, dual-mode
touchpad, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n Wi-
Fi and Gigabit Ethernet.
A 1.3-megapixel HD webcam and
digital microphone are also included.
Pricing starts at $1,549.
All of these lines are currently available.
In
Acer
’s eMachines line is the new ultra-
small form factor desktop computer.
The $299 Mini-e ER1402 is about
the size of a book, weighs 9 pounds
and has the capability of being a home
HD entertainment center, the company
said.
In home entertainment mode, the
Mini-e can be attached onto the back
of a TV or computer monitor or it can
be used as a stand-alone PC.
The Mini-e uses an AMD Athlon II
Neo processor, has NVIDIA GeForce
9200 graphics with 2GB of discrete
memory, a 160GB hard drive and includes
a mounting kit so it can be used
with a TV.
