Five Star Review 99% "Good" but here are the "Bad" points
The 6491 configuration of Acer's AS5740 boasts Intel's new Core i5 processor and a quick review of the spec sheet reveals that this configuration is amazingly "tricked out" for the price. For those wondering the "Gemstone" blue color is very dark almost black.
I'm extremely pleased with the notebook but offer the following for those who may be considering this purchase. Note that I actually ordered a replacement from J&R because of the following concerns but will ultimately be keeping the original.
First you'll need to live with the fact that the speakers are simply no good in the AS5740s. They'll pass at low volume and are OK for general computing i.e. Windows system sounds but for music and movies -- not so good. At increased volumes they vibrate a bit and the different settings available i.e Dolby Surround etc. just change the sound without really improving it. I thought I had a dud machine with bad speakers but the replacement was just as bad and other reviews point to the speakers as one of the few criticisms. If you plan to use this as a mobile media player then you may not be satisfied. Again for general use it's OK.
Second as with many of the newer energy saving hard drives the HD in the AS5740s (in my case a Western Digital Scorpio 500G drive) frequently parks its heads - causing a noticeable click (or tink) that was driving me absolutely crazy. I would describe the sound as kind of like a camera shutter and at first I thought it was a Windows system sound -- perhaps the Internet Explorer "Start Navigation" sound i.e. the click you get when you move to a new web page. I muted all Windows sounds and it was still there so I knew it was mechanical. When the replacement machine made the same sound I researched the issue and found that it was indeed the heads parking -- a common complaint with many different brands of hard drives these days.
It's a power-saving feature that can be modified with any Hard Drive management software. I tried a program called Drive Power Manager (drivepowermanager dot com) and adjusted the settings to high performance 254 and disabled the standby mode and now the HD is quiet as a mouse. In effect you just need to keep the HD working so it doesn't constantly park. And you can always go back to the power-saving settings if you wish or if the sound does not bother you (unlikely).
So bottom line I'm keeping the original machine sending the replacement back to J&R (who were wonderful throughout) and rate the AS5740-6491 with 5 stars notwithstanding its less than impressive speakers. The other features more than make up for that shortcoming.More detail ...
0 comments:
Post a Comment