Acer Aspire 4530 Review

I have had the Acer Aspire 4530 for sometime now. It has the following configuration:
1.9 GHz AMD Athlon X2 QL-60, 2 x 1 Gb RAM, 160GB Hard Disk, Nvidia 9100m integrated GPU (256 MB Dedicated + 256 Shared from system) 512 MB VRAM, 14.1 inch widescreen, WiFi, Bluetooth, DVD Writer, Webcam, 3 usb ports and the other usual ports and card readers.

First thing I noticed was the full jet black body of the laptop and the gemstone exterior. It looks good and futuristic. Absolutely for someone who’s into movies and gaming. I loaded Windows XP +SP2 in it and it worked smoothly and without a hitch. I also used Vista Inspirat pack on it and did various Windows XP optimizations and registry hacks to startup and shutdown windows faster. Available RAM after startup was 1.3 GB RAM since 256 MB RAM from the system is given to the GPU also. The keyboard works well and is responsive and the touchpad has vertical and horizontal scrolling built into it. I bought a Belkin laptop cooling pad after a few days when I noticed that after gaming, GPU temperature rose close to 100 C. As it is the place I am staying at is warm. When I moved to a cooler location these were the temperatures at idle using the Belkin cooling pad beneath it:
CPU – 51-55C (in load doesn’t change much)
GPU – 58-64C (80C in load)
HDD – 40-49C

I ran some games and these are the stats:
UT 2004 (1280X800 full details @ 32bit colour and 4X AF) –68 FPS avg in CTF Face Classic with 7 bots –42 FPS avg in various Onslaught maps with 11 bots
NFS MW worked smooth at 1024x768 with high details but car details low.
F.E.A.R worked smoothly @ 1024x768 with all high details except shader at medium.
AOE II Conquerers and CS:CZ work well and don’t heat up the GPU even while running. The GPU runs at 169 MHz in default but while gaming it increases to full capacity to 450 MHz or so. I have checked from the net that the GPU will also run COD 4 at low settings and Gears of War at medium settings @1024x768 resolution.

The screen quality with standard 1280x800 resolution is very good and it looks glossy and seriously, this laptop is the best available config at this price point. No other company gives a decent GPU/ chipset at this pricepoint.

Bluetooth works well when I use the laptop to transfer from and to my mobile Samsung E-250 but I have not been able to transfer to the laptop using my phone’s interface. The webcam is decent and internet ran smooth while using the Ethernet port. The speakers are powerful for a laptop and generally I could watch any movie without using a headset or external speaker. Video playback is smooth. The one and only gripe is the low battery life of 1.5 :S hours (even when doing basic net surfing and LCD brightness at lowest). This is to be used only when connected to external power.

I bought it in Mumbai for Rs 33.5K (including 1.5k for extra ram). Guess it may be available cheaper elsewhere. But overall good value for money, good looks and good performance given the specifications. It is sufficient to suit my gaming and movie watching needs. A must buy at this price point.

UPDATES
1. WiFi tested by making a adhoc network with another Aspire 4530 in the same room. LAN Gaming is smooth and 6 GB data transfer between the two laptops in one hour.
2. One other disadvantage i found was that the outer edge of only the audio jack was plastic coated. The other two audio ports including mic port gave me electric shocks:@ whenever i touched them by mistake!! My friend has the same laptop and this also happened to him.
3. It comes with its own DVD of drivers for Windows XP and Vista. I tried running Slax Linux Live but it didn't initialize. So Linux support is questionable.
4. Warhammer 40k:Dawn of War runs awesome and smooth at 1280x800 at highest graphics.
5. Sound of the laptop speakers started cracking for a few days in December. Then it got okay. Nowdays I feel that somehow volume is slightly lower than what it used to be. Now I mostly watch stuff using external speakers.
6. Latest Update CnC3 Tiberium Wars Limited Edition runs cool @ 1280x800 with all effects high except Shader at low and Shadows at off.

PS: The standard model comes with only 1 GB Ram.

Picture List Removed as picture attachment limit was crossed for my most recent review
 
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I have heard of that problem in 4530. That's why i haven't ever put it in sleep mode. Maximum, i have done is shutdown screen after sometime. Tell him to do the same.
 
UT 3 demo pic added. Somehow, one of my pics got overwritten after uploading this pic. The graphics in the UT pic may look good but fps was in single digits!
 
Looks quite decent. Say someone was mentioning about a new model for 35k. Which one is that?

Basically I need something for development environment (Sql 2k and Visual Studio). If I upgrade the ram would this model do fine?
Also does this have an external connector to attach a TV/secondary monitor?

Thanks for the review though.
 
i had also upgraded the ram from 1 to 2gb. it works fine. Visual Studio ke liye 2gb is cool. 3gb even better. If you use plan on running some web server like Weblogic then 3 gb should be it.
 
I have recently bought a new one, I deleted the default linux and installed xp sp2. during the boot , it goes to the screen and asks to chose safe mode etc...i do that restart and at times it crashes. I have 3 Gb RAM, 1+2GB module, if the dealer has loaded 2 different makes of RAM, would this be a problem.?
The xp logo in the beginning flickers too...pls help.
 
different makes of RAM does give problems. That is what I have heard. I didn't install XP myself. . . dealer did it for me. Try running lappie with only 1 make of RAM module.
 
another model 4930 has also come out but with Intel GMA . other hardware seems better in that and price is similar. ppl can also consider that instead of 4530.
 
One Year Later:
The laptop works great with no hiccups at all. Still feels very smooth. Internet works great on it through my Samsung Star phone. There is an additional warranty available for 1/2 years from Acer, which one can utilise. The biggest thing about any product is that it should work fine without any problems and do what it is meant to do. This is hopefully, one such product. Multimedia performance and office work are both good in it. Battery life seems to have increased slightly from the 1.5 hrs hours previously. Overall, good product and packaging it w/o an OS was a great economical decision. Cheers.:hap2:
 
Well, recently my friend purchased an Acer 5738 Lap. The configuration is: C2D 6400, 3GB DDR3 RAM, DVD-RW with all the standard features. The price is Rs. 35,300 including all taxes. What I am asking now is: In the Acer website, they quoted that the lap contains Windows Vista as the deafault OS. When my friend received the lap, he was shocked to see that it doesn't contain any OS and the local sales representative told that if we want the Vista, we have to pay about Rs. 6000 for the basic version.. Is this a fair practice by Acer? We looked carefully at all models and selected this brand. But what happened to us was injustice.. :( What do you say?
 
I have the Acer 4530, recently bought a Seagate FreeAgent HDD of capacity 320 GB, I am facing a issue: whenever I attach the HDD to the Laptop..sometimes the HDD is detected and sometimes not, tried all the ports...same problem.
Any solutions?
 
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