Acer's already a major force in the laptop market, so it's now turning its attention to the business desktop market with its Veriton GT range. Pitched at small/medium-sized businesses, government departments and the education sector, the system offers an attractive design, value-for-money pricing and impressive network management and security tools. If you're looking to upgrade your office's computers with a relatively low-cost product, the Veriton 7600GT should be near the top of your shopping list if performance isn't really an issue. Bear in mind though, that Acer has already announced the Veriton 7700 range (from £425), which is based on Intel's new 915 chipset, high-end PCI Express graphics, an 800MHz FSB, dual-channel DDR2 memory and Serial-ATA.

Pros: Great looks; pop-up USB ports; excellent management tools
Cons: Slow; noisy; 32-bit processor; no RAID controller


We've taken a look at the entry-level Veriton 7600GT here, which is based on a 2.6GHz Northwood-core Intel Pentium 4 processor (Prescott-ready), 256MB of 400MHz DDR SDRAM (upgradable to 4GB), 40GB hard disk (7200rpm), as well as a 52-speed CD-RW drive and 3.5in. floppy disk drive. To keep costs at a minimum, graphics are powered by Intel's middling Extreme Graphics 2 graphics chipset which uses up to 64MB of system memory. Whilst adequate for general business duties, image-editors and other creative types will be left wanting - especially if you use a digital monitor. Having said that, there is a single AGP 8X slot for adding a more capable graphics card. Audio is basic too, with an embedded AC '97 PCI audio chipset. No speakers or monitor are provided as standard.

The system is encased in an attractive two-tone black and silver tool-free tower case (186x475x439mm). Connectivity options are basic, comprising two PS/2 ports, 9-pin serial port, 15-pin parallel port, six USB 2.0 ports (four at front of system), Gigabit LAN, V.92 modem, microphone and headphone jacks. There are no FireWire ports though, and you can forget about built-in Wi-F, Bluetooth, a Type II PC Card slot or any multimedia features, such as a TV tuner or digital audio-out. Intel's Extreme Graphics 2 graphics chipset only caters for a single analogue monitor too, which could be a big issue if you've got digital-only TFT displays in your office.

A neat feature of the enclosure is a spring-up panel that houses four USB 2.0 ports, as well as headphone and microphone jacks. Internal components are also protected by an intrusion alarm and USBLock function, which enables administrators to lock and release the PC's USB ports via a LAN to help prevent unauthorised use. The USBLock function is controlled by Acer's LANScope 6.3 software and can be enabled or disabled remotely via LAN, without requiring IT personnel intervention at each PC location. As well as the security alarm, all Acer Veriton PCs are supplied with 'PC Health monitoring' to update and fix software, such as Microsoft's popular Office.

Accessing the Veriton 7600GT's enclosure is quick and easy thanks to its tool-free design that simply requires you to unscrew two thumbscrews. The bays and slots are also tool-free, so you can leave your screwdriver in its toolbox when you need to change components. The system's capacity for upgrades is good and there's plenty of space to add another three external 5.25in. drives, such as a soundcard drive bay. In addition, there are three PCI slots and an 8X AGP slot. Only one memory DIMM slot is occupied too, leaving you with another three slots to upgrade.

You shouldn't really expect great things in terms of performance from a business system costing just £354 (ex. VAT). It therefore comes as no surprise that the Veriton 7600GT is one of the slowest systems that we've tested. It'll run typical business applications without any problems - proven by Business Winstone 2004 and Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 scores of 13.1 and 16.7 respectively - but poor graphics performance is its biggest hindrance, highlighted by an appalling 3DMark2001 SE score of 1570. If you intend to run high-end imaging programs, or even the odd 3D game, you should budget for a additional AGP graphics card. If speed is a serious factor, hang on a month or so and opt for Acer's Veriton 7700.

The forthcoming Veriton 7700 also comes with a unique and practical solution, OBR 3.0 (On Board Recovery 3.0), that consists of a 'reset' key that can be used for system recovery at any time, both to restore initial system configurations or to a specific previous backup, thus protecting personal files. The updated OBR 3.0 solution also allows backup of images, copying the first pre-load on a CD (Image Burn2CD software supplied), together with password changes. There's also Acer's Desktop Management and Personal Setting Migration utilities that alert you to system problems and allow you to save desktop settings onto a USB key, respectively.


About our tests:
BIOS uses VeriTest's Business Winstone 2004 and Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 benchmarking applications to test the overall performance of desktops and laptops. Both suites are application-based benchmarks that measures a PC's overall performance when running market-leading, Windows-based applications on Windows platforms. They are a single large test that run programs through a series of scripted activities and return a single score. The activities focus on what we call 'hot spots,' or periods of activity that make your PC really work - the times where you're likely to see an hourglass or a progress bar. PCMark04 Pro is Futuremark's application-based benchmark for measuring component-level performance. It uses portions of real applications instead of including very large applications or using specifically created code. Futuremark's 3DMark2001 SE runs game tests to provide an accurate overview of a system's gaming performance. In all benchmarks, the higher the score, the faster the computer.

BIOS, Aug 05, 04 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Desktop PC