My Acer laptop is a gem. They replaced the motherboard for free when I cracked it trying to pry the damn thing open, and didn't blink when I claimed it pooped out on its own.

Acer? Moar liek ULCER amirite?

I've found Acer laptops to be decent as long as you stay away from the $300 super bargain model, but then that probably goes for most laptops.

Back in 2007 I bought an Acer Travelmate.
That thing withstood far, far more abuse and accidents than my T61 would ever be able to handle. I only ended up replacing it because the contact(s) in the charging port are busted/nonfunctional.

hurdboy: There's a reason Apple doesn't make one.

Profit margins.

bsharitt: I've found Acer laptops to be decent as long as you stay away from the $300 super bargain model, but then that probably goes for most laptops.

As a guy who just needed a light-weight laptop to be a word processor and occasional browser, I thought their $300 book did alright. Lasted about 4 years before crapping out.

If they didn't pay CEOs a zillion dollars we wouldn't get the top talent that are able to do those things that nobody else can to.

You know really hard things like changing a price tag.

Jonathan Hohensee:

As a guy who just needed a light-weight laptop to be a word processor and occasional browser, I thought their $300 book did alright. Lasted about 4 years before crapping out.

Light-weight? Was it a netbook? Those are pretty decent too. Most of the $300 laptops I've seen are 15.6" luggable beasts with 2 hour battery life.

I have to admit my Acer monitor has been kick-ass. My Acer DESKTOP, on the other hand, taught me the value in building my own computers.

fark acer.

farking notebook screen died a bit after a year of use. farking acer technicians charged an arm and a leg to replace it, and when I finally got my computer back more than a month later, it doesn't do sleep/power off correctly. I could biatch them about it but it would mean getting the computer in their grubby paws once more. fark acer in its farking neck, I'm not buying acer ever again.

hurdboy: bsharitt: I've found Acer laptops to be decent as long as you stay away from the $300 super bargain model, but then that probably goes for most laptops.

This. If you buy a $300 laptop, it's a $300 laptop, no matter whose name is glued to it. There's a reason Apple doesn't make one.

But Apple does make a $300 laptop. They just charge $1200 for it.

Almost every Acer/Gateway/emachines desktop that comes through my computer repair shop has a bad power supply that fried the motherboard as it failed. Sometimes, the CPU is also toast. Another thing they have in common is that the power supplies were made by Bestec, but I also see that brand in HP/Compaq without seeing fried motherboards. If a computer is cheap enough to be sold at Wal-Mart, there are reasons for that. Keep shopping.

Jonathan Hohensee: bsharitt: I've found Acer laptops to be decent as long as you stay away from the $300 super bargain model, but then that probably goes for most laptops.

As a guy who just needed a light-weight laptop to be a word processor and occasional browser, I thought their $300 book did alright. Lasted about 4 years before crapping out.

Yep, same here. Their stuff in the early 2000's wasn't very good, but it seems everything since 2007 is fairly bulletproof.

My friend made fun of my $400 Acer laptop bought 4 years ago. Then 2 years later her $1200 HP pavilion laptop basically would never boot again and was out of warranty. She took my Acer when I offered without a word, got another used. 2 years later it is still working. I work in IT, would I trust it for the work place? oh hell no. but personal is fine.

Acer actually makes GOOD low-cost notebooks these days.

I'd take an Acer over anything HP/Compaq sells at Walmart/Best Buy/Staples, that's for sure.

The key to buying a notebook these days is buying something that runs cool. DO NOT buy a big-ass "desktop replacement" notebook. The fast CPU, and especially the fast *GPU*, just end up cooking to death after 18 months. Buy a nice mid-range Dell, and get a full "Complete Care" warranty on it.

Arctic Phoenix: I have to admit my Acer monitor has been kick-ass. My Acer DESKTOP, on the other hand, taught me the value in building my own computers.

And this reminds me of why I've been building my own desktops for so long.

Also, my Acer monitor is fantastic.

uncoveror: Almost every Acer/Gateway/emachines desktop that comes through my computer repair shop has a bad power supply that fried the motherboard as it failed. Sometimes, the CPU is also toast. Another thing they have in common is that the power supplies were made by Bestec, but I also see that brand in HP/Compaq without seeing fried motherboards. If a computer is cheap enough to be sold at Wal-Mart, there are reasons for that. Keep shopping.

Could it be the power draw is too much for the power supply? Cheap-o brands tend to use power supplies that barely provide enough power for the system in the first place.

I, too, have an Acer laptop which I'm typing on now. Earlier today it just suddenly restarted for no apparent reason. It has also been having peculiar blue screens recently and the performance has dropped off significantly recently.

I'm suspecting bad memory or a hard disk problem, but I haven't written off "it's time to reinstall Windows" as a possible solution yet, either. I have to stop being lazy and actually write down the stop codes next time it BSODs. Maybe just update a driver and get rid of that problem....

I also have a 21" Acer monitor that works just fine.

So, yea, for the price I can't really complain about Acer. Laptop only cost me about eight hundred bucks and I've even been playing games on it for about two years, so....

I thought Apple had the patent on cheap overpriced crap.

Apple to sue Acer in 3...2...1...

I haven't had to take an Acer laptop back in 6 years. I stopped selling HPs because they started failing at ridiculous rates, and don't even get me started about Dell. Sony's aren't what they used to be and you pay the Sony tax. Lenovos are pretty good, it seems. Asus and MSI also make decent laptops, but charge more for similar quality to Acer.

/typing on an Acer 18.4" laptop right now.

Arctic Phoenix: I have to admit my Acer monitor has been kick-ass. My Acer DESKTOP, on the other hand, taught me the value in building my own computers.

Yes, their desktops do not seem to be built to the same levels of quality as their laptops. We build all our own desktops for our clients.

I have a Acer netbook that has been with me for thousands of miles and 2.5 years and is going strong running XP (just refreshed it a month ago so it is as fast as it was when I got it). It is a good but cheap machine.

DNRTFA.

Are you a farking retard subby? If you look at the machinery coming out of ROC they have been ahead of China and nearly parallel with Japan for decades.

We have a 2002 model Acer at home. Dad still uses it.

/Never broken down.

I need a new travel laptop, but it needs to have a little horsepower. The Acer 3830 looks pretty sweet.

Unobtanium: I need a new travel laptop, but it needs to have a little horsepower. The Acer 3830 looks pretty sweet.

I have a 3820TG, I'm guessing the 3830 is the next-gen? Yeah, pretty sweet stuff. Be careful about overheating though; I have to use a cheap cooling pad to play games.

I saw one of their "ultrabooks" at costco. While they were thin, they were still cheap plastic and actually flexed a little when I picked it up. It did not inspire confidence for a 900+ (can't remember the exact price) laptop. Also, according to tests, the ultrabooks, in an effort to be small, have 1/2 the battery life of full-sized laptops.

LIking my Acer laptop with touchscreen as well. Fraction of the price of that overpriced POS from MDG Canada.

miltonbabbitt: Arctic Phoenix: I have to admit my Acer monitor has been kick-ass. My Acer DESKTOP, on the other hand, taught me the value in building my own computers.

And this reminds me of why I've been building my own desktops for so long.

Also, my Acer monitor is fantastic.

Been looking to build myself a PC for a while now. Any tips what to look out for? Avoid a cheapo power pack, for instance? Need a decent graphics card and 8gb RAM at least as I do big panoramic photo editing and stitching.

Suede head: miltonbabbitt: Arctic Phoenix: I have to admit my Acer monitor has been kick-ass. My Acer DESKTOP, on the other hand, taught me the value in building my own computers.

And this reminds me of why I've been building my own desktops for so long.

Also, my Acer monitor is fantastic.

Been looking to build myself a PC for a while now. Any tips what to look out for? Avoid a cheapo power pack, for instance? Need a decent graphics card and 8gb RAM at least as I do big panoramic photo editing and stitching.

There's far too much to mention in one post, but my biggest piece of advice is to make sure you go with a reputable motherboard and power supply. Those two components are the ones that are most likely to give you grief if you skimp on them.

/Built 5 machines so far
//Never buy a Jetway motherboard...worst mistake I ever made.

Writing this on an Acer Aspire 5313 running Mandriva Linux. Love Acers and have had many over the years for family members and myself. I also have a cooler pad under it but use one on all laptops. External keyboard, track ball, and monitor through a KVM switch. Use it for decoding PSK-31 and RTTY - tracks without a glitch. Does all the multimedia (AKA:Feethy movies) just fine.

Yet another Acer user here getting a kick out of these replies. And yes, I'd recommend it to anyone else too.

Also using an Acer laptop. My mac crapped out for no reason after I closed it one night. My mom felt bad (yeah spoiled I am still spoiled at 25.) She offered a new mac but had enough of their crap. Got this Acer from the Windows store at a cool $675 after a student discount. Love it!

Suede head: miltonbabbitt: Arctic Phoenix: I have to admit my Acer monitor has been kick-ass. My Acer DESKTOP, on the other hand, taught me the value in building my own computers.

And this reminds me of why I've been building my own desktops for so long.

Also, my Acer monitor is fantastic.

Been looking to build myself a PC for a while now. Any tips what to look out for? Avoid a cheapo power pack, for instance? Need a decent graphics card and 8gb RAM at least as I do big panoramic photo editing and stitching.

Plan to spend a good week or so going through the products and reviews on New Egg as well as Tom's Hardware. The reviews will not only tell you about the product, they'll often mention compatible components and software. Take note of these. Although I usually build around a motherboard/CPU choice, if you're building for video/photography you may want to choose a video card first and build around that. Reading the reviews and doing the research for a week or so is the key.

Don't go cheap on the power supply, fans, or case, make sure your fully loaded motherboard and drives will fit in the case before you purchase everything, and purchase the CPU last as it usually has the shortest return window (New Egg is 7 days I believe). I say this in case you purchase everything over a period of time instead of all at once.

When you purchase a case, avoid plastic. Aluminum is the way to go. I've used Lian Li cases for all of my builds and love them.

There's more, but I hope that helps.

miltonbabbitt: Suede head: miltonbabbitt: Arctic Phoenix: I have to admit my Acer monitor has been kick-ass. My Acer DESKTOP, on the other hand, taught me the value in building my own computers.

And this reminds me of why I've been building my own desktops for so long.

Also, my Acer monitor is fantastic.

Been looking to build myself a PC for a while now. Any tips what to look out for? Avoid a cheapo power pack, for instance? Need a decent graphics card and 8gb RAM at least as I do big panoramic photo editing and stitching.

Plan to spend a good week or so going through the products and reviews on New Egg as well as Tom's Hardware. The reviews will not only tell you about the product, they'll often mention compatible components and software. Take note of these. Although I usually build around a motherboard/CPU choice, if you're building for video/photography you may want to choose a video card first and build around that. Reading the reviews and doing the research for a week or so is the key.

Don't go cheap on the power supply, fans, or case, make sure your fully loaded motherboard and drives will fit in the case before you purchase everything, and purchase the CPU last as it usually has the shortest return window (New Egg is 7 days I believe). I say this in case you purchase everything over a period of time instead of all at once.

When you purchase a case, avoid plastic. Aluminum is the way to go. I've used Lian Li cases for all of my builds and love them.

There's more, but I hope that helps.

Thanks, dude. Also thanks Oh No Computer.