Acer Aspire AX3400-U2012

The Acer Aspire AX3400-U1202 is a small form factor (SFF) desktop PC for consumers buying a second or third PC for the house. It has more power than a compact nettop, and is priced competitively. Quiet operation and forward-looking tech are both a plus. But the AX3400-U1202 shares its siblings' propensity for bloat ware, which knocks the system's overall score down a notch. Take a quick look at the Acer if you need power in a compact desktop.

Design and Features

At about 10.5 by 4 by 14 inches (HWD), the AX3400-U1202 is more compact than a traditional tower so it will fit in cramped spaces like an apartment closet office or under an HDTV stand. The desktop is mostly matte black plastic with some glossy black plastic bits. Hinged doors hide the optical drive, front USB ports, and the digital media card reader. The desktop is well-equipped with an astonishing 9 USB 2.0 ports (6 is the average number for desktops these days). The desktop also has a VGA port for monitors and PS/2 ports for a wired mouse and keyboard, handy if you have older peripherals that you just can't bear to part with. The desktop ships with a wired USB keyboard and mouse. It has an HDMI port for HD monitors and eSATA for speedy external hard drives.

While the external expansion is plentiful, the internal expansion is limited, thanks to the desktop's small form factor chassis and compact motherboard. You're limited to two memory DIMM slots, a PCIe x1 card slot and PCIe x16 graphics card slot. Both PCIe card slots are half-height, so you'll need to find compact cards to fit. Thankfully, most 802.11n cards and many low-end graphics cards come in half-height versions. The internal expansion differentiates a SFF PC from a compact desktops like the Apple Mac mini (HDMI) ($699 list, 4.5 stars) and Dell Inspiron Zino HD (Inspiron 410, which have no internal expansion whatsoever.

The desktop's features are fairly average for an entry-level PC: 4GB of memory, 500GB hard drive, DVD burner, triple-core AMD Athlon II processor, and integrated Nvidia GeForce 9200 graphics. The desktop certainly has extra bloat ware on it to help remind you that this desktop is retail. Shortcuts to eBay, NetFlix, Skype, and other pre-loaded programs like Acer Games, Microsoft Office 60-day trial, and eSobi clutter the system's desktop and start menu. Budget an afternoon of uninstalling and cleanup when you bring the desktop home, unless you enjoy seeing ads every time you boot your PC.