AspireRevo: Acer’s Ace in the Hole

First there were netbooks, the smaller, cheaper cousin of the notebook. Then came the nettop, the you guessed it — smaller, cheaper cousin of your desktop PC. Now the good folks at Acer are going all in and putting their cards on the table with the new AspireRevo nettop computer.

The AspireRevo is the first nettop to feature the powerful NVIDIA Ion platform. The setup combines the migethy Intel Atom processor with the NVIDIA Ion’s graphics processing unit (GPU). So what does all that techy jargon mean? It means that this tasty, little morsel (7.1 in x 7.1. in x 2.1 in) is a multimedia monster with sick procressing power and equally awesome graphics which will be music to the ears of movie buffs and game heads alike. Imagine a PC so small you can put it on your nightstand that can play Blu-Ray movies and handle the wicked framerate of  DirectX 10 games like Spore, Call of Duty 4 and Sim City 5 (The question remains, can it run Crysis and how well?). This might just be the culmination of those dreams.

Courtesy of laptops-drivers.com

Along with all the graphical goodness comes a gaggle of goodies including a choice between a webcam, Windows Vista Home Premium or Basic, Serial ATA Hard Drive or a SSD (Solid State Drive), up to 4GB of RAM and 250GB Hard Drive. The AspireRevo gets a gold star for it’s willingness to work with others thanks to its many portals including six USB ports, a Gigabit ethernet port, and of course a port for HDMI/VGA. It can also attach to the back of and LCD or television screen thanks to a “special mounting system.”

According to Engadget, preorders of the Revo are available for a May 18th ship date. Stateside release or pricing has yet to be determined, but don’t be surprised to be shelling out at least $300, which in the grand scheme of things would be steal.

Svelte, elegent, and stylish the AspireRevo is jaw-droppingly crammed with amazing tech. With it’s ability to run games, play HD quality movies with incredible audio, and be set up anywhere in the home, the people at Acer are effectively putting their hat in the campaign to become the must have component of the family entertainment system. Game consoles and DVD players, you’ve been put on notice.