Acer Aspire Revo / Intel Atom N230 1.6GHz / 2GB / 160GB / Vista Home Premium / Nettop Desktop PC (92.G1EYZ.UFP)

This is a great little pc, which combines the power of the nvidia graphics and the new low energy dual core Atom chip from intel.

As soon as i got it i wiped the hard drive clean of Windows Vista. This was because it ran really slow, and needed upgrading to a better OS; namely Linux.!
I Put Fedora 11 Beta on it, the official stable release of this comes out on the 26th May. I had no problems with the new Beta OS, - the Wifi card works perfectly, however I had to update the graphics driver, from Nvidia's website using a driver similar to the GeForce 9400 thats inside.
It compiled itself from the kernel, so now the 3d graphics are working great, and everything runs smoothly. Although it doesn't say the graphics take up 256MB of the ram, so your'e only left with 1.7GB of memory, and you can't change this in the bios either.

The computer comes with a mount that attaches to the back of the monitor, to keep the computer out of the way, the screws are all included… more »

This is a great little pc, which combines the power of the nvidia graphics and the new low energy dual core Atom chip from intel.

As soon as i got it i wiped the hard drive clean of Windows Vista. This was because it ran really slow, and needed upgrading to a better OS; namely Linux.!
I Put Fedora 11 Beta on it, the official stable release of this comes out on the 26th May. I had no problems with the new Beta OS, - the Wifi card works perfectly, however I had to update the graphics driver, from Nvidia's website using a driver similar to the GeForce 9400 thats inside.
It compiled itself from the kernel, so now the 3d graphics are working great, and everything runs smoothly. Although it doesn't say the graphics take up 256MB of the ram, so your'e only left with 1.7GB of memory, and you can't change this in the bios either.

The computer comes with a mount that attaches to the back of the monitor, to keep the computer out of the way, the screws are all included too.Also included is a 3/4 sized mouse & a small keyboard, which is 32cm long and looks similar to a Sony laptop / Mac keyboard, in that every key has a space between each key. It's quite a decent keyboard, not a cheap and nasty one that is usually included, and it feels good to type on, the only downside is that the cord is rather short for both the mouse and keyboard.
The 160GB hdd is massive for Linux, but if you want to upgrade it, then it could be a problem, as it can only take upto a 250GB hdd.
If you did want to upgrade the hdd it could be tricky; to install it i mean, as it's screwed onto the motherboard from underneath.
To open the computer undo the screw that has a waranty void sticker on it,(it's located where the stand goes) then prise it apart, one side will come off leaving the cpu etc on the other piece.
It has 4 screws to undo the mother board from the case (inside it). You will have to carefully unclip the usb and the wireless card, then remove the motherboard and turn it over to undo the screws on the hard drive.
I don't think it's worth the risk of possible damage, so i just kept the supplied hdd which made by hitachi.There are no status lights on the revo for hd access or anything, but thats no too bad, & the good thing is the hd is silent.!
All in all a decent low energy 2nd PC.