Acer Aspire XC600 review

Apple’s Mac mini and Intel’s NUC show the desktop PC can shrink down well below shoebox size and even show a little stylistic flair, but the Aspire XC600 eschews such cosmetic fripperies.

This is a simple, straightforward mini-tower PC, and – apart from a fake brushed-metal effect on the dark grey plastic fascia and a slightly chamfered faceplate – the solid metal casing of the XC600 is square and lumpen, finished in utilitarian black paint.

Instead, Acer has concentrated on delivering the most potent specification possible for the cash. Within the workmanlike chassis, the Aspire XC600 employs a 3GHz Core i5-3330 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard disk.

Compared to the latest desktop PCs, it’s hardly cutting-edge, but the quad-core processor delivers superbly responsive performance, and the Aspire XC600 is spritely in everyday use, with applications launching quickly despite the lack of an SSD.

There’s sufficient power to push the Acer to a result of 0.89 in our benchmarks – more than enough for tackling serious photo- and video-editing tasks.

The absence of a dedicated graphics card isn’t entirely bad. It does, of course, take its toll on gaming performance – the Acer only managed a playable average of 36fps in our least taxing Crysis benchmark – but it does help keep down power consumption.

With FurMark thrashing the graphics core, and Prime95 pegging every CPU core at 100%, the Acer drew 75W from the mains; while idling, the power draw dwindled to 30W. That’s by no means the lowest we’ve seen, but it’s frugal compared to full-sized desktop PCs.

Unlike even smaller PCs, the Aspire XC600 affords a modicum of upgradeability. Unscrew the side panel and there’s a little room for manoeuvre, even if the interior is fairly cramped; remove two screws at the front and the mount holding the SATA optical drive and 3.5in hard disk slides out, making it possible to replace either in a matter of minutes.

Acer has also installed a single 8GB stick of DDR3 RAM, so you can easily add another to double the complement instantaneously.
There’s even a spare PCI Express x16 slot at the top of the case, although only a half-height card will fit, and the tiny 220W PSU will have a bearing on performance. The PCI Express x1 slot is occupied by a dual-band 802.11abgn wireless card, which provides two aerial sockets.

Nothing about the XC600’s exterior sets the pulse racing. The DVD writer is hidden behind the grey plastic frontage, and there are two USB 2 ports at the front, alongside an SD card reader and a pair of 3.5mm audio inputs and outputs.

At the rear, there are another six USB 2 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet socket and D-SUB and HDMI video outputs. The two PS/2 connectors connect directly to the supplied keyboard and mouse, but these are horribly lightweight and plasticky – we recommend you upgrade them immediately.

The Acer Aspire XC600 doesn’t get great deal wrong, but it’s fair to say it didn’t gather much of a crowd when we unpacked it. It delivers plenty of power for current applications, and the modest amount of upgradeability is welcome.

It isn’t worthy of unequivocal recommendation, however. The lack of USB 3 is frustrating, and there are better alternatives on the market. For example, the excellent Fujitsu Esprimo Q510 crams capable desktop PC performance into a Mac mini-sized chassis for similar money. The XC600 is a nippy, affordable little machine, but it fails to threaten the A-List all the same.

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