Acer Ferrari 3400 Notebook

Author's Rating:

Pros: Sweet looking,Fast CPU, handles 32 and 64 bit apps with some mods, good storage space.

Cons: Just OK for modern games, HD may be a wee bit slow for some.

The Bottom Line: 
This is a good, robust machine. Fast CPU, eye catching, very customizable, good storage, relatively light and so far extremely reliable.

Author's Review
I've had this laptop for 3 months now. I've carried it with me nearly every day, and although the attractive red finish has picked up a few scratches along the way it's still an eye catcher. It comes with a nice white silk-like sleeve, but I've noticed some obvious static crackles when I would remove the PC from it, due to running it along the plastic case of the notebook so have since stopped using it.

Battery life for me averages just over 2 hours. I have a second battery now which gives me enough productivity time off-plug most times. Keep in mind that connecting to a wireless network or using bluetooth will eat into this. In defense of this point, you are running a powerful little machine.

The built in card reader is great. I'm constantly moving moderately large files between PC's and it's a definite plus for this machine.

The hard disk at 80 gigabytes is pretty good, though a few gigs are reserved for some kind of utilities partition. At the end of the day you're looking at about 75 gigs between the default C: and D: partitions set up at the factory, split down the middle. It's not a 7200 rpm device (though it's accessible to upgrade easily enough) and I'm thankful for that due to power consumption reasons. It performs very well for my needs.

The wireless networking capability is first rate. Never hit any snags with it or the included modem OR ethernet connection. I've used them all at one time or another without a hitch.

The same can be said of the bluetooth connectivity. My Ipaq interfaces via this means very well, with few setup headaches.

Win XP professional came stock with this PC, and while it's a good OS they factory set the file system to FAT32 instead of NTFS. You might want to change that before you get into installing too much. (this requires a reinstall of the OS/formatting of the system drives so only if you're comfortable with that)

For anything I've used, the 512 megs is definitely adequate. More RAM is always a boon however, and I'll probably go to at least 1 gigabyte very soon.

If you're buying this thing for games, I suggest that you think about that one. While it WILL play games, and the ATI 9700 mobile technology with 128 megs is good for even some modern games like Doom 3 and Halflife 2 with the settings cranked way down... but for this price (3 thousand Canadian Dollars taxes in or $2600 US) you can put yourself together a phenominal gaming desktop. Remember the 9700 is ancient by technology standards in it's full sized form, and in it's wee little 'corners cut' mobile form you WILL be dissapointed if games are your number one reason for purchasing.

That being said, I've installed the Win XP 64 bit for a 2 week stint, and experimented with some 64 bit drivers I've either put together myself or found online. In this form, it is LIGHTNING fast, though be prepared to hit alot of incompatibility stumbling blocks along the way. To use it as a day to day tool, you'll have to stick with the included 32 bit Win XP pro OS.

It gets a bit hot on the front left section of the wrist rest. While it's not uncomfortable, heat as a rule of thumb is hard on computer components. My suggestion, spend the $124 US for the 3 year warranty. That way, if your Ferrari "can't stand the heat" after 2 or 2.5 years, Acer will foot the bill for what may be an expensive repair. As most people know, 3 years is about the useful 'current' life for any computer anyway. Beyond that it's time for a new one, with newer technology.

All in all, I love this machine. Examples of what I use it for are program development (some pretty heavy duty compiling which it handles well and it handles assembler in 32 & 64 bit versions!), developing tech/application docs, some occasional gaming and day to day tasks. At the coffee shop or at the airport be prepared to get some queries and comments on this hot little red machine.

Definitely a thumbs up for my purposes, but examine your primary use for it before you buy. I'd give it a 9/10.