With an authentic glossy, scratch-resistant, Ferrari-red paint job, a cobalt and silver dashboard-styled keyboard, and the famed Italian car manufacturer's emblem gracing the chassis, the 3200 races to the head of the pack with its elegant design.
The Ferrari theme carries beyond the design and into the OS. After booting up the system, you're greeted with the sound of a car screaming around the racetrack, while images of Michael Schumacher's Formula 1 Ferrari, currently the top team on the circuit, serve as the desktop wallpaper and screensaver.
Under the hood, an Athlon 64 2800+ processor, 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 video card, and 512MB of DDR memory (upgradeable to 2GB) give this Ferrari the horsepower to compete with the boutique high-end systems by Voodoo and Alienware. Microsoft has yet to release the 64-bit version of Windows, so programs taking advantage of the high-performance capabilities are scarce, but at least you'll be ready to go when the software starts rolling onto the track.
We revved this system's engine with the resource-guzzling first-person shooter Far Cry. The 15-inch TFT-LCD display and video card handled the default graphical workload adequately, but when we upped the graphics quality above the medium setting, lag became an issue.
The only noticeable internal difference between the 3200 and its higher-priced competitors is the lack of a fast hard drive. While most high-performance gaming systems ship with at least 7,200-rpm hard drives, the Ferrari rolls with a scant 4,200 rpm, which we interpret to be one of the cost-cutting measures employed to allow this system to sport a sub-$2,000 price tag.
The slot-loading multiformat optical drive is perfect for multimedia junkies, as it supports DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-ROM, and DVD-RAM on top of the standard CD-recordable formats. The four-in-one card reader accommodates Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, SmartMedia, and Memory Stick formats, but we were surprised that Acer didn't include the CompactFlash format still found inside many digital cameras.
The internal speakers were serviceable, but, as with any gaming notebook, you'll prefer to hook up a better sound system when you're at home to get the full effect of game soundtracks.
Despite the inclusion of so many high-end components, the Ferrari 3200 turns in a more-than-adequate battery life of just under 3 hours, which included a few rounds of Rise of Nations. With that type of endurance you should also be able to get through a couple of DVDs on your next flight.
During intense gaming sessions, enough heat seeped through the chassis to cause significant discomfort, especially toward the bottom of the keyboard where you typically rest your left hand. This is something Acer should work to improve if they are targeting gamers with this system.
Rounding out the 3200 is an ample array of connectivity options, including Ethernet, modem, Bluetooth, Fast Infrared, and 802.11b/g. The system offers a great complement of ports-most importantly, four USB 2.0 ports and FireWire. It's a small point of contention, but we would have liked to see the USB ports spaced around the chassis rather than in one uniform line on the left side of the notebook, as most users will place their mice on the right side.
As the Ferrari 3200 crossed the finish line, the comprehensive results were quite impressive. Any system packing this much power with a price tag under $2,000 has to be considered a solid contender.
The Ferrari theme carries beyond the design and into the OS. After booting up the system, you're greeted with the sound of a car screaming around the racetrack, while images of Michael Schumacher's Formula 1 Ferrari, currently the top team on the circuit, serve as the desktop wallpaper and screensaver.
Under the hood, an Athlon 64 2800+ processor, 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 video card, and 512MB of DDR memory (upgradeable to 2GB) give this Ferrari the horsepower to compete with the boutique high-end systems by Voodoo and Alienware. Microsoft has yet to release the 64-bit version of Windows, so programs taking advantage of the high-performance capabilities are scarce, but at least you'll be ready to go when the software starts rolling onto the track.
We revved this system's engine with the resource-guzzling first-person shooter Far Cry. The 15-inch TFT-LCD display and video card handled the default graphical workload adequately, but when we upped the graphics quality above the medium setting, lag became an issue.
The only noticeable internal difference between the 3200 and its higher-priced competitors is the lack of a fast hard drive. While most high-performance gaming systems ship with at least 7,200-rpm hard drives, the Ferrari rolls with a scant 4,200 rpm, which we interpret to be one of the cost-cutting measures employed to allow this system to sport a sub-$2,000 price tag.
The slot-loading multiformat optical drive is perfect for multimedia junkies, as it supports DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-ROM, and DVD-RAM on top of the standard CD-recordable formats. The four-in-one card reader accommodates Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, SmartMedia, and Memory Stick formats, but we were surprised that Acer didn't include the CompactFlash format still found inside many digital cameras.
The internal speakers were serviceable, but, as with any gaming notebook, you'll prefer to hook up a better sound system when you're at home to get the full effect of game soundtracks.
Despite the inclusion of so many high-end components, the Ferrari 3200 turns in a more-than-adequate battery life of just under 3 hours, which included a few rounds of Rise of Nations. With that type of endurance you should also be able to get through a couple of DVDs on your next flight.
During intense gaming sessions, enough heat seeped through the chassis to cause significant discomfort, especially toward the bottom of the keyboard where you typically rest your left hand. This is something Acer should work to improve if they are targeting gamers with this system.
Rounding out the 3200 is an ample array of connectivity options, including Ethernet, modem, Bluetooth, Fast Infrared, and 802.11b/g. The system offers a great complement of ports-most importantly, four USB 2.0 ports and FireWire. It's a small point of contention, but we would have liked to see the USB ports spaced around the chassis rather than in one uniform line on the left side of the notebook, as most users will place their mice on the right side.
As the Ferrari 3200 crossed the finish line, the comprehensive results were quite impressive. Any system packing this much power with a price tag under $2,000 has to be considered a solid contender.
| QUICK SPECS | |
| Acer Ferrari 3200 www.acer.com/us | |
| CPU | AMD Athlon 64 2800+ |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional |
| RAM/Expandable to | 512 MB DDR/2GB |
| Hard Drive | 4,200-rpm, 80GB |
| Optical Drive | 2.4X DVD+R/2.4X DVD+RW/4X DVD-R/2X DVD-RW/8X DVD-ROM/2X DVD-RAM/16X CD-R/8X CD-RW/24X CD-ROM |
| Display/Resolution | 15-inch/SXGA+ |
| Graphics/Video Memory | 128 MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 |
| Wireless Networking | 802.11b/g |
| Ports | Four USB 2.0, FireWire, parallel, VGA, modem, Ethernet, S-Video, IR, headphones, mic |
| PC Card Slots | Type II PC Card slot |
| Memory Card Slots | Four-in-one card reader for Memory Stick, MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital, SmartMedia |
| Weight | 6.6 pounds |
| Dimensions | 13 x 10.7 x 1.2 inches |
| Service and Support | 1 year, parts and labor; upgradeable to 3 years with on-site service |
| PCMark04 | 3413 |
| 3DMark2001 | 10859 |
| Battery Life (Wi-Fi On/Off) | 2:50/2:50 |
| Wireless Performance (5/50 feet) | 12.3 Mbps/9.1 Mbps |
No comments:
Post a Comment