This review of the Acer 5920-6313 is written specifically for TheAcerGuy.com. The reason I mention this is because TheAcerGuy already has an excellent user review on the European version of the 5920 and I do not intend to cover all the same ground in my review as was already done by Jing Yeow since they are in the same case and very similar. Rather, I will highlight the differences between the model he reviewed and my model, the 6313, which is available in the U.S.A. from Best Buy. I will also go inside the computer with an eye to upgrades.

Aspire 5920_half-open6

At First Glance: It’s sleek. That was my first impression of the Gemstone design. When it is open the top of the screen sits lower than one would expect of a laptop of this size. This is due in part to the down-sweep of the case just before the hinges for the screen, and, I expect, an optical illusion created by the large keyboard area and smooth curves of the machine. The outside is classy and smooth like an old-time gangster or a Man-In-Black.

The much screamed about indefinably-whitish interior color is very pleasing to the eyes; almost calming. I like the way it looks and I think that most of the pictures I’ve seen on the net do not do the Gemstone justice. I’ve also heard it criticized as a tad heavy. This is something I simply do not understand. At 6.6 pounds (their spec I didn’t weigh it) it feels light and easily carried to me. But hey, I’m in the military and the uniform I wear to work every day weighs more than this laptop.

My Reason for choosing this computer: Bang-for-the-buck. Just that simple. I’m a family man, I’m in the military (notoriously not the best paying job for some reason), and I needed to replace my old machine which had died a sudden and horrible death. So it was down to what was available on or about July 7th and the wife had further limited me to a budget of approximately $1000. I spent two days surfing the web researching and comparing. The results: specs to price nothing else was even close.

At that time I didn’t care two wits about the design. I made my decision and ducked in on the Lucky Sevens sale Best Buy was running and saved myself a tidy $200 by placing my online order in the last hours of the last day of the sale. Even had I hesitated that extra few seconds and lost out on the sale, I would have still been happy with the value for price (assuming I had been able to squeeze an extra $200 out of the wife). Seriously, I looked at Toshiba, Dell, Gateway, Alienware, Sager, you name the brand I looked, and for $999-1300 I could find nothing to compare to the Acer 5920-6313 specs.

battery lid

What the American 5920 brings to the table: Ok, first off the processor is only 1.5 GHz (Core2 Duo T5250), so yeah it is a bit slower than the European model. The Wi-Fi card is only an Intel Pro ABG variety, and not draft N. It has no blue tooth and may or may not have turbo memory (I’m still trying to figure that out). The Best Buy website mentions Turbo Cache memory in conjunction with the video card but nowhere else.

Another website I browsed through mentioned that it could take advantage of the on-board Robson turbo memory, but I do not see the controllers for it in the device manager. The install.exe for the turbo cache memory DOES exist in the drivers folder, so someone out there tell me, do I have it or not? I don’t know. It has a fully functional 5-in-1 media card reader, good for me since my digital camera uses a supported card.

Some of the European models appear to have a non-functioning dummy slot in this place. Despite the fact that Best Buy says it does not have a Firewire port, it does. I have not tested it for functionality and it may be a dummy, but the device manager states quite clearly that it has a “Ricoh OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 host controller” so I guess that settles that. She sports a 4800 mAH 8-cell Lithium-Ion battery for Energizer Bunny-like endurance.

And lastly, the American computer gets a Toshiba Dual Layer +/- RW&HD DVD ROM (Burns dual layer and +/- DVDs but is read-only for HD DVDs). This drive lets you take full advantage of the HDMI port on the left side because, it occurs to me, the native screen resolution means the HMDI is pretty much the only way for you to REALLY enjoy HD DVD with this machine.

HD DVD

What I’ve done with it: Not as much as I would like so far. I have played about 5 hours of Doom 3, and about 1 hour of Thief Deadly Shadows. I know these two games are not exactly the most demanding on the market anymore, but they are the toughest games I have. On max settings for both games this machine didn’t even break a sweat (well, once I turned AA up to x16 on Doom there was a minor drop in frame rate, but it was still quite playable).

Seriously, it was barely even warm. Jing said that his model stayed warm over the left hand side of the keyboard while word processing. Maybe that’s because he has a 2.0 GHz processor to my 1.5, but my gemstone stayed cool as a cucumber. The only time it warmed up at all for me was when it was charging the battery hard after I used it up on a test.

heat sink and pipe

What test? Why I put in a DVD (not HD) and watched a movie (Hellboy) and then I watched some Japanese Anime. I enjoyed right at 3 hours of constant DVD video in a non-air-conditioned room at 88 degrees F. on my ship before it warned me that is was about to shut down. It was also a pleasant room-temperature to the touch. While playing Doom and Thief, I noticed that it was very easy to tell which direction a sound was coming from (very important in those games). I know the speakers have been praised by many before me, and I agree with them, the sound on this machine is excellent. I also hooked up my 22” flat LCD desktop monitor to it and cranked the resolution up to something ridiculous and she took it like a champ. No problem there, just need the screen.

Undressing the Gemstone: I will be uploading pictures along with this review, hopefully they will make it and you get to see her in all her naked glory, but if not use your imagination. After shutting down, removing the power cord and the battery, I’m ready to open her up. About two-thirds of the back of the case is one removable lid. The first thing I noticed was that the lid retains its screws.

peek inside

YAY! No need to worry about losing them. It also snaps very easily loose to a gentle tug around the edges of the lid. The first component to reveal itself is the fan in the upper right hand corner which quickly led me, via its heat-pipe to the heat-sink and the processor below. I have no heat-sink compound so I will not be removing the heat-sink. My first concern was the wire that is threaded right through the fins of the heat-sink. I would not have thought that to be a good place for the wire coming from my Wi-Fi card. The hard drive is easy to identify in the bottom right hand corner and the RAM sticks are stacked square in the middle of the whole thing.

RAM up

I was a little concerned at first about the lack of space behind the bottom RAM chip due to the leg of some bit of unnecessary-looking support piece that seems not to be used for anything hugging up close to the back of my RAM. That was, until I undid the clasps on the RAM and it popped up obediently to a 45 degree angle to assist me in its removal. Sweet! Upgrading the RAM will be easy. I spent a good half-hour looking at this mysterious card to the right of the CPU, above the hard drive and below the fan. What is it? It has logic chips from the same manufacturer as the RAM (are they, therefore, memory?).

Mystery card

Could this be the vaunted Nvidia 8600m GT, or the elusive Turbo RAM? I still don’t know; can anyone clue me in? What can I say, she looks good in the nude. I see lots of room for my big ol’ fingers to move around in there if I get the urge to pimp my ‘puter, the components are easy to identify (ok not that one thing) and conveniently placed. This laptop will be easy to upgrade.

What I don’t like: Yes, there are a few things. I’m having a little bit of trouble with sticking keys on the keyboard. I just had to delete a line of J’s that volunteered their services; all in the same place. This has happened four or five times today as I played Doom or typed and it is my number one gripe. I’m also concerned about the plastic rails on the side of the DVD tray.

plastic rail

Maybe I’m just spoiled since my last laptop had nice metal rails and felt solid. This thing feels cheesy when I slide it open or closed. It doesn’t roll smoothly, it just sort of drags along on its plastic rails. Guess I’ll have to be careful. Like some other people, I don’t like the touch-sensitive media buttons. I have them set all the way to their least sensitive setting and I still can’t seem to avoid hitting them once in a while and getting that awful beep.

Oh well, no big deal. With a little practice I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it. Lastly, and I really feel silly complaining about this, but that’s what this section is for, I don’t like the sound and earphone jacks being in front. Yes, I know this make them easier to get at, but it also makes them in my way when I use my headphones. I would have much preferred them on the sides or even the back, which is where they would have had to go seeing how very busy the sides of this machine are.

DVD clearance

Summary: at the end of the day not only do I like it, I really, really like it. Maybe even love it. There’s no doubt in my mind that if you want a great laptop that won’t break the bank, this laptop is an excellent choice. Even if you want a higher performance laptop, you could still buy this one and hot-rod it up to higher specs and still spend less money than you would have on a comparable computer. The screen size and resolution are the only things you can’t change and hey, you can always use an HDTV or your Desktop’s monitor.

Admittedly, if you are a power user and you have $3000+ to spend you can do better, but if you want value and bang-for-your-buck I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a better deal.