Acer a8-3500m 4Gb AS5560-SB401 Update 1

[Bond007]

Hey everyone. I managed to grab this laptop (LINK) at what I considered to be a great price boxing week and there was little to no info available on it online, so I decided to do my first little mini review (things are busy for me with the family life, so info will be added as I can). I just received it and it is cold soaked, so I am giving a bit of time to warm up before firing it up. Hopefully it will work as I hope and not disappoint.

If you have seen any of Acers current aspire lineup then you know what the texture of the laptop is like. This one is (what I consider) a very nice blue/black combination. Pics to come, some game reviews to come, thoughts and impressions to com.

The hard drive is a 640gb 5400rpm Toshiba.
The memory is 2x2Gb ddr3 labelled as 10600 (1333mhz), though all info online says its only 1066mhz...we will see what it runs at once fired up. I am unsure of the brand for now.

Check back for updates.

Update 1: So far it runs great and I am very happy for a budget computer that can still run some games. I haven't run any fps benchmarks yet, but have had fraps running and played a few games. Temps seem to peak at 60 deg as a max according to hardware monitor and then the fan bumps up in speed and maintains that. Laptop remains no hotter than slightly warm. The 4gb ram has been close to maxed, but doesn't seem to have caused a problem yet and it is running at 1333mhz, vice the 1066 that is advertised all over the web including the acer website. All games so far played at native resolution of 1366x768.

SCII is very smooth in 2v2 and 3v3 with all settings on medium (haven't tried 4v4 yet. FPS haven't gone lower than 40 yet).

DOD:S runs everything pretty much maxed at >60fps, so I enabled vsync.

Civ V runs everything on medium with no noticable lag until late game, but it is still very playable.

BF3 at native resolution and everything on low averages around 30fps with peaks around 50 and lows around 20-22fps. Definitely not ideal, but it works if you need it to. I will play around with resolution and benchmarks soon.

[techman95]

i just recently bought the 5560-sb613 that has the exact same specs except for the hdd. and so far i love it. its very capable and responsive. and its able to play bf3 at medium . but over all its very sturdy and reliable which is more than i can say for my hp dv9000 i bought a few years ago.

[Bond007]

First update after a few days use. More formal info to come.

[Alouette Radeon]

Well since he never did follow up with this thread, I'll continue it (as I'm typing on an Acer Aspire 5560-Sb401 right now). I have never run FRAPS so I don't know what the actual framerates are but I can tell you that I brought my laptop to Cuba on a 2-week vacation and I had a couple of stormy days that I was stuck in my hotel room and I played Skyrim to pass the time. I was amazed. At medium settings, the game was perfectly fluid at 1366x768 native resolution and never once felt choppy. It felt exactly the same way that Skyrim did on my 2xHD 4870 X-fire desktop does at max settings. I have never in my life been so impressed with a laptop that I paid all of $500 for. Never in my life did I expect that a new game like Skyrim would run perfectly on it at a graphics detail level that was superior to the X-Box and PS3. The Llano A8 has completely amazed me with its versatility. It is fast, cool, has a fantastic GPU and is an incredible value. For 95% of people out there, you cannot go wrong with this. I'll never regret this purchase. :hah a: