ACi Xtreme

The ACi Xtreme, in addition to looking good, has loads of components that would make your day even if they were on a desktop PC. The Xtreme is powered by a 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 processor and has 128MB PC 2100 DDR RAM. For the gaming enthusiast, there is an integrated SIS 650 graphics card with 32MB shared RAM and integrated AC97 audio. It also features the latest ports and communication devices - firewire, 3 USB ports, an IR port, a 100/10 LAN and a 56 Kbps modem - the ACi has it all! For storage, there is a 20GB 4200RPM hard drive, a 24X CDROM drive and a USB floppy drive.
Put to the test!

But then, extreme components don't always guarantee extreme performance! So we put it through a battery of tests to see how this one really measures up. In the first of the overall system tests done using SiSoft Sandra, the CPU arithmetic benchmark the Laptop performed exactly the way we expected - just above the Pentium 4 1.6 CPU benchmark. In the CPU multimedia benchmark the Laptop again performed well.

In memory bandwidth tests, the Laptop's PC2100 128MB DDR RAM performed a little lower than average, mainly because 32MB of memory is shared by the integrated SIS 650 graphics accelerator. The hard disk in the Xtreme is a 4200RPM 20GB IBM TravelStar. In our opinion, that's not such a good thing, and a high-end Laptop like this one should have had a 7200RPM or 5400RPM drive. The CDROM is a Teac 24X which performs well enough.



Then, it was the graphic card's turn to burn! We tested the onboard graphics card with Quake III Arena Demo where it clocked a very playable 31.8FPS that could be credited to the 32MB share of DDR RAM. Unfortunately we couldn't run 3DMark2001 SE as the total physical memory was insufficient to run the test.And finally we did a SiSoft Sandra Burn-in test after unplugging the machine to test it's battery life, and the result was a very good at one hour and 54 minutes.

A good buy?
This ACi comes with a comprehensive user manual and Windows XP also comes preinstalled. It's easy-to-access components (battery, memory, hard drive and CDROM drive...) will make the system easy to upgrade when the time comes - just swap the existing parts with new ones, and no visits to a specialist technician required!We particularly liked the USB floppy drive, despite the fact that floppy drives are hardly used these days. The build quality was at par, if not better than most OEM Laptops, and more notably it was far better than the last ACi Profile 2860 Laptop we tested! The carry bag too, was better in this case, and looked like it could take a beating and survive. The Laptop speakers weren't much good, but if you plug in a pair of headphones, the sound card provides ample amplification. The keyboard and touchpad were also slick in operation - no complaints there.



The one problem we had was that at 3.2kilos, the ACi is a bit too heavy. For those who would want to upgrade to a more powerful battery, the weight would go up even more. Also, the machine generates a little too much heat - watch out for toasted laps please!Do we recommend buying one? Well, at Rs.94990, the machine doesn't make the cut in price versus performance stakes. There are other Laptops that offer better value for money, so shop around for a better bargain...

Test unit sourced from Allied Computer Industries Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai