Acer backs Blu-ray
HD media centre PC launched to prove it
IFA 07 Acer has thrown its weight behind the Blue-ray Disc to become the fifth big-name computer maker to back the next-gen optical disc format. It's launched a BD-equipped media centre PC to affirm its intentions.
Acer's iDea 520: Blu-ray on board
Acer's plan to acquire Gateway will catapult the joint company into the top tier of PC manufacturers alongside HP and Dell. Dell has always supported Blu-ray, and while HP has been notably pro HD DVD of late, it was nonetheless an early supporter of BD.
To that list we can add Apple and Lenovo, both of whom have pledged themselves to the Blu-ray cause. As has Sony, of course - it's the only PC maker yet to equip its machines with BD drives to any great extent.
Acer's iDea 520: all mod cons
At the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin today, Acer announced the Aspire iDea 520, a media centre system with a slot-load Blu-ray Disc drive. The machine is based on a 1.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 and packs in 2GB of DDR 2 memory, a 500GB hard drive, an AMD ATI 'M76M' graphics chip with 512MB of video memory, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and a digital/analogue TV tuner.
The iDea 520 is due to go on sale in Europe in October for €1999.
COMMENTS
Oooh, pretty!
Wait...HOW MUCH???
</yorkshireman>
In all seriousness, with regards to the first comment posted, I don't think the PS3 was ever really bad value, simply down to the Blu-Ray player. It's a stinking amount for a console, but when you can buy a really powerful console and Blu-Ray player for less than the price of, I dunno, a Blu-Ray player, who's going to go for the second option? It's exactly what they did with the PS2 and its DVD capabilities, and it's exactly where Microsoft continue to miss a trick with the 360.
That said, it hasn't worked as well this time, because their new console costs twice as much as the old one. A PS3 being "good value for a Blu-Ray player" doesn't stop it being really expensive.
but can it run linux?
well, perhaps, but is there any driver support for linux?
