Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Desktop Review

Acer markets this PC as a home and small business productivity/creativity machine capable of handling several applications in a multi-tasking environment. They also claim that you can do some gaming if you install a dedicated graphics card like the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745. In this review, we seek to find out how well this PC addresses the needs of the small office/home office setup. How does the Aspire stack up against similar models in this highly competitive OEM PC manufacturer space? You’ll find all that in the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Review.

But before that, there are several factors one needs to consider before deciding on which PC to purchase for their small business/home office. They include; –

Processors (CPU)

Most applications normally used in an office environment like word processors do not require a lot of processing power. However, in order to support multitasking, a processor with more than one core is recommended.

Networking

The presence of more than one connectivity/networking options like Ethernet and Wi-Fi is critical in a business pc. This is due to the nature of work environments where resources are decentralized and usually shared or accessed through a network.

RAM

Modern business-oriented operating systems and application software requires a lot of memory for optimal operation.

Other factors to consider include; warranty and after-sales support, upgradability, DVD/cd drives, and the software included e.g. the operating system and office suites. So how does the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Desktop fair as a business machine?

Pros

Elegant design that fits perfectly in any office environment
Competitively priced (a budget pc) considering the specifications.
A decent amount of ports and interfaces.
A Powerful CPU (Intel Core i7 7th Gen 7700)
Inbuilt GPU (Intel HD Graphics 630)
Sufficient RAM (16 GB DDR4)

Cons

Comes pre-loaded with some bloatware
No SSD storage and comes with Windows 10 Home 64-Bit instead of the pro version.

Verdict

Despite the absence of SSD storage and the Pro version of Windows, the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Desktop is an excellent budget productivity PC. The most appealing elements of this PC includes a 7th Gen Intel Core i7-7700 (3.60 GHz) processor, an inbuilt graphics card and plenty of RAM. With that in mind, we do recommend the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Desktop PC for home/office use.

Update (5th Aug 2019): SInce the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Desktop is not available on Amazon, we recommend our Editor’s Choice, the Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi5O Desktop. It packs an Intel Core i5-8400 processor, 8GB DDR4 RAM with 16GB Optane Memory onboard and 2TB HDD storage. Read its full review here.

DESIGN AND FEATURES

The Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Desktop PC features an elegantly designed black case with front-panel media access ports (2 USB 3.0 ports, SD card slot + an audio jack) and a DVD/CD drive at the top. The design of the tower makes it fit perfectly in an office environment as it does not have aggressive or cheap design elements. It actually compliments your office space due to its business-oriented design.

The front-facing face of the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 reveals a modest giant. There’s a decent number of ports at the front and rear

Inside the hood, the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Desktop features a clean installation of the Windows 10 Home 64-Bit. As with many of the modern OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) computers, this PC comes with a licensed product key tied to the motherboard. This means that you can format the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 and do a clean install when needed without having to worry about activating windows. The operating system is pre-licensed using the digital signature on your Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 desktop PC. This desktop comes with a 30-day Microsoft Office trial so you might want to consider purchasing a fully licensed copy or get an office 365 subscription.

Features

Moving on, the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 comes with a 2 TB Hard drive (7200rpm) which is more than enough for normal home/office use. It does not, however, feature fast SSD storage but there is an empty M.2. slot on the motherboard in case you want to buy and install your own Solid-state drive (SSD).

[The Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 has a small footprint but weighs in at a not-so-light 18 pounds[/caption]

You only need to undo two screws at the back of the case and pull the latch to gain access to the internals of the PC. Inside we noticed it does provide 2 expansions slots to allow expansion of the RAM up to 32gb. The motherboard also has one PCI Express x1 Slot and one PCI Express x16 Slot onto which a dedicated graphics card can be installed. In terms of dimension, it weighs and measures 18.43 pounds and 15.6 x 6.89 x 15.67 (HWD) inches respectively.

In comparison with the competition, it is slightly larger than the svelte Lenovo Ideacentre 300 Desktop 90DA00LPUS measures 16.14 x 6.3 x 13.98 inches (HWD). The Cyberpowerpc Gamer Xtreme VR GXiVR8020A2 Desktop (discontinued by manufacturer) has a larger footprint of 20.16 x 9.25 21.57 inches (HWD) compared to our Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Desktop. If you’re constantly moving from one room to the other you probably need a lighter desktop. In a belt fitness contest, the Lenovo 10KY002BUS S510 SFF Desktop PC takes our top spot as a lightweight Small Form Factor desktop (SFF).

Input devices

As far as input devices go, the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 comes with a standard USB optical mouse and QWERTY keyboard. The keys on the keyboard are a bit shallow therefore offering less key travel. But overall, it feels nice and performs decently as expected. The mouse is functional and responds well. We did not experience any delays in registering clicks and other gestures.

Ports

The Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Desktop comes with a number of essential ports. It has 4 USB 2.0 Ports and 3 USB 3.0 ports. Two of the USB ports are located at the front of the case together with the audio jack for easy access. At the back, you will also find one HDMI port and VGA port both of which can be used to connect the display monitor.

This PC does not have any DVI ports nor does it provide any display ports further reducing its ability to support high-resolution gaming on multiple displays.

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, connectivity is an important factor to consider in any business-oriented desktop PC. The Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Desktop comes with gigabit 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port),802.11ac WiFi adaptor and Bluetooth 4.0 LE connectivity.

PERFORMANCE

The CPU is one of the most critical components of any computer. We are glad that Acer did not get it wrong on this otherwise great budget pc. The keyword here being “budget”, it’s amazing that the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 comes with a 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700 Processor. On top of that, this desktop also comes with an integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 graphics card. The Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 also comes with 16 GB DDR4 2400MHz UDIMM Memory, double what it’s competition offers. Refer to the table below.

NAME	Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 Desktop	Acer Aspire TC-780-AMZKi5 Desktop	Lenovo Ideacentre 300 Desktop 90DA00LPUS	Cyberpowerpc Gamer Xtreme VR GXiVR8020A2 Desktop
Price	See at Amazon	See at Amazon	See at Amazon	Discontinued
Processor	3.60 Intel Core i7-7700	3.0 Intel Core i5-7400	3.7 GHz Intel Core 13-6100	3.0 GHz Intel i5-7400
Memory	16GB with max of 32GB (DDR SDRAM)	8GB DDR4 2400 MHz	8GB DDR4	8GB DDR4
Storage	2TB HDD	2TB HDD	1TB HDD 7200RPM SATA	1TB HDD
Graphics	Intel HD 600 Series	HD Graphics 630	HD Graphics 530	4GB AMD RX 480
Operating System	Windows 10 Home	Windows 10 Home	Windows 10 Home	Windows 10 Home
	Read Review	Read Review	Read Review	Read Review

As for storage, there is plenty of it to go around especially on the hard drive (2TB HDD). Like the Acer Aspire TC-780-AMZKi5 Desktop, our unit also lacks a solid-state drive option which could be its biggest disadvantage if you’re a user looking for speed. But that’s not a major concern for home and office users. On the bright side though, our unit comes with double the hard drive storage (2TB HDD) of the See at Amazon and CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme VR GXiVR8020A2 Desktop.

To get inside the hood of the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12, you go through the left side panel. The Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 is not a gaming machine

The Intel Core i7-7700 Processor is among the Intel chipsets codenamed kabyLake. They are some of the most technologically advanced chips in the market. Aside from achieving faster clock rates at low energy, about a third of the chip is dedicated to graphics and multimedia. The chips feature hardware encoding and decoding of 4K and HDR content like Netflix 4K video.

Processing Power

At normal clock speed, the processor hits 3.6GHz but hits highs of 4.2GHz on Turbo speed. On our CPU benchmark test, it recorded an Average CPU Mark of 9995 which by many standards is respectable. Still, even with such rich high-end features, this PC is by no means optimized for gaming. However, with the combination of the Intel Core i7-7700 Processor and the integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 graphics card, you can still play a few light games. More demanding titles are out of the question though.

As mentioned at the beginning of the review, Acer does claim that you can game on the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 if you install a dedicated graphics card. One major disadvantage of doing this is that by introducing a dedicated GPU, you basically throw away a third of the functionalities of the Intel Core i7-7700. 4K Netflix, Quick Sync video transcoding and the graphics rendering capabilities of the Intel CPU are thrown away once you install any dedicated GPU.

Certainly, the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 is not built for gaming but it’s a highly capable productivity desktop. The only limiting factor would be the PSU which limits power consumption down to 300W. But this is something common with desktops within this price range. Again, the Acer Aspire TC-780-AMZKi5 Desktop, Lenovo Ideacentre 300 Desktop 90DA00LPUS and Cyberpowerpc Gamer Xtreme VR GXiVR8020A2 are great examples of desktops with similar power supply units.

A Modest looking Powerhouse

It is not easy to pit one PC against the other in the OEM productivity PC segment as most of them have similar specifications and price variations are not wide. It all comes down to tiny details like; choice of motherboard, number of ports, design, warranty and software included. At the same price point, the Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 is competing with several other offerings from other manufacturers. A few of them worth noting include the Dell OptiPlex MiniTower, 2017 Dell XPS 8910, Lenovo Desktop PC 510A-15IKL 90GV0003US just to name a few.

The Acer Aspire TC-780-UR12 has clear advantages outlined in this review and is offered at an unbeatable price tag. This makes it a strong candidate to purchase for your home office or business.