Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi30 Desktop Review

The Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi30 Desktop is a classy and formidable PC meant for home and office tasks. Underneath its sleek, unassuming chassis it packs the high-end 8th generation 4-core, 8GB DDR4 memory coupled with 16GB of Optane memory which all combine to give it enough muscle for cutting edge performance.

It also caught our eye for it’s affordable under $500 price tag. It easily clinches our Editor’s Choice for best budget home desktops.

Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi3O Desktop, 8th Gen Intel...

Pros

  • Great design
  • Easy to upgrade
  • Great day-to-day performance
  • Affordable price
  • Futuristic ports – USB Type-C
  • 16GB Intel Optane memory

Cons

  • Lacks SSD
Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi3O Desktop, 8th Gen Intel...
  • 8th Generation Intel Core i3 8100 Processor (3.6GHz)
  • 8GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM Memory and 16GB Intel Optane Memory
  • 1TB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive and 8X DVD Writer Double Layer Drive (DVD RW)

Not everyone finds it easy to go out and find a PC that suits them perfectly and at the right price. It can be a confusing task even for the well-versed. But as always we go ahead and look for the best value systems for you so that you can maximize your PC-buying ROI. The Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi30 is a good example of PC that strikes the golden balance between price and performance.

It is more powerful than the competition at its price point and should be able to handle everything you can throw at it for the next few years at least. That includes home and office tasks such as Email, Twitter, chat apps, the web. But the chief of all, we loved it for its easily upgradeable case. Find out how it stacks up against other budget desktop PCs.

Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi30 Specs

Processor 8th Gen Intel Core i3-8100 6-core (3.6GHz)
RAM 8GB SO-DIMM DDR3/ 2666MHz 16GB Optane Memory
Storage 1TB SATA (7200RPM) SATA Hard drive
Graphics Card UHD 630 integrated graphics
Operating System Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Dimensions 13.8 x 6.4 x 13.4 inches
Weight 17.2 pounds
Ports 1 – USB 3.1 Type C Gen 2 port (up to 10 Gbps), 1 – USB 3.1 Gen 2 Port, 2 – USB 3.1 Gen 1 Ports, 4 – USB 2.0 Ports & 2 – HDMI Ports & 1 – VGA Port Bluetooth 5.0, Gigabit Ethernet LAN
Optical drive 8X DVD RW
Power supply 300W

Design and Features

Acer’s towers have always been attractive, reliable and above all value-packed. The Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi30 doesn’t fall far from the tree either. Its chassis is clean and minimalist just like it’s brother the Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi5 Desktop which we reviewed recently. The front deck is made up of a black metallic sheet whose only accents a the Acer and Aspire logo embossed visibly at the top and bottom.

Packed in a 16-liter chassis, the Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi3O has enough space for components and upgrades should you need to expand in the future. Altogether, it’s a sleek, sophisticated look that stands out among other PCs. In an office setting, its subtle yet rigged edges give it an aggressive aura that makes it look and feel unique.

Measuring 13.78 x 6.42 x 13.39 inches and 17.2 pounds, it would be correct to say that the Acer Aspire TC 885 is a small tower. It’s a compact system making it an easy fit in most desk spaces and the tiniest of apartments. Well, it’s not as small as the Intel NUC NUC7i5BNK Mini PC but it is small.

Getting inside is relatively easy too. Al you need is to unscrew a few screws at the rear. Once inside, the components are well laid out. The cable management is done well for functionality. The system packs a 300 watts power supply, a single 5.25” bay, 2 expansion slots, single PCI Express slot and a single PCI Express x16 slot. Generally, from a first glance, there is enough space to throw in a few components should you desire an upgrade. FYI, upgrading to a discrete graphics card like GTX 1050 will require upgrading the power supply unit.

Ports

The port system is just as pretty as the design. But before we dive in, Acer offers a free wired keyboard and mouse just as is normal with desktops nowadays. They both are very niche so it might be better upgrading to wireless mouse and keyboard. The front deck comes with a single USB 3.1 Type C port, one USB 3.1 port, microphone, and headphone jacks and an SD card reader. Acer included a DVD drive at the front as well, for installing software of playing music and movies.

Meanwhile, the rear is home to the bulk of ports on this baby. You’ll find an additional two more USB 3.1 ports, 4 USB 2.0 ports (which can be used for mouse and keyboard connecting), two HDMI ports and one VGA port. The HDMI port should come in handy for making your dual-monitor setup. Other connectivity options include 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0.

Performance

The highlight of the Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi30 Desktop is none but the 8th Gen i3-8100 processor. But before we dig deeper on how it performs, I’d like to mention another sister PC with an almost similar name. The larger Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi50 we recently reviewed sounds almost similar to our unit. However, it packs a more advanced processor, the 8th Gen Core i5-8400 processor, a CPU considered the best to ever come to Coffee Lake. That makes the Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi50 much stronger than our unit and of course for an extra price. But I digress.

Back to the Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi30, it sports an Intel Core i3-8100 which is an entry-level processor, certainly the most basic CPU of the new Core i3 family. The processor was created and aimed at value desktop computers for light gaming or day-to-day tasks.

The i3-8100 processor flaunts with a base clock speed of 3.6GHz and doesn’t support Turbo Boost technology which means it can’t be overclocked (boosted beyond its base clock speed). That aside, this quad-core processor is also not hyperthreaded so it only can handle two tasks at once. Other aspects you need to know is the processor also supports 6 MiB of L3 Cache, TDP of 65W and works hand in hand with an Intel UHD 630 integrated graphics.

The UHD 630 has a 1.10GHz processing speed and is locked with a multiplier meaning you can’t overclock it too. All in all, the Core i3-8100 should serve you just fine. With it, the system should be able to run gaming applications, especially when paired with a dedicated graphics card.

Intel Optane Memory and Mechanical Hard drive

Other components that place our unit’s performance among the best in its class include the 8GB DDR4 memory, 1TB mechanical hard drive, and 16GB Intel Optane memory. For the most part, 8GB memory is considered the standard amount of memory required for casual home and office tasks. It adds a whole new echelon of power to the system while editing home videos, compiling photo albums, web browsing, listening to music and anything in between.

Moving on, the 1TB hard drive storage is also plenty for storing data, games, multimedia and music. It is more than enough for most users looking to store in their computers. Acer did not include an SSD option for this PC, but it included a more versatile option for fast retrieval of data; the 16GB Intel Optane memory. While the Optane memory isn’t a direct replacement for SSD, it offers traditional mechanical hard drives similar characteristics of SSD at a lower cost.

The Intel Optane stores most accessed files (in cache) on your PC to its own drive so that storage accesses files faster. In other words, it accelerates your system, delivering fast speeds and responsiveness without compromising the storage capacity. So what performance breaks should you expect with the Optane memory? Well, once installed, you can expect a snappier computing experience with short boot times, fast app launches, faster gaming experience, and responsive browsing.

Just so you know, Intel Optane works with 7th Gen processors and onwards, so our unit’s Core i3-8100 is allowed. Also, the Optane drive is connected to the M.2 storage slot (PCIe Gen 3.0×2) on the motherboard. Our unit came with 16GB but there is also a 32GB configuration.

Gaming Chops: Get a Graphics Card

Honestly put, the Intel UHD Graphics 630 on this PC is not sufficed for hardcore gaming. However, it can play some less demanding games like Overwatch or Farming Simulator. To really boost gaming performance on this PC, we recommend upgrading to a dedicated graphics card. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 is a good option to bring smooth gameplay and decent frame rates into your gaming. Otherwise, if that’s not an option, we also recommend the CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme VR GXiVR8060A7 desktop with better gaming chops and almost similar price point for gamers.

Conclusion

For technically less than $500, the Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi30 Desktop is an affordable home and office desktop. This PC fits very well as a go-to desktop for daily productivity and light gaming. Moreover, the Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi30 comes with all the perks, performance and upgradeability of a medium-size office, workgroup workhorse computer. This PC can also be a good place to start your gaming if you can switch to a dedicated graphics card like the Nvidia GTX 1050 and a large power supply.

While there are other well-equipped desktops out there, this PC stands out as a well-equipped premium quality build that should you for a long time into the future. We easily recommend it as a remarkable choice for home/office and light gaming use.

Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi3O Desktop, 8th Gen Intel...
  • 8th Generation Intel Core i3 8100 Processor (3.6GHz)
  • 8GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM Memory and 16GB Intel Optane Memory
  • 1TB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive and 8X DVD Writer Double Layer Drive (DVD RW)

Liam Weissman

A lover of MacBook Air and the Dell XPS line of laptops, Liam has been researching and writing as a guest blogger for numerous websites for over 10 years. Now, he blogs about tech trends, PCs, laptops, gadgets, and other emerging gadgets on FancyAppliance.com.

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