ACER X1200 mini PC $450

126 thoughts on “ACER X1200 mini PC $450”

1. Thanks for posting the vista-32 bit drivers. I could not find them anywhere…

2. I’m glad I was able to help out. I had the same problem and was up until 4am trying to find them.

   The motherboard has no information in it, and Acer’s website has the worst support site when it comes to drivers. Anyway your welcome, remember to visit again for more videos.

3. Thank you for the review.

   I know, that this machine released only in the USA.
   I’m Hungarian, and I really like this machine. I would probably buy it.
   Do you have any info about the European release date?
   Or could you recommend a similar device, which I can buy here too?

4. I wanted to let you know that I contacted ACER, and they could not give me a definite answer as to when if they are going to sale this model internationally. I would suggest to look at Ebay in the next following weeks as you might find it there. You can also contact a company like Bestbuy here in the U.S and ask them if they would sell it and ship it to you.

   I also found you a model with similar specs on DELL.COM. Below is the link with the basic stuff on this model. I went ahead and customized it so that it would have the similar specs as the one you are looking for and it comes out to $500.00 dollars. I attached the specs for the customized version at $500 which is very similar to the ACER, except for the memory.

   Dell does ship internationally, so you may want to give them a call. See the attached configuration I made to the computer in the link below. Hope this helps and good luck.

   DELL Inspiron 530S: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DDCWFA1&s=dhs

   Customized Dell PDF Sheet: http://www.aramistech.com/dell530_customized.pdf

   Best Regards: Aramis Figueroa ( af@aramistech.com)

5. Thank you

6. Thanks for the review. Can you tell me which drivers are needed for the Vista64 OS that comes with it? I would get them myself, but I’m not sure which chipset the motherboard is using. I agree that the Acer site leaves much to be desired.

   Thanks again!

7. Thank you for your comments. The Acer uses the NVIDIA Chipset, you will not need 64bit drivers since it already comes with vista 64bit. The drivers for the 64bit should also be in the disk that come with the computer. If you still need these drivers search on google for “Nvidia nforce 64bit drivers” that will bring you up some options. Hope this helps. I also revised the review for this computer to include the drivers for Windows XP 64BIT Edition in case this is what you would like to do.

8. Aramis,

   Thanks for all your work in reviewing the system, and ferreting out the drivers. One thing I’m looking for that isn’t on the X1200 is wi-fi support. I’m hoping to find a PCIe x1 add-in 802.11g card to replace the useless modem card. Do you know of such a source? I suppose I can go the USB route, but when 802.11n reaches certification, USB won’t have the bandwidth needed to fully service the newer protocol. Please drop a note here if you find anything. TIA.

   Hoang

9. Please, do you know where can i found the driver for the rj45 lan ethernet?. It shows the mark “S-tech” and the part is P25-154-P9W9. The site of “Speedtech” show devices like this but there are not drivers. May be something generics?
   The Acer site doesn´t exit.
   Thank You very much

10. The drivers for the x1200 are listed below. Try it, they should work since the motherboard uses nvidia drivers. The onboard network card driver is also nvidia. hope this helped.

    Here is the windows 2000 and XP Nvidia Driver: http://www.mediafire.com/?bcx8gsm0exi

    Here is the windows vista Nvidia Driver: http://www.mediafire.com/?2xjwdxwwtjx

    Here is the Windows XP 64bit Driver *Should also work on Vista*: http://www.mediafire.com/?zzycda0xwxb

11. Hai.. Im Arie From Indonesia Im 30 yyears old
    Exactly in Borneo Island
    Sorry if my english is not Good at all,
    In indonesia This Acer Aspire x1200 is called acer aspire x3200
    and my stuff is arriving tomorrow.
    i Just wondering, can i put pci express video card on it.
    Full Size card or half size card? what about the metal plate on the back ? is it fit?
    what about sound, i have 5.1 creative Tseries speakers. can i hear thesound on my speakers? is it fine?

    im sorry for asking too much question
    im hoping you guys to email me at arierichard@yahoo.com
    for the answer
    thx very much…..

12. Hi,

    Thanks for this blog!

    We bought a x1200 just a week or so ago for business, but had to downgrade to a Vista 32bit. I was looking for drivers for 1 day now until I found your site, so thanks!

    One problem though: I tried installing driver you linked to, but when I double click/extract/click next to install…after a few seconds it just quits and shows no signs of being installed. Device Manager still doesn’t recognize that an ethernet driver is installed.

    Do I need to run it in a special compatibility mode? Or is my file just corrupt?

    Thanks again,
    sc

13. Hello again,

    I fixed the problem by downloading a different, and I think older, driver. For future references, the link is here for the LAN/NIC/Network Driver.

    http://www.radarsync.com/exactdownload.php?linkdd=ftp://ftp3.hp.com/ftp1/pub/softlib/software9/COL22189/pv-58359-1/sp37273.exe

    Thanks for this amazing blogpost/website!
    sc

14. Thank you for your comments, I’m glad you like the blog. Regarding the drivers for the x1200 I used the one on the blog for Vista Nvidia Driver. I put the link below. I would try that one, if that does not work try the other 32bit driver for XP. Please let me know if this helped, so I can research it further if it does not.

    Below are the links for the drivers just in case. Thank you.

    Here is the windows 2000 and XP Nvidia Driver: http://www.mediafire.com/?bcx8gsm0exi

    Here is the windows vista Nvidia Driver: http://www.mediafire.com/?2xjwdxwwtjx

    When the driver installs, it will also install the network card driver.

15. Hi Arie, thank you for your post and I’m glad to help.

    To answer your question. There are four differences that I could find between the X1200 and the X3200. Below I listed them

    1. The X1200 comes with a AMD Dual Core Processor – The X3200 comes with a AMD Phenomenon Quad Core Processor

    2. The X1200 $450 model does not come with a monitor – The X3200 is bundled with a 19″ Monitor

    3. The X1200 does not have SLI – The X3200 features Hybrid SLI graphics.

    4. The price for the X1200 is $450 – The price for the X3200 is starts at about $799

    As for the PCI Express card, I did not get to test one myself but the motherboard does have a PCI Express slot. It looks kind of tight and it might have to be a smaller PCI Express to fit in that slot. If you do install one, I would appreciate it if you can post it on my blog for my readers to view, that is one thing I did miss doing on the X1200.

    I hope this helped answer your questions. Thanks

16. Hi Aramis,

    Great review! I have been looking at the x1200. I would like to buy one of these to put a PCIe HDTV tuner card in it. My concern is not only on the power supply but also that a tuner card could generate a lot of heat. Is there good air flow in the unit?

    Can you post any still pictures of the x1200 inside? If possible I would like to see the motherboard and area around the PCIe slot in more detail.

    Again, great work on the review and nice site you have here.

    Best regards,
    Dirk

17. Hi Dirk. Thank you for your comments. I put together some pictures of the Acer X1200. Below is the link to the original post just look towards the bottom and I added images for the computer. I also wanted to mention to you that I have a TV tuner card installed on one of my computers which I use often and it does not heat up alot.

    The power supply will work for the card since it is not like a high end Video graphics card which draws plenty of power. Hope this answered your question.

    http://www.aramistech.com/reviews/acer-x1200-mini-pc-450/

18. Thanks for the pics and advice on the tuner card!

    All the best,
    Dirk

19. How man dimm slots? is it just 2 or 4. it’s supposed to be expandable to 8 gigs

20. The motherboard comes with 2 slots and 4gigs of ram, it is upgradable to 8gigs. It originally comes with Windows Vista 64bit edition which supports large amounts of memory. I found that many people are downgrading to Windows 32bit edition. If you intend to do the same, your computer will only be able to use about 3gigs of ram due to the limitations of the 32bit system. See the Geek Corner on my blog in the X1200 post for information on what is 32bit and 64bit. I hope this helped.

21. Thanx, Actually I have already setup vista 32 to dual boot on the other partiotion so I can play my old “Beyond Good and Evil” video game. The Tages copy protection on the install cd didn’t like the 64 bit version so now I have both 😛 I had the same problem with drivers but was able to find them luckily 😛

22. By the way I find that the dual boot option is the best since I have no other computer. This way I can resolve potential driver issues “such as the nic card” by having the working vista 64 on the first partition and access to the net if something goes wrong.

23. I’ve been trying to install xp on this machine for a while now..has anyone done it? It may be problem of installing xp on a SATA hdd, or i’m missing the drivers for the motherboard. Any ideas?

24. Hey everyone,

    just a word of warning. Updating to the latest version of the BIOS (A3 I think) will stop HDMI audio from working. A lot of people were waiting for a BIOS update to fix some of the network adapter problems they were having. So, it’s a toss up; full functional network adapter or HDMI audio, take you pick. Thanks for all the great resources Aramis.

    http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic109876.html

    http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1046863 < where I heard about this site.

25. Does anyone have any instructions (photos would be great) on how to get to the harddrive and optical drive? I got a version with 320 gig but thinking it could really do with a TB drive. I started to take mine apart but it wasn’t long until I really got scared because of how complicated the assembly was. Many people are at least wondering how to put a blu-ray drive in here (not me since I have a PS3). Aramis, up for the challenge? 😉

26. I do not have any information on taking out the hard drive, and unfortunately I do not have the machine anymore so I can’t help you there. There are some pictures on the post that might give you some idea, but if you have the machine and you are willing to void the warranty on it, then my advice is dive in and try to do it. Start with the CD Rom which has some green clip which looks like a place to start. Post how it goes, I’m sure it will be great to see.

    Thanks…

27. I have been researching this machine for purchase due to it’s full featured affordability.
    One thing I found that I thought was worth mentioning Acer’s site mentions that it supports NVIDIA® Hybrid SLI®.
    http://global.acer.com/products/desktop/asx1200+3200.htm
    Granted this little machine will not make it as a hardcore gamer rig, but with the addition of a low end comparable SLI discrete card the graphics should be more than capable for a casual gamer on a limited budget.

28. hey does nvidia 64 bit drivers does work for the network card? I recently purchase it and it great machine for a great price but their network card is giving me problems, the computers is getting response from the my dsl modem but some how i am not able to get on the net and its limited in terms connectivity, i figure it must be the drivers for the network, and there is really nothing on the acer website….i hope anyone can help

29. Hello Stephen, regarding the drivers, try the ones on my website at the bottom of the post they should work for you, it worked for me. Also I had a similar problem with the network card and I could not figure it out, finally what I did to fix it was I turned off the computer, unplugged the power cable from the back, and with the power cable unplugged I pressed the power button to discharge any electricity in the power supply. I plugged it back in and turned it on and now it works. The network card was working before and all of the sudden it started doing the simptoms that you mentioned. What I mention above fixed it for me. Hope this helps.

30. I have been fighting with this machine for 4 days now. There is no way it will accept Windows XP !

    I use a 2 year old installation CD with nLite to add boot time drivers for the newer motherboards. This method has never failed on ATI or AMD chipset motherboards. Via chipset motherboards never required such a treatment. That includes both WinXP-SP2 and server 2003.

    Apparently nVidia does not know how to write drivers for their own AMD chisets. One thing I have learnt is never again to TOUCH nVidia products.

31. @ gobbledegook

    try this thread:
    http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic109560.html
    there has been some guys trying to do the same with various degrees of success. hope this helps!

32. Just bought this desktop. FYI drivers cd that ships with it has XP drivers, I too was getting BSOD on boot of XP sp2. extracted sp nvidia sata drivers (2 disks) into windows temp and copied to diskette drive (usb). was able to boot cdl, f6 to add drivers for SATA, there is a 2nd prompt for disk 2 during install. XP is up and running. Wooo HOOO.

33. Thanks for sharing that info, I’m sure others will find it useful.

34. In order to quick-fix the network connectivity problem, without updating to the new BIOS, can I just add an aftermarket ethernet card (either take out the useless modem card or insert it in the open slot). Will this fix the connectivity problem and maintain all my HDMI capability?
    Thanks

35. Regarding your question, you can’t add another network card because the modem does not use a PCI slot. That is the only downside I have found with this computer, if something goes wrong with the internal network card then you will be out of luck. Fortunately if you are using WiFi in your house, you can just add a wireless USB card to the computer and you bypass all of these problems. Hope this helps.

36. Hi Aramis,

    thanks for the stuff u posted.
    However i have issues, with the machine thought i would ask u.
    1.When i bought the machine in India it came with linpus linux which for me was useless.
    SO i tried installing XP slipstreaming and all those, I still could not get it to work. I have got no clue what to do.
    Vista works fine, but buying vista is not aa solution for me. I want to have the exact drivers thats needed to slip stream.

    2. I have seen the website giving a 4gig RAM, however mine came with 2 Gigs. I am just curious
    Pleease please help me out.

37. Hi Thank you for your comments, regarding the Acer and windows XP I had no problems installing it and the drivers I used are on my website in the Acer x1200 post at the bottom. You mention installing windows xp slipstreaming. I don’t know exactly how you tried installing that, but I can tell you that I put in an original windows XP professional cd and it installed correctly, and then I used the drivers I posted on my site. Let me know what is exactly the problem you are having maybe I can help.

    Also about the memory, the ones sold here in the U.S com with 4 Gigs of ram. If yours comes with 2 Gigs don’t worry about it, since if you put windows xp 32bit you will not be able to use the 4 Gigs. At most with windows XP 32bit you will be able to use 3gigs. If you install a windows 64bit edition than you can upgrade it to 4 Gigs.

    My opinion between the 32bit or 64bit, stick for with 32bit since I have found problems getting drivers for all my devices.

38. I have this acer aspire x3200 and it is pre-installed with windows vista home basics and i try to downgrade it to windows XP.
    can you help me find the right drivers or SATA controllers for it to work?

    urgent??? t.y.

39. You might have to change the settings in the Bios so that you can disable SATA Native Support. This will insure that windows XP can see the Hard drive. Also if you are using windows xp SP2 it should see the drive. Hope this helped

40. Thanks for the info..
    I’ll try it asap, hope it works.
    Does anyone successfully downgrade this acer aspire x3200 with pre-installed windows vista to windows XP Operating system??
    Pls. send me the steps to downgrade it? Thankx a Lot..

41. Hi,

    For people who are looking to install XP (especially from the Indian Subcontinet – I mention this because, mine came with linux that to one without a GUI)
    You can install XP using Slip streaming.Slip streaming(making a bootable image with the required drivers integrated). See the steps below, it worked for me Thanks to a lot of people including ARAMIS

    Find your favorite copy of XP…any XP should work fine…Mkse sure its XPSP2 because then you need not integrate servie pack

    2) Use the drivers provided by aramis in this http://aramistech.com/reviews/acer-x1200-mini-pc-450/
    or Google this: GeForce 8200/N730A download that’s the ChipSet Drivers!(Guess the exact chipset is MCP78.).However a Google for n730a would suffice.

    The audio driver is the Realtek HD Audio. Download and extract the installer (see step 3…same thing)I think It is AL883

    3) Use WinRAR or some program that use use to extract an .exe installer. WinRAR works awesome for me by right clicking the .exe.

    4) Copy your XP to its own directory. In other words, its own folder.

    5) Download the latest nLite and install.You can download latest nlite from http://www.nliteos.com

    6) Use nLite to integrate the drivers from the extracted NVIDIA installer. Integrate all the drivers per folder by using the “Multiple Folder…” option. Then select the folder. Integrate each folder but do NOT include the FLOPPY driver…we don’t have on in this tower. Integrate the Realtek HD Audio Driver(s).

    7) Customize XP using nLite using its menus…I spent awhile on mine…its soooo worth it not having to do those things everytime!

    8) Create the ISO

    9) Burn the ISO. I use imgburn….some like Nero and all.

    10) Boot the CD…and set it to install. Watch the unattended magic…then take a deep breath when you see Windows booting up and NO BSOD!!!

    Now for why XP was not installed on the first place (for Indian subcontinent) the phoenix BIOS doesnot have the option to choose PATA. So we need the SATA .RAID /IDE drivers to be there .Nlite helps you to do that.

    Thanks
    SYAM

    Trust me i have never felt so happy to see XP install..The machine is real good.
    Sorry ACER, but the support sucks. If it was not for Google and people like ARAMIS we would never have installed XP.

42. Syam… and aramis

    Thankz for the helpc”,)..

    I hope it workz on my acer aspire x3200 desktop!!
    inform you soOn..

43. Thank you Syam, you really outlined it good for everyone to easily install XP. I appreciate you sharing the information and I’m glad to see you got it working.

44. By the way here is the Realtek soundcard drivers for XP. The link to download it is below.

    http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=8cf119731157d639d2db6fb9a8902bda

45. How well would this machine work on it’s side (hard to tell from the pictures)? Upright might be a problem for me. I have space for it in my TV’s stand, either on the bottom shelf or in one of the two cabinets. The stand looks like this:

    http://www.sauder.com/furniture/product.asp?p=18

    Even though I could stand it upright, I’d be concerned with temperature issues if I stuck in one of the cabinets.

    I’m considering a AVerTV Combo PCI-E x1TV Tuner (M780) with this machine. I’m interested in it’s clear QAM abilities in Vista Media Center. Anything I should be concerned about. Power supply issues? Heat?

46. Yes you can put this machine on its side and it will work great, you will probably find it easier to access the CD-ROM this way. It does not heat up much unless you do not have the right ventilation. I personally do not like to stick computers into furniture because they usually run really hot since most of the furniture is not built with computer ventilation in mind.

    The power supply is not all that great but will do the job, you should be able to run the AVERTV without any issues. Hope this helped.

47. Thanks for the info.

    I have a few more questions.

    1) The Acer website shows two different configurations for this machine – AX1200-U1510A and AX1200-U1520A. The only differences that I can see in the spec sheet are as follows:

    AX1200-U1510A
    – AMD Athlonâ„¢ X2 Dual-Core Processor 5000+
    – Drive bays – One internal 3.5″, One external 5.25″

    AX1200-U1520A
    – AMD Athlonâ„¢ X2 Dual-Core Processor 4850e
    – Drive bays – Six 3.5″ (two external, four internal), Two external 5.25″

    The Drive bays listed for the U1520A don’t make sense for this small machine.

    Both machines appear to be listed for the same price. Is there any advantage to either one? Or should you go with the 5000+ processor if you can get it?

    2) It appears that the network adapter and/or HDMI audio issues have been corrected with the latest Bios update. So, as far as I can tell this machine shouldn’t have any real issues now. Can you confirm?

    3) I’ve read that this machine has support for mini S/PDIF. Can you confirm this? Is there a header for it on the MB? I appears that there is a knock-out on the back of the case for a S/PDIF jack. Would something like the following work with it?
    http://www.frontx.com/cpx106_2.html

    Thanks for your review and quick response. If my little nit-picks are satisfied, I may just give this little machine a whirl.

48. I’ve been looking around for information and this is what I’ve found so far:

    1) The main difference between between the AMD Athlonâ„¢ X2 Dual-Core Processor 5000+ and the AMD Athlonâ„¢ X2 Dual-Core Processor 4850e is power consumption. For the 5000+ it’s either 89W or 65W (can’t tell which one is actually in this machine) and for the 4850e it’s 45w. With the small power supply, this gives the 4850e an advantage -saves a little juice for other stuff. I checked Tom’s Hardware and there’s virtually no difference in their performance.

    2) Haven’t read anything that’s new about the Bios.

    3) I found this statement in the Cnet review:

    “There’s a hole in the chassis for a S/PDIF port, but none of the models in the Aspire X1200 series include the chip on the motherboard.”

    However over at AVSForums a poster stated:

    “I called Acer and it indeed has mini spdif! Woo Hoo!”

    Just like the internet – things are never clear…

    If there is no mini s/pdif support then there’s a usb audio card from Turtle Beach (Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro) that provides a s/pdif pass through for both Dolby Digital and DTS encoded data streams (5.1 & 7.1). Current price is $29.95. Vista 64-bit is not currently supported. However, according to Turtle Beach – “Windows Vista 64-bit Drivers should be made available in the Fall of 2008.”

49. I found the following information in the Acer Aspire ASX1200/ ASX3200
    Service Guide.

    Motherboard
    – Partname: MAINBOARD BOXER nVidia MCP78 W/1394 LF
    – Description: MB WMCP78PV W/O SPDIF
    – Acer P/N: MB.SAR01.001

    Note the “W/O SPDIF” in the description. It appears that this MB does not support SPDIF.

50. Tim, thanks a million for posting this great information since it will help others. I really appreciate it. I took long to respond because I was on vacation. Again thanks for all the info.

    Aramis