Labs

Little bigger than a hardback novel, Acer's Veriton 1000 is the smallest PC on test. As such, if you need the minimum footprint possible, the Veriton is hard to beat. It can be mounted horizontally or vertically, giving extra flexibility.

It's nice to see four USB ports at the front, and the CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive is hidden under a hinged flap for neatness. Naturally, it's a notebook drive to keep the size down, but the hard disk is a normal 3.5in desktop unit.

Maintenance isn't easy. A single screw secures the side panel, but this only gives access to the two drives. Removing these is a tricky and time-consuming process. Below them is a Core 2 Duo E6300, which is cooled by two heatpipes that lead to a small rear radiator with two fans. When idle, they only produce 29dBA.

There's also 1GB of 533MHz DDR2 memory and, together, these components managed 1.12 overall

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in our 2D application benchmarks. That's more than quick enough for most office tasks, including running several apps at once.

At the rear, connectivity is limited, but nothing essential is missing. Four USB ports are complemented by a gigabit network connector, six audio mini-jacks, and both DVI and VGA outputs. This makes the Acer the only PC here capable of driving dual monitors out of the box.

As the mouse and keyboard are both USB peripherals, they use up two ports straight away but, again, it's nice to see a row of media control buttons at the top. There's also a Sleep button and an "e" button, which loads the Empowering Technology console. As with the TravelMate 6463WLMi in the Notebook Labs this month, this is where you can manage settings, passwords, fan speeds and backups, although note that there's no TPM chip. The 80GB hard disk isn't the largest here, and is split into 32GB and 33GB partitions. The remaining space is used for the hidden recovery partition.

Remote management is possible using Acer's LANScope 3.1. This allows asset discovery, software deployment and BIOS updating. Intel vPro support is also a bonus, making remote management even simpler.

Of course, there's no room for expansion in the chassis, but the standard warranty includes three years of on-site cover with next-business-day response. It's clear that the Veriton isn't the best value here, but if you need a small form-factor system it isn't a bad choice.