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actorps1 48.4K Views
Jun 22, 2022 8:22 AM

Acer Aspire XC Desktop: i3-10105, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Win 10 (Refurbished)

$202

$470

57% off
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Acer via eBay has Acer Aspire XC Desktop (XC-1660G-UW92, Certified Refurbished) for $202.39 (price reflected in cart). Shipping is free.

Thanks to Quality Assurance actorps1 for finding this deal.

Specs:
  • Intel i3-10105 4-Core 3.70 GHz Processor
  • 8GB DDR4 Memory
  • 256GB Solid State Drive
  • Intel UHD Graphics 630
  • 802.11ax Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.0
  • Optical Drive Type: DVD-Writer
  • Windows 10 Home
  • Ports:
    • 2x HDMI
    • 4x USB 2.0 Ports
    • 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A Ports
    • 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A Port
    • 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Port
    • 1x RJ-45

Editor's Notes

Written by CChoiVA
  • About this product:
    • Certified Refurbished: This item is Certified Refurbished. It has been professionally restored by an Acer approved vendor. Units are usually cosmetically indistinguishable from New products, but some may show signs of light use. Functionally, these units are equivalent to New. Certified Refurbished units will be shipped in a New Brown Box
    • Includes a 2-year Allstate warranty
  • About this store:
    • Acer via eBay return policy: 30 days returns | Seller pays for return shipping

Original Post

Written by actorps1
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Acer via eBay has Acer Aspire XC Desktop (XC-1660G-UW92, Certified Refurbished) for $202.39 (price reflected in cart). Shipping is free.

Thanks to Quality Assurance actorps1 for finding this deal.

Specs:
  • Intel i3-10105 4-Core 3.70 GHz Processor
  • 8GB DDR4 Memory
  • 256GB Solid State Drive
  • Intel UHD Graphics 630
  • 802.11ax Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.0
  • Optical Drive Type: DVD-Writer
  • Windows 10 Home
  • Ports:
    • 2x HDMI
    • 4x USB 2.0 Ports
    • 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A Ports
    • 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A Port
    • 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Port
    • 1x RJ-45

Editor's Notes

Written by CChoiVA
  • About this product:
    • Certified Refurbished: This item is Certified Refurbished. It has been professionally restored by an Acer approved vendor. Units are usually cosmetically indistinguishable from New products, but some may show signs of light use. Functionally, these units are equivalent to New. Certified Refurbished units will be shipped in a New Brown Box
    • Includes a 2-year Allstate warranty
  • About this store:
    • Acer via eBay return policy: 30 days returns | Seller pays for return shipping

Original Post

Written by actorps1

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129 Comments

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Jun 29, 2022 8:14 PM
7.3K Comments
Joined Apr 2017
LikeABadPennyJun 29, 2022 8:14 PM
7.3K Comments
Quote from paul3000 View quoted comment :
Seems like a maybe. The motherboard power plug looks like a regular 6 or 8 pin. Also the motherboard is an odd shape so unlikely to just drop in a new case. Probably just find a small form factor GPU and call it a day.
Your options are limited, but then again, so was the price Wink

Good luck if you try shifting this to a new case, send us pictures if you make it work laugh out loud
1
Jun 29, 2022 9:26 PM
168 Comments
Joined Apr 2012
badaboomJun 29, 2022 9:26 PM
168 Comments
Shows $229 now
Jun 30, 2022 4:48 PM
27 Comments
Joined Mar 2022
SuddenFallJun 30, 2022 4:48 PM
27 Comments
Got a second one of these to replace my daughter's old Optiplex this past weekend. Like the first one I bought, it looks almost brand new and ran great from the start. This one, however, didn't have the hard drive split into a C and D drive, so I guess that configuration wasn't always standard. Anyway, I did end up wiping it with a fresh Windows 10 install, but I had to go into the BIOS to switch to UEFI from Intel RST. Since I'm a little behind on the newer PC technology updates, I wasn't aware of Intel RST at all, but fortunately I got everything up and running and she's good now. Too bad the deal is expired, but I would still recommend getting one of these if you have an older desktop and are looking for a modern replacement for standard PC tasks.
1
Jun 30, 2022 6:14 PM
329 Comments
Joined Dec 2015
paul3000Jun 30, 2022 6:14 PM
329 Comments
Quote from LikeABadPenny View quoted comment :
Your options are limited, but then again, so was the price Wink

Good luck if you try shifting this to a new case, send us pictures if you make it work laugh out loud
Ha, nah I'm good. This thing is snappy, I'm just going to get a RX 6400 and drop it in and be good. Been using my kid's laptop hooked to a monitor with a Ryzen plus a GTX 1650, so this desktop should be comparable once I drop in the GPU. Looks like I should be under $400 said and done (including taxes)
Jul 1, 2022 1:22 AM
2.1K Comments
Joined Feb 2021
AquaGalley8616Jul 1, 2022 1:22 AM
2.1K Comments
Quote from paul3000 View quoted comment :
Ha, nah I'm good. This thing is snappy, I'm just going to get a RX 6400 and drop it in and be good. Been using my kid's laptop hooked to a monitor with a Ryzen plus a GTX 1650, so this desktop should be comparable once I drop in the GPU. Looks like I should be under $400 said and done (including taxes)
Understand that the RX 6400 is a great card, and if put in pci-4th gen slot, will be double the bus speed (16) of a pci-3rd gen(8).
I own both a i5-11th gen Acer and this i3-10th gen Acer. In the i5-11th gen it has pci-4th gen slot, and in the i3-10th gen it has a pci-3rd gen slot. This RX 6400 will work in any pci-16 slot but depend of 4th, 3rd, 2nd gen PC, how fast it is. Maybe research it, as long as you are aware of this, and watch youtube videos showing what games look like using the card in gen4th mode, and gen 3rd mode, you become an informed consumer.
1
Jul 2, 2022 6:37 PM
968 Comments
Joined Jan 2008
BikemanJul 2, 2022 6:37 PM
968 Comments
Has anyone added a GT1030 DDR5 card, then performed a comparison computer test (not just a GPU test) on UserBenchMark of before and after? Can you please share the results?

I've been thinking of adding the GT1030 DDR5 card, but won't do any gaming. I'm looking to determine if there is any improvement for all other uses. Thx!

FYI - cross posting on other thread
Jul 2, 2022 8:27 PM
317 Comments
Joined Jan 2017
jwlpJul 2, 2022 8:27 PM
317 Comments
Quote from AquaGalley8616 View quoted comment :
...
maybe you can report back to us how this i3-10gen works as plex media server. And others in thread can assist you with it if you have problems, or you can watch youtube how-to videos to help you.
So for Plex media server software transcoding, it handled full bitrate UHD HDR/DV and TrueHD mkv files just fine when it came to transcoding. I don't have Plex pass, so I wasn't using HW transcoding. I didn't try software transcoding several UHD movies at a time, but for just 1 running, the CPU was pegged at 100%. If HW transcoding were enabled, I am sure it would perform better.

All in all, from the few movies I tested transcoding with, it performed well. It's also very snappy navigating throughout my media library.

I was also able to do a fresh install of Windows 11 Home, but I couldn't get Windows to activate. The tools I ran could not find a key embedded in the BIOS, so I am not sure what's up. No OA key sticker is on the case either. I was fortunate enough to have an old Windows 7 Pro key that worked just fine. I am guessing the issue I had was that I didn't let Windows boot when I first received the PC, I just went right to doing a fresh install. Maybe the key is located somewhere on an HDD partition when you first boot it will activate, and which point Microsoft will have your digital key.
1

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Pro
Jul 3, 2022 10:42 AM
4.8K Comments
Joined Apr 2021
BabyBubba
Pro
Jul 3, 2022 10:42 AM
4.8K Comments
Quote from badaboom View quoted comment :
Shows $229 now
This one just went live again, final price of $202.39 after 12% coupon automatically applied at checkout.
Last edited by BabyBubba July 3, 2022 at 05:19 AM.
Jul 3, 2022 6:39 PM
1.2K Comments
Joined Aug 2021
tropicalbJul 3, 2022 6:39 PM
1.2K Comments
Quote from AquaGalley8616 View quoted comment :
...
maybe you can report back to us how this i3-10gen works as plex media server. And others in thread can assist you with it if you have problems, or you can watch youtube how-to videos to help you.






I've seen other people mention this CPU (i3-10105) would be great for Plex and I agree. i3-1015 = 10th gen Intel CPU. [intel.com] This Wikipedia article on Quick Sync Video does a great job summarizing expected performance for various Intel CPU Quick Sync Video-capable CPUs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Int...Sync_Video

Based on that, for a 10th gen Intel CPU (product nickname of Comet Lake), someone could expect very good encode/decode performance for video up to HEVC 10-bit. This should handle the majority of media folks would wish to view for quite some time. For the price, this system has a lot of value.

8GB RAM should be enough for Plex as well. Quick Sync Video handles a lot of the heavy lifting, so RAM use should be rather minimal. While transcoding a bit of disk space would be used temporarily, but it shouldn't be to the degree where someone would need to worry about upgrading the 256GB SSD in this system, as long as the intended use for this system is modest and it is not used for too many applications. As with anything, the more you use something, the more resources you need. So if the intended use for this server is a Plex server and dual-booting Windows and Linux and a few other things, 256GB SSD won't be enough. But I would suspect most people considering the system for Plex would also use it for other lightweight tasks like web browsing, productivity tasks like word processing, spreadsheets, etc. Nothing too demanding. For that the 256GB SSD would be fine.

And as this is a 10th generation CPU, it is fully supported by Win 11 & one could easily upgrade from Win 10 pro to Windows 11 at any time. As others have mentioned, I recommend making sure the system works rock-solid with Windows 10 before upgrading. That way if anything weird happens you know it is due to Win 11 and not Win 10 and your prior configuration, which makes it easier to troubleshoot and solve issues.

For the sake of comparison, for my Plex server I use a Synology DS418play (specifications PDF here [synology.com]). This NAS has an Intel Celeron J3355 processor (AKA Apollo Lake [intel.com], the generation before the i3-1015 CPUs). The Synology only came with 2GB of RAM but I paid ~$30 to upgrade it by adding a 4GB generic memory module from Amazon (sold via Timetec: https://www.amazon.com/Timetec-Replacement-D3NS1866L-4G-Unbuffered-PC3L-14900/dp/B00RY1JBEY/ref=sr_1... [amazon.com] Synology (of course) wants you to buy "official" RAM from them, but I was not interested in paying outrageous pricing. They also say if you use non-Synology RAM you violate your warranty, but how are they going to know what RAM I use? Anyway I installed the RAM and the NAS has been working fine with a total of 6GB of RAM for about 2 years now. Smilie This server is rather modest for Plex but it works fine. I can stream 1080p fine and have tried a few 4K streams and those are OK too, but I don't use 4K much because I can't really tell the difference between 1080p and 4K on my TV. Smilie Subtitles also work fine with this modest Synology unit.

So, the CPU is more recent in this Acer Aspire XC desktop than my Synology, and the Aspire has more RAM too. I'm sure the Acer would function very well for a Plex server. It also costs a lot less than my Synology did. The Synology was $365 from Amazon (after $100 Prime credit card promotion), and that was without any storage at all. I still had to put hard drives in it! So the Acer system is, I think, a fantastic deal. Enjoy!

Update: I am using Plex with hardware transcoding. Using that, it works great on my NAS and I am sure with the Acer it would too! I am not sure how well this would work with software transcoding though - hopefully someone else could comment on that.
Last edited by tropicalb July 3, 2022 at 11:44 AM.
Jul 3, 2022 8:54 PM
2.1K Comments
Joined Feb 2021
AquaGalley8616Jul 3, 2022 8:54 PM
2.1K Comments
Quote from tropicalb View quoted comment :
I've seen other people mention this CPU (i3-10105) would be great for Plex and I agree. i3-1015 = 10th gen Intel CPU. [intel.com] This Wikipedia article on Quick Sync Video does a great job summarizing expected performance for various Intel CPU Quick Sync Video-capable CPUs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Int...Sync_Video

Based on that, for a 10th gen Intel CPU (product nickname of Comet Lake), someone could expect very good encode/decode performance for video up to HEVC 10-bit. This should handle the majority of media folks would wish to view for quite some time. For the price, this system has a lot of value.

8GB RAM should be enough for Plex as well. Quick Sync Video handles a lot of the heavy lifting, so RAM use should be rather minimal. While transcoding a bit of disk space would be used temporarily, but it shouldn't be to the degree where someone would need to worry about upgrading the 256GB SSD in this system, as long as the intended use for this system is modest and it is not used for too many applications. As with anything, the more you use something, the more resources you need. So if the intended use for this server is a Plex server and dual-booting Windows and Linux and a few other things, 256GB SSD won't be enough. But I would suspect most people considering the system for Plex would also use it for other lightweight tasks like web browsing, productivity tasks like word processing, spreadsheets, etc. Nothing too demanding. For that the 256GB SSD would be fine.

And as this is a 10th generation CPU, it is fully supported by Win 11 & one could easily upgrade from Win 10 pro to Windows 11 at any time. As others have mentioned, I recommend making sure the system works rock-solid with Windows 10 before upgrading. That way if anything weird happens you know it is due to Win 11 and not Win 10 and your prior configuration, which makes it easier to troubleshoot and solve issues.

For the sake of comparison, for my Plex server I use a Synology DS418play (specifications PDF here [synology.com]). This NAS has an Intel Celeron J3355 processor (AKA Apollo Lake [intel.com], the generation before the i3-1015 CPUs). The Synology only came with 2GB of RAM but I paid ~$30 to upgrade it by adding a 4GB generic memory module from Amazon (sold via Timetec: https://www.amazon.com/Timetec-Replacement-D3NS1866L-4G-Unbuffered-PC3L-14900/dp/B00RY1JBEY/ref=sr_1... [amazon.com] Synology (of course) wants you to buy "official" RAM from them, but I was not interested in paying outrageous pricing. They also say if you use non-Synology RAM you violate your warranty, but how are they going to know what RAM I use? Anyway I installed the RAM and the NAS has been working fine with a total of 6GB of RAM for about 2 years now. Smilie This server is rather modest for Plex but it works fine. I can stream 1080p fine and have tried a few 4K streams and those are OK too, but I don't use 4K much because I can't really tell the difference between 1080p and 4K on my TV. Smilie Subtitles also work fine with this modest Synology unit.

So, the CPU is more recent in this Acer Aspire XC desktop than my Synology, and the Aspire has more RAM too. I'm sure the Acer would function very well for a Plex server. It also costs a lot less than my Synology did. The Synology was $365 from Amazon (after $100 Prime credit card promotion), and that was without any storage at all. I still had to put hard drives in it! So the Acer system is, I think, a fantastic deal. Enjoy!

Update: I am using Plex with hardware transcoding. Using that, it works great on my NAS and I am sure with the Acer it would too! I am not sure how well this would work with software transcoding though - hopefully someone else could comment on that.
...
great post and great info. Thanks
I am thinking on something like plex server, maybe 16ram would be better, because the INTEL 630 is sharing the ram with the CPU. If you are doing intensive video transcoding it would help, also if you are doing other things at same time. Wink

I did install Plex Media Server on my Acer i3-10th gen and my Acer i5-11th gen, both PC's have 16 ram in them. Even though I do have Plex Pass, which allows me to hardware transcode, I never transcode anything. I play using just "direct".

Like you, I don't see that much difference between 1080p and 4k on my stuff, it looks great to me, also, the new codecs have reduced how big the files are. Amazing what the newest codecs can do. Upscaling and everything. I'm amazed.

If I felt I needed transcoding, I guess I can do it, but so far, it doesn't interest me. But I know everybody has different needs and we can have others share that are hardware transcoding using Plex PASS (option).

I too have NAS but QNAP 2 bay, and although I can use QNAP's plex server, I use the local i3-10th gen or i5 11th gen, to do those tasks, puts less strain on NAS. Generally I transfer movies/tv series of stuff I want to watch the next month onto internal 1TB SSD in metal cage in the PC. That way transfering/watching everything is super fast. My NAS is more for grabbing stuff I might want to watch in month, and then turn it off (to avoid too much exposure to web hacking/virus stuff/darkweb NAS ransomware.

Jul 3, 2022 11:28 PM
1.2K Comments
Joined Aug 2021
tropicalbJul 3, 2022 11:28 PM
1.2K Comments
Quote from AquaGalley8616 View quoted comment :
...
great post and great info. Thanks
I am thinking on something like plex server, maybe 16ram would be better, because the INTEL 630 is sharing the ram with the CPU. If you are doing intensive video transcoding it would help, also if you are doing other things at same time.

I did install Plex Media Server on my Acer i3-10th gen and my Acer i5-11th gen, both PC's have 16 ram in them. Even though I do have Plex Pass, which allows me to hardware transcode, I never transcode anything. I play using just "direct".

Like you, I don't see that much difference between 1080p and 4k on my stuff, it looks great to me, also, the new codecs have reduced how big the files are. Amazing what the newest codecs can do. Upscaling and everything. I'm amazed.

If I felt I needed transcoding, I guess I can do it, but so far, it doesn't interest me. But I know everybody has different needs and we can have others share that are hardware transcoding using Plex PASS (option).

I too have NAS but QNAP 2 bay, and although I can use QNAP's plex server, I use the local i3-10th gen or i5 11th gen, to do those tasks, puts less strain on NAS. Generally I transfer movies/tv series of stuff I want to watch the next month onto internal 1TB SSD in metal cage in the PC. That way transfering/watching everything is super fast. My NAS is more for grabbing stuff I might want to watch in month, and then turn it off (to avoid too much exposure to web hacking/virus stuff/darkweb NAS ransomware.
You're welcome. Smilie Thanks for sharing info about your setup, sounds great!

Yup, more RAM can always help! In the case of this Acer system that is a slick deal, I think 8GB of RAM is pretty good and should be sufficient for light duty use. It would work well for Plex & could handle most transcoding duties without breaking a sweat, as Intel's Quick Sync Video feature really handles a lot of the heavy work. But if someone wished to add more RAM, that would add further capability and the ability to run more programs at once, etc.

As a tinkering project, I recently set up another NAS to give a second life to an older 6th-gen Intel processor [intel.com] (i7-6700). This is the "Skylake" product line, so it's older than my Synology NAS's CPU. This i7-6700 also includes Quick Sync Video support but only up to HEVC (no HEVC 10-bit support at all). This runs Plex great as well. It's amazing to be able to get such performance using a CPU launched in 2015!

I agree with your thoughts on codecs and how well they work! It helps us retain high quality video while minimizing the amount of disk space required. Truly amazing.

As for transcoding, I feel the same way: Don't use it unless I need to. If I have a video in another format that my video player (usually I use a Fire TV 4K Max stick; works great, has a good Plex app & supports lots of codecs) doesn't understand, then Plex needs to transcode. When it has to, it can be done relatively painlessly due to Quick Sync Video (QSV) support. It also helps when watching content with subtitles, as this requires transcoding to show the subtitles (based on what I have seen). Without QSV/hardware acceleration, a CPU will typically get close to 100% utilization just to handle adding the subtitles and displaying them. So this is another good reason to have a CPU w/QSV Support & well worth the hardware acceleration upgrade for Plex.

Definitely a good idea to store the content locally, less latency that way as you aren't needing to transfer bits over your network as much. Good setup! Applause
Jul 4, 2022 5:07 AM
329 Comments
Joined Dec 2015
paul3000Jul 4, 2022 5:07 AM
329 Comments
Quote from AquaGalley8616 View quoted comment :
Understand that the RX 6400 is a great card, and if put in pci-4th gen slot, will be double the bus speed (16) of a pci-3rd gen(8).
I own both a i5-11th gen Acer and this i3-10th gen Acer. In the i5-11th gen it has pci-4th gen slot, and in the i3-10th gen it has a pci-3rd gen slot. This RX 6400 will work in any pci-16 slot but depend of 4th, 3rd, 2nd gen PC, how fast it is. Maybe research it, as long as you are aware of this, and watch youtube videos showing what games look like using the card in gen4th mode, and gen 3rd mode, you become an informed consumer.
I guess I'll check tomorrow, site said x16 slot but not what gen.
Last edited by paul3000 July 3, 2022 at 10:27 PM.
Jul 4, 2022 12:40 PM
329 Comments
Joined Dec 2015
paul3000Jul 4, 2022 12:40 PM
329 Comments
Quote from AquaGalley8616 View quoted comment :
Understand that the RX 6400 is a great card, and if put in pci-4th gen slot, will be double the bus speed (16) of a pci-3rd gen(8).
I own both a i5-11th gen Acer and this i3-10th gen Acer. In the i5-11th gen it has pci-4th gen slot, and in the i3-10th gen it has a pci-3rd gen slot. This RX 6400 will work in any pci-16 slot but depend of 4th, 3rd, 2nd gen PC, how fast it is. Maybe research it, as long as you are aware of this, and watch youtube videos showing what games look like using the card in gen4th mode, and gen 3rd mode, you become an informed consumer.
I did HWinfo and it is showing that the slot is PCI 2.0
Jul 4, 2022 3:33 PM
2.1K Comments
Joined Feb 2021
AquaGalley8616Jul 4, 2022 3:33 PM
2.1K Comments
Quote from paul3000 View quoted comment :
I did HWinfo and it is showing that the slot is PCI 2.0
Paul
What PC did you just get? If you got the exact model in this thread it is PCI 3rd gen, I state this in my post.
If you get the i5-11th gen Acer refurb this card will see the card as pci-gen4
If you get the exact model in this thread, i3-10th gen , it will be pci-gen3.

When you post, always say the model you got, because some people in this thread bought other pc's and are comparing them, or they see better price on something else. In both your latest posts, you don't say the model you got. Many of us assume you mean the model in this thread. Do you have the rx-6400 installed in your i3-10th gen PC?

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Jul 4, 2022 3:52 PM
329 Comments
Joined Dec 2015
paul3000Jul 4, 2022 3:52 PM
329 Comments
Quote from AquaGalley8616 View quoted comment :
Paul
What PC did you just get? If you got the exact model in this thread it is PCI 3rd gen, I state this in my post.
If you get the i5-11th gen Acer refurb this card will see the card as pci-gen4
If you get the exact model in this thread, i3-10th gen , it will be pci-gen3.

When you post, always say the model you got, because some people in this thread bought other pc's and are comparing them, or they see better price on something else. In both your latest posts, you don't say the model you got. Many of us assume you mean the model in this thread. Do you have the rx-6400 installed in your i3-10th gen PC?
I have the XC-1660G-UW92. Good to know it's PCI 3.0 but I wonder after looking at benchmarks to go with a cheaper small form factor GPU instead of the RX6400.

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