Hardware

Acer Veriton Nettop

The N282G delivers solid performance and excellent security in a small, light and inexpensive package.

Wayne Rash is a longtime technology journalist who has directed product testing centers. He is President of Wayne Rash & Associates, an analysis and editorial services firm located near Washington, D.C. He can be reached at wrash@mindspring.com. You can also follow him on Twitter as @wrash.

Acer Veriton N282G

The Acer Veriton N282G is an easy-to-manage computer designed to bring the convenience of a netbook to the desktop. IT staff can combine the N282G with a monitor to create something similar to an all-in-one computer — but with more flexibility. The Veriton is powerful enough to run all but the most demanding applications, it consumes little space and power, and it can be made sufficiently secure to prevent data loss.

End-User Advantages

Small and light, the Veriton N282G will fit nearly anywhere in an office environment. In addition, it comes with a mounting kit designed to attach it to the rear of a VESA-compliant monitor, reducing the amount of occupied desktop space. The device consumes little power with its Intel Atom processor, eliminating the need for noisy fans. Like its netbook cousins, the Veriton N282G has no removable storage devices.

Yet, despite its size, this device features an Atom dual-core D525 processor, 2 gigabytes of DDR3 SDRAM and NVIDIA ION graphics. The device contains a 320-gigabyte hard drive, as well as Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11 b/g/n wireless networking. The Veriton N282G also comes with Microsoft Windows 7 Professional installed. Although the nettop does not include productivity applications, it comes bundled with comprehensive management software.

This computer includes an HDMI port for high-resolution video, which allows it to support a full HD-quality screen. Unlike its netbook relatives, the Veriton does not include any integrated sound. If you want speakers, you’ll need to provide them.

Why It Works for IT

The Veriton N282G offers an advanced management suite, the Veriton ControlCenter, that includes support for energy management, a quick migration tool and boot management. Acer also lets you control the user interface and most important, the ability to lock out removable data devices and other interfaces to prevent data theft.

When coupled with the ability to disable booting from removable USB devices, the Veriton can be locked down well enough to prevent even determined efforts to use it as a means of extracting data from secure systems. The Veriton N282G can rival the security of a thin client without the performance hits or infrastructure cost. Although this device does not meet the requirements for handling highly classified material, it does offer sufficient protection against the theft or loss of sensitive information.

Disadvantages

Other than the limited expandability, the single biggest disadvantage is the lack of complete instructions for integration. For example, the instructions for mounting the device on the back of a monitor with the VESA mounting points are missing a couple of crucial steps. They don’t include any details on how to prepare the mounting bracket for use, including the requirement to remove some screws and loosen others so that the bracket can slide into its proper configuration.

The rear mounting on the monitor also adds a level of instability that needs to be taken into account when choosing a location for the device and its monitor. One good bump to a table that’s not sturdy can cause the device to fall over or off the table.

Neither of these issues is sufficient to diminish the Acer Veriton N282G’s value as an end-user device, but they do need to be taken into account during deployment.