Hardware

Review: Acer Veriton N4630G Offers Thin Client Savings and Desktop Performance

This desktop computer is energy-efficient, quiet and strong.

Twitter

John Breeden II is an award-winning reviewer and public speaker with 20 years of experience covering technology.

Federal agencies are turning to cloud-based and thin client technology as they build out mobile computing environments, but sometimes a desktop is still the best tool.

The Acer Veriton N4630G is a tiny desktop computer that offers the same space and energy savings as a thin client, but also gives users the power of a full 64-bit version of Windows and the broad range of programs it supports.

The computer is only slightly wider than an inch, but includes an impressive number of ports: three USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports, an SD Card reader, headphone and microphone jacks and both a Video Graphics Array and a DisplayPort for video.

All of those ports negate the lack of an optical drive, and an external drive could be connected without edging out the peripherals. The Veriton comes with a 500-gigabyte hard drive with about 460GB of usable space — more than enough to support plenty of programs beyond Windows.

The Power Needed for Everyday Computing

The Veriton scored a 1,369 on the Passmark Performance Benchmark, a test in which 700 is considered passable for a desktop running a full version of Windows. The power is easily realized too. Complex tasks such as opening Photoshop documents took about a second, whereas they might take five or six with older desktops.

The small size does not hold the Veriton performance back. Boot up and shutdown speed is on par with other systems running Windows 7, with boot times of about 11 seconds. Similar numbers were recorded for shutdowns. The Veriton includes internal cooling fans unlike most tiny desktops — especially more powerful ones designed for the enterprise — which make do with static heat sinks or vent excess heat through the external chassis.

That lack of fan support in other units can lead to spotty performance as heat builds up inside, but the Veriton blows almost all of its heat exhaust out the back, avoiding the issue. Even after running the system for eight hours, it matched its previous benchmark performance and remained cool to the touch.

Even a few years ago, finding an inch-thick desktop with the power and performance to run a full version of Windows would have been difficult, especially in the $600 range. The Acer Veriton is different.

It offers good desktop performance suitable for almost any user, and can squeeze into almost any configuration or setting.

How Green Is It?

The Veriton N4630G features a number of energy-saving tools to keep its power consumption in line with green initiatives.

A power consumption app can configure the basic performance of the unit to suit the user’s needs. This is in addition to the general power-saving configuration that each N4630G natively ships with.

There are only two settings, power saving and full performance, with power saving as the default. The Veriton ramps up power consumption only as needed. Performance testing for our review was conducted in power-saving mode, making it safe to say the Veriton can work at that level without suffering any performance issues. We recorded the unit’s energy output using a Kill-A-Watt power meter to determine just how green the machine actually is.

The Veriton has a power supply capable of supporting 65 watts, although in tests it never got anywhere near that in the base configuration, meaning users can fill the ports and internal slots with devices and still have enough power.

The Veriton pulled the most power when booting up or shutting down —regardless of the power app’s settings — with peaks at 24.5 watts for a few seconds during both processes.

In power saving mode, it idles at an incredibly low 12.8 watts of power. When set to full performance instead, the idle draw jumps to 18.6 watts, which is still low, but given that the system is just idling, that extra draw is wasted.

Starting out in power-saving mode and activating a task such as running Photoshop causes the power to spike (to 21.3 watts in our test). The switchover is nearly instantaneous, so there is no reason to take the Veriton out of its default power-saving mode.

Even running in the slightly wasteful full-performance mode, the Veriton still draws a small amount of power. Many full-size desktops can draw 80 watts of power just to idle.

When in power-saving mode, the device uses about the same amount of electricity as a light fixture, except during boot and shutdown times.

When comparing the Veriton N4630G with your current system, it’s likely that its power consumption will decrease over time, providing tangible savings when you upgrade to this small, extremely efficient, yet powerful little desktop.