Acer Aspire 6920 review (After 2 years)

Hey folks. I wrote a review for The Acer Guy back when I first bought my laptop (Aspire 6920-6621), but it's time for an update.
(Link to my original review http://www.theacerguy.com/2008/06/acer-aspire-6920-user-review-logan-makes-it-sweet/)
Here's some basic specs:
Windows Vista Home Premium
Two 140gig HD's
1.83GhZ Dual Core Intel Processor
3gig RAM
And some dinky graphics chip.

Well, after two years, I have to say it has held up but not as well as I think it should have.
A few months after writing my first review, I had to send my Laptop to Acer. Admittedly, the customer support was fantastic. They took care of me.
HOWEVER, I'm not pleased with how my computer came back. It wasn't put back together, and I didn't want to send it back to them again.
Regardless, the build quality is a bit iffy. Not sure if other people have had this issue, but cracks are forming in several places. The first time I sent the computer back, it was because of cracks on the bezel. They replaced it, but after a few months the cracks came back. There is also a crack on the bottom cover.
Keyboard flex is there but not too severe.
When I was dusting my keyboard, the sharp end of the spacebar snapped off, so now a good few mm's are missing. I sanded it down and it looks fine, but still.
The express card placeholder doesn't stay in well, in fact, if you aren't careful, the thing will come out.
In terms of performance, it's still holding up. I've not had any problems with Vista, and I game as well as code. Steam has given me a few C++ errors, but meh.
Audio quality is acceptable. The left speaker is crackling and the "subwoofer" adds a nice effect, but overall it's disappointing. Should be better for all the hype.
Screen quality is actually pretty good, much better than most computers I've used. The only thing that I've used that compares is a Mac.
Gaming isn't really an option on this machine. It can run World of Warcraft at low-medium graphics and still get reasonable FPS outside of highly populated areas. I can play some games pre-2007, but next-gen content is absolutely impossible. But it tries. D:
It dosen't heat up badly, and it's still reasonably quiet.
I wish I would have saved my $746 to buy a more powerful machine, but I assume, for what I payed for, the machine does everything I need and some of what I want.

 

I've also had some mixed issues after having my 6920G for 2 years. Repair during warranty is great, repair after warranty is terrible. Overall, I find the keyboard to be very good (though I use/abuse my keyboard and noticed my keys tended to wear out and penetrate the enamel, hence why I sent it in for repair after the warranty but my CC covered it). During warranty, I dropped the notebook and the top left corner of the cover broke, but they replaced the whole cover within 2 days of dropping it off.

Build quality has been very good for a consumer notebook and I haven't had any major issues, though I've actually had better experiences in Vista than 7 (random crashing and stuff, discussing it with my friend in MS, seems to be driver issues). Screen is excellent and audio is above average for notebooks, but still not great. My battery has been probably the most surprising thing, in a good way. I still can get almost 4 hours of battery life from it and I use it very often for class (have class 8-12 everyday, though I don't use battery everyday), with negligible battery wear over 2 yrs!

Specs are in my sig and I have no trouble playing CS:S on high setting at HD (not HD+ or FHD) resolution, even getting higher FPS than my friend's Dell XPS M1530 (with T8300 and 8600M GT!) Then again, Acer cooling is quite good and I have OCed my GPU quite a bit, though I can play CS:S w/o even overclocking.

 

Damn, do we have thesame laptop? Kaelang, where is your second hard drive?? I think I can only hold one. And sgogeta4, 4 hours of battery life??? I had half of that when my battery was still working right

 

He's confusing his two hard drive partitions with two separate hard drives.
Kaelang has the same 320GB hard drive as all of us - two user-visible partitions (C: and D , two hidden partitions (recovery and Arcade Instant-On). He even mentions this in the original review he linked to.

 

Yeah that.

 

good to hear your battery is still performing really well. As for me, its really my only issue with the laptop. After 2 years, my battery has about 50% wear on it. I only get a little over an hour out of a full charge now. I'm considering getting a new battery or maybe just waiting it out till i need to get a new laptop.

Games for me run pretty well. I play counterstrike source too and also modern warfare 2. What i used to think was a hardware handicap to the games i could play was solved by throttlestop. Using throttlestop I get to play COD MW2 without a problem.

There's a whole in the upper left corner of the screen. Not sure where its from. Could have been from carrying my laptop in my backpack all over the place while i studied in europe. So i dont really think its any fault of the laptop's build quality.

 

I guess I was lucky notebook in general. Battery life is still good, CPU undervolted well (and no throttle), and GPU overclocked well.