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Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92 Desktop Review

Victor R

13/06/2022

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Budget desktops often skimp on processing power, but the Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92 Desktop doesn’t. This compact workhorse delivers a 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10400 6 -core processor and Windows 10 for slightly above $500. For that price, you get a USB Type-C port, optical drive, 12GB memory, and plenty of storage (512GB SSD).

Like its predecessor, the Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92,  the Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92 spots an integrated graphics card which means you won’t be able to play AAA games, but rather just handle general daily computing tasks which for the price is just fine. Overall, the Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92 makes a convincing argument not to spend more for a basic PC, earning our budget desktop Editors’ Choice award.

Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92 Specs

• Desktop Class: Personal, Business
• Processor: Intel Core i5-10400
• RAM: 12 GB
• Storage: 512GB SSD
• Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630
• Operating System: Windows 10 Home
• Dimensions: 13.78 x 6.42 x 13.39 inches

Design – Respectably Basic

Simple but respectable – that’s the Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92’s motto. While other budget desktops at this price range strive to upscale their feature list, Acer made sure to make a balanced device. Our review unit strikes a good balance of performance and looks. Its black case is appropriate anywhere and blends with your décor whether at home or in the office.

As far as space is concerned, the Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92 won’t take much of your space either. At 13.78 x 6.42 x 13.39 inches, it’s much smaller than the HP Omen Obelisk 875-0129 (17.1 by 6.5 by 15.5 inches (HWD)) but just the right size for a home/office work desk. You can fit your desktop right next to your monitor on an evenly sized desk, or even on the floor without utilizing much real estate.  But here’s the paradox. While compact is great for desk space and cramped office spaces, it also means the Aspire has limited space for upgrades. However, this is only a problem if you’re looking to make future upgrades. For the most part, you will not need to upgrade it as it wasn’t designed to accommodate extra or larger components for that matter.

Accessing the interior is easy as you only need to undo two screws on the left panel of the chassis. Under the hood, the first sight is the motherboard and a metal plate housing blocking one-third of the view. Generally, the cable management is well done making the whole system look organized. Behind that is the housing for the DVD drive, and beneath that (on the motherboard) is the 512GB M.2 SSD. The CPU air cooler is clearly visible at the first sight and so is the power supply.

The power supply is contained in the top left corner, a 250-watt unit. This will limit your upgrade options for a graphics card, and it isn’t swappable with a standard aftermarket ATX supply due to non-standard power connectors at the board end and a narrower body. It’s a common issue we’ve found with some budget PCs. The HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop TG01-2460 is also a powerful PC but provides only 400watts in power supply which is limiting if you’re planning to upgrade.

Basically, this PC is designed to be a plug-and-play system, not a robust upgradeable one.

Ports – Includes USB Type-C

The Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92 offers a fair amount of ports for its size.  The front panel houses the DVD-RW drive and USB-C port alongside a USB 3.2 port and headphone and mic jacks. At the back, there is extra USB 3.2 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, two HDMI connections, a VGA port, and a Gigabit Ethernet jack. Wireless connectivity comes via dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

Acer also includes a basic wired keyboard and mouse, which like the theme of the PC are basic, but get the job done.

Performance – Enough Power For Daily office Tasks

With its 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10400 processor, 12GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD storage, the Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92 performs well on most tasks. In our tests, it pushed hard through heavy loads such as 30 tabs of Google Chrome tabs, a few of them playing videos, without faltering. That’s all thanks to the powerful Core i5-10400 processor that considerably improves performance. The 6-core processor adds a tad more multitasking power to the system giving the Aspire a leg up over its competition.

We loved the 12GB memory because it should allow good performance in daily tasks such as web browsing – a gem for professionals and creatives looking to handle software especially video editing applications like Adobe Premiere.

As for storage, having an SSD option ensures fast boot times and handling software. The Windows 10 operating system is loaded on the 512GB SSD which means boot times are cut to seconds. HDDs are great for large storage but having an SSD goes a long way towards ensuring efficiency and load speeds.

Overall, expect brilliant system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheet work, web browsing, and videoconferencing.

Gaming Performance – Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92 Review

The Aspire comes with the Intel UHD Graphics 630 graphics card which while muscled up for hardcore daily work, is nowhere capable of higher-level gaming. In most cases, gaming at Full HD in most games will not even get you a playable frame rate. If you really have to though, you’ll have to stick with 1366×768 or 1280×720 resolution and change the graphics settings to low in most of the games. Here’s a list of some of the best Acer gaming desktops for you just in case you’re interested in pursuing gaming on an Acer PC. Also, if this Acer Aspire is still out of your budget reach, the HP Pavilion TP01-2032 is a great second choice.

Conclusion – Best Value Budget Desktop So Far

The Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92 has a lot going for it, I love its subtle no-frills appeal, sturdy design, and above-average performance. It’s a good everyday productivity, document pushing mainstream desktop that can power through most of what you’ll throw at it. Additionally, you will appreciate the little things it comes with such as USB-C and DVD drive. But best of all, it outshines most desktops in its category in performance and secondly price.

We think the Acer Aspire TC-1660-UA92 offers the best bang for your buck at $500, and the best current offering we’ve tested to date for budget shoppers looking for a general-use desktop for home. That earns it our Editors’ Choice laurel for the category.