Specifications

68 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMER 6, 2007
The best possible rating is 5. DESIGN USABILITY FEATURES PERFORMANCE OVERALL
Apple iMac (20-inch, Aluminum)
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Dell Inspiron 531 (Blu-ray)
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Gateway DX440X
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HP Pavilion m8100y
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Sony VAIO VGC-LT19U
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Velocity Micro ProMagix
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RED denotes Editors' Choice.
• Sony VAIO VGC-LT19U • Velocity Micro Pro Magix
Specs: 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 pro-
cessor; 2GB DDR2 SDRAM; 250GB, 7,200-rpm
hard drive, 512MB nVidia GeForce 8500GT
graphics card; Windows Vista Home Premium.
Sony VAIO VGC-LT19U
$2,900 direct
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The VAIO VGC-LT19U is the PC to get if
you want to hide it in plain sight, in your
bedroom or front room perhaps. It can
be mounted on a wall or positioned in a
cabinet, and it looks just like an HDTV
set if you hide the (wireless) mouse and
keyboard. Too bad there’s a huge amount
of bloatware, and the price of the fully
loaded version is high. (A basic LT with-
out tuners starts at $1,700.) An external
CableCARD tuner, a built-in webcam,
a glorious 22-inch widescreen, and an
HD-movie-friendly Blu-ray burner are
big pluses.
Specs: 2.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 pro-
cessor; 2GB, 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 500GB,
7,200-rpm hard drive; 256MB nVidia GeForce
8400M GT graphics card; Windows Vista Ul-
timate.
Velocity Micro ProMagix
$2,926 direct; $3,295 with 22-inch LCD
widescreen monitor
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Performance and more performance:
That’s what the ProMagix gets you. With
an overclocked quad-core processor and
SLI (dual-card) graphics, the Pro Magix
yields the gaming and multimedia per-
formance normally found in gaming rigs.
It also features two hard drives, one at
500GB and 7,200 rpm and the other at
150GB and 10,000 rpm. Both utilitarian
and a thing of beauty, the new case even
looks mean. The ProMagix is for the
speed freak or the well-heeled gaming
fan who wants to play at an impressive
number of frames per second but can’t
stomach the thought of a $6K+ bill.
Specs: 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 pro-
c
essor (overclocked to 3.2 GHz); 2GB 800-MHz
DDR2 SDRAM; 150GB, 10,000-rpm hard drive,
and 500GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive; two 320MB
EVGA nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS graphics
cards (SLI); Windows Vista Home Premium.
MAINSTREAM SCORECARD
The Design category takes into account aesthetics (which is admittedly subjective) and
also covers how well design elements function within a PC. We’re looking for systems that
use design intelligently to make the product better. Usability rates the functionality of
some design elements (for instance, how much sense the placement of the card reader
may make in ergonomic terms), but it also takes into account elements such as bloatware
(or lack thereof), environmental concerns such as noise, and expandability and upgrades.
The Features rating looks at components: hard drives, card readers, TV tuners, and the
like. We also considered system memory, the amount of hard drive space, and opti-
cal drive(s). Performance is pretty self-explanatory. The rating is based on the system’s
benchmark-test results. The Overall rating takes all the other ratings into consideration,
along with intangibles such as value for the dollar.
How We Rate Desktops