Specifications

70 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007
The best possible rating is 5. DESIGN USABILITY FEATURES PERFORMANCE OVERALL
Acer Aspire T180
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Compaq Presario SR5130NX
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Dell Inspiron 531s
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eMachines T5234
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Systemax Venture E21
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RED denotes Editors' Choice.
• Acer Aspire T180
ilarly equipped Compaq’s. It has the
advantage of a longer (90-day) McAfee
Internet security suite subscription.
The amount of bloatware is a downside.
Media enthusiasts and general users will
like this Vista Home Premium–equipped
budget desktop.
Specs: 2.1-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ pro-
cessor; 1GB 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 320GB,
7,200-rpm SATA hard drive; 128MB integrated
nVidia GeForce 6150SE graphics; Windows
Vista Home Premium.
Systemax Venture E21
$499 direct
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The Venture E21’s drab case holds the
heart of a lion, with an Intel Core 2
Duo CPU and 2GB of system memory.
It aced the photo-editing test and also
placed fi rst on our Windows Media test.
Another plus is a year’s subscription to
CA eTrust Anti-Virus. Though the sys-
tem is otherwise lackluster, you can’t ar-
gue with its performance numbers.
Specs: 1.8-GHz Pentium E2160 processor; 2GB,
533-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 250GB, 7,200-rpm
hard drive; 224MB integrated Intel GMA950
graphics; Windows Vista Home Premium.
Gaming
Desktops
By Joel Santo Domingo
The ultimate gaming PC used to be solely
about benchmark numbers. Now, nearly
all the system builders overclock, and
since they get their components from the
same sources (Intel, AMD, ATI, nVidia),
it is no wonder that these systems rack
up similar benchmark scores. All seven of
this year’s competitors use the same quad-
core overclockable processor: the Intel
Core 2 Extreme QX6850. The differences
are in the features and execution. The HP
Blackbird 002’s effi ciency, cooling, perfor-
mance, serviceability, and good looks raise
the bar way above the competition’s reach.
New tech, like solid-state drives in the
Falcon Northwest Mach V, increases the
appeal of crazy-expensive systems. There
are also a couple of Blu-ray and HD DVD
drives in the mix. Gaming is not just about
the benchmark drag races anymore; you
have to make the system drool-worthy yet
packed with useful extras.
ABS Ultimate X Magnum
$6,399 direct
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Though the ABS Ultimate X Magnum is
water-cooled, it’s noisy. The din from the
cooling fans drowns out all other sounds in
the room. Good thing it does perform, with
very-good-to-excellent scores all around
in multimedia and 3D. The ABS proves it
can play with the big boys and is worthy of
consideration.
Specs: 3.0-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850
(overclocked to 3.33 GHz); 4GB DDR3 SDRAM;
four 150GB, 10,000-rpm SATA hard drives
(RAID 0); one 750GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard
drive; two 1GB ATI Radeon HD 2900XT graph-
ics cards (CrossFire); Windows Vista Ultimate.
Dell Inspiron 531s
$499 direct (E-value code: DDPMGX1)
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The slim, stylish Inspiron 531s
uses a small-form-factor chas-
sis to save desk space. The 531s’s
pluses include good-to-great per-
formance numbers for a value PC, thanks
to its ATI Radeon HD 2400 discrete
graphics card. The 531s also has 2GB of
memory, one of only two value PCs that
we feature here to do so. Dell now gives
you a “No Additional Software” option
to avoid bloatware. About the only nits
to pick are the choice of Vista Home
Basic, the short (30-day) McAfee free-
trial subscription, and the lack of a DVD
burner. Otherwise, the 531s represents
the best overall value here.
Specs: 2.1-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ pro-
cessor; 2GB, 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 160GB,
7,200-rpm hard drive; 256MB ATI Radeon HD
2400 graphics card; Vista Home Basic.
eMachines T5234
$499 direct
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The eMachines T5234’s performance
numbers are almost a mirror of the sim-
• Systemax Venture E21
BUDGET SCORECARD