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Will Sandy Bridge-based MSI WindTop AE2210 outperform non-SB midtowers?

With all-in-one prices generally falling, and Sandy Bridge offering promising performance gains, we wonder how that will impact mainstream midtower desktops.

Rich Brown Former Senior Editorial Director - Home and Wellness
Rich was the editorial lead for CNET's Home and Wellness sections, based in Louisville, Kentucky. Before moving to Louisville in 2013, Rich ran CNET's desktop computer review section for 10 years in New York City. He has worked as a tech journalist since 1994, covering everything from 3D printing to Z-Wave smart locks.
Expertise Smart home, Windows PCs, cooking (sometimes), woodworking tools (getting there...)
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Rich Brown

LAS VEGAS--Here's a question we're interested in seeing answered over the next few months: will the 21-inch, $799.99 MSI WindTop AE2210 and its 2.7GHz Intel Core i5 2500s outperform one of the many similarly priced mainstream PCs from HP that have stuck with multicore AMD CPUs?

In truth, we suspect HP is savvy enough to manage its pricing accordingly, and while it is offering some AMD-based Pavilion Elite midtower PCs, it also has a few Sandy Bridge models of its own in that product line.

Will Sandy Bridge-based all-in-ones close the performance gap with traditionally faster midtower PCs at the same price?
Will Sandy Bridge-based all-in-ones close the performance gap with traditionally faster midtower PCs at the same price? MSI

Still, we're curious to see what happens across the mainstream desktop spectrum with Sandy Bridge chips coming to all-in-ones in the $799 price range that compete against similarly priced retail midtowers that tend to be slow to add new CPUs. Traditionally, all-in-ones have not competed well against standard desktops. We'll be looking to see as we test new Sandy Bridge PCs whether that gap has started to shrink.

For the MSI WindTop AE2210 itself, it's essentially the lower-end, smaller-screen version of the 23.6-inch AE2410 we already wrote about. The design of the AE2210 is a little different, but both have Sandy Bridge CPUs, as well as MSI's "Super Charger" USB 3.0 implementation, designed to let you charge connected devices even while the computer is powered down. Expect to see the AE2210 hit stores at the same time in Q1 as the AE2410.