Reviewed on June 26, 2007The last of the major desktop vendors to update this year's desktops, Dell used that time to good advantage. On some tests, the Inspiron 531 is even faster than systems that cost $500 more. Keep your gaming and digital media ambitions modest, and this PC should deliver nearly everything you'd want in a mainstream system.TAGS:Dell Inspiron, Bluetooth, Gateway Inc., optical drive, HP, hard drive, PC, games
Reviewed on June 20, 2008Bose's entry-level Companion 2 Series II speakers offer good bass and dual inputs--but they're not the best-sounding PC speakers in their price class.TAGS:Bose, speakers, subwoofer, PC, games
Reviewed on November 21, 2007Despite the usual caveats of an ever-fluctuating 3D market, for the moment, at least, ATI's new Radeon HD 3850 graphics card delivers the best bang-for-the buck in PC graphics hardware. Until now we haven't had an acceptable sub-$200 option for PC gaming this year. Thanks to AMD, now we do.TAGS:Radeon, DirectX, ATI Technologies, PCI Express, PCI, Nvidia GeForce, card, motherboard, video card, NVidia, games, PC
Reviewed on March 20, 2007Logitech finally earns a CNET Editors' Choice award with this update to its flagship gaming mouse. An extra thumb button, an updated laser sensor, and more convenient and flexible customization options than the competition make this mouse easy to recommend to any PC gamer.TAGS:Razer, Logitech, mouse, sensitivity, weight, button, laser, gamer, games, PC
Reviewed on February 21, 2008Maingear's Ephex combines aggressive overclocking and a refined sense of what gamers want in a high-end PC. Crysis remains a challenge for even a top-of-the-line PC like this one, but if you can get past that hitch (and the multi-thousand-dollar price tag), we'd recommend this system in a second.TAGS:Maingear, Crysis, Radeon, ATI Technologies, video card, hard drive, Intel, games, PC, Microsoft Windows
Reviewed on January 29, 2008Gateway's FX7020 matches an AMD quad-core CPU and a fast Nvidia graphics card to make a compelling gaming PC, with some basic multimedia features to boot. Upgraders looking for a deal might wish Gateway had added a beefier power supply, but as is, this is a fine PC for its price.TAGS:Gateway Inc., quad-core, Velocity Micro, HP Pavilion, Intel Core 2 Duo, CPU, AMD, DVD burner, Intel, multimedia, HP, games, DVD, PC
Reviewed on November 8, 2007Voodoo's Envy M:152 is one of the only 15-inch gaming laptops out there, but we wish its high-end fit and finish was matched by better gaming scores. It's hard to justify the price premium unless you're looking for custom-painted showcase of a laptop.TAGS:Voodoo, Dell XPS, laptop computer, Intel Core 2 Duo, gamer, games, button, HP, LCD, keyboard, Intel, e-mail, PC
Reviewed on February 12, 2007Velocity Micro's first full-fledged home theater PC pulls very few punches in providing a complete digital media experience. It's big, it lacks a built-in audio receiver, and it invites PC gaming into the living room, which has never been the best fit. It's also the victim of a few Vista-related growing pains. On balance, though, Velocity Micro has as complete a home theater PC as we've seen.TAGS:Velocity Micro, home theater PC, CableCard, Blu-ray, NVidia, Microsoft Windows Vista, movie, PC, games, video, Microsoft Windows
Reviewed on July 11, 2007The HP Pavilion Media Center m8120n boasts a quad-core Intel processor and outstanding overall performance, particularly for the price. Media consumers and creators alike will love its speed and AV connections but may rue the lack of a next-gen optical drive.TAGS:quad-core, HP Pavilion, Media Center PC, PCI, HP, slot, video card, TV, hard drive, PC, video, games