Reviewed on January 27, 2009Maingear's Ephex is the fastest PC we've reviewed, and also the most expensive. You can find better service policies from other boutique PC vendors, but the Ephex's overall speed and build quality are enough for us to recommend it to those in the market for the best desktop they can find.TAGS:Maingear, Intel Core Microarchitecture, LightScribe, Blu-ray, 64-bit, video card, PC, Intel, games, hard drive
Reviewed on September 7, 2009Falcon Northwest's revamped, mainstream-oriented Talon gaming desktop puts its best redesigned foot forward with a new case and a strong, price-competitive configuration built around Intel's latest batch of Core i7 CPUs. Shop around, as many vendors will have adopted Intel's new chips, but for this build at this price, Falcon Northwest sets the example to beat.TAGS:Intel Core Microarchitecture, chassis, Intel, fan, hard drive, motherboard, PC
Reviewed on April 23, 2009The AVADirect shopping experience can be daunting, but for the tech-savvy buyer willing to navigate the many options available for this system, you'll find that AVADirect's Custom Gaming PC is competently built, with options for blazing fast overclocking, all at an attractive price.TAGS:Intel Core Microarchitecture, overclocking, degree, Blu-ray, motherboard, PC, Intel, games
Reviewed on July 2, 2009Digital Storm's 950Si has all the makings of a quality performance gaming system, but its value proposition comes up just a bit short. The stable-yet-aggressively overclocked CPU tells us that Digital Storm knows what it's doing, and with a more competitive price it would earn a more enthusiastic recommendation.TAGS:Intel Core Microarchitecture, Blu-ray drive, Western Digital, burner, Blu-ray, 64-bit, DVD-drive, CPU, Intel, hard drive, PC
Reviewed on November 11, 2008Velocity Micro's Edge Z55 provides a powerful example of the leap ahead in performance afforded by Intel's new Core i7 CPUs. Velocity Micro's own overclocking efforts don't hurt either. Any PC gamer would love to make this upper midrange desktop their own.TAGS:Velocity Micro, Acer Inc., Intel Core Microarchitecture, 64-bit, Radeon, Intel, PC, hard drive, games, CPU
Reviewed on April 3, 2009In a normal economy, we'd expect that Falcon Northwest's new Core i7 FragBox 2 would wow us with fast performance in a compact case. Instead, the price of this system as configured has been severely undercut by a competitor. An improved warranty takes the edge off somewhat, but the new market reality makes it hard to recommend this PC.TAGS:Maingear, Intel Core Microarchitecture, media card reader, Apple Intel Mac Mini, AMD, CPU, Apple Macintosh, hard drive
March 14, 2006Preliminary results back up the chipmaker's boasts, but AMD fans point out that Intel built the PCs used to compare the chips.TAGS:AMD, Intel Core Microarchitecture, Intel, PC, motherboard