Reviewed on December 10, 2007AMD's new Phenom quad-core CPU has little to recommend it over competing chips from Intel. The Phenom is marginally less expensive, but not enough to make up for its subpar performance. Unless AMD drops prices more aggressively, it looks like Intel will maintain its grasp on the CPU market for the foreseeable future.TAGS:Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD, quad-core, Intel, CPU, PC
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
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, CPU, Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD, DVD burner, Intel, multimedia, HP, games, DVD, PC
Reviewed on November 1, 2006If you thought dual cores were over the top, get ready. Intel presents the Core 2 Extreme QX6700, a single CPU with four distinct processing cores. At $999, the first quad-core CPU will remain an enthusiast part for a while, but as a glimpse of the future, it's clear that clock speed is out and core counts are in.TAGS:quad-core, multi-core, Intel Core 2 Extreme, clock speed, dual-core, CPU, Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel, digital media, AMD, PC
Reviewed on January 5, 2007We have one major issue with the Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition (the price), and two minor ones (it's loud, for one), but those aside, this is one of the most feature-complete high-end desktops we've reviewed. Its performance is media-creation- and game-minded, and anyone buying it for those or almost any other purposes won't be disappointed.TAGS:Velocity Micro, quad-core, Alienware, video card, PC, hard drive
Reviewed on December 10, 2007AMD's new Phenom quad-core CPU has little to recommend it over competing chips from Intel. The Phenom is marginally less-expensive, but not enough to make up for its subpar performance. Unless AMD drops prices more aggressively, it looks like Intel will maintain its grasp on the CPU market for the foreseeable future.TAGS:Intel Core 2 Duo, quad-core, AMD, Intel, dual-core, CPU, PC
Reviewed on February 25, 2008Not every PC has to be a decent gaming box, but regardless, we expect them to be priced appropriately. Velocity Micro's ProMagix E2055 looks great and does well on some tests, but its gaming scores and its overall bang-for-the-buck fall short.TAGS:Velocity Micro, Intel Core 2 Duo, Dell XPS, quad-core, Nvidia GeForce, Gateway Inc., Intel, CPU, PC, games
Reviewed on January 18, 2007Thanks to its market muscle, Dell's XPS 710 H2C delivers state-of-the-art gaming power for significantly less than its boutique competition--and with (basically) identical performance. That fact and the near-silent operation granted by its brand-new cooling hardware make this desktop a CNET Editors' Choice winner.TAGS:Dell XPS, Velocity Micro, quad-core, Alienware, NVidia, motherboard, video card, chipset, Apple Computer, PC
Reviewed on August 10, 2007AVADirect's newest Core 2 Duo SLI desktop would be a great buy for a gamer looking to dominate on a current-generation title. We wish it had a quad-core chip, and we'd also rather that tweaking this configuration didn't involve choosing from such a vast array of parts. AVADirect seems to build quality PCs, including this one, but you should definitely go to its Web site knowing what you're looking for.TAGS:Velocity Micro, quad-core, Intel Core 2 Duo, dual-core, clock speed, DVD-ROM, CPU, DVD burner, games, hard drive, Intel, DVD, PC
Reviewed on January 4, 2007Widow PC's IX2 SLI is one of the fastest PCs to come through our labs. You'll have to pay for it, and the price tag is higher than that of past performance-leading PCs, but for all the love and care put into this PC, if you can afford it and you have the passion for cutting-edge game play, you'll find few other desktops that can compete with this one.TAGS:Velocity Micro, quad-core, PC
Reviewed on November 8, 2006We expect that we'll see better-looking and better-thought-out PCs with Nvidia's new GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card inside, but Polywell gets the distinction of having the first PC in our Labs with this next-gen part. And while its visuals and its power supply could use some attention, its price-performance ratio is hard to beat.TAGS:Nvidia GeForce, power supply, NVidia, Dell XPS, quad-core, card, video card, games, PC, Intel, hard drive