Computer View's

Asus G73Jh Gaming Notebook

2010-06-23T09:06:00.001+07:00

Earlier this year, we attended the Asus 2010 CES Event in Las Vegas. While there, we caught a glimpse of several upcoming notebooks the hardware giant had in store. One of the most anticipated products we saw was in the Republic of Gamers line up. Dubbed the G73JH, it possessed a list of impressive specifications and an aggressive, stealth fighter design that spoke directly to enthusiasts. Thankfully, this powerhouse of a notebook made it to our lab and we had a chance to put it through our own testing.

Ever since CES, we've been waiting to find out if the G73JH performed as good as it looked. Equally important, we aimed to determine where it fits in a market bursting at the seams with gaming laptops and desktop replacement notebooks.

We mentioned that the G73 had killer specs and here they are. At the heart of this monster is an Intel Core i7 720QM quad-core processor, clocked at 1.6GHz with Turbo Boost technology for increased single core performance (up to 2.8GHz) and Hyper-Threading for multitasking situations. We find 8GB of DDR3 RAM installed, along with 1TB of total storage, consisting of two 500GB Seagate hard drives. But the real draw is ATI's Mobility HD 5870 graphics card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory and enough pixel pushing power to feed a 17.3" screen. In addition, Asus includes a full sized keyboard, Blu-ray drive, and a 2MP webcam, and a all of this comes at a relatively affordable price point. Interested? We thought so. Read on to find out how fast the G73 really is, and if it has what it takes to be your next laptop.

asus

Notice NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 Support Notebook

2010-06-05T12:00:00.000+07:00

There's almost nothing hotter than a screamin' fast desktop replacement notebook. Sure, these machines aren't notebooks in the traditional sense of the word. If you really plan to take them on the road, you better not have been cheatin' on your sit-ups, sonny-boy.

These types of notebooks are for real men, or women, as the case may be. That said, even among desktop replacement notebooks, where the specs are strong and the benchmarks run scared, there are builds that really separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. The machine you see below here is definitely one of those. In fact, it could be argued that what you're about to drool over could very well have the fastest mobile graphics processor in the world currently residing in it. Behold, the behemoth Clevo Style Note D900; 17.3-inches of badass mobile gaming machine (relatively speaking), infused with NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 480M mobile graphics processor. That's right, Fermi in a notebook--hide the women and children...

Let's see, 450MHz GPU with 352 unified shaders and 2GB of memory, Intel Core i7 940 quad-core processor at 2.93GHz; it's no wonder the cooling setup in this thing looks like the inside of a 1U rack-mount server. It's safe to say it will run Crysis, it will blend (though perhaps with just a little lube and persuasion) but what sort of benchmark prowess are we really talking about? Here's a quick sneak peek before we get into the nitty-gritty detail of our full review, coming soon, real soon.

The Core i7 720QM in the Asus G73 listed here is at a bit of a disadvantage versus the full-fledged Core i7 940 in the D900, though CPU clock speeds are within a 100MHz of each other or so. That said, this is a GPU-intensive benchmark and it's safe to say the new GeForce GTX 480M is going to bring-it in a big way, battery life be damned. Stay tuned in the week ahead for guts and the glory.

Geforce

CyberPower Used Core i5 And Core i7 K Series CPUs To Desktops

2010-06-05T08:36:00.000+07:00

It's not too often that we hear about Intel releasing new "unlocked" CPUs, which is what makes the release of the newest Core i5 and Core i7 processors so incredible. For gamers who weren't able to spring for the ultra-expensive Core i7-980X Extreme Edition, the new K series is a great alternative.

Already offered on iBuyPower machines, CyberPower has now introduced these two chips into their gaming PC lines as well.

The Intel Core i7-875K and Intel Core i5-655 processors are now available to order on the Gamer Xtreme series of desktop PCs, and they can be paired with NVIDIA GTX or ATI 5800 series graphics. Best of all, the starting price for these new unlocked machines is just $699, so it's much easier now to buy a lower-cost system and then overclock it to gain performance of a much more expensive rig. Users with a bit of extra cash can add an Advanced Hydro Liquid Cooling with an additional number of SSD, extreme performance memory, and other peripheral components options. Each machine ships with Windows 7 64-bit, a 3-year warranty and free lifetime phone support. The real question is: will you buy in now, or wait to see what Intel delivers next?

CyberPower

Toughbook CF-31Panasonic

2010-06-04T11:58:00.000+07:00

It’s the notebook equivalent of a tank—with a force field around it. The Panasonic Toughbook CF-31 is able to withstand 70-mph winds and nearly 6 inches of blowing rain per hour. Or you can drop it from 6 feet 26 times. And while this fully rugged notebook looks the same as its predecessor on the outside, inside this Intel Core i5 machine boasts almost double the performance and increased protection without sacrificing battery life. Better yet, at $3,799, this 13-inch notebook costs about a grand less than the CF-30. That’s something budget-conscious government agencies and police forces will appreciate.

Design
The CF-31 looks very similar to its older brother, sporting the same silver-metal and black rubber design. The lid, bezel, and handle are made of a magnesium alloy bordered by a hard black plastic. The lid is supported by a pair of heavy-duty hinges and, when closed, is firmly secured to the base using a spring-loaded latch.

Measuring 11.9 x 11.5 x 2.9 inches, this isn’t a notebook designed to be slipped inside a satchel, and at 8.8 pounds, you probably wouldn’t want to. Still, its handle makes lugging around the CF-31 fairly easy. The top of the handle has a small slot to stow the included stylus.

Durability and Security
While the CF-30 met the MIL-STD-810F durability standard, the CF-31 is made of tougher stuff, and is designed to meet specifications for ingress protection (IP-65) and durability (MIL-STD-810G). That means, among other things, it can withstand operating temperatures from -20 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 to 160 degrees when turned off), and altitudes of up to 15,000 feet. It can survive 31 minutes of 70-mph wind and 5.8 inches per hour of rain blown at it, and 26 drops from 72 inches while turned off (36 inches while turned on and open). It can also withstand up to 310 pounds of pressure on its lid.

To test some of these claims, we dropped the CF-31 several times from 6 feet (turned off and closed) and 3 feet (turned on and open). We also poured 12 ounces of water on the keyboard, and stood on the lid. The machine withstood every challenge, and continued to operate normally. However, we noticed that the latches for the smaller ports would pop open after we dropped the machine.

But Mother Nature isn’t the only thing this notebook is protected against. Security options for the CF-31 include a Smart Card reader, fingerprint reader, and Trusted Platform Module (TPM) v1.2. Additionally, a concealed mode turns off or dims the screen, all LED lights, and sound at the press of a button, which is a good feature when you’re on a stakeout.

Panasonic

New Panasonic Lumix

2010-06-04T11:57:00.000+07:00

Panasonic released the newest addition to its Lumix line of high-end compact cameras. The new Lumix DMC-FX75 is a 14.1 megapixel shooter with a 24-120mm ultra-wide-angle f2.2-f5.9 lens and a 5x optical zoom. This camera can also record 720p HD video in the AVCHD (Advanced Video Coding High Definition) Lite format. Other features include a 3-inch touchscreen interface that controls most of the camera functions, a new Motion Deblur mode, Intelligent Zoom mode, and a so-called Happy Mode which increases the saturation and brightness of images in-camera.

Panasonic also announced a new 8mm/f3.5 fisheye lens for its Lumix G line of Micro Four Thirds cameras. This new lens has a 180-degree field of view. Pricing and availability for the LUMIX G Fisheye 8mm/F3.5, the H-F008, lens will be announced 30 days prior to shipping.

SECAUCUS, NJ (June 1, 2010) – Panasonic announced today the new LUMIX DMC-FX75, a super-slim digital camera that packs big features, including a 24mm ultra-wide-angle F2.2 bright LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMICRON lens with 5x optical zoom, which can be used while shooting High Definition video. The slim and stylish LUMIX FX75, a 14.1-megapixel digital camera is one of Panasonic’s high-performing hybrid models with the ability to not only take high-quality still photos, but can also record HD video in the AVCHD Lite format.

“The Panasonic LUMIX FX75’s 24mm ultra-wide-angle lens is a rare feature to have on a compact camera – especially one this small, so we are packing a lot of value and quality into this slim and stylish digital camera,” said David Briganti, Senior Product Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. “Most consumers value the benefits of a long zoom, but understanding the importance of a wide-angle isn’t as known. With a 24mm ultra-wide angle like the one on the LUMIX FX75, photographers have a wider range of composition possibilities with approximately 213% larger viewing space compared to that of a 35mm camera.”

The LUMIX FX75 can record HD video in the AVCHD Lite format, which allows almost double the recording time in HD quality compared with the conventional Motion JPEG format. When recording in AVCHD Lite, the content is perfect for viewing on an HDTV, like a Panasonic VIERA Plasma. To complement the high-quality video, the LUMIX FX75 also features Dolby Digital Creator to record high quality audio. For those users who are recording HD video to view on a computer screen, they also have the option to record in Motion JPEG, as well as WVGA (848x480) and VGA (640x480).

The LUMIX FX75 adopts full touch-screen operation, which allows for Auto Focus (AF) to quickly be set to the subject by simply touching the large 3.0-inch 230,000-dot LCD. Also, the user can click onto a subject with a single touch, and the FX75 then tracks the subject with the AF tracking feature – even when moving. The touch-screen operation is fluid and smooth – whether in record or playback mode. While recording, once the frame is composed, users can simply touch the area they want focused before pressing the shutter button. In playback mode, users can drag the image across the screen with their finger to browse the collection of photos, as though it is a page in a book.

Panasonic’s iA (Intelligent Auto) mode, a hallmark on all LUMIX digital cameras, is further advanced in the LUMIX FX75 with the addition of a new Motion Deblur mode*1 by updating the motion detection (Intelligent ISO Control) and brightness control (Intelligent Exposure) to gain the highest shutter speed possible. Combined with the outstanding brightness of the lens and the POWER O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer), the LUMIX FX75 reduces blur created from handshake or the subject moving. The iA suite of technologies include: POWER O.I.S., Face Recognition, Face Detection, AF Tracking, Intelligent ISO Control, Intelligent Scene Selector and Intelligent Exposure – all which are engaged when in the iA mode. Panasonic’s iA is also available while shooting video and include: AF Tracking, POWER O.I.S., Face Detection and Intelligent Scene Selector.

The Panasonic LUMIX FX75 features the Venus Engine HD II image processor, which helps assure superb image quality in both photo and video recording. It also incorporates Intelligent Resolution technology to perform the optimum signal processing based on the part of a picture to give a whole image outstanding, natural clearness with fine details. At the same time, the multi-task image-processing engine Venus Engine HD II supports a super-fast response time. The shutter release lag time is as short as approximately 0.005 of a second in 1-area AF, and the camera's quick response makes it easier to capture sudden, spur-of-the-moment photo opportunities together with the Sonic Speed AF.

With the Intelligent Resolution technology, three areas – outlines, detailed texture areas and soft gradation – are examined pixel by pixel and automatically detected to enhance any degradation created during the digital zoom process or in high-sensitivity shooting. The outline areas are enhanced effectively to give the edges more clarity, while simultaneously giving a moderate accent to the textured areas so they look accurately detailed. To soften gradation areas, such as a face, the increased noise reduction system of the Venus Engine HD II is applied to make it appear smoother. As a result of Intelligent Resolution, images are naturally clear and crisp in both photo and video recording. The Intelligent Resolution technology powers Panasonic’s new Intelligent Zoom feature, which extends the camera’s zoom ratio by approximately 1.3x while maintaining picture quality – and enhancing the digital zoom and making it comparable to the quality of an optical zoom. With Intelligent Zoom, the Panasonic FX75 can reach up to 6.5x.

Other features include:
Cosmetic Mode – takes portraits with the user’s favorite skin tone (soft skin, natural skin, summer look) and can add a degree of transparency of skin detail (low, standard, high), making it possible to take portraits with different skin tones, for example, look more sun-tanned.

Happy Mode – option in iA that optimizes color, saturation and brightness to make both photos and movies more vivid and true to the color of the scene you memorized.

Battery Life – the high performance Venus Engine HD II is also more energy efficient compared with the conventional Venus Engine HD, extending the battery life up to 360 shots (CIPA) on a single charge.

Panasonic

Toughbook CF-31Panasonic

2010-06-04T00:22:00.001+07:00

Panasonic

MSI Unveils R5870 Lightning 2GB Graphics Card

2010-06-03T11:55:00.001+07:00

The Computex convention in Taipei officially kicked off this morning, and that means you can expect a spate of product announcements at every turn. One of those comes from MSI, who has just announced their R5870 Lightning graphics card. Built around the same 40nm manufacturing process as other HD 5870 parts and sporting the same 2GB of RAM, MSI says they took things to a new level by using military class components, a unique cooling solution, and a voltage regulator function.

Of interest to overclockers, MSI's Lightning iteration includes a 15-phase PWM design to provide more power to the GPU and memory, as well as a built-in dual 8-pin power source interface. It's all supplemented by server grade capacitors and solid state chokes for a longer lifespan and less noise and vibration.

On the cooling front, MSI equipped the Lightning R5870 with their Twin Frozr II heatsink/fan combo. The cooling solution comes with two 8cm fans and promises to cool 50 percent better than reference designs, MSI claims.

MSI

Asus : SiBEAM WirelessHD Into G73JW And G53

2010-06-03T11:54:00.000+07:00

We recently wrapped up a review of one of Asus' hottest new mobile gaming monsters, the G73Jh. Change a single letter in that model name, and you're looking at a machine that is equipped with native WirelessHD integration, which will certainly rival Intel's own WiDi implementations in the months to come. SiBEAM and Asus jointly announced that the two would be integrating WirelessHD into a pair of Asus' notebooks, with the G73JW and G53 being the first.

WirelessHD is a growing protocol that enables high-definition signals to be sent over the air, without wires, from a device to a display. A common use is to send Blu-ray signals directly to an HDTV without an HDMI cable, but having the technology integrated into a laptop makes even more sense. Users who stumble upon a nice YouTube HD clip while surfing on the couch can then display it on the living room television for all to see with just a button press. And since SiBEAM's technology is integrated into these laptops, no USB dongle is necessary.

These two machines are the world's first to feature the technology, and SiBEAM claims that they can transmit high-quality, uncompressed 1080p/60 video in "latency free" fashion. The signals are transmitted in the infrequently used 60GHz band, so interference is a non-issue. Both machines will be available this Fall to the public, but pricing has not yet been announced.

asus

EVGA :ZOTAC With Geforce Nvdia

2010-06-01T09:03:00.001+07:00

It has been about two months since NVIDIA officially unveiled their first pair of DirectX 11 graphics cards based on the highly anticipated Fermi architecture, the flagship GeForce GTX 480 and the GeForce GTX 470. As is typically the case, when NVIDIA--or ATI for that matter-- releases a new high-end GPU, lower-end, more affordable derivatives are eventually introduced to maximize yield of the chips.

Today's launch of the new GeForce GTX 465 is just such a move. The GeForce GTX 465 features the same GF100 GPU as its higher-end cousins, the GTX 480 and GTX 470, but a few of its functional units have been disabled. The result is a somewhat less powerful, but also less expensive, Fermi-based graphics card. Take a look at the GeForce GTX 465's specifications alongside the GeForce GTX 470 and 480 below, and then read on for the full scoop...

As the specifications show, the GeForce GTX 465 is essentially a pared down GeForce GTX 470. And to see the cards side-by-side, they look nearly identical. The GeForce GTX 465, however, features fewer active Graphics Processing Clusters, fewer Streaming Multiprocessors, and hence CUDA cores. The GeForce GTX 465 also sports a narrower 256-bit memory interface, a smaller 1GB frame buffer, and fewer Texture and ROP units. The GeForce GTX 465's GPU clocks are right in-line with the 470, but it's memory clock is slightly decreased.

Ultimately ,the GeForce GTX 465 has less compute power, a lower fillrate, and less memory bandwidth than the more powerful members of the GeForce GTX 400 series, but it also requires less power and cost less. Cards from EVGA and Zotac coming up next.

Zotac

Intel Core i5-655K and Core i7-875K

2010-06-01T09:01:00.000+07:00

Over the past year, Intel has had two major desktop-oriented processor product launches for the LGA1156 socket: Lynnfield back in September and Clarkdale at CES in January. But enthusiasts with overclocking ambitions haven't had much choice. Sure, there was the Core i7-980X "Gulftown" CPU, but that was for the more extreme owners of LGA1366 motherboards. Now, however, things are changing with Intel's release of the Core i7-875K ($342 list, ) and the Core i5-655K ($216 list, ).

If the names sound vaguely familiar, they should. The models are functionally identical to the Lynnfield-based Core i7-870 and the Clarkdale Core i5-650-the primary difference being these chips' unlocked multipliers. Well, and their prices: the Core i5-655K lists for $216, as opposed to the Core i5-650's $176; and the Core i7-875K lists for $342 (compared to the regular Core i7-870's $562).

Otherwise, both the CPUs boast a fairly standard range of Intel features, including Turbo Boost (a sort of automatic overclocking that dynamically increases clock speed when you have the headroom for it), Hyper-Threading for doubling the number of threads in applications that support it, Intel Smart Cache, an integrated dual-channel DDR-1333 memory controller (with support for XMP memory), and compatibility with all P55-, H57, and H55-based chipsets. The Core i7-875K also features additional processor instructions for improving performance with AES encryption and decryption.

Both the new CPUs will be launching at Computex in Taiwan next week, but we got our hands on both ahead of time and tested them to see just how well they lived up to their overclocking promise.

Intel

HP Pavilion dm4

2010-06-01T08:59:00.000+07:00

Like the rest of the industry, HP has taken a huge liking to metals. So much so, that its entire line of laptops (netbooks not included) has been updated with this design material. The HP Pavilion dm4 ($905 direct) is not only covered in them, but it's one of the lightest laptops in the 14-inch category, and yet it toppled the competition in speed tests. Its major flaw is the gesture-enabled touchpad, which proved to be more bothersome than helpful.

Design
Metals used to be reserved for HP's luxury and business enterprise laptops, such as the HP Envy 13 ($1,899 direct, ) and the HP EliteBook 2540p ($1,629 direct, ). Now, these materials, which have been a mark of design excellence, are finding their way into affordable mainstream laptops. The Pavilion dm4's chassis is similar to that of the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz) ($1,199 direct, ), only darker in color and adorned with imprints. This imprinting technology is carried over from the previous line, but in a different manner: All the patterns are now laser-etched on to the cover, similar to engravings.

Since aluminum metals are easier to mold than plastics, the dm4 measures less than a 1-inch thick, which is much thinner than its predecessor—the Pavilion dv4-2153cl ($749.99 list, ). And they're lightweight by nature: At 4.4 pounds, the dm4 is one of the lightest laptops in its class. By comparison, the 4.8-pound Dell Inspiron 1464 ($670.00 direct, ), 4.9-pound Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 ($1,049.00 direct, ), and even the smaller 4.7-pound Asus U30Jc-1A ($899.00 street, ) are considerably heavier.

The 14.5-inch widescreen is generic at best, which isn't any brighter or sharper than the one found on the Dell 1464 or Asus U30Jc-1A. Its resolution—1,366 by 768—is also par for the course. This is one area where the Envy line has the advantage: The Envy 14 (review coming shortly) can scale to higher resolutions, such as 1,600-by-900 (900p). Gone are the traditional keyboards, with which keys are interconnected, and in are the trendier-looking chiclet keys. The full size keyboard on the dm4 is as pleasing to type on as the one on the MacBook Pro 13-inch. The one flaw that I couldn't ignore is the gesture-enabled touchpad. It has built-in mouse buttons, similar to the clicking touchpad found in the MacBook Pros, except this one didn't deliver on the multi-touch features. In fact, these gestures are easily triggered by a second finger, causing the cursor to jump, invoke the scrolling gesture, or other multi-touch features. Luckily, you can turn these features off in the mouse settings, under the Synaptic panel.

Features
Features are respectable for a 14-inch laptop, though its two USB ports are meager. In contrast, the Dell 1464 and the Lenovo Y460 ship with 3 and 4 USB ports, respectively. The dedicated eSATA port could have been the 3rd USB port, as many laptops these days combine the two technologies. Alas, the dm4's isn't a combo port. As with many of its peers, you can find a built-in dual-layer DVD burner and an HDMI port, in case you want to stream movies to an HDTV. A fingerprint reader, which is a rare find in a consumer laptop, is located on top of the right palm rest. To its credit, the dm4 does come with a fast hard drive (7,200rpm), even though the capacity (320GB) is in line with everyone else.

Performance
HP Pavilion dm4 The dm4 is hardly a slouch. A 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor is a workhorse in tasks such as video encoding. The dm4's score of 47 seconds on our Windows Media Encoder test was better than the Dell 1464 (59 seconds) and Asus U30Jc-1A (54 seconds). Overall tests like PCMark Vantage (6,554) and Cinbench R10 (8,156), the dm4 earned top marks, benefiting from the faster hard drive and 4GB of DDR3 memory.

A better graphics chip, like the one found in the Lenovo Y460 and Asus U30Jc-1A, could have taken performance to another level. Both of the dm4's competitors have two graphics chips—one discrete, one integrated—arranged so that one is dedicated to 3D games and HD videos and the other to battery endurance.

Because the dm4 doesn't have a power-hungry graphics chip, it did very well in battery tests. In MobileMark 2007, its 62WH (6-cell) battery drained in 6 hours 46 minutes. Still, it couldn't beat the Asus U30Jc-1A (8 hours flat), since Asus threw in a humongous 8-cell, 84WH battery.

The HP Pavilion dm4 is as gorgeous as it is light. It packs a huge performance punch, thanks to an Intel Core i5 processors and speedy hard drive. The only performance enhancement it could have benefited from is a discrete graphics chip that switches with its integrated one, like that found in the Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 and Editors' Choice Asus U30Jc-1A. And I would disable the multi-touch features in your mouse settings before attempting anything with this laptop.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS
Check out the test scores for the HP Pavilion dm4

Asus EeeTop PC ET1602

2010-06-01T08:58:00.000+07:00

Asustek Computer on Monday announced two tablets Pad Eee running of Windows software and reader-e, Tablet EeePC
The EeeTop ET1602pad Pad sports a touchscreen 12 inches and have Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium operating system and Intel Atom processor N270 + 945 GSE in it.

This device is intended for Internet access, watch videos, and more use of multimedia, computing and as a reader-e, the company said in a press release.
One can pad the data input device using on-screen keyboard or by typing on the Eee keyboard pad to the dock. Asustek said the device can run for 10-hours before needing a recharge.

Small in size.Big In Features
The EeeTop PC may have the tiny footprint of a slim LCD monitor, but it is massive in terms of features. Among its rich complement of features are Wi-Fi 802.11n connectivity for speedy and reliable Internet access, and an integrated 1.3 megapixel web camera and microphone for convenient web conferencing.

ASUS

P7F7-E WS

2010-06-01T01:00:00.002+07:00

Workstation Engine Essential in Your Professional Studio
The ASUS Workstation Series is the ideal foundation for a powerful PC. It delivers awesome power, dependable performance and unparallel multiple I/O scalability for the most demanding tasks and future upgrades. Also, it provide extreme power saving experience with EUP 6 Engine function.

The ASUS Workstation Series intelligently reduces operation noise and dissipates heat through advanced and environmentally friendly methods to accommodate user needs. Don´t change yourself for a computer. Instead, let ASUS Workstation Series improves the quality of your work and life.

ASUS Workstation Exclusive Features
Sufficient IO bandwidth for 3 way and 2 way SLI
The Best Graphic Performance you Ever have
The 4 PCIe run on the speed of quad x8 or dual x16 links gives you the most reliable 3-Way SLI graphic performance you ever have when you are engaged in Mechanical / Architecture / Interior / Aircraft / Audio / Video Design or when you are playing games in leisure time.Besides, P7F7-E WS SuperComputer provide you the fastest 2-Way SLI graphic performance when you install Geforce graphic cards in the two blue PCIe x16 lots which can work at 16 links.

DDR3 ECC memory and embedded 6 memory slots support

The P7F7-E WS SuperComputer can support both DDR3 non-ECC and ECC un-buffered memory.ECC stands for "Error Correction Codes" and is a method used to detect and correct errors introduced during storage or transmission of data.Embedded with six memory slots, the motherboard can accommodate up to 16GB of DDR3 memory. The flexible options include installing four 4GB modules or two 4GB modules and two 2GB modules. As the price of 2GB modules is 15% less than 4GB modules, the ASUS P7F7-E WS SuperComputer provides the flexibility to get the most RAM at the lowest cost (Please check memory QVL on website) .

Diag. LED
Diag. LED checks key components (CPU, DRAM, VGA card, and HDD) in sequence during motherboard booting process. If an error is found, the LED next to the error device will continue lighting until the problem is solved. This usr-friendly design provides an intuitional way to locate the root problem within a second.
ASUS SASsaby Card Support

This motherboard is fully compatible with ASUS SAS card (the SASsaby card series, optional). Faster, safer and more stable, SAS will provide users with a better choice for storage expansion and upgrade needs.
CUDA parallel computing power supported

The motherboard will achieve outstanding and dependable performance in the role of a Personal Supercomputer when working in tangent with discrete CUDA technology—providing unprecedented return on investment. Users can count on up to 4 Tesla cards with Clarkdale CPU which is built with on-board graphic chipset, that are plugged into P7F7-E WS SuperComputer for intensive parallel computing on tons of data, which delivers nearly 4 teraflops of performance. It is the best choice to work as a personal supercomputer on your desk instead of a computer cluster in a room.

ASUS Heartbeat
Brightly and vividly lighting LEDs shine around the ASUS brand name on the motherboard after successful booting process. With the breath-like deep blue lighting shining in regular tempo, ASUS Heartbeat makes the motherboard as vivid as life.

G.P. Diagnosis Card (bundled)
Bundled with the P7F7-E WS SuperComputer motherboard, the G.P. Diagnosis card assists users in system checking by effortlessly and quickly providing precise system checks right after they switch on their PCs.
CPU, Chipset and Graphics features

LGA1156 Intel® Lynnfield Processor Ready
This motherboard supports the latest Intel® Lynnfield and Clarkdale processors in LGA1156 package, which has memory and PCI Express controller integrated to support 2-channel (6 DIMMs) DDR3 memory and 16 PCI Express 2.0 lanes providing higher graphics performance. Moreover, Intel® Clarkdale integrated Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) processors which goes with Intel® 3450 chipset with VGA out can bring you to the whole new experience of the next generation VGA performance. It also provides separated 3D, 2D and Video Engines to execute different graphic control in hardware.

SLI Technology
indel cpuNVIDIA SLI™ (Scalable Link Interface) takes advantage of the increased bandwidth of the PCI Express bus architecture and features intelligent hardware and software that allows two GPUs to efficiently work together to deliver earth-shattering, scalable performance. For some applications nearly 2X performance! (From www.NVIDIA.com)

CUDA Technology
NVIDIA® CUDA™ is a general purpose parallel computing architecture that leverages the parallel compute engine in NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) to solve many complex computational problems in a fraction of the time required on a CPU.With over 100 million CUDA-enabled GPUs sold to date, thousands of software developers are already using the free CUDA software development tools to solve problems in a variety of professional and home applications – from video and audio processing and physics simulations, to oil and gas exploration, product design, medical imaging, and scientific research (From www.NVIDIA.com).

Quad-GPU SLI and Quad-GPU CrossFireX Support!
Flexible Multi-GPU solutions, Your Weapon of Choice!
P7F7-E WS SuperComputer brings you the multi-GPU choice of either SLI™ or CrossFireX. The motherboard features the most powerful Intel 3450 platform to optimize PCIe allocation in multiple GPU configurations. Expect a brand-new gaming style you’ve never experienced before!
Intel 3450

The Intel® 3450 Express Chipset is the latest one-chipset design to support latest 1156 socket Intel® Xeon® / Core™ i7/Core™ i5/Core ™ i3/Pentium™ Processors. Intel® 3450 provides IT a way to better discover, heal, and protect their networked computing assets by utilizing Intel® Active Management Technology 6.0 and Intel® Remote PC Assist Technology for Business.

PCIe 2.0
indel cpuThis motherboard supports the latest PCIe 2.0 devices for double speed and bandwidth which enhances system performance.

CrossFireX technology
ATI CrossFireX™ is the ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform. Enabling game-dominating power, ATI CrossFireX technology enables two or more discrete graphics processors to work together to improve system performance. For The Ultimate Visual Experience™, be sure to select ATI CrossFireX ready motherboards for AMD and Intel® processors and multiple ATI Radeon™ HD graphics cards(From www.amd.com)

Memory Features
Dual-Channel DDR3 2000(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 support
The motherboard supports DDR3 memory that features data transfer rates of 2000(O.C.) / 1600 /1333 / 1066 MHz to meet the higher bandwidth requirements of the latest 3D graphics, multimedia, and Internet applications. The dual-channel DDR3 architecture enlarges the bandwidth of your system memory to boost system performance.

VGA Output Support
DVI Support
(Digital Visual Interface) provides high visual quality of digital display devices such as LCD monitor. The interface of this motherboard supports dual VGA output both DVI-I and RGB.
Future Transfer Technology
True USB 3.0 Support

Unique PCIe x4 Bridge Chip for Ultra Performance
Experience ultra-fast data transfers at 4.8Gbps with USB 3.0—the latest connectivity standard. Built to connect easily with next generation components and peripherals, USB 3.0 transfers data 10X faster and is also backward compatible with USB 2.0 components.
Dual IEEE 1394b Support

IEEE 1394b interface provides high speed digital interface for audio/video appliances such as digital television, digital video camcorders, storage peripherals & other PC portable devices. The full IEEE 1394b specification supports data rates up to 400 Mbps—doubling the previous IEEE 1394a speeds.
True SATA 6Gb/s Support

Unique PCIe x4 Bridge Chip for Ultra Performance
Supporting next-generation Serial ATA (SATA) storage interface, this motherboard delivers up to 6.0Gb/s data transfer rates. Additionally, get enhanced scalability, faster data retrieval, double the bandwidth of current bus systems.
ASUS Xtreme Design - Hybrid Precessor
ASUS TurboV EVO

Ultimate O.C. Processor
Whether novice or enthusiast, TurboV Evo satisfies overclockers of any level. Intelligently push systems to the fastest, stable clock speeds with Auto-Tuning. Turbo Key boosts performance with a simple touch, while TurboV offers additional advanced options for breaking those records!
Auto Tuning

Auto System Level Up
Achieve extreme yet stable overclocking results automatically with Auto Tuning! With built-in stability testing, Auto Tuning lets even beginners improve performance with no additional cost.
ASUS GPU Boost

Instant iGPU Level Up!
GPU Boost overclocks the integrated GPU in real time for the best graphics performance. User-friendly UI facilitates flexible frequency and voltage adjustments. Its ability to deliver multiple overclocking profiles also provides rapid and stable system-level upgrades.
ASUS Xtreme Design - Hybrid Phase
ASUS Hybrid 16+3 Phase Power Design

The groundbreaking Hybrid 16+3 phase VRM design is brought to the ASUS motherboards. Hybrid 16+3 phase power design, 16-phase for vCore and extra 3-phase for Memory controller inside CPU, can provide the highest power efficiency, and hence generates less heat to effectively enhance the overclocking capability. With the high quality power components such as low RDS (on) MOSFETs, Ferrite core chokes with lower hysteresis loss and 100% Japan-made high quality conductive polymer capacitors, ASUS Hybrid 16+3 phase VRM design also ensure longer component life and minimum power loss.
T.Probe

Leading Active Cooling Technology
The T.Probe microchip detects and balances power phase loads and temperatures real-time. With optimal power phase functions, components run cooler and extend system lifespan.
ASUS Xtreme Design - Hybrid OS
ASUS Express Gate SSD

Instant Online! Instant Fun!
Express Gate SSD is an ASUS exclusive OS that provides you with quick access to the Internet and key applications before entering the Windows® OS.
ASUS Exclusive Features
ASUS EPU

System Level Energy Saving
The new ASUS EPU - the world's first power saving engine, has been upgraded to a new six engine version, which provides total system power savings by detecting current PC loadings and intelligently moderating power in real-time. With auto phase switching for components (which includes the CPU, VGA card, memory, chipset, drives and system fan), the EPU automatically provides the most appropriate power usage via intelligent acceleration and overclocking - helping save power and money.
MemOK!

Any Memory is A-OK!
MemOK! quickly ensures memory boot compatibility. This remarkable memory rescue tool requires a mere push of a button to patch memory issues. MemOK! determines failsafe settings and dramatically improves your system boot success. Get your system up and running in no time!
ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution

Up to 20°C(36°F) Cooler - Stack Cool 3+
Up to 20°C(36°F) Cooler - Stack Cool 3+ Effective Fanless Heat Dissipation at 0dB
Stack Cool 3+ is a fanless cooling solution offered exclusively by ASUS. It effectively and noiselessly transfers heat generated by the critical components to the other side of the specially designed PCB (printed circuit board) for effective heat dissipation - making temperatures cooler by up to 20°C.
Fan Xpert

PCI2Active Quiet & Cool
ASUS Fan Xpert intelligently allows users to adjust both the CPU and chassis fan speed according to different ambient temperature , which is caused by different climate conditions in different geographic regions and system loading.Built-in variety of useful profiles offer flexible controls of fan speed to achieve a quiet and cool environment.
ASUS Fanless Design - Heat-pipe solution

The Heat Pipe design effectively directs the vCore area heat to the heatsink near the back IO ports, where it can be carried away by existing airflow from CPU fan or bundled optional fan. The purpose of the innovative heat pipe design on this motherboard is that the groundbreaking fanless design does not have lifetime problems as a chipset fan does. The Heat Pipe design is the most reliable fanless thermal solution to date.
ASUS Crystal Sound
10-channel Audio

Absolute Pitch BD 192/24 featuring ENVY HD - 10-channel Audio Feel the Prodigious Multi-channel BD Sensation
ENVY HD featuring prodigious 10 high definition audio, fine-textured graphic user interface simply brings the professional surround acoustic level to the PC sound industry. Also, Absolute Pitch BD192/24 delivers 192khz/24bit Hi-Fi BD lossless, extreme fidelity sound to bring true BD audio technology to the home theater PC.
Noise Filter

Eliminate background noise while recording
This feature detects repetitive and stationary noises like computer fans, air conditioners, and other background noises then eliminates it in the incoming audio stream while recording.
DTS

DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC
DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC delivers exceptional 5.1 surround experience through the most common PC audio setups - your existing stereo speakers or headphones. In addition to virtual surround, “Bass enhancement” provides stronger low frequency bass sound, and “Voice clarification” provides clear human dialogue even with loud background sound. With these technologies, you may experience a better home-theater audio with ease.
ASUS EZ DIY
ASUS Q-Design

DIY quickly, DIY easily!
ASUS Q-Design enhances your DIY experience. All of Q-LED, Q-Slot and Q-DIMM design speed up and simplify the DIY process!

Q- Shield
PCI2Easy and Comfortable Installations
The specially designed ASUS Q-Shield does without the usual "fingers" - making it convenient and easy to install. With better electric conductivity, it ideally protects your motherboard against static electricity and shields it against Electronic Magnetic Interference (EMI).
O.C. Profile

PCI2Conveniently store or load multiple BIOS settings
Freely share and distribute favorite overclocking settings. The motherboard features the ASUS O.C. Profile that allows users to conveniently store or load multiple BIOS settings. The BIOS settings can be stored in the CMOS or a separate file, giving users freedom to share and distribute their favorite overclocking settings.
Q-Connector

PCI2Make connection quick and accurate!
The ASUS Q-Connector allows you to connect or disconnect chassis front panel cables in one easy step with one complete module. This unique adapter eliminates the trouble of plugging in one cable at a time, making connection quick and accurate.
EZ-Flash 2

PCI2Simply update BIOS from a USB flash disk before entering the OS
EZ Flash 2 is a user-friendly BIOS update utility. Simply launch this tool and update BIOS from a USB flash disk before entering the OS. You can update your BIOS only in a few clicks without preparing an additional floppy diskette or using an OS-based flash utility.
Industry Standard
S/PDIF-out on Back I/O Port

This motherboard provides convenient connectivity to external home theater audio systems via coaxial and optical S/PDIF-out (SONY-PHILIPS Digital Interface) jacks. It allows to transfer digital audio without converting to analog format and keeps the best signal quality.
RoHS

GreenASUS
The motherboard and its packaging comply with the European Union´s Restriction on the use of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). This is in line with the ASUS vision of creating environment-friendly and recyclable products and packaging to safeguard consumers´ health while minimizing the impact on the environment.

Asus

Sierra Wireless Overdrive

2010-05-31T08:37:00.001+07:00

If you're like me, you need to be connected to the Internet constantly, on multiple devices, and at the highest speeds possible. Wi-Fi is great for connecting from places like home, work, and local coffee spots. But when I'm on the road, finding usable Wi-Fi hotspots for connecting my wireless devices is a challenge, and I often use (or wish I could use) cellular data service instead.

Sprint’s Overdrive 3G/4G mobile hotspot device (made by Sierra Wireless) connects to Sprint’s cellular network and then forms a miniature Wi-Fi zone for other devices to connect to. The battery-powered Overdrive looks like an unusually thick coffee coaster; it fits easily in your shirt pocket and can share your cellular data connection with up to five Wi-Fi-capable devices.

The Overdrive is the latest in a series of devices that can create mobile Wi-Fi hotspots. Others include Novatel’s popular MiFi, the Cradlepoint PHS300, and some uberphones such as the Pre on Verizon.

Unlike the others, the Overdrive is capable of supercharging its mobile hotspot with 4G WiMax--which claims to offer a tenfold increase in performance over 3G. When the Overdrive can't connect with a 4G network, it automatically reverts to Sprint’s 3G or 2G service, depending on what's available.

Sprint (through its partner Clearwire) has deployed 4G WiMax in 28 cities and will offer the service in at least 56 cities by the end of 2010.

I traveled with an Overdrive through several of Sprint’s 4G and 3G cities, along with a couple of laptops and a gaggle of smart devices--an iPhone 3GS, an iPad, a Motorola Droid, and an HTC Hero. I often stowed the Overdrive conveniently in my coat pocket or in my backpack, and let it work its magic from there.

If you can configure your home Wi-Fi router, you'll find that the Overdrive is a snap to set up by comparison. A simple yet comprehensive browser interface guides you through configuration and setup.

An external LCD on the Overdrive delivers key status messages. If you like, you can make it display your Wi-Fi password. (I tend to forget mine, so I value the quick reminder.)

Unfortunately, the device’s single power/control button was sometimes slow to respond in my hands-on testing, leading to uncertainty as to whether it was responding at all. Another drawback: The Overdrive took a full minute to boot up.

The device comes equipped with GPS to display the unit’s position in Google Maps, and with a microSD card that enables you to share files between Wi-Fi-attached devices. Ultimately, though, the microSD storage isn't as convenient as using a simple USB memory stick to move files.

During my tests in Sprint 4G cities, the Overdrive remained in 4G mode about 80 percent of the time. When I used the Overdrive to connect my laptop near the city centers of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, I saw download speeds of around 3.2 megabits per second, and upload speeds of 400 kilobits per second.

Sprint promises peak 4G download speeds of up to 10 mbps, with average speeds in the range of 3 mbps to 6 mbps. In Novarum’s 13-city wireless broadband performance tests conducted in January 2010, Sprint’s 4G network delivered average download speeds of between 2 mbps and 4 mbps, with occasional higher bursts.

In my tests with the Overdrive, I set the device to switch automatically between 4G and 3G service, with a preference for 4G (the default setting). Moving to 3G from 4G was quick and seamless; but the unit needs between 30 and 60 seconds to jump from 3G service to 4G service.

When the device was stationary, the 3G-to-4G shift didn't pose any special problems (aside from the time); but once when it was in motion aboard the Acela train from Washington, D.C., passing through Baltimore (a Sprint 4G city), the Overdrive couldn't seem to decide between the two wireless modes (possibly because of the speed of the train and changing cell zones) and communications ceased. Only when we passed out of Baltimore’s 4G footprint did the Overdrive settle on 3G service and restore communications.

The Overdrive's performance with my smartphones and iPad was very different from its performance with my laptop. 4G download speeds on the iPhone, iPad, Droid, and Hero were substantially worse than the corresponding speeds on my Overdrive-connected laptop.

In fact, in my tests, the IPhone and iPad registered faster speeds when connected via their internal 3G radios over AT&T’s much-improved 3G network than when connected via the Overdrive to Sprint's 4G network. So using the Overdrive rather than the internal 3G radio to connect those devices seems pointless. (I should note, though, that the latest Overdrive firmware update substantially improved iPhone’s performance over the hotspot.)

For the Droid and the Hero (which normally connect over Verizon's and T-Mobile's somewhat slower 3G networks), the Overdrive boosted performance by about 50 percent. Whether that improvement justifies buying the extra Sprint contract is debatable, and depends entirely on the customer.

In 3G-only cities, performance for all devices drops to Sprint’s reliable but somewhat leisurely 3G speeds, which our 13-city speed tests showed to be marginally slower than Verizon’s and markedly slower than AT&T’s.

Like other mobile hotspot devices, the Overdrive has its own battery, which you can recharge via miniUSB connected either to a PC or to a power outlet using a plug-in adapter. As a traveler I like to keep the number of chargers I carry to a minimum, so I prefer to recharge the Overdrive from my laptop.

The Overdrive seems to use more power when connecting to 4G than it does when connected to 3G. The device's battery life was about 4 hours on 3G and about 3 hours on 4G. Recharging it from a fully discharged state took between 2 and 3 hours using the USB cable, but less than an hour using the plug-in adapter.

The unit has a list price of $350, but Sprint’s current rebates bring the upfront net cost to $99 when tied to a two-year contract with unlimited 4G data but with a 5GB-per-month cap on 3G data for $60 per month. These prices are the same as for single laptop USB network adapters, but at least you can share the bandwidth among several devices.

For power laptop users, the Overdrive is a godsend. In 4G cities, it delivers substantially higher performance (often two or three times higher) than that generally available from hotel or coffee shop Wi-Fi. And for frequent travelers, offsetting hotel Wi-Fi charges easily justifies the cost of the Sprint contract. The Overdrive has a spot in my travel bag for precisely these reasons.

Samsung Q1U-XP

2010-05-31T08:20:00.000+07:00

Imagine endless possibilities from an Ultra Mobile PC than you ever thought possible.
Equipped with a new split-QWERTY built-in keypad, a high-speed, Intel Ultra Mobile processor and exceptional battery life, the SAMSUNG Q1 Ultra provides ultimate accessibility and versatility for all your on-the-go computing needs. Weighing in at no more than 1.5 lbs.

The Q1U-XP reflects the latest in mobile technology integration by showcasing its new ultra-bright LED backlit touch screen LCD. Check your inbox, watch movies, edit a spreadsheet, play music, update your files, take photos, have a video chat, etc. With a Q1 Ultra UMPC, more choices mean you never have to settle.

Samsung

Omnia® II (SCH-i920)

2010-05-31T08:11:00.000+07:00

Why just have it all when you can have it all faster? The Samsung Omnia® II has the fastest text capability of any touchscreen device so you can easily and accurately type emails, send texts or post to blogs and social sites at speeds like no other touchscreen phone.

And the state-of-the-art multimedia features and breathtaking AMOLED screen technology lets you create or edit videos in stunning clarity. It also has a 5.0 megapixel camera/camcorder for vibrant photos and videos, and one of the largest wide screen displays ever at 3.7". The Omnia® II, it's" all the features you want" at the speed you need.

Multifaceted Multimedia Experience
Play music while you browse the web with the optimized Opera 9.5 web browser. Edit pictures and videos to create your own slide shows or movies then show them on the big screen with the Omnia® II's TV-Out function. Chill out while listening to your favorite FM radio station. Stay up to date with all your social networking sites. Download and watch videos in DivX quality. Stay connected with your email (work and personal). Shop online. Keep your calendar sync'd. Play games in your down time, and look great doing it. All from the Omnia® II.

Virtual User Guide
What is a Virtual User Guide?
• A new type of manual
• Green and easy-to-use
• A "real page turner"..

In an effort to provide our customers with the latest in technology and the best user-experience, we've provided an new environmental-friendly alternative to a printed paper guide. Virtual Guides leverage the latest innovations in Web technology to give you a dynamic alternative to "printed paper". Take the next step in going green...
*best viewed by Internet Explorer 7 (or higher) or Firefox 3 (or higher)

Optimized Messaging Experience
Swype provides a faster and easier way to input text. With one continuous finger or stylus motion across the screen keypad, the patented technology enables users to input words faster and easier than other data input methods at up to 50 words per minute.

Bluetooth®
Integrated Bluetooth® Wireless Technology means you can wirelessly connect to Bluetooth®-enabled headsets and hands-free car kits. Bluetooth Wireless Technology supports your printer, wireless mouse, data transfer, headset, and allows you to listen to your favorite music.

Tips and Tricks
Maximize your Omnia® ll experience with these quick feature videos. Learn about the Opera Browser, Social Networking, the Swype feature and much more.

One Touch Access to Widgets
The Omnia® II offers tons of widgets to help you get organized and be entertained, all accessible through widgets that live on the versatile Widget Bar or that can be downloaded from the Widget Store.

Samsung

Sprint U301 USB Modem

2010-05-31T08:00:00.000+07:00

I need to be able to create and send content from wherever I am. For that, I need my laptop, and it has to be connected to the Internet at high speed. Connecting over Wi-Fi usually does the job--but when I’m on the road, locating a Wi-Fi connection can be a challenge.

I find myself using (or wishing I could use) cellular data service. Franklin’s U301 USB modem allows you to do that, and adds the possibility of connecting to faster 4G networks where they are available.

Though the unit has a list price of $300 (as of May 25, 2010), Sprint's current online rebates make the item free if the purchase is tied to a two-year contract with unlimited 4G data ($60 per month).

In general, 3G cellular service is around half as fast as the DSL-like speeds (downloads at about 1 megabit per second) of a typical Starbucks Wi-Fi connection. But 4G service (in our experience) can pump out download speeds in the 2 to 4 mbps range, with bursts of up to 8 mbps.

During the 2010 wireless performance tests that my firm, Novarum, conducted with PCWorld, I tested the speed of the Clearwire/Sprint 4G network from numerous locations in Baltimore, Portland, and Seattle, using the U301 3G/4G modem to connect a Windows 7 laptop.

In those tests I found the U301’s setup routine easy and straightforward. The modem comes with a CD, which takes you through a Windows wizard to install a driver and a connection utility. You use the connection utility to set communications parameters (“3G only,” “4G only,” or “best available”) and to initiate the connection process. I encountered only one hitch: The Windows 7 machine already had a Sprint 3G modem installed, and the new 4G modem software I was trying to install conflicted with it. After I completely removed the old modem software, I was able to install the new U301 software. If Sprint had maintained some compatibility between generations of USB modem software, this problem could have been avoided.
Trouble on the Upshift

Once installed, the modem software was clean and simple to use. I set the unit to switch automatically between 4G and 3G service, with a preference for 4G (the default setting); this meant that the U301 was supposed to use 4G service when available, and fall back to 3G service only when it could detect no 4G. When the modem could detect neither 4G nor 3G service, it was to attempt to find 2G (1xRTT) CDMA service--in 60 tests, however, this happened only once.

During my tests, when the 4G signal faded, the U301 downshifted smoothly to 3G mode. I found, though, that the U301 was reluctant to move from 3G back up to 4G when the faster network again became available. In fact, I usually found it easier to pop the modem from the USB slot and reinsert it; upon reinsertion the modem would automatically launch the utility, searching for new 4G service.

In Sprint 4G cities the U301 was in 4G mode an impressive 80 percent of the time, and during the other 20 percent it always found 3G coverage (with one exception). As Clearwire continues enhancing its 4G network, that 80 percent coverage will likely improve in the same way that 3G coverage has grown to replace 2G coverage.
Faster, but Not Quite Up to ExpectationsWhen the U301 tapped in to the 4G signal, it registered some very fast speeds. For the Novarum and PCWorld tests of 2010, I traveled with an assortment of USB modems from all the major carriers--3G USB modems from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. I put each device through the same tests (in the same locations at roughly the same times), so that I could make comparisons between the performance of the 3G gear and that of the Sprint U301 4G modem.

Sprint’s 4G service (on the Clearwire network) showed average download speeds of about 2.4 mbps. The 3G networks of Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon averaged 0.8 mbps (or 800 kilobits per second), while AT&T’s 3G service had average download speeds of 1.4 mbps.

Sprint promises 4G download speeds of between 3 and 6 mbps, with peak speeds of up to 10 mbps. Our Novarum laptop-based tests (using the U301 modem) in January 2010 measured something less than that: download speeds averaging 2 to 4 mbps, with occasional higher bursts up to 8 mbps. Only 19 percent of our tests yielded downstream throughput higher than 4 mbps, and the median speed (half our locations were faster, half were slower) download speed was about 1.5 mbps--the same median speed as the AT&T 3G service.

In daily use, I would expect average download speeds in the 2 to 3 mbps range with a median speed of less than 2 mbps. These lower-than-expected speeds are the result of the immaturity of 4G networks, not the fault of the U301 modem. As Clearwire installs more 4G cell sites to its network, performance is likely to improve.

Sprint is the current leader in deploying 4G in the United States, having rolled out WiMax-based 4G (via its partner ClearwWire) in about 28 U.S. cities with the promise of 80 to 90 by the end of 2010. If Sprint begins delivering on the promised typical downstream performance of between 4 and 6 mbps with bursts as high as 10 mbps, the service will be five times the speed of typical Starbucks Wi-Fi, will exceed wired DSL, and will rival most cable modem Internet services.

Sprint

Falcon Northwest Talon

2010-05-30T22:18:00.000+07:00

Want Falcon wicked fast but do not want to spend your budjet?

Talon offers no graphics card making triple or multiple "" Extreme Edition components, but they are much the same feature options., In a beautiful black steel & aluminum chassis and line painting interesting costumes, t's Falcon quality for a great price.

Processor: Intel®Core™ i5 & i7 800 Series
Graphics: NVIDIA SLI™ Support, AMD/ATI CrossfireX™ Support
Memory : 16 GB DDR3 max
Hard Drives: 4 internal hard drive bays
Optical Drives: 2 External optical drive bays

Our latest "Version 3" case for the Talon has added a bold new look - brushed black anodized aluminum with grey mesh grills. The power-on indicator is a soft white bar across the top with a blue hard disk indicator in it. A single power button adorns the front, and on top is a full complement of upfront ports for easy access: 2 USB, firewire, headphone and microphone jacks. Behind the front door, two large 120mm fans provide a huge amount of cooling.

Falcon

Samsung R430-Black

2010-05-30T09:20:00.000+07:00

The feature-rich, comfortably priced Samsung R430 features a stunning, glass-like finish over a black-silver gradation. You’ll never get tired of looking at it. And when you open it up, its 14" LED-backlit LCD gives you bright, colorful high-definition images.

The 16:9 widescreen displays widescreen DVD movies with no black bars. Gaming is equally impressive, with HD audio to enhance your experience. When it’s time to work, Windows® 7 Home Premium helps you navigate your favorite applications with ease. Connections include HDMI, and the touchpad features a lighted LED edge, to add even more style to your R430.

More Style, Less Fuss
As affordable as it is powerful, the ultra-stylish R430 delivers true value, combining cool features with a distinctive design. Built to withstand bumps and knocks, the R430 comes with a robust, durable casing designed to keep its contents safe and sound as well as reduce the risk of scratches and fingerprints. It's exactly what you're looking for-high-end design and high performance innovation.

Ultra Mobility
The R430 incorporates advanced communications technologies, including 802.11bgn wireless, to provide high-speed access to the Internet and your data anytime and anywhere.

Simple Data Sharing
With a host of advanced connectivity tools, including a 3 - in - 1 memory card reader, 3 USB 2.0 and HDMI / VGA ports, you can seamlessly move data from your digital camera, camcorder, MP3 player or PDA straight to your notebook.

HD Optimized Graphics Performance
With a 16:9 aspect ratio, the R430 provides sharper, brighter images and the most accurate representation of High Definition (HD) video content and games. So you can watch true HD movies in 16:9 widesceen format that fits the full size of the screen, without any black bands. See images that are fine-tuned with the sharpest details and boldest colors on a 14" HD LED display.

Samsung Recovery Solution
Peace of mind is here in the form of Samsung’s Recovery Solution. It automatically and regularly backs up your PC data to the hard drive. So you can quit worrying and quit manually backing up your files.

Green Report Card
• EPEAT Gold Rated
• RoHS Compliant
• ENERGY STAR qualified
• LED Backlit Screen
Features and specifications are subject to change without prior notification.

SAMSUNG

MSI X420

2010-05-30T09:15:00.000+07:00

Intel® Core™2 Duo processor
Experience energy-efficient performance with the Intel® Core™2 Duo mobile processor. Become a master of multi-tasking with the ability to run multiple applications simultaneously without slowing down.

You’ll enjoy outstanding performance when encoding your HD videos or running other intensive multimedia applications.

Exclusive GPU Boost technology
The X420 incorporates exclusive GPU Boost technology, to easily achieve the perfect balance of performance and battery life for your needs.

When you need to run graphics-intensive applications, just press the “3D” hot key, the system intelligently detects this and switches on the discrete GPU’s 3D mode, fully unleashing the X420’s graphics might.
When handling routine tasks on pressing “battery” hot key, the system shifts to the power-saving mode using the system’s integrated graphics to extend battery life.
Flexible GPU Boost technology can allow you to transparently gain the benefits of both GPUs in the X420, whatever you’re actually doing.

Super-long battery life
X420 incorporates MSI’s exclusive ECO Engine power management system, allowing you to select your usage scenario and obtain the best balance of performance and battery life.
* Actual battery life will vary depending on usage patterns and configuration settings.

The ultimate in sleek aesthetics
A revelatory experience
The contoured design of the X420’s housing draws inspiration from feathers, evoking their smooth lines to create a warm and elegant feel, and doing away with the hard, impersonal style common to notebooks.

Most distinctively, the X420 weighs just 1.88 kgs, battery included. Its weight is low enough, in fact, to make it the world’s lightest 14” notebook.

Creating New Fashions
Pearl Textured Cappuccino Brown Design Lines
The Exclusive Cappuccino Brown tones shade different layers from the inside to outside. With stylish patterning — like a cup of cappuccino topped with fresh cream—that provides multiple visual sensations. Uniting the smooth and bright pearl texture harmonizes the X420's stylish elegance and distinctive charm and defines a new style for notebook computers. This type of unparalleled style and beauty is a natural first choice for a consumer of refined taste.

Multi-touch Touchpad
The newly designed Multi-touch touchpad allows you to easily scroll, drag and resize or rotate pictures with your fingers in the standard typing position.

MSI chiclet keyboard
The stylish chiclet keyboard design reduces typing errors and increases comfort, In addition, the chiclet keyboard is designed to dampen key-press sounds. Whether typing or gaming, the chiclet keyboard means you no longer have to fret about disturbing those around you with keyboard clicks and clatter.

A visual feast worth anticipating
High-end ATI Mobility Radeon HD5430 3D discrete graphics card (with DDR3 1GB VRAM)
The X420 incorporates the high-end ATI Mobility Radeon HD5430 3D graphics card with DDR3 1GB VRAM, enabling images with greater depth, as well as more finely rendered and richer detail. The result is ultra-realistic visuals that will truly amaze.

The latest in power-saving LED backlight technology
The X420 draws on power-saving LED backlight technology for its display, not only providing fuller color and more brightness, but enhancing overall picture quality—while
extending battery life.

SRS Premium Sound™-certified audio performance
The 360° surround-sound acoustics of the X420’s headphone audio give music a like-it’s-live presence and sense of space, so you can enjoy perfect listening wherever you happen to be. Together with the 14” widescreen display, the superb sound makes the X420 your own private theater. The SRS Premium Sound™-certified audio performance ensures you enjoy an utterly captivating aural experience.

Enjoy your personal digital entertainment world
Optional Blu-ray drive

HDMI digital multimedia interface
By taking advantage of HDMI, the X420 ensures that intricately rendered game scenes are displayed with breathtaking clarity.

Advanced new eSATA port
The X420’s eSATA port brings greater performance, and provides double the bandwidth for high-speed data reading and writing.

Liven up your communications with video
The X420’s built-in high-resolution video camera and beautifully integrated all-in-one design make for a video-enhanced notebook with a sense of style that’s both high-tech and elegant.

MSI's Exclusive Software Makes Your Computer Even Smarter!
MSI EasyViewer – Full 3D photo browser
MSI Easy Viewer is a 3D photo browser. Users can easily operate the MSI Easy Viewer with the mouse, and enjoy browsing and editing photos. You can browse the photos in “Preview mode” first, and then use “Slide mode” to edit photos.

MSI Preview mode
Variations in picture browsing can be based on different goals or user preferences, including magnification and shrinking, full-screen, and auto-play.

Slide mode
In Slide mode, pictures can be edited, including: magnification, shrinking, and 90-degree rotation. Also, using HDII Image enhancement, Intelligent white balance and Image sharpness adjustment functions allows for richer picture quality, with more three-dimensional and layered contours.

90-degree rotation:

HDII Image Enhancement:
Increase brightness in darker areas of an image
Straightening:
Intelligent White Balance:
Image Sharpness Adjustment:
Exclusive MSI EasyFace (Face Identification software) Inside

Easy Face Manager
Through the embedded webcam of the X420, the Easy Face Manager function can scan the face of the user and record eyes, cheekbones, jaw line, and nose. The user can adjust the level for personal security identification. (One user ID can store up to ten facial images)

Furthermore, the power setting of the Easy Face Manager can adjust the standby time. The X420 can save power by switching off when it hasn’t been operated during the setting time.

MSI

HP Compaq 8000f

2010-05-29T15:10:00.000+07:00

Business-class computers like the HP Compaq 8000f Elite are a complicated bunch. Aimed at a market segment with particular maintenance and security needs.

they tend to offer improved hardware and software functionality, while sacrificing elements of usability we've come to expect in consumer-oriented desktop PCs.

Priced at $829 (as configured, as of May 1, 2010), the Compaq 8000f Elite falls at the higher end of the budget PC category. Powering the machine is a 3GHz Core 2 Duo E8400. While that processor is a few years old, it is a reliable platform that supports Intel's vPro technology--a must for many businesses that require elevated security on their systems. The 8000f we reviewed also offers 2GB of DDR3 SDRAM, and Windows 7 Professional resides on the paltry 160GB hard drive. We generally like to see at least 320GB hard drives in the budget PC category. As far as business machines go, the Acer Veriton X480G offers 280GB, and HP's own Compaq 6005 Pro has 400GB of storage space.

In our WorldBench 6 test suite, the 8000f Elite earned a score of 113, placing around the middle of the pack among budget desktops. The Veriton X480G and the Compaq 6005 Pro achieved slightly better scores of 120 and 128, respectively; another competitor, the Dell Optiplex 780 USFF, delivered a score of 116. The 8000f's graphics performance was poor, too, but that much is expected on business systems armed with only integrated graphics.

Users' opinion of the 8000f's chassis will be largely dependent on their needs. It's one of the smallest minitowers we've come across, edging into compact-PC territory. Nevertheless, it offers a full complement of expansion options: On the front, you'll find four USB ports plus the headphone and microphone jacks, as well as the DVD burner. On the rear are six more USB ports, serial PS/2 ports for a mouse and a keyboard, the gigabit ethernet port, and the VGA and DisplayPort connectors. To keep things compact, the 8000f lacks an internal power supply--the power brick isn't too bulky, but it is another element to consider.

The 8000f's case offers completely tool-less entry: Getting inside is as simple as unscrewing a knob and popping off the side door. That said, you won't have much to do once you're inside. The notebook RAM is user-upgradable, but this is otherwise quite the streamlined package.

HP has also made the 8000f Elite completely free of brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride, from the internal components down to the included peripherals. Groups such as Greenpeace have targeted these fairly common materials for their harmful properties. With this design decision, as well as the 8000f's 87-percent-efficient power supply (and the PC's recyclable packaging), HP is making a more than subtle pitch to the environmentally conscious business manager.

As a business machine, the 8000f Elite also includes an array of business-oriented software. Sticking to the PC's conservation theme is the HP Power Assistant: While it isn't a particularly robust tool, it does give administrators a simple interface to adjust the machine's power plans, setting up schedules to swap between power-intensive and power-saving modes, and setting the system to hibernate or standby mode.

The rest of HP's Protect Tools enable features such as drive encryption, and manage accessories that enable fingerprint readers and smart cards, should your company require especially stringent authentication methods.

HP has bundled a fairly humble set of peripherals with the 8000f, namely a simple keyboard and mouse that lack anything in the way of media keys or extra functionality. Like the 8000f itself, though, they are made without certain environmentally harmful substances; and as this is a business-class PC, media keys are less of a priority anyway.

The model we reviewed also came with the optional HP Compaq LA22f monitor ($259 as of May 1, 2010). Contrasting the plain keyboard and mouse, the WLED-backlit LA22f is rather impressive, sporting a native 1680-by-1050-pixel display and offering deep blacks and rich color. Tilt angles are generous, and the screen provides a fair amount of visibility, even at awkward angles. Similar to the rest of the 8000f Elite's peripherals, the LA22f is BFR- and PVC-free.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5

2010-05-29T15:05:00.000+07:00

Are you looking for a stylish camera or a rugged camera? Usually you have to pick one trait or the other, but the 10-megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5 offers both.

The DSC-TX5 looks just like many of the other slim, fashionable models in the Cyber-shot TX series, but this camera is built to withstand shocks, water, freezing, heat, and dust. In fact, I had to look twice to make sure I was holding the right camera before I dunked it into the pool. The DSC-TX5 comes in green, pink, red, black, and silver, and is priced at $330 (as of May 17, 2010).

The camera is waterproof down to 10 feet below the surface, shockproof to falls of as much as 5 feet, and dustproof; it can withstand temperatures from 14 degrees to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Beyond its stylish exterior, it also has features that make it a good choice for day-to-day use, including anti-motion-blur mode, Sony's revamped Intelligent Sweep Panorama mode, and a high-definition movie mode that records 720p MPEG-4 video at 30 frames per second.

The DSC-TX5 feels pretty sturdy--as a rugged camera should--and it has a shiny sliding cover to protect its 4X-optical-zoom Carl Zeiss lens (25mm wide-angle to 100mm telephoto). I found the lens cover a little hard to slide, especially in the water. You get a choice of storage formats: The camera takes SD/SDHC cards in addition to Sony's proprietary Memory Stick Pro Duo format, and it also provides 45MB of internal memory.

Aside from the slippery lens cover, the DSC-TX5 is fairly easy to use. The camera features a 3-inch touchscreen for controlling most of its functions, which seems like an odd choice for a camera partially designed to be used underwater, but surprisingly the DSC-TX5 seemed more responsive underwater than on dry land. On terra firma, I had to press on-screen icons several times before the screen would register my touch, but the screen reacted quickly when I used it underwater.

Though the controls are mostly on the touchscreen, the camera has a few hardware buttons--the power and shutter buttons, obviously, but also a zoom toggle and a play button. Loaded with its battery and a Memory Stick, the 10.2-megapixel DSC-TX5 weighs 5.1 ounces; its slim frame measures just 3.75 by 2.25 by 0.72 inches.

The DSC-TX5 takes decent photos, but its overall image quality isn't outstanding. In the PCWorld Labs' subjective imaging tests, our jury gave the DSC-TX5 high marks for exposure quality, but below-average scores for color accuracy, sharpness, and lack of distortion. As for video, the DSC-TX5 shot good-looking footage, but the on-board microphone was pretty weak. The DSC-TX5 received an overall imaging score of Fair.

In dark conditions, however, the camera performed well in my hands-on tests. The DSC-TX5 boasts an Exmor R CMOS sensor, which Sony says is optimized for low-light shooting. The camera certainly did an impressive job of taking photos in low-light situations, such as this picture of a palm tree in the dark (trust me, I could barely see the leaves of the tree when I was taking the picture).

Sony

HTC EVO 4G: A Multimedia Powerhouse

2010-05-29T15:02:00.000+07:00

HTC has struck gold again with the HTC EVO 4G ($200 with a two-year contract from Sprint), which is easily the best smartphone available on Sprint and is second to the HTC Droid Incredible (Verizon) as the best smartphone available today.

The EVO 4G packs powerful specs and a lot of features in a slick, stylish design. The biggest drawback is that not everyone will get to experience 4G connectivity, one of the phone's best features at launch--yet they'll still have to pay for it.

Minimalist Design
Though I'm all for recyclable, minimal packaging, the EVO 4G's box is a little strange. A colleague pointed out that it resembles a tofu container. Other reviews have remarked that it looks like a microwavable meal. But really, it's what's inside the box that matters. The EVO 4G comes with the bare minimum: a Micro-USB cable, a USB wall charger, a 1500mAh battery, and an 8GB MicroSD card.

Android 2.1 With Sense
Out of all of the custom skins for Android, HTC Sense is definitely my favorite. It is the easiest on the eyes, and it doesn't bog down the operating system by trying to do too much. The latest iteration of Sense features Leap, which is essentially an elegant way of handling multitasking; it's actually a bit reminiscent of Palm's WebOS deck-of-cards visualization. Pinch anywhere on the homescreen, and you'll jump to seven thumbnail versions of your open pages. From there, you can go to any of those open applications or close out of one.

Multimedia Machine
I'm not really a fan of HTC's Sense music player. Why? The album art doesn't take advantage of the EVO 4G's large display while the app is in Now Playing mode; it remains thumbnail-size. The Sense player is slightly prettier than the dull-as-dirt Android player, but I prefer iTunes or Palm's WebOS player. Audio sounded good, though, and the player supports a respectable range of audio and video formats. On YouTube, you get a feature called HQ, which enables you to watch better-quality videos (if available). You simply press the HQ button in the corner of the video, and a crisper, larger video--one that actually uses the EVO 4G's entire screen real estate--will load. Better yet, no 4G connectivity is needed.

Superb 8-Megapixel Camera
While 5 megapixels seems to be the standard for high-end smartphone cameras, the EVO 4G goes a step further with an 8-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash. As with the iPhone 3GS, you can touch to focus on a subject. The camera's user interface is pretty straightforward, too, and it offers a handful of advanced controls such as exposure, color, white balance, and various photo effects.
Photo quality was impressive, both indoors and out. Colors appeared vivid but natural, and details looked sharp. My only complaint was that the flash tended to blow out details and color in indoor shots (see below).

Solid Performance
We were able to test 3G performance, and overall I was impressed with how quickly multimedia-rich pages loaded over Sprint's network. Additionally, I was pleased with how clear my phone calls were in San Francisco. A few of my colleagues on the other end of the line noted that my voice sounded a bit tinny, but my voice was still sufficiently loud and clear--even while I stood on a busy street corner.

HTC

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5

2010-05-29T14:59:00.000+07:00

Compared with some feature-packed competitors, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5 ($250 as of May 19, 2010) is a solid, no-nonsense pocket megazoom camera.Emphasizing smooth, versatile performance, its 12X-optical-zoom lens (25mm to 300mm) offers quiet motors and very fast autofocus, two factors that make the DMC-ZS5 a good double-duty camera for stills and video.

Specs-wise, the DMC-ZS5 sits wedged between last year's fully automated Lumix DMC-ZS3 and this year's fully loaded, GPS-enabled Lumix DMC-ZS7. Other than the DMC-ZS7's geotagging features, the DMC-ZS5 and the DMC-ZS7 are practically the same camera (the DMC-ZS7 also has a 3-inch LCD screen, slightly larger than the DMC-ZS5's 2.7-inch screen).

Like most pocket megazooms, the Lumix DMC-ZS5 is a bit too large to be truly pocket-size. It can squeeze into an inside coat pocket and would have little trouble fitting into a bag, purse, pair of overalls, or kangaroo pouch, but the 1.3-inch-deep camera is a tight fit for a pants pocket.

The DMC-ZS5's manual controls make it a notable upgrade to the DMC-ZS3. In addition to a full manual mode, which lets you select aperture and shutter values independently, you get aperture-priority and shutter-priority modes. Aperture values range from f3.3 to f6.3 at the wide-angle end of the zoom to f4.9 to f6.3 at full telephoto. Shutter speeds range from 1/2000 of a second to 60 seconds.

The camera has a nice array of effective automated settings (Intelligent Auto mode, Intelligent Resolution mode, and Intelligent ISO mode among them) and scene modes (including an excellent High Dynamic Range mode). But when you weigh it against feature-focused pocket megazooms such as the high-speed-shooting Casio Exilim EX-FH100, the tilt-shift-simulating Canon PowerShot SX210 IS, and the GPS-enabled Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V and Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7, the DMC-ZS5's bag of tricks is comparatively small.

Though the DMC-ZS5 is well-equipped for taking pictures, those photos tend to come out a bit dark and underexposed. In the PCWorld Labs' jury evaluations for image quality, the DMC-ZS5 trailed every pocket megazoom we've tested on exposure quality and color accuracy, but it also produced some of the sharpest photos in our test group. It fared much better in our video tests, shooting smooth and sharp movies that earned a Very Good rating, but the on-board microphone was weak. The DMC-ZS5 netted an overall imaging score of Good.

The DMC-ZS5 captures 720p video footage in .mov format; Panasonic has stepped away from the AVCHD Lite format with this camera, which means that the video file sizes are a bit bigger. The upside is that the .mov files are compatible with more video-editing suites than raw AVCHD clips are. You don't get the full range of manual controls while shooting video, but you do have the ability to adjust white balance, to choose from several preset exposure settings, and to select a few color filters from the in-camera menus.

For a semicompact camera, the DMC-ZS5 offers impressive video performance, especially when you use the camera's optical zoom lens while filming. Autofocus is incredibly quick and sharp, and as long as the camera is on a tripod or a flat surface, the reach of the lens offers stunning results. Here's a test video taken to showcase the DMC-ZS5's zooming and autofocus chops; the light stanchion in the clip is about three and a half city blocks away.

Panasonic

Gateway FX6831-01

2010-05-28T23:57:00.000+07:00

The Gateway FX6831-01 ($1,300 list) comes from a continuing line of affordable gaming PCs from the venerable PC maker. The system has an Intel Core i7 processor, a high-end ATI graphics card, and near-limitless storage capabilities.

While you may drool over the $6,000 high-powered gaming systems like the Maingear Shift ($6,399 direct, ), the FX6831-01 is more in line with what people can actually spend these days on a high-end PC. It makes short work of our benchmark tests, and it's flashy to boot. The FX6831-01 is what you're looking for if you want a gaming PC that won't burn a hole in your pocket. It earns our Editors' Choice award for mid-priced gaming systems.

Design
The FX6831-01's chassis primarily consists of black plastic and metal with red and chromed accents. It's identical to the case used in the FX6831-03 ($1,700 list, ), a Blu-ray equipped model in the same line. The exterior design of the chassis is what you'd expect from a gaming PC—with red accent lights that show off the non-functional vents on the top of the case. Ostentatious, but it works. The top of the chassis has an indentation with two conveniently placed USB 2.0 ports for peripherals like smartphones or external hard drives. There's also a hidden compartment on the top of the case for cable storage.

The system has a plethora of other connection ports, including two eSATA ports (for faster external hard drives), a FireWire port, eight USB 2.0 ports (including the top-mounted ones), two DVI ports, a HDMI port, and a DisplayPort for connecting to monitors. A sliding door on the front of the PC hides a pair of hard drive upgrade sleds; just pop a new SATA hard drive into a sled then slide the sled into the system for more storage, no screwdriver needed. This space is one of the best features in the FX6831 chassis. Adding another hard drive to the FX6831 takes only seconds, as opposed to the several minutes it takes on older systems. You can also put another SATA drive inside the unit; if you install three 2TB drives, you can get a total of 6TB extra storage.

Features
The system has a 1.5TB drive already installed, so you already have a lot of space for your games, programs, music, photos, and videos. The system also comes with 6GB of system memory, which is plenty for most users. You can remove the 6GB and max out the system with 12GB, but it won't help a lot. While a user that works with humungous image files or videos may want more memory, 6GB should be enough for both moderate multimedia work and high-end gaming. The FX6831-01 also has a DVD burner; you'll need to upgrade to the more expensive $1,700 FX6831-03 if you want a Blu-ray reader. The FX6831-03's Blu-ray drive and an extra 6GB is nice, but the $400 price premium is a bit too steep. Otherwise, the two FX6831 systems are almost identical.

You're pretty set for future upgrades with the FX6831-01.The system has two free PCIe x1 slots and one free PCIe x4 slot (should you later want to add a TV tuner, wireless networking, low-ping gaming network cards, etc.), but it doesn't have an extra PCIe x16 slot for another graphics card. While this is a step down from the FX6800 series, the FX6831-01 makes up for it by having a 750W power supply. If you feel the need to upgrade in the future, you can replace the existing ATI Radeon HD 5850 card with a dual GPU Radeon HD 5970 card or an even faster card in the future. The Gateway FX6800-01e ($1,249.99 list, ) has a second, free PCIe x16 slot, but it has a 500W power supply, which isn't enough to power the second card.

The one big drawback of the Gateway FX6831-01 is the bloatware that's included on all Gateway PCs. The FX6831-01 has a whole lot of unneeded stuff like shortcuts to Netflix and eBay on the desktop, Office 60-day trial, and a short 60-day trial to Norton Internet Security. Normally having Internet Security is a good thing, but 60-days of updates is too short. Also, gamers tend to uninstall anti-virus and Internet Security, since it's a background task that can steal performance away right when you need it on the game grid. Even the "Gateway games" are a source of bloatware, as these are just about all casual games that will work on a netbook as well as they do on a gaming PC. They're downloadable games that you have to pay extra for. Last but not least, the system comes with Microsoft Works SE. While Works is genuinely useful, the SE version displays advertisements in the toolbars. Other systems, like those from Dell, come with the full version, which is functionally the same, but without the ads. Unfortunately, since the Gateway is a pre-built system found in retail stores, you can't order a FX6831-01 without the bloatware.

Performance
Gateway FX6831-01 The FX6831-01 is a high-end gaming system for a budget price. The system can smoothly play three of our four game tests. It plays Crysis at 1,280 by 1,024 (92 frames per second or fps), World in Conflict (WiC) at both 1,280 by 1,024 (126 fps) and 1,920 by 1,200 (47 fps). The system can't really play Crysis at 1,920 by 1,200 (28 fps), the animation at 28fps is jerky and unplayable. If the animation is choppy you may not see that enemy soldier before he puts a bullet between your eyes. That said, you could probably dial the setting down a smidge and get a playable frame rate at a lower setting.

The FX6831-01 is a great performer at our multimedia tests. It finished the Windows Media Encoder test in 30 seconds, and the Photoshop CS4 test in 1 minute 15 seconds. These are excellent scores for a quad-core PC with a lot of memory. Other benchmark tests show similar high scores—the system's PCMark Vantage score of 8,641 points is close to the top of its class. The system's 3DMark Vantage scores are also quite high: 33,923 (Entry) and 6,693 (Extreme).

The Gateway FX6831-01 has the gaming prowess that you'd need to hone your skills on the game grid. Its Core i7 processor and ATI Radeon graphics card make it fast on the current gaming benchmark tests, and the system is easy to upgrade if you need more performance or more hard drive space. The right amount of flashiness accentuates that this is a system with a set purpose, rather than your standard PC with a high-end graphics card just stuffed into the chassis. A mess of bloatware keeps it from earning a perfect score but ultimately Gateway's FX6831-01 gives gamers a great balance of features for a reasonable price. It replaces the Velocity Micro Edge Z30 ($1,299 direct, ) as our Editors' Choice for mid-priced gaming systems.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS
Check out the test scores for the Gateway FX6831-01

Dell Inspiron 580s

2010-05-28T23:54:00.000+07:00

Inside, the system is well laid out, if a little cramped (as is expected). The system has room for one PCI card, two PCIe x1 cards, and a PCIe x16 graphics card.

Because of the SFF form factor, these all need to be half-height cards, but the fact that the system has OK integrated graphics means that you may not need a graphics card right away. All four RAM slots are filled with the system's 4GB of RAM. You'll have to pull a couple of DIMMs out if you want to upgrade. Most users will be fine with a 4GB system anyway.

Features
The Inspiron 580s has a 320GB hard drive, which translates into thousands of MP3 and photo files for casual users. People that download a lot of stuff off the Internet may want something more. The system comes with a standard Dell wired mouse and keyboard. I'd like to see 802.11n Wi-Fi as an option for the Inspiron 580s, since the system's compact enough to fit in most of the rooms in your house, but I surmise "go anywhere" is within the realm of small, compact systems like a netbook or a nettop like the Dell Inspiron Zino HD ($557 - $837 Direct, ).

The system is free of the bloatware that seems to plague retail systems, such as those from Gateway and HP. No bloatware is one of the benefits of buying a configured-to-order PC direct from a PC maker like Dell. The system comes with a full version of Microsoft Works 9, as opposed to the ad-supported version found on some Gateway systems. The computer initially boots up into a setup wizard, which has prompts to set up recovery and Dell's DataSafe online backup, as well as links to Dell's support center and other Windows 7 help. I applaud the fact that Dell provides links to the bloatware I complain about, rather than pre-installing the software. A browser link is easier to ignore and doesn't affect your system, while pre-installed bloatware programs are at best a nuisance and at worst a tech support nightmare.

Performance
Dell Inspiron 580s The Inspiron 580s is a good upgrade for people who are still using a single core (Pentium 4, Pentium M) or a Core 2 Duo system. Multimedia tasks like Adobe Photoshop CS4 (1 minute 35 seconds) and Windows Media Encoder (42 seconds) finish in far less time than it used to take. The Core i3-530 is a dual-core processor with HyperThreading, rather than a true four-core system, but it performs as well as systems with the Core 2 Quad and AMD Athlon II X4 processor like the Gateway SX2802-01 ($499.99 List, ) and HP Pavilion p6347c-b ($800 List, ).

The Inspiron 580s has Intel Integrated GMA graphics (equivalent to GMA X4500HD) embedded in the Core i3 processor, which is more for HD video processing, rather than 3D gaming—the single-digit game scores bear this out. Sure, you can load World in Conflict or Crysis, but it won't be a pleasant experience. Get something more powerful (like the Gateway FX6831-01 ) if you want to play newer 3D games.

The Dell Inspiron 580s is a good compact system for the home user. The 580s could be your primary system, with enough power for multimedia tasks in Photoshop. Nonetheless, my advice is to go with the Dell Inspiron i570-6939PBK ($599.98 List, ) a slightly better choice, because it has most of the same performance for about $20 less with a much larger hard drive (640GB) and a 20-inch monitor packed in.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS
Check out the test scores for the Dell Inspiron 580s

Dell Studio XPS 7100

2010-05-28T23:48:00.002+07:00

Dell on Wednesday launched its new Studio XPS 7100 desktop PC with optional AMD six-core and quad-core processors. Though it is designed for the multimedia maven as well as the mid-level hardcore gamer, the 7100 can handle high-powered graphics cards up to the ATI Radeon HD 5870, which is a massive gaming-class card.

The Studio XPS uses a version of the mini tower chassis we've seen before on the Studio XPS 8000 and 8100, but this time the accent bezel is chromed, and the front panel is an exclusive premium carbide silver color similar to that seen on many European sports sedans. The closest analogy might be the dark silver on MINI Cooper S cars, but in a matte finish.

Also on the bezel are the usual Windows 7 sticker, AMD's Vision sticker, and an etched THX logo. The THX logo pertains to the system's 7.1 surround sound with THX TruAudio certification. As befits a multimedia maven's system, the XPS 7100 is available with Blu-ray (and Blu-ray burner option), but base systems will come with a DVD burning drive.

Additional options include other ATI Radeon HD graphics options, USB 3.0 support, up to 16 G-bytes of DDR3 memory, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and up to 1.5 T-bytes of hard drive space. I found the system has room inside for another drive in case 1.5TB isn't enough.

Speaking of upgrades, the system is as easy to get into as the previous Studio XPS models, and the built-in 460W power supply unit can handle graphics cards up to 225W (like the Radeon HD 5870). In fact, you can order a "stripper" version of the Studio XPS 7100, in case you have a high-powered graphics card from a previous system you want to carry over. If you order the system with a high-powered graphics card, the XPS 7100 has a screw-in card retention system to keep heavy graphics cards from working loose and damaging the motherboard. I applaud Dell for listening to enthusiasts who want to prevent damage to their systems even before they turn them on.

The Studio XPS 7100 system is flexible: for example you can build a system with a six-core AMD Phenom II X6 processor and 1.5TB drive, but keep the graphics integrated (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200). This would be a great 2D prosumer workstation for a digital photography enthusiast or budding video artist. On the other hand a gamer could save money by configuring a system with an Athlon II X4 quad-core processor and limit the hard drive to 320GB, but add the 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5870 card for the best frame rates and large screen support.

The Studio XPS 7100 is available for order on dell.com today, and will start at $699 for a six-core Phenom II X6 model. Take off a couple hundred dollars if you want the four-core Athlon II X4.

Dell

Canon Pixma MP560 Wireless Photo All-In-One

2010-05-28T14:55:00.000+07:00

When Canon uses the word photo in an MFP's name, as with the Canon Pixma MP560 Wireless Photo All-In-One ($149.99 direct), it's a strong hint that the printer it aimed primarily at home use.

For the MP560, that translates to a printer with great-looking photo output and few office-centric features. On the other hand, the printer also offers better-than-par text quality and paper handling, which is enough to make it a reasonable choice for light-duty home-office use too. Add in WiFi for easy sharing, and it's even a good choice for the dual role of home and home-office MFP, with the emphasis on home use.

The MP560 can print, scan, and copy, and it can scan to e-mail by way of your PC, launching an e-mail message and adding the scanned document as an attachment. It can also scan directly to a USB key, which is a useful convenience. It lacks an automatic document feeder, Ethernet connector, and fax modem—all important features for office use—but it includes two 150-sheet paper trays and a duplexer for printing on both sides of a page.

The two trays are particularly useful in a printer serving for both home and home office. You can keep plain paper in one, and photo paper in the other, and then switch between printing documents and photos without having to check which kind of paper is in the printer each time.

In keeping with its main thrust as a home printer, the MP560 offers an assortment of photocentric features. It can print directly from PictBridge cameras, memory cards, and USB memory keys, and it lets you preview photos on its 2-inch color LCD before printing. The front panel menus also offer a Photo Reprint feature (separate from the standard copy feature) that can print borderless photos. The Photo Reprint option also did a respectable job in my tests of matching colors to the original photos.

Setup and Speed
For my testing, I connected the MP560 by USB cable. The setup is standard fare. Set the 6.3- by 17.9- by 14.5-inch (HWD) printer in place, snap in the printhead and ink cartridges, load paper, run the automated installation program from disc, and plug in a USB cable when the program tells you to. Note that the MP560 uses five ink cartridges, one for each color—cyan, yellow, magenta, pigment black for text, and dye-based black for photos.

I installed the printer on a system running Windows Vista. According to Canon, it also comes with a full set of drivers and software for Windows 7, XP, and 2000 as well as Mac OS X 10.3.9 through 10.6. In addition, you can print photos (and only photos) wirelessly from an iPhone by downloading Canon's free iPhone app, iEPP.

The MP560's speed is best described as acceptable but a little pokey. On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software), it came in at a leisurely total of 15 minutes 10 seconds. In comparison, the Editors' Choice Epson Stylus NX515 ($149.99 direct, ) took only 8:32. The MP560 was a little slow for photos as well, but faster than the NX515, at 1:39 for each 4-by-6, compared with 2:05 for the NX515, and 3:18 for each 8-by-10, compared with 4:41.
Canon Pixma MP560 Wireless Photo All-In-One

Output Quality
Output quality is one of the MP560's strong points, with better than par text for an inkjet MFP, top-tier photo quality, and typical graphics quality.

On our text suite, the MP560 scored better than most inkjets, with more than half of the fonts in the suite qualifying as both highly readable and well formed at 5 points. The only fonts that needed more than 8 points to pass both tests were highly stylized, with thick strokes. The text doesn't have the laser-crisp edges that you'd want for a resume or desktop publishing, and it can smudge if it gets wet. However, unless you have an unusual need for small fonts, you should find it suitable even for most business needs.

Graphics quality is easily good enough for both home printing needs and any internal business need including PowerPoint handouts, for example. I saw some relatively subtle banding, but only in default mode and even then it was obvious in only a few graphics. I also saw a tendency for thin lines to disappear, but this is a common problem with printers, and not as bad with the MP560 as with some other printers I've tested.

Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may consider it good enough for output going to an important client or customer. As with most Canon inkjets, however, the ink has a tendency to add a curl to the plain paper we use in our testing, so if you use full page graphics, you may need to invest in a more expensive, heavy weight paper.

Most Canon inkjets do well on photo quality. The MP560 is no exception. Colors were a little punchy, but many people prefer that to more realistic color. The only issue I saw worth mention was a slight tint in a black-and-white photo, but even that was minor enough so many people wouldn't notice it, and even most who do would consider it acceptable.

The photo quality overall is at least as good as you'd expect from drugstore prints, and arguably better. The photos were also reasonably water and scratch resistant in my tests, and they promise to be long lived, with a claimed lifetime of 300 years in dark storage, as in an album, and 30 years framed behind glass.

One last plus is Canon's one-year warranty. Canon says that if it can't fix a problem by phone, it will ship a replacement printer along with a prepaid return shipping label, with Canon picking up the shipping costs in both directions.

Overall, the MP560 offers a more than acceptable balance of speed, output quality, features, and price. It's not quite up to the Editors' Choice NX515 on text quality, but it ties for graphics quality, beats the NX515 at photo quality, and although it's a lot slower for business applications, it's faster for photos. The NX515's lower price keeps it securely in place as the clear Editors' Choice in the category, but if you care more about photos than text, the MP560 is a more than reasonable alternative for home, light-duty home-office use, or both.

Canon

Epson WorkForce 1100

2010-05-28T14:46:00.000+07:00

If you've wanted a printer that could handle tabloid size (11- by 17-inch) paper or larger but didn't think you could justify the high price, the Epson WorkForce 1100 was made for you. Just $199.99 direct from Epson, it's the least expensive tabloid-size printer I've seen yet.

Even better, its printing talents don't stop at tabloid size. It also prints on supertabloid paper at up to 13 by 19 inches and on banner paper at up to 13 by 44 inches. And it doesn't hurt at all that the output quality is above par for text, graphics, and photos.

As you might expect from an inexpensive tabloid-size printer, the 1100 doesn't offer a lot of extras. You won't find any photocentric features like printing from memory cards, cameras, or USB memory keys, and it's even a short on office-centric features.

Aside from the ability to print on large-size paper, the 1100's paper handling is meager at best, with only one tray, a 100-sheet input capacity, no duplexer (for printing on both sides of a page), and no available options. It's also limited to connecting by USB cable, which means it's not a good choice if you need to share a printer.

Given the low paper capacity and lack of any network connector, the natural home for the WorkForce 1100 is in a micro or home office, although it could also serve as a personal printer in a larger office. It's worth mention too that even though it's intended as an office printer, the graphics and photo quality is good enough so that you might want to consider it as an inexpensive printer for graphic arts or photography at tabloid size and larger.

Setup

Setting up the WorkForce 1100 is standard fare, except that you need more flat space for it than with most printers. The printer itself is 8.5 by 24.3 by 12.7 inches (HWD) with the trays closed, but with the trays open the depth grows to 31.4 inches, which can eat up most of a desk. That means you'll probably want it near your desk rather than on it, although you'll need it close enough to reach with a USB cable.

Once you've found a spot for the printer, physical setup consists of removing the packing materials, plugging in the power cord, loading the ink cartridges and paper, and sliding the output tray open. The only unusual touch is that the printer uses five ink cartridges: one each for cyan, yellow, and magenta inks, and two for black. There's no difference between the two black cartridges—it's just a way to let you load twice as much black ink as can fit in one cartridge.

Software installation is also standard fare. Simply run the automated installation routine and connect a USB cable when it tells you to. I installed the printer on a system running Windows Vista. According to Epson, it also comes with drivers for Windows 7, XP, XP 64-bit, and 2000 as well as Mac OS X 10.3.9 through 10.5. In addition, you can download a driver for OS X 10.6 from Epson's Web site.

Speed and Output Quality
The WorkForce 1100's speed is well within a tolerable range, but nothing to get excited about. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at 13 minutes 49 seconds. As a point of comparison, the HP Officejet 7000 Wide Format Printer ($229.99 direct, ), the WorkForce 1100's closest competition, was a touch faster, at 11:15. Epson's own, similarly priced WorkForce 610 All-In-One ($199.99 direct, ) was notably faster, at 8:29, but the 610 can't print at larger than legal size.

The 1100's photo speed was also on the slow side, averaging 2:25 for each 4-by-6 and 5:23 for each 8-by-10. The Officejet 7000 averaged 1:31 for each 4-by-6 and 3:28 for each 8-by-10.

The good news is that whatever extra time the 1100 takes for printing pays off in better-than-par output quality. Both text and graphics quality are a small, but noticeable, step better than typical ink jets can manage, and photos are in the top tier for ink jets.

More than half of the fonts in our text tests qualified as both highly readable and well formed at five points, and only one highly stylized font with thick strokes needed more than 10 points to pass both tests. As with any ink jet, the text lacked the crisp, clean edges you would expect from almost any laser, which means it's not quite good enough for output that needs to look fully professional, like a resume or high quality desktop publishing output. For anything short of that, however, it's more than acceptable.Note too that the ink is remarkably water resistant on plain paper, which means you don't have to worry about a business document becoming unreadable if someone spills some water or coffee on a page.

Graphics quality is easily good enough for output going to a potential (or current) client or customer who you want to impress with your professionalism—as long as you stay with high-quality mode. In the default mode, I saw some banding in dark colors. However, I didn't see any hint of banding in any of the output in high-quality mode, and I didn't see any other flaws worth mention. One minor issue is that full-page graphics tend to add an annoying curl to the paper we use in our tests, but you can solve that by investing in a heavier weight paper. Overall, the output is good enough so that even a graphic artist might want to consider the printer.

Photo output in my tests was better than I would expect from drugstore photos in every case. Here again, I saw no flaws worth mention. The quality isn't a match for the very best—and much more expensive—photo ink jets aimed at serious photographers, but most people would certainly consider them good enough for framing. They also promise last a long time, with claimed lifetimes of 300 years in dark storage and 105 years behind glass, and they proved to be reasonably water resistant and scratch resistant in my tests.

The WorkForce 1100 is severely limited by its low paper capacity and lack of a duplexer. And if you need to share a printer on your network you should be looking at the HP Officejet 7000 instead. However, the 1100 delivers better- looking output than the Officejet 7000 and costs a bit less as well. If you don't need to share a printer and you care more about output quality than speed, the WorkForce 1100 will likely be your preferred choice. In any case, if you need to print at large size, it's a more than reasonable choice for a small office.

Epson

Polywell X5800A3

2010-05-27T03:21:00.005+07:00

The Polywell Poly X5800A3 ($4,450 street) is a high-powered desktop system with an Intel Core i7-980X processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 graphics card. Together, these components give you the power to perform both multimedia and gaming tasks.

The Velocity Micro Raptor Special Edition ($5,999 direct, ) and the Maingear Shift ($6,399 direct, ) have more multi-card, mind-bending 3D performance, but the Poly X5800A3 isn't priced over $6,000. If you want a high-end multimedia system that also offer smooth 3D game play, the X5800A3 should be on your short list.

Design
The Polywell Poly X5800A3 uses a standard black Antec Nine Hundred case, complete with a huge 200mm cooling fan on top. This case is good for gaming rigs, since it has the room for those beefy graphics cards like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 and the CPU cooler for the Intel Core i7-980X processor. It also has room for several hard drives and optical drives, with a perforated front panel for smooth airflow throughout the case—adequately cooling the CPU and GPU. The side door of the case has a window to show off the interior of the system.

The top of the case has a built-in tray to hold small, miscellaneous items like your iPhone or an external hard drive, which can be connected to the top-mounted FireWire or two USB 2.0 ports. The back of the system has two DVI ports and a mini HDMI port connected to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 graphics card, and the motherboard connectors include a PS2 port, 4 more USB 2.0 ports, another FireWire port, two Ethernet ports, analog audio, SPDIF digital audio (TOSlink and coaxial), and two USB 3.0 ports.
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The USB 3.0 ports allow for a faster connection with devices that also have a USB 3.0 interface, such as some of the newer external hard drive. Theoretically, USB 3.0 has a higher throughput (5Gbit/sec) than eSATA (3.0Gbit/sec). While still a rarity, we should see more USB 3.0 ports on systems, since they are backwards-compatible to USB 2.0 devices. Still, an eSATA port would have been a nice addition, since eSATA hard drives are becoming prevalent in graphics arts organizations.

My only other gripe is the spaghetti-like mass of power cables in between the power supply and the hard drives at the bottom of the case. The wires have been tie-wrapped out of the way of the graphics card, but the manner in which the wires are bunched together will stop air flow over the hard drives and into the rest of the case. While I don't anticipate issues with airflow when the system is new, wear and tear will reduce the efficiency of the cooling fans over time to the point that this blockage may become an overheating problem later down the road.

Features
The X5800A3 has a pair of 300GB 15,000rpm SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) drives connected to a SAS controller card in a RAID 0 array, which acts like a 600GB C: drive. The SAS drives in a RAID 0 array make the X5800A3 almost as fast as a solid state drive (SSD)-equipped system on some tests. There's also a 2TB data drive for all your other files like videos, music, etc. This is the first time I've seen SAS drives on a multimedia system, which will help if you're doing a lot of video editing or transcoding.

Using SAS drives is an intriguing choice: SCSI has all but disappeared from high-performance desktops, but SAS is its successor. The SAS drives in the X5800A3 will likely be more durable than the usual SATA drives you find in other desktops, and their speed means that the drives will be able to keep up with tasks like editing video. Since the SAS drive array is the X5800A3's C: drive (holding the Windows 7 OS, your apps, and any scratch/cache info), you can be assured the system's hard drive system will be both convenient and speedy during your workday as well as playtime afterward. Unlike systems with small SSD C: drives, you won't have to keep uninstalling and installing programs when your needs or workflows change.

The system has some expansion room. Though the memory slots are full (12GB), there's one PCI, one PCIe x16, and one PCIe x1 card slot free for expansion cards. There's also space for at least one more optical drive in the system. The Poly X5800A3 comes free of bloatware, which are the trial and extra unneeded programs that some retail system builders install. One of the benefits of buying from a smaller boutique PC maker is you can have as little or as much software pre-loaded as you want.

Performance
Polywell Poly X5800A3 The Poly X5800A3 can also function as a good gaming PC, and was able to play three out of our four gaming tests smoothly: Crysis ran at 1,280 by 1,024 (101 fps), World in Conflict at 1,280 by 1,200 (156 fps), and World in Conflict again at 1,920 by 1,200 (75 fps). Its Crysis score at 1,920 by 1,200 resolution was a little slow (32 fps) compared with other system with two graphics cards, like the Maingear Shift (72 fps) and Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition (60 fps). While 32 fps isn't quite "slideshow" levels of slow, you'll see stutters in the animation. This means you won't be able to play every game at every resolution, but you should be able to find a good in-between setting.

The Polywell X5800A3 excels in multimedia tasks, taking only 24 seconds on our Windows Media Encoder (WME) test and 59 seconds on our Photoshop CS4 test. Along with the 600GB C: SAS array and the 2TB data drive, the X5800A3 is set for multimedia tasks like importing, editing, converting, and exporting audio, video, or photo files. To put this in perspective, other high-end systems in this class like the Velocity Micro Raptor Z90 ($5,499 direct, ) and Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition take around 33 seconds for WME, and systems like the Gateway FX6831-03 ($1,700 list, ) and Polywell MiniBox P5500C ($1,850 direct, ) can take over a minute to do the CS4 test. All are quick, but the Polywell X5800A3 is quicker.

The Polywell Poly X5800A3 is perfect for the prosumer to professional-level multimedia artist who needs a high-powered multimedia Windows 7 PC, but also wants to compete on the gaming grid sometimes. The Maingear Shift still retains its lead as "king of the hill" in the overall benchmark test department, but the Alienware Area 51 ($3,969 direct, ) is a better buy at $3,969. As configured, the X5800A3 is great for the gaming multimedia artist. For everyone else, there may be a better choice.

polywell

HP G62-143cl

2010-05-27T03:13:00.003+07:00

The HP G62-143cl ($699 list) is geared toward multipurpose users. Available at Costco, it's large enough to be a desktop replacement laptop and manageable enough to take on long commutes and vacations. And for one low price, it bundles the latest Intel Core i3 processor and a speedy 7,200rpm hard drive. If you're willing to spend a little more, however, the powerful Samsung R580 ($830 list, ) includes a Blu-ray drive and may be a better bang for your buck.

Design
The G62-143cl doesn't have the black glossy top or the "Zen" laminate design you see on the Pavilion line. Instead, top is light brown and textured, with running triangular patterns. It's not as elegant as the aluminum lid found on the Asus UL50VF-A1 ($850 street, ) or as colorful as the blue Dell Inspiron 1564 ($879.00 Direct, ). What the G62-143cl lacks in gloss, it makes up for in smudge-protection. A matte top works well at repelling fingerprints and other unsightly marks. Relative to other 15-inch laptops, the G62-143cl is, at 5.4 pounds, one of the lightest and second only to the Asus UL50VF-A1 (5.2 lbs).

The 15.6-inch widescreen on the G62-143cl tops out at 1,366 by 768 resolution. Then again, most of its peers have standard WXGA resolutions (which is also 1,366 by 768), but it's large enough for multitaskers who like to have several application windows open at the same time. The full-size keyboard is very mushy, which is great for those with sensitive fingers (such as people who may suffer from arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome); I prefer a more solid typing experience that can be found with the keyboards on the Dell 1564 and Samsung R580. The quick-launch keys (Web, printer, calculator, e-mail) are located to the left of the keyboard, and their placement makes them prone to being hit accidentally. The touchpad is very roomy, whereas the mouse buttons weren't as soft as the ones found on the Dell 1564 and the HP Pavilion dv6-2150us ($779.98 List, ).

Features
The G62-143cl has an adequate set of ports and slots, including 3 USBs, Ethernet, VGA, and a multimedia card reader. It lacks an ExpressCard slot that would have opened the door to 3G wireless, FireWire, TV tuners, and other expansion cards. It does have an HDMI port, though, which will allow you to stream whatever is on your laptop to a bigger display, like say that 42-inch HDTV in your home. For an extra $130, you can utilize the Samsung R580 as a Blu-ray player. To its credit, the G62-143cl ships with a 7,200rpm hard drive (320GB), while all of its competitors have 5,400rpm drives. A speedy hard drive can make a difference in performance, as you'll see later.

Costco also offers customers some added benefits. Whereas most vendors provide just a one-year warranty, Costco bumps that up to two years. It also offers Costco's Concierge Services, a free service to Costco members who purchase electronics at the store. The service gives you access to technicians who can walk you through system setup and troubleshoot any problems. Lastly, the store accepts returns within 90 days (which takes care of buyers' remorse).

Performance
HP G62-143CL Despite its bargain price, the G62-143cl is hardly running on cheap parts. It includes an Intel Core i3-330M processor and 4GB of DDR3 memory—the same combination found in the HP dv6-2150us. But here's where the hard drive comes into play: In Cinebench R10 and PCMark Vantage tests, the G62-143cl outperformed the dv6-2150us by 11% and 19%, respectively. But since faster hard drives don't trump faster processors, the Core i3-equipped G62 couldn't keep up with the Core i5 CPU found in the Samsung R580 and the Dell 1564.

The G62-143cl ships with a 47WH battery, which is almost identical to the one found in the Samsung R580 (48WH) and Dell 1564 (47WH). But because it runs on Intel's integrated graphics (the other two have a more powerful graphics chip, and hence, a bigger power envelope), it tallied better battery scores. In MobileMark 2007, the G62-143cl scored 4 hours 38 minutes, which is about an hour better than the Samsung R580 and Dell 1564.

The only thing the HP G62-143cl is lacking is a user experience comparable to the one found on the Dell Inspiron 1564 and Samsung R580, but user experience is usually the most subjective area when it comes to reviews. Overall, its parts are up to date, battery life is admirable, and a 2-year warranty is included from a reputable retailer like Costco. If you can part with another $130, the Editors' Choice Samsung R580 is a faster machine and includes a Blu-ray drive.

Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition

2010-05-27T03:00:00.006+07:00

Velocity Micro is on the short list of system builders who showcase the latest technology in its desktop towers. In the case of the Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) ($5,999 direct), that technology would be Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 480 cards (three of them). They have the chops to get you steady frame rates on even the most difficult 3D gaming tests at very high settings. The system also features an overclocked 6-core CPU and lots of I/O ports. Now, all this does cost a pretty penny, but it's worth the money if you crave (and can afford) the highest level of performance on the gaming grid.

Design
The Raptor Signature Edition comes, fittingly enough, in a larger version of Velocity Micro's Signature case. The system box is made for larger graphics cards like the ATI Radeon HD 5970 and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 480 card. This isn't a system that will fade into the background of any room, but rather is meant to capture your attention immediately. The windowed case door shows off the three massive graphics cards and the cooler for the overclocked Intel Core i7-980X processor inside. The aesthetic of the Micro Raptor is somewhere in between the gaudy flashiness of the Alienware Area 51 ($3,969 direct, ) and the staid minimalism of the Maingear Shift ($6,399 direct, ). But the overall design scheme of VM's cases are getting a little too "familiar," blending together too much.

The rollers on the bottom of the case make it easy to move the system out from under a desk on a carpeted floor, but they roll a little too easily on our smooth, flat workbench. A drop of 3 feet to a hard floor wouldn't be a ideal situation, so I suggest omitting the rollers if you're planning on showing this machine off on a table or desk.

Features
The system comes with the requisite bunch of connectors: ten USB 2.0 ports, a pair of FireWire ports, as well as digital and analog audio in/out ports. The three GeForce graphics cards have six DVI ports, along with three mini-HDMI jacks (you'll need an adapter for connections to a HDTV). Last but not least, the system has an eSATA port, which is almost essential on high-end desktops. The inside of the chassis has neatly routed cabling, supplying the internal components with power and data connections. The system has space for three more 3.5-inch hard drives and one more optical drive. The three free system memory DIMM slots are the last bit of internal expansion room in the case; otherwise the three GeForce cards and their internal cooling fans cover all the internal PCI/PCIe slots.

The Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) comes with a larger 128GB solid state drive (SSD), which is twice the space that was in the Raptor Z90 ($5,499 Direct, ) we looked at earlier this year. Also, the data drive has doubled in size from 1TB to 2TB. On the whole, that's a good thing, since you'll have to uninstall programs less often. The system comes with a Blu-ray reader (BD-ROM)/Dual layer DVD burner, along with another DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. This feature will assist you if you're copying DVDs or playing games that require two optical drives for "best performance," but these days the second drive is unnecessary for most users.

The one thing that Velocity Micro systems don't have is bloatware (all those extra trial programs like Office Trial that come on retail PCs). This means you don't have to worry about deleting all the extra programs, but if you want the trial software pre-loaded, they give you the option.

Velocity Micro packed in the sleekly designed Razer Lycosa USB keyboard and Razer Deathadder mouse (both are included in the configuration price). The Lycosa keyboard even switches its backlit keys to "just the ones you need" when it detects a game loading on the system, which makes for a thoughtful feature.

Performance
Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) The Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) is a gaming system, so performance is the first thing that comes to mind. It finished the Windows Media Encoder test in 33 seconds, and the PhotoShop CS4 test in 46 seconds (one of the fastest ever). Anything below one minute is excellent for either test.

The raison d'être for this system is the game grid, and it doesn't disappoint. Both Crysis and World in Conflict are both above 100 frames per second (fps), which is a performance equivalent of a knife through butter. At the Very High setting in 1,920 by 1,200 resolution, the Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) manages an even 60fps on Crysis and 112 fps on World in Conflict. This PC is one of only a handful of gaming systems to perform well on these tests. The Maingear Shift manages a bit better performance at the game tests, but this extra performance on most tests is within the realm of diminishing returns (can you really tell the difference between 112 fps and 125 fps in World in Conflict?).

The GeForce GTX 480 cards in the Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) are faster on some 3D tests than the Radeon cards in the Raptor Z90 when you compare the systems' 3DMark Vantage test scores. The Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) gains a mind-blowing 92,138 points at Entry level settings and 24,494 points at Extreme settings. This blows away the scores of the Maingear Shift (which had two ATI Radeon HD 5970 cards) and the "older" Raptor Z90 systems. To put this in context: Since the ATI Radeon 5970 cards each have two GPUs and each Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 card has one, this means that three Nvidia GPUs outpace four ATI GPUs at the 3DMark Vantage test.

Compared with the Raptor Z90, the Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480) shows that it's worth the extra $600 since it also has larger hard drives and newer graphics cards. Those newer graphics cards show better performance, on benchmark tests like 3DMark look for a future driver that may improve Crysis and World in Conflict performance (not that it needs any extra performance at WiC). The Maingear Shift holds on to the high-end gaming Editors' Choice, since that system "only" costs $400 more and still is the king of the 3D gaming benchmark tests. The Shift's innovative chassis design is also fresher and sturdier than that of the Raptor Signature Edition (GeForce GTX 480). Ultimately the Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition is a good choice in a tight pack of $5,000+ gaming rigs. Get one and you will be a force to be reckoned with on the game grid.

Velocity

Acer Altos G5450

2010-05-16T14:28:00.001+07:00

Acer Altos G5450 provides outstanding strength dbagi working groups with a reliable scalability and new features at an affordable price, server capabilities are easier to manage, redundancy features such as redundant power supplies and native RAID solutions are offered on the Acer Altos G5450. [More...] Acer Altos G5450 also offers the possibility to upgrade to enterprise server features such as redundant array of storage, with a flexible and affordable manner.

64 Bit and Dual-Core performance
Flexible systems design methodologies allow you to configure the Acer Altos G5450 to match your budget. The Acer Altos G5450 is based on AMD Opteron technology which enables you to run tomorrows 64 bit applications on this platform. In addition to a clear 64 Bit migration path, the Acer Altos G5450 also offers Quad-Core support in a pedestal platform. System performance can be scaled in line with your business growth, by the addition of a second processor or multiple core processors. The Acer Altos G5450 can support up to 8 Cores,thereby offering industry leading performance levels. Redundant power supplies and redundant Hot-swap hard disk drives provide affordable performance and data protection. The Acer Altos G5450, as with all the Acer Altos family, is fully convertible from a tower to a rack mountable form factor (5U).

Best in class redundancy and scalability solutions
The Acer Altos G5450 allows you to configure the system, to adapt to your business requirements. Hot-swap features allow you to perform system maintenance without any system downtime.
Integrated SATA S/W RAID 0, 1, 5, 10
Optional SAS RAID add-on card for SAS H/W RAID support
Up to 8 Hot-swap hard disk drive support
Up to 64GB of ECC Memory support
Hot-swap power supply support
Five PCI slots to increase I/O bandwidth for improved performance and productivity
Hotswap redundant fan kit
Integrated Dual-Gigabit Ethernet for fast connectivity

Easy to install and manage
Acer Easybuild simplifies the installation and set-up, by providing an intuitive GUI Based process and by providing all relevant tools to set up your Acer Altos G5450. Advanced Server Manager software makes comprehensive systems management easy.ASM provides performance management and critical event management services to network administrators.These components help you control IT expenses by making the Acer Altos G5450 simple and efficient to manage.

Typical solution scenarios
Workgroup application services
File, print and fax services
Groupware
Domain controller
DNS Server

Acer

Acer Aspire G7750

2010-05-16T12:28:00.002+07:00

The first time I saw the name of a computer Aspire G7750 Predator impressed specialized computer games that have above average spec, sure enough found the Acer Aspire Predator G7750 dedicated to high technology requirements.

Radical design
The Aspire Predator's muscular case houses its immense power. Lifting the mechanized armored face shield reveals the all-access interface for extreme gaming, complete with glowing red LEDs and claw-like optical-drive doors.

Eyes wide open, ears perked up
Experience graphics this intense and the real world might start looking dull. The Aspire Predator supports today's most advanced multiple-GPU solutions to deliver high-def 3D visuals and supreme performance, 3-way NVIDIA® SLI™ (3D Vision™ ready) or 2-way ATI CrossFireX™ delivers stunning visuals for the most exciting and immersive gaming experiences. The Aspire Predator hosts Creative® THX® TruStudio PC™, putting gamers in the middle of the action with omnipresent surround sound by connecting up to seven speakers or a set of headphones. The Creative® Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium sound card with EAX® 5.0 technology brings fully interactive 3D audio to PC gaming.

Killer performance
The Aspire Predator is driven by the most elite processor for serious gaming and entertainment enthusiasts. Add up to 12 GB of three-channel DDR3 1066 MHz memory and you're guaranteed ultra-quick system-wide performance for massive multitasking. The HDD cage allows a shocking 8 TB storage space with four 3.5" easy-swap SATA hard disks, up to 2 TB each. Enjoy faster system bootup, quick application loading and lots of space for content creation and multimedia files.

Superior gaming enhancements
The Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (IXTU) provides the control to overclock both the processor and graphics card, pushing your gaming machine's performance beyond manufacturer limits. The two-part liquid cooling system maintains a low CPU and GPU core temperature for increased efficiency and longevity.

DirectX® 11 with multi-threading reduces performance bottlenecks between the CPU and GPU, plus new image processing techniques give games an unrivalled realism. Dual LAN technology teams up a pair of Gigabit Ethernet connections for blazing file transfers, higher system performance via lower CPU utilization, and non-stop connectivity with failover support. The Logitech® G11/G15 gaming keyboard and G5/G9 gaming mouse options deliver high responsiveness and convenient macro keys to stay on top of the latest fast-action games.

Acer

Aspire TimelineX 5820T

2010-05-15T13:51:00.001+07:00

Building on the achievements of the previous generation of Timeline laptops, Acer created the Aspire TimelineX series in the pursuit of the extreme: extreme performance, extreme battery life, extreme connectivity and extremely thin designs. With the new Aspire TimelineX series there is no need of making compromises: you can have it all.

The original Aspire Timeline series was the first to break the 8-hour battery life barrier and the Aspire TimelineX matches that and adds extreme power straight out of the box.

Extreme battery life
Charging up once with a TimelineX Series notebook frees you to work and play from morning till night, having an extreme battery life of up to 12 hours!1,2 You can multitask with intense applications and enjoy brilliant HD multimedia longer than ever before. Acer PowerSmart technology automatically adjusts settings to maximize performance when you need it and prolong your battery life.

Extremely thin and light
The 15.6" TimelineX 5820 is ideal for home- school- and office-based users on the move all day with demanding PC needs. Less than 1" thin, this notebook is easy to carry, maneuver and store while you're on the go, yet still features full-size notebook usability with an easy-to-read display, numeric keypad and optical drive.

Extreme performance
The power of next-generation Intel® Core™ i7, i5 or i3 processor technology speeds up multitasking performance so you can work faster and have more fun, with less waiting. Improved responsiveness and efficient performance are a given with DDR3 memory, which delivers twice the speed of DDR2, A large-capacity hard disk drive provides generous storage for work and multimedia files.

HD multimedia enjoyment
A number of exceptional high-definition graphics options enhance Internet video, movies and pictures, so they look fantastic on the 16:9 HD display. On top of that, you get the thrilling sound of Dolby® Home Theater® v3 for a complete multimedia experience. If you want to take entertainment to the big-screen, an HDMI™ port connects handily with HD peripheral displays.

Omnipresent connectivity
The latest communication technologies keep you in touch at all times. Optional 3G capability tunes you in to mobile Internet from the furthest reaches, while a Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ network connection gets you online at wireless hotspots. You'll be well-connected, and with the Acer Crystal Eye webcam with 1280 x 1024 resolution and built-in microphone you can engage in high-definition video chats.

Acer

Altos easyStore

2010-05-15T13:29:00.003+07:00

NAS Storage

Altos easyStore provides easy file sharing among the network and up to 2 TB of shared storage to meet the increasing demand of storage capacity and file sharing.

Auto Backup
Whether resulted from file corruption, accidental deletion or disk failure, data loss has considerable costs. Altos easyStore delivers a cost-effective solution for this administrative headache. Simple to use and easy to manager, this Network Attached Storage system couples continuous data protection and system recovery making it ideal for businesses with limited IT resources.

System Recovery
Altos easyStore protects clients from disk failure, loss of file or virus attacks. Using the Recovery CD or network PXE reboot, system and data can be recovered to the clients in a few simple steps.

File sharing
Supports up to 2TB of storage capacity for file sharing among Windows*, Linux* OS, and Macintosh* users, with user name, password protection, and managed access in local workgroups.

Automatic client backup and remote system restore
safeguards multiple clients from the risk of disk failure, virus attack or human error. Can restore system and data on individual clients in matters of minutes.

Advanced data protection
user name or group level authentication and support of RAID Levels 5, 10 and 1

Snapshot backup
Data and system backup is done with no impact to the application performances and requires a small fraction of the storage capacity.

Easy to setup
User-friendly Web interface for setting up Altos easyStore and all the users and access rights.

Easy to manage
Web-based management provides system information for disk usage, service status, RAID, system log and current connections.

A quiet, energy saving but big in capacity NAS
Quiet, energy saving ideal for the office environment while offering a big storage capacity for users and workgroups.

Built-in DHCP and FTP server
Easy network integration and file sharing for local networks or across the Web Console HTTPs.

Acer

Acer H7530D

2010-05-06T23:14:00.002+07:00

The chic white Acer H7530D projector gives you Full HD 1080p widescreen cinematic enjoyment with images in living colors! Complete HDMI™ connectivity, ultra-high dynamic contrast ratio, and enhanced color technologies bring you brilliant games and entertainment right in the comfort of your living room.

Immersive display
Acer ColorBoost II+ technology delivers richer details, smoother gradation, and brighter natural colors for more lifelike images. Wall-color compensation allows you to project accurate images even on colored walls, so you're not limited to a white background. And with ColorSafe technology, the color integrity of your images is preserved even after prolonged use of the projector.

Keeping images alive
Images are portrayed brilliantly even in brightly lit venues thanks to 2000 ANSI Lumens brightness. What's more, DynamicBlack™ technology features an ultra-high 40000:1 contrast ratio, showcasing superior black levels while maintaining the original brightness of bright scenes for optimized imagery.

One-click functionality
The Acer Empowering Technology suite of tools lets you conveniently customize your power, viewing and timer settings via the Empowering Key on the remote control.

In full control
With digital zoom and pan, you can magnify the interesting details of your displayed content and move images to a preferred spot. Auto keystone correction rights vertical distortions for the proper view. And with auto ceiling-mount correction, gravity sensors detect that the projector is ceiling mounted and images are rotated 180 degrees to ensure correct orientation.

Acer

Altos easyStore M2

2010-05-06T23:11:00.000+07:00

Astonishingly compact and encased in an inspiring orange-black chassis, the Altos easyStore M2 delivers exceptional performance and intuitive and centralized storage for your office files. Featuring the latest components, this compact server boasts great reliability and sufficient HDD capacity to meet your daily computing needs.

High-quality performance
Powered by the efficient Intel® Atom processor and controlled by a secure and easy-to-customize 64-bit Linux Kernel 2.6-based operating system, the Altos easyStore M2 stores your office files reliably. Save and share files on four hot-swappable HDDs for a total of 6 TB storage space via quick Gigabit Ethernet network connectivity.

Effortless management
The Altos easyStore M2 is easy to set up and features a TCP/IP-based storage system, plenty of storage space and intuitive software for storing everything in a central location. What's more, SAN Disk Manager (SDM) automatically assigns a virtual disk to clients with exclusive read/write privleges allowing straightforward user and data management.

Consistent security
Software RAID supporting Linear, Standard 0, 1, 5, 5 + spare and 10 improves data protection on the Altos easyStore M2. Additionally, FileSafe Express client software enables automatic and customizable file-based backup, while the dependable antivirus software wards off malicious Internet code.

Easy expansion
Existing server expansion just got simpler with Altos easyStore M2's NAS and iSCSI capabilities. NAS features file sharing for users to upload and download files through an intuitive interface and iSCSI allows users to employ dedicated space for applications just like a local HDD.

Acer

Aspire X3900

2010-05-06T14:33:00.001+07:00

The sleek and compact Aspire X3900 is just one-third the size of a traditional PC, so it fits nicely anywhere in your home. Premium components and software make this desktop perfect for handling all of your home computing and entertainment needs.

What's more, a bundle of multimedia features and device ports lets you enjoy theater-quality entertainment right in your living room.

Create and share family memories
Acer Arcade™ Deluxe features a new way to experience cinematic entertainment with sharper video detail, enhanced aliasing, reduced judder and less noise. You can also have more fun with your photos and video via new editing tools and an easy portal to share your masterpieces online through Flickr and YouTube™.

Enjoy quality home entertainment
Avoid the hassle of lining up at a crowded ticket booth and enjoy a theater experience at home with the Aspire X3900. Equipped with 5.1-channel surround sound, HDMI™ and optional Blu-ray Disc™ technology, this Aspire desktop lets you appreciate high-definition multimedia from the comfort of your couch.

Keep your data safe
Data recovery is effortless via the Aspire X3900's Acer eRecovery Management. Make full and incremental backups or reinstall drivers and applications through a simple-to-use interface. You can rest easy with MyWinLocker®, a digital safe that protects important files on a secure digital vault.

Acer

Aspire Revo R3600

2010-05-06T14:31:00.002+07:00

The AspireRevo is a revolution in computer size, shape, design and affordability. This nettop sports a small casing that can either stand alone or snap to your monitor, streamlining your personal space while giving you the home entertainment centre you always wanted.

Whether tucked away in a corner of your desk or nicely concealed on the back of your monitor, the AspireRevo makes the perfect everyday PC for cruising the Internet, doing your daily work, staying connected via instant messaging, and enjoying photos, music, videos and more.

Optimal Performance
The AspireRevo is small but powerful, fueled by today's latest mini processor, complimented by an advanced NVIDIA® ION™graphics chipset and HDMI™ connectivity supporting full 1080P HD for very real-looking imagery. An eSATA port, six USB ports and a memory card reader make transferring your photos and other files as fast and easy as ever.

Total Connectivity
AspireRevo makes the perfect everyday PC for cruising the Internet, doing daily work, staying connected via instant messaging, and enjoying photos, music, videos and more. Simple quick connection to the internet and home network with AspireRevo's built-in 802.11b/g WiFi controller.

Ultra Slim Design
The Aspire R3600 is a revolution in the design as well. An ultra slim diamond shape design that can be portable and easily attached to the VESA mounting at the rear of an LCD monitor. Moreover the power button peeks over the monitor for easy access and the position is adjustable to fit various monitors. The innovative case layout takes up a lot of space less of a traditional desktop and is ideal for the Living room, bedroom or even the kitchen.

Accessories
Expanding your infotainment world, some models of the AspireRevo come with a host of optional ivory-white accessories, including a 3D game controller that works as an air mouse for enjoying sports, shooting, steering and flying games in the comfort of your living room; in addition to a webcam, mini speakers and wired or wireless keyboard and mouse.

Eco-Friendly
Featuring the ultra low power consumption Atom processor with optimized component placement and mechanical design, AspireRevo is surprisingly silent in operation. In short Aspire Revo is Energy star 5.0 compliance that maximize energy efficiency and save more power.

Acer

Lenovo S10-3s: Between Netbook or Tablet

2010-05-06T07:17:00.002+07:00

If you love the idea of a portable tablet PC, but can't really come to grips with the lack of a physical keyboard on such devices, Lenovo's S10-3t is here to help. This convertible tablet netbook features a screen that swivels 180 degrees and lies flat, so you can have the conveniences of both a touchscreen and a physical keyboard.

Our review model, which is black and costs $549, features the 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and a 10.1-inch LED multitouch screen. It also has a built-in Webcam and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. The unit comes with Windows 7 Starter as the operating system.

The Lenovo S10-3t isn't a breathtaking netbook. It has a very shiny (and fingerprint-attracting) cover with a glittery square pattern. Its connections include two USB 2.0 ports, an ethernet port, a VGA-out port, headphone and microphone jacks, and a front-loading SD card slot.

For a 10.1-inch netbook, the S10-3t is pretty slim at just 0.79 inches thick. With the four-cell standard battery, it weighs 2.7 pounds (a larger eight-cell battery raises the weight to 3.3 pounds). This is a good weight for a netbook, but a little on the heavy side for a tablet. Though the larger battery gives you significantly more life than does the standard battery, the battery pack sticks out almost an inch from the back of the netbook and makes holding the device for more than a few minutes awkward and uncomfortable.

I definitely appreciate the full-size physical keyboard--but in tablet mode, you have no virtual keyboard, which can be very annoying if you like to work in that mode. The keys are nice and big, but a little too springy for my taste--they have no weight at all, which makes typing uncomfortable and promotes typos galore.

The trackpad is another story--it's about an inch-and-a-half tall, with two integrated buttons denoted by tiny dots on the lower corners. And it's textured, so there's no mistaking where it is (though, if you blink you might miss it). For what it's worth, the trackpad works nicely. Scrolling is smooth and the buttons are easy to press. It's just so small. Lenovo presumably didn't spend too much time (or real estate) on the trackpad because the good old touchscreen is right in front of you, but still, I would've appreciated something a little larger.

The 1024-by-600-pixel touchscreen is a single-input multitouch display that gives the user a pretty decent experience. It's not the most precise touchscreen we've ever used, but it's good enough to take the place of a trackpad. The IdeaPad has an accelerometer, but it was shaky at best--every time you lay the device flat, it gets confused and picks a random orientation (instead of just sticking with the orientation you had before)--annoying. You also have to wait 3 to 5 seconds as the desktop reorients itself.

No stylus is included, and writing on the screen is pretty much a lost cause. You'll have to find or buy your own stylus if you plan on using the "notes" feature. The screen is also highly glossy--not such an issue if you're using it as a netbook, but a big problem if you're using it as a tablet. The screen is quite reflective, and from some angles you can barely see it at all.

Audio and video are pretty dismal. I couldn't even stream a standard-definition one-minute clip of Family Guy without choppiness and lag, and downloaded video isn't any better. Even the sample preloaded clip (of horses and ducks and other nature things) looks more like a series of still pictures than a video clip. The speakers, located under the screen, are louder than most netbooks but still very flat-sounding. Dolby headphone surround sound gives a much better audio experience--I'd definitely recommend toting headphones around with this netbook.

Because the S10-3t is a half-tablet, Lenovo includes an appropriate amount of touch-friendly software. Along with the requisite 60-day trial of Microsoft Office, you get a suite of apps (dubbed "NaturalTouch") that includes a photo browser, an e-book reader, a notes application, and a media player. And a dedicated button on the lower left corner of the screen will take you straight into NaturalTouch. Lenovo also bundles a number of its own applications, including Lenovo DirectShare, Lenovo VeriFace 3.6, Lenovo VeriTouch, and OneKey Recovery. One app, called BumpTop, displays your desktop as a touch-friendly 3D "desktop."

The Lenovo S10-3t is, at best, decent as a netbook and decent as a tablet. While it's nice to have the functionality of both, I think I'd get better use out of something that was just really good as one or the other--a great netbook or a great tablet would be better than something that's merely mediocre at being both.

Lenovo

QNAP TS-259

2010-05-05T16:40:00.003+07:00

Network storage is a concept that many people use without a second thought in corporate environments, but what about at home? Count the number of PCs in your house and tell me it wouldn't be nice to have one central location for backups, video and music storage, and the inevitable centralized grocery store list(s). All that and much more is readily available in a Network Attached Storage server.

The QNAP TS-259 Pro NAS server uses a powerful and energy-efficient 1.66GHz Intel Atom D510 processor with 1GB of DDR2-800 system memory to eliminate any potential bottlenecks in the device itself. Dual Gigabit Ethernet network interfaces allow failover safety and teaming, while two SATA drive bays offer single disk, JBOD, and RAID 0/1 configurations. Benchmark Reviews examines the QNAP TS-259 Pro in detail here and compares its performance against a wide variety of network attached storage servers.

Three features dominate the discussion of network storage hardware: data capacity, data security, and data transfer speed. On the software side, the current crop of NAS devices offer a dizzying array of applications to help manage and distribute the data, but they're of limited use if you need to be an MSCSE to figure them out. QNAP has always aimed for the high end of the NAS server market with performance and features such as dual Gigabit Ethernet with failover, a full range of RAID functionality, and a diverse, feature-rich user interface. They've recently upgraded the software suite that is supplied with the majority of their product line, and we'll look at both its capabilities and ease of use.

I mentioned the corporate IT environment earlier, and QNAP has plenty of solutions for that market. Today though, we're going to look at a NAS device that is scaled down for the small office/home office (SOHO) user. My home fits this description to a tee, as my wife and I have a small business, have 5 computers sharing our network, and have been using a NAS for the last five years as a file server and to manage our backups. My first impression is that QNAP trimmed down size and capacity, but the speed, security, and features of the TS-259 Pro NAS server are all top ranked. Benchmark Reviews has tested a number of QNAP products: the QNAP TS-119 NAS single-disk offering made for home users, and the Goliath QNAP TS-809 Pro 8-Bay NAS for the storage needs of large businesses. Most recently we tested a 4-bay QNAP TS-459 Pro Turbo-NAS, which may yet turn out to be the best compromise for some people. Let's see how a two-bay device compares to its big brothers and little sisters.
The Most Affordable and Flexible Virtualization Solution

The TS-259 Pro is certified as compatible with VMware vSphere4 (ESX 4.0 and above) virtualization platform. The NAS can be utilized as the networked shared storage of VMware virtualization environments and Windows cluster servers. Comparing with traditional SAN (Storage Area Network), the Turbo NAS is a competitive alternative with much lower setup and maintenance costs in an IP SAN.
The Feature-rich and Integrated Applications for Business

The NAS supports file sharing across Windows, Mac, Linux, and UNIX platforms. Versatile business applications such as file server, FTP server, printer server, web server, and Windows AD support are provided. The dominant features, such as WebDAV, Share Folder Aggregation (also known as DFS), IPv6 and IPv4 dual-stack, Wake on LAN, schedule power on/ off, HDD S.M.A.R.T, comprehensive log systems, and policy-based unauthorized IP blocking are all included features of a QNAP NAS server.
About QNAP Systems, Inc.QNAP Logo

QNAP Systems, Inc. (QNAP) is a devoted and dominant provider of Internet Appliance products. With our solid and integrated expertise in the Linux embedded platform, QNAP has released more than 30 models for the network storage and digital network surveillance series over the past 6 years, providing our consumers with high performance and high reliability storage, backup, and surveillance solutions. Today, QNAP continues to lead the industry with our innovation in design and technology.

QNAP

The Ally : First Android Phone From LG

2010-05-05T16:20:00.003+07:00

LG has announced--sort of--the Ally, the company's first Android-powered smartphone.

Rather than taking a more traditional route to unveiling a new cell phone, which would be staging a public event or dedicating a press release to the phone's specifications, the company has alluded to the Ally's existence in a company statement about an advertising tie-in to Iron Man 2, along with a movie-themed Web site for the device.

Customers buying an LG Ally on its release May 20, or an existing LG Chocolate Touch or LG enV Touch, will receive a special edition Iron Man 2 comic book created by Marvel.
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The Ally itself? It features an Iron Man 2 "augmented reality app," plus a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a full touch screen front panel. Still no official word on specs.

The last time LG did something like this was with the middling Incite, which the company tied to the middling remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.Ds is very easy.

LG

Gigabyte X58 In 2010

2010-05-04T15:11:00.002+07:00

Many people assume newer is better, but that’s not always true when it comes to processor interfaces. The high-end LGA 1366 platform launched with Intel’s Nehalem architecture in 2008, and the mainstream LGA 1156 platform that followed nearly a year later wasn’t designed to match the connectivity needs of a high-end market.

Yet, by the time new technologies like USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s were available to the public, the market was treating Intel’s high-end platform like a has-been, despite the fact that it continues to offer the PCI Express 2.0 needed for both capabilities.

The problem with LGA 1156 is its lack of PCI Express 2.0 connectivity. Most gamers won't want to sacrifice any of the processor’s sixteen 5.0 Gb/s lanes for an add-in controller, since doing so steals bandwidth from the graphics card. And the PCI Express lanes that come from Intel's P55, H57, and H55 controller hubs only run at the PCIe 1.1 data rate, severely bottlenecking performance.

While some manufacturers initially tried to sneak away the graphics cards lanes, and others used a bridge device to connect four 2.5 Gb/s lanes to two 5.0 Gb/s controllers, true enthusiasts knew that the only “perfect” way to add those high-performance controllers would be to simply use a platform with more true PCI Express 2.0 connectivity.

Fortunately, X58 already has 36 PCIe 2.0 pathways, allowing up to 32 to be devoted to graphics, while four serve other needs. Those other needs can include 5.0 Gb/s USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s (at 5.0 Gb/s max). But X58 needed a new high-end processor to help thrust it back into the spotlight. That product came six weeks ago with the introduction of Intel’s six-core Core i7-980X processor.

Now that people are finally taking second (and third) looks at the X58, let’s see what these new-for-2010 motherboard’s have to offer.

Gigabyte

Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6

2010-05-04T15:04:00.002+07:00

Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 is a premium-class board with X48 chipset and features of DES. Overview of the usage of X38 with the X48 chipset is not much different. Change X48 chipsets differ only with the full support 1600Mhz FSB processors.

But there are significant changes from the design-Gigabyte X48T DQ6 with DDR3 memory. Features board is equipped with DES or Dynamic Energy Saver. Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 will be able to automatically regulate power consumption. That means more savings can pengunakan power, without reducing the processor speed itself. The combination of high-quality components with low power consumption plus DES, making more efficient use of power compared to other boards.

Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 Equipment
Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 has more equipment outside devices. Like the SATA cable equipment already prepared in packets Gigabyte X48T-DQ6.

Design of the existing SATA cables for internal cables. Created specifically with the L form in order not to stick out when mounted on the disk.

Section rear panel board
Placement of ports Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 is made more on the rear panel of the board positions.
There are 8 USB ports can be connected directly on the mainboard rear panel, certainly enough for eight hardware that requires a USB connection port. 2 Ethernet ports and two Firewire complement this board. While the audio connections from the controller chip has been provided for optical and COEX as digital output

Other components on the chip, using the highest type of type 889A Realtek sound card. Ethernet has been supplemented for the two fruits from Realtek 8111C Gigabit LAN (picture right) and PLL chip 9LPRS914EKL generator. All the components of capacitor board, was using a solid type of capacitor.

Gigabyte

Biostar Releases TA890FXE

2010-05-04T10:05:00.002+07:00

BIOSTAR MICROTECH INT'L CORP., a professional manufacturer of motherboards today reveals its new "TA890FXE" motherboard with "BIO-unlocKING" utility that makes it possible to turn a budget quad-core version of a CPU into full six-cores for significant computing gains.

AMD new Phenom II X6 processor with 890FX chipset combination, a high-powered computing platform designed to meet the demand of today's gaming enthusiasts. The AMD Phenom II X6 processor can switch between utilizing two or three cores for functions such as running productivity software to six cores for content creation and immersive 3D applications.

BIOSTAR famous T-Series "TA890FXE" is ready for up to four ATI Radeon HD graphics cards and award winning ATI EyeFinity multiple-display technology; and South Bridge SB850 that provides native support for SATA 6.0 Gb/s, Gigabit Ethernet, HyperTransport 3.0 technology, and PCI Express Generation 2.0. "TA890FXE" motherboard is powered by a 6 phase PWM, supporting 140W processors, four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots supporting ATI CrossFireX technology, apart from two legacy PCI slots. 7.1 channel HD Blu-Ray audio, Gigabit Ethernet, and FireWire make for the rest of it.

BIOSTAR "BIO-unlocKING" utility, an exclusive development from BIOSTAR that provides an ease of use interface for overclocking the hidden CPU cores. This time it is not only limited to unlock a 2 core processor into a 4 cores, but also capable of unlocking a 4 core processor into a 6 cores. BIOS will automatically detect the numbers of hidden cores during installation; users just simply press the "F6" button to unlock. The "BIO-unlocKING" utility is available on every BIOSTAR 8xx series motherboard.

Please Note: Unlocking disabled cores is not guaranteed to work with every Phenom II chip.

BIOSTAR

HP Pavilion dv2

2010-05-03T17:32:00.003+07:00

After the success dv2 HP Pavilion, Hewlett-Packard (HP) again enthralled the world with the presence of the HP Pavilion Entertainment Notebook PC series dv3 reinforced with Intel ® Core processors and Intel Core I3 i5-date with the quality "Faster & Smarter" prove that the performance results outside ordinary and energy efficiency for every application that enjoyed the entertainment. With features that become the champion of Digital Entertainment, HP Pavilion dv3 as if to answer this need for entertainment and fun for longer.

Greater Strength and Color
All the keys are in stunning detail. HP Pavilion dv3 appear in two colors with a variety of Espresso Black Imprint Imprint Imprint and the Moonlight White. Behind the beautiful interior, the HP Pavilion dv3 offers mobile processors, graphics cards, and WLAN connectivity for the best communications and entertainment.

Digital Entertainment Features
Get ahold of a digital world at your fingertips! With features in the HP MediaSmart HP Pavilion Entertainment Notebook PC series dv3 this, edit photos, play video or music, even to save the scene in your favorite DVDs is very easy.

HP Pavilion

Saphire Technology

2010-05-01T10:28:00.000+07:00

SAPPHIRE Technology has just added a new silent cooled model to its extensive range of ATI-based graphics cards. The award winning ULTIMATE Series is SAPPHIRE Technology's Silent Cooled product line. The SAPPHIRE HD 5550 ULTIMATE is a new graphics card aimed at the mainstream market, whist sharing many of the exciting features of the latest high end series.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5500 series is based on the latest graphics architecture from the ATI division of AMD, built in its 40nm process. It supports the advanced graphical features of Microsoft DirectX 11, and delivers superb video clarity and visual effects, whilst consuming very low power levels.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5550 ULTIMATE is equipped with 1GB of DDR2 memory, with clock speeds of 550MHz core and 800MHz effective for the memory. It has 320 Stream processors and supports Microsoft DirectX 11 as well as accelerating applications compatible with ATI Stream. The PCB is a SAPPHIRE original design and the whole graphics system is cooled by a heatpipe based wrap-over heatsink. It has no fan, so is totally silent in operation and maintenance free.

This model has the output configuration of DVI, HDMI and VGA, the most flexible combination of monitor outputs and allowing the use of HDMI enabled monitors or digital TVs to be directly driven with both video and sound signals over a single HDMI cable. As the core technology is low power, no external power connection is required, making this series ideal for system upgrades or mainstream PCs that do not have high end power supplies.

Native CrossFire support allows two or more cards to be used together for additional performance on a suitable CrossFireX compatible mainboard. On the HD 5500 series, CrossFireX is supported in software by the driver, and no additional interconnect is required.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5500 series is fully compatible with current DirectX10.1, DirectX 10 and DirectX 9.0 games and applications, but will show stunning new levels of detail, transparency and lighting effects in newer releases of software using DirectX 11. All of this comes with very low active power consumption as well as Dynamic Power Management delivering super low-power operation (10W) in 2D or idle.

Ideal for media applications, the SAPPHIRE HD 5550 has an on board hardware UVD (Unified Video decoder) considerably reducing CPU load and delivering smooth decoding of Blu-ray™ and HD DVD content for both VC-1 and H.264 codecs, as well as Mpeg files. In all of the SAPPHIRE HD 5000 series the UVD has been enhanced to be able simultaneously to decode two 1080p HD video streams and to be able to display HD video in high quality with Windows Aero mode enabled. HDMI capability has also been upgraded to HDMI 1.3a with Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio support.

The HD 5500 series products support the latest features demanded by Microsoft DirectX 11, including DirectCompute 11 instructions, hardware Tessellation and multi-threaded communications with the system CPU. These combine to provide new capabilities for the interaction between transparent objects, new lighting and accelerated post processing effects as well as physics calculations and accelerated video transcoding. They also support ATI Stream, accelerating supported applications such as video transcoding and rendering tasks by executing instructions on the GPU architecture rather than the system CPU.

The SAPPHIRE HD 5500 series is supported by AMD's DirectX 11 WHQL certified graphics driver which delivers support for all of the key DirectX 11 level features required for new gaming experiences and acceleration of next generation high performance applications.

Asus EeePC 1001P

2010-05-01T06:21:00.002+07:00

The number of netbook form factors and designs available to consumers have grown obscenely vast of late, and as a result, prices for them have also hit all time lows. Case in point: the Asus EeePC 1001P ($300 street). The 1000P neither has the best user experience nor the best battery life, but it's put together nicely, for one really low price. At $300, who can pass up a bargain?

Design
Good looks aren't what you'd expect from a cheap netbook, but that's something that the 1001P delivers.. The 1001P's front end is tapered, such that the back is thick enough to conceal the 6-cell battery and prevent it from bulging out. The lid has a matted finish and is textured with a decorative pattern, similar to the one found in the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 ($370 Direct, ) and Toshiba mini NB305-N410 ($400 Direct, ). Comparable netbooks like the Acer Aspire One 532h-2268 ($300 Street, ) and Lenovo IdeaPad S12 (Ion) ($650 Direct, ) use glossy tops and are more likely to attract smudges and fingerprints. Metals are by far the classiest materials, which can be found in netbooks like the Nokia Booklet 3G ($600 Street, ) and HP Mini 5102 ($400 Direct, ).
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Sporting a 10-inch widescreen with a 1,024 by 600 resolution are all you get at this price. Spending another $100 bucks can buy you a higher resolution screen (1,366 by 768), like the ones offered by the HP 5102 and Dell Inspiron Mini 10s (HD) ($425 Direct, ), in addition to other amenities. Or if the screen itself is too small, the HP Mini 311 ($470 Direct, ) and Lenovo S12 (Ion) come with 11- and 12-inch widescreens, respectively. The user experience is arguably the least impressive part about this netbook. While the 92% keyboard may seem adequate for the average user, 10-inch netbooks like the Toshiba NB305-N410, the HP 5102, and the Samsung N210 ($380 Street, ) have near full-sized keyboards. The chrome mouse buttons aren't too resistant, but you can find softer ones on the HP 5102 and Toshiba NB305-N410.
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Features
At this price, what features do you sacrifice? Nothing that I would consider a deal-breaker; although, the 1001P ships with a 160GB hard drive while more expensive netbooks are standardizing at 250GB. The HP Mini 311 and Lenovo S12 (Ion) come with an HDMI port, a connector that isn't part of the 1001P's feature set. And while most netbooks are now incorporating 802.11n Wi-Fi, the 1001P drops down to 802.11g. Otherwise, it has three USB ports, Ethernet, VGA, a webcam, and standard audio jacks. You also get a 1-year parts and labor warranty with your purchase.

Performance
Asus EeePC 1001P Speed, as you might have guessed, didn't deviate from that of the crowd, because the 1001P runs on the same basic Intel parts: An 1.67GHz Atom N450 and 1GB of memory. Memory can be manually upgraded to 2GB by removing a single screw from the base. In my tests, Bapco's SYSMark 2007 Preview benchmark tests failed to impress with an overall score of 38—the same score amassed by many of its peers. Video encoding tests finished in 4 minutes 34 seconds—again, nothing to write home about. The only impressive performance tidbit here is battery life. According to MobileMark 2007 tests, the 1001P drained its 48WH (6-cell) battery in 7 hours 45 minutes, which is certainly nothing to gripe about. However, the Toshiba NB305-N410 (8:59) and HP 5102 (10:52) had more battery endurance, thanks to how big their batteries were.

The average price for a quality netbook is hovering between $400 and $500 right now, and although the Asus EeePC 1001P's price falls well below this range, its sacrifices aren't damaging to your computing lifestyle. For those looking for the cheapest netbook with the fewest compromises, the 1001P fits the bill. Otherwise, the slight premiums you pay for the Toshiba mini NB305-N410 and HP Mini 5102 are more worth it in the long run.

Asus

HP took over PalmOS

2010-04-29T18:59:00.000+07:00

Info is on Sunday this week by the team found that in the Computer View Quote from chairman and CEO of Palm's Jon Rubinstein that there are companies that are not revealed, that Palm does not need a leader and his company has plans to restore the struggling smartphone maker to profitability. Looks like we'll never know if it's true or not, as HP today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to buy the Palm to around $ 1.2 billion. You snooze, you lose, Lenovo, HTC, and all the people rumored to have been interested in Palm.

Creating a WebOS Hp Palm platform will help OEMs expected to participate more aggressively in fast-growing, very profitable market of smartphones and mobile devices connected. According to HP, WebOS Palm will enable to take advantage of key features, such as multitasking and share your information up-to-date on all the different applications.

"Innovative Palm operating system provides an ideal platform to develop strategies for HP's mobility and create a unique experience HP covers several connected mobile devices, 'said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. "And, Palm has significant IP assets and has a team of highly skilled big smartphone market, profitable and growing fast. And companies that can provide integrated tools and commands a higher share experience. Progress in mobility that offers significant opportunities, and HP intends to become a leader in this market. "

It will be interesting to see where HP go from here. Clearly, the OEM has several types of plans for the WebOS Palm, as well as financial support once the Palm, which enhance all kinds of questions and potential scenarios. Are we going to see a WebOS enabled tablet from HP? Maybe. How HP smartphone market attack, and can it compete with Google, Microsoft, RIM, and Apple? Maybe. (KomputerView)

Asus U30Jc-1A

2010-04-29T15:47:00.001+07:00

Three months after Intel launched its Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 processors, we still haven't seen modestly-priced lightweight and ultraportable laptops that don't sacrifice power for battery life. While the somewhat expensive Editors' Choice Sony VAIO VPC-Z116GXS ($1,800 direct, ) and Lenovo ThinkPad X201 ($1,625 direct, ) both come equipped with an Intel Core i5 CPU, affordable alternatives that run on these processors are woefully scarce. That's why the metal-clad Asus U30Jc-1A is a welcome addition to the market: It's 13 inches of pure muscle, running on a Core i3 processor and two GPUs—an Intel integrated chipset and an Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics card. And because it scored 8 hours of battery life and does all of this for a delectable price ($899 list), handing it the Editors' Choice in the mainstream laptop category is a no-brainer.

Design
What people probably don't realize is that Asus has more aluminum-clad laptops than Apple, including the UL30A-A1 ($775 street, ), UL80Vt-A1 ($823 street, ), and UL50VF-A1 ($850 street, ). The U30Jc-A1 is just one of many that uses attractive metals on the lid and all over the palm rests (the rest of the body is made of plastics), whereas the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch ($1,199.00 Direct, ) is completely covered in them. The U30Jc-A1 is a thicker laptop than the Asus UL80Vt and Asus UL50VF-A1 because a standard-voltage Core i3 processor requires more cooling (thus, bigger heat sinks) than a low-voltage one. For this reason, not to mention a big battery (84WH), the U30Jc-A1 weighs 4.7 pounds, about as much as the 4.6-pound MacBook Pro 13-inch (4.6 lbs) and 4.8-pound Dell Inspiron i1464-4382OBK ($749.98 list, ).
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Features
In terms of physical size, the U30Jc-A1's 13.3-inch widescreen has as much workspace as the MacBook Pro 13-inch, despite having different screen resolutions (both are considered WXGA). A 14-inch widescreen, as seen on the Dell i1464-4382OBK and HP Pavilion dv4-2153cl ($749.99 list, ) would be the next size up. The Asus UL50VF-A1 bumps it up even further with a 15.6-inch screen and weighs about as much as the U30Jc-A1.
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The island-style keyboard means the U30Jc-A1's square keys are non-interconnecting. It's not a traditional keyboard, like the one found in the Dell i1464 and HP dv4-2153cl, and it doesn't have a backlit function like the one on the MacBook Pro 13-inch. The mouse buttons are in the shape of a single chrome bar, which is click-friendly but picks up fingerprints in the process.

The feature set is the least exciting part about the U30Jc-A1. It has the essentials, like the three USB ports, an HDMI-Out, an SD slot, and a dual-layer DVD burner. A Webcam is placed above the screen, and timeless ports like VGA-Out and Ethernet are both present. It's missing a critical slot like ExpressCard, which you can find in many laptops. And while its 320GB hard drive is above average, the Dell Inspiron i1464 ships with a 500GB one.

Performance
Asus U30Jc-1A Performance is the most exciting part. While everyone is anxiously waiting for Apple to update the MacBook Pro with new processors, the U30Jc-A1 is already running on the latest 2.27GHz Intel Core i3-350M processor. It's a higher-clocking Core i3 processor than the 2.13GHz Core i3 330M found in the HP dv4-2153cl and Dell i1464, and it easily trumps (in terms of speed) the ultra low voltage processors found in the UL30A-A1 and the UL50VF-A1. Paired with 4GB of DDR3 memory, the U30Jc-A1 (0:54) finished the video encoding tests in 54 seconds, outperforming the Dell i1464 (0:59) and HP dv4-2153cl (1:37). It also took top honors in PCMark Vantage (5,068) and Cinebench R10 (7,062) tests. But you'd expect that from a higher-clocked processor.

The U30Jc-A1 has other clear-cut advantages. For instance, it leverages two GPUs: One integrated (from Intel), and the other a discrete chipset—an Nvidia GeForce 310M (512MB). Switching between the two GPUs isn't done in the traditional sense, where you would have to flip a physical switch or make a change in the software. With Nvidia's Optimus technology, a proprietary software driver handles the switching seamlessly.

Each GPU has its own assignment, one dedicated to preserving battery life and the other to handle 3D-intensive tasks like gaming and watching HD videos. Among its peers, the U30Jc-A1, using the Nvidia chip, tallied the best scores in 3DMark06, Crysis, and World in Conflict tests. It's a better gaming machine than the Dell i1464 and the HP dv4-2153cl, both of which run on integrated graphics only.

When you're not 3D gaming or watching HD content, the U30Jc-A1 kicks into integrated graphics mode, a feature our MobileMark 2007 battery test took full advantage of. The 84WH drained in 8 hours flat, which easily outlasted the Dell i1464 (3:31) and HP dv4-2153cl (3:13).

The Asus U30Jc-A1 is one of the first 13-inch lightweight laptops I've seen to feature one of the newest Core i3 Core processors. It is also one of the few systems to take full advantage of Nvidia's Optimus switching technology to score both solid performance and battery benchmarks. It's as close to a complete package you will get in the 13-inch space, without spending an arm and a leg.

Asus

Samsung NX10

2010-04-29T15:43:00.002+07:00

With its Micro-Four-Thirds Consortium, Olympus and Panasonic set out to create a universal lens system for compact interchangeable-lens cameras, but Samsung's latest entry to this nascent market, the NX10, brings a completely new lens system to the game. The 14.6-megapixel NX10 ($699 list) includes a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens to get you started, but don't think about popping a third-party lens on—it won't work with the camera's proprietary mount. Apart from this inconvenience, though, the NX10 does deliver D-SLR-quality images and focusing speeds in a considerably smaller camera body. But some worthy—and more versatile—contenders, like the even-more-compact Panasonic Lumix GF1 ($899.95, )—make recommending this otherwise-strong contender slightly more difficult.

Design and Features
Measuring 3.4 by 4.2 by 1.6 inches (HWD—with the included 30mm f/2 pancake lens attached), the NX10 is reminiscent of the first Micro-Four-Thirds camera—the Panasonic Lumix G1 ($799.95, ). Both cameras have a grip on the front right side, electronic viewfinders (more on this later), and similar control dial and button placement. They're also larger than the latest Micro-Four-Thirds entrants, the Panasonic Lumix GF1 and the Olympus E-P2 ($1,099.99, ). Still, despite its hefty 21.6-ounce weight (with lens), the NX10 is comfortable to hold.

An excellent 3-inch (614K-dot) OLED occupies much of the camera's back—this advanced display offers superior contrast and less motion blur than an LCD. Samsung claims that the display offers VGA (640-by-480-pixel) resolution, which is much higher than displays on the Panasonic GF1 or Olympus EP-2, but cameras with traditional LCDs, like the Canon EOS Rebel T1i ($799.99, ), require at least 920K dots to display a VGA picture. To accomplish this with just 614K dots, Samsung uses a display technology called PenTile. While PenTile displays are not are not as sharp as LCDs of equivalent resolution, the NX10's screen is of far higher quality than that on the comparably priced Olympus E-PL1 ($599.99, ),which has a 230K-dot 3-inch LCD.

Like its Micro-Four-Thirds counterparts, the NX10 lacks an optical viewfinder, but does include a 921K-dot (VGA) electronic viewfinder (EVF). As your eye gets close to the EVF, it powers on, and the 3-inch OLED display turns off. This EVF mimics the content on the LCD. The experience is far from that of a true optical viewfinder on a D-SLR—the EVF shows some motion blur, isn't very bright, and is not as crisp. If you're used to a D-SLR, this viewfinder will take some getting used to. Personally, I'd rather just use the camera's primary display to frame shots. To compare, the Panasonic GF1 and Olympus EPL-1 don't build in EVFs, though they are available as an accessory.

Regardless of whether you prefer the camera's primary display or the EVF, the user interface is really terrific—it's intuitive and colorful and provides everything from scene modes to full manual controls for newbies and pros alike. The UI reminds me of Samsung's Touch Wiz interface, used on cell phones like the Samsung Omnia II SCH-i920 ($199.95, ).
Samsung NX10

Performance Tests and Image Quality
Similar-size cameras, such as the Leica X1 ($1,995, ) and Sigma DP2 ($649, ), suffer from slower focusing, but Samsung has figured out how to use the large APS-C image sensor to provide D-SLR-like auto-focusing speed through smarter autofocus algorithms and advanced chipsets, shedding now-unnecessary components, such as a mirror box and secondary image sensor. Micro-Four-Thirds cameras from Panasonic and Olympus have achieved similar results, though these cameras use a slightly smaller (17.3 by 13mm) image sensor.

Using Shooting Digital's shutter lag test, I confirmed that the NX10 focuses at near-D-SLR speed, and is on par with Panasonic's Micro-Four-Thirds cameras. The Canon EOS 50D ($1,299, ) can autofocus in an average of just .4 second; the Samsung NX10 comes close at .6 second, the same time it takes the Panasonic GF1. At 1.2 seconds, the Olympus E-PL1 takes twice as long to bring your subject into focus.

Shutter lag is practically non-existent with this camera; the NX10 and Panasonic GF1 each averaged .13 second of shutter lag, while the Olympus E-PL1 averaged .40 second in my tests. In drive mode, the NX10 can fire 3 full-resolution frames per second. There's also a gimmicky option to shoot 30 1.4-megapixel images per second. The camera's power-on speeds are also very impressive; it can fire its first image in just 1.5 seconds.

In the PCMag Lab, we use Imatest to objectively evaluate image quality. During testing, I found that the NX10's 14.6-megapixel images were on a par with a D-SLR, but its 24 by 16mm APS-C size sensor didn't offer more sharpness or less noise when compared with the slightly smaller sensors on Olympus and Panasonic Micro-Four-Thirds cameras. Also, the included 18-55mm lens produced soft images; the optional 30mm lens was much sharper.

Using the 18-55mm kit lens and setting the camera to its sharpest f-stop (f/5.6), the Samsung NX10 captured an average of 1,704 lines per picture height at ISO 100. While that is a good score, using the optional 30mm lens at f/5.6 and ISO 100, the average resolution score jumps up to 1,905. The Lumix GF1's sharpest f-stop at ISO 100 offered an average of 2,084 lines per picture height.

In my tests, the Samsung NX10 didn't outperform the Lumix GF1 in terms of noise either; in fact, the Olympus EPL-1 offered better noise performance than both the NX10 and GF1. Both cameras kept scores below the acceptable 1.5-percent image-noise threshold up to and including ISO 800. At ISO 1600, the NX10 averaged 1.72 percent noise and the GF1 averaged 1.66 percent. The Olympus E-PL1 bests both cameras, averaging 1.2 percent noise, making it your best bet for low-light shooting. Canon's latest D-SLR, the EOS Rebel T2i ($899.99, ), can shoot at up to ISO 3200 without visible image noise.

Like other cameras in this price range, the NX10's high-definition video capture is limited to 1280 by 720 pixels at 30 progressive frames per second (720p30). The camera captures HD video as MPEG-4 files, so they can be easily uploaded to YouTube, but there's no option to record in the less-compatible but higher-quality AVCHD format—Panasonic's format of choice for the Lumix GF1 and the upcoming Lumix G2. Also lacking is a microphone input for adding external audio sources. The integrated mono mic is your only option, and it picks up lens noise when you zoom or adjust focus. Advanced users will appreciate the manual aperture control, for adjusting the depth of field, however.

You get an HDMI port so you can easily plug the NX10 into your HDTV for high-definition photo and video playback. The HDMI port also supports Consumer Electronic Control, and if your HDTV is compatible, its remote control can operate the camera without any programming. The NX10 uses a proprietary USB cable to connect to your computer however—so replacing it won't be as easy as picking up a standard USB cable.

There are currently only a handful of lenses and accessories available for the NX10: a Samsung 50-200mm f/4.0-5.6 Lens ($249.99), a 30mm f/2 Lens ($299.99), and two external flashes. Micro-Four-Thirds cameras have been around for over a year, so there are plenty of lenses and accessories available. I expect to see more accessories from Samsung in the future, but keep in mind that unlike Micro-Four-Thirds lenses, those designed for the NX10 will not be compatible with cameras from other manufacturers.

There's certainly a market for smaller D-SLR cameras, and Samsung's NX10 paves the way for similar models with proprietary lens mounts. The advantages offered by the NX10's larger APS-C size sensor are negligible, however, so beyond the camera's low price, it probably makes more sense to invest in a Micro-Four-Thirds camera that offers similar performance but more versatility, such as the Panasonic Lumix GF1.

Samsung

2010-04-29T15:40:00.003+07:00

Just Like The Micro Four Thirds Camera Consortium, Panasonic and Lumic that creates a system of universal lens-interchangeable lens for a compact camera, but Samsung Latest Camera Removing the X10 N, 14.6 Megapixel With 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 include lenses for you started, despite all the comments from other parties, stating NX10 not give the D-SLR image quality and focusing speed in-camera much smaller.

3.4 Measuring 4.2 by 1.6 inches (HWD-with the included 30mm f / 2 pancake lens attached), Both cameras have a handle on the front right side, electronic viewfinders (more on this later), and the same control buttons and placement of buttons. Both cameras have a handle on the front right side, electronic viewfinders (more on this later), and the same control buttons and button placement.

Regardless of whether you prefer the main view or EVF camera, the user interface really great-it's intuitive and full of color and provides everything from scene modes with manual control for beginners and pros similar.

Image Quality
Samsung has found a way to use a large APS-C image sensor to provide a D-SLR like the auto-focus speed through clever autofocus algorithm and advanced chipset, releasing the now-unnecessary components, such as a mirror box and secondary image sensor.

2010-04-29T15:20:00.001+07:00

Early presence, Apple designed a multi gadgets and practical, combining the needs of work and entertainment, the tool-but-important base with iWork, improved browser, e-mail, iPods, and photo applications, a platform e executed correctly -Books with the iBooks, and throw in thousands of downloadable applications and games.

Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5)

2010-04-21T20:00:00.002+07:00

For those Mac fans who have been waiting for the updated MacBook Pro line, the wait is over. Given that the company just launched what probably is the hottest product of the year in the iPad, followed by a slew of compelling iPhone OS updates a couple of days later, a delayed Intel refresh on the laptops was completely understandable. And that's exactly what you'll get with the new Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5) ($1,799 direct). The new system has the same magnificent-looking aluminum chassis as the previous model, but what's inside has changed. And it includes a fast Intel Core i5 processor and the addition of a seamless graphics switching technology that Apple developed on its own. It's the must-have Apple laptop for performance-hungry Mac users.

No Design Changes
If you placed the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5) alongside the previous-generation MacBook Pro 15-inch (SD Slot) ($1,699 direct, ), it would be impossible to detect any design differences. It still has the signature "Unibody" enclosure, a frame that is made entirely out of aluminum metals. The HP Envy 15 ($1,800 direct, ) and Dell Adamo XPS ($2,000 street, ) are also clad in metals, whereas laptops like the Asus UL50VF-A1 ($850 street, ) and Sony VAIO VPC-Z116GXS ($1,800 direct, ) only use them on the lid and palm rest areas and aren't nearly as attractive. The MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5) is now heavier than it was before, tipping the scales at 5.5 pounds. It used to be the lightest in its class, until lightweights like the UL50VF-A1 (5.2 lbs) came on the scene. Even the thicker Samsung R580 (5.5 lbs) weighs about the same.
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While every other laptop has already transitioned to 15.6- and 16-inch screens (with 16-by-9 aspect ratios), Apple is staying true to its 15.4-inch widescreen. The great news is that the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5) now has an option for a 1,680-by-1,050 screen resolution (for an added $150), whereas the previous iteration topped out at 1,440-by-900. In addition, a 1,680-by-1,050 anti-glare option ($150) will be available. If you want a screen with full 1080p HD resolution, then look to the 1,920-by-1,080 options available on the Dell Studio XPS 16 ($1,804 direct, ) and HP Envy 15.

The black, backlit chiclet keys remain untouched, and you'll enjoy the typing experience, as I have. Although there's room for a numeric keypad, like the one found in the Editors' Choice Samsung R580 ($850 list, ), Apple's minimalist approach would have none of that, plus the full-size keyboard looks an island floating in a sea of aluminum. Many have tried to emulate Apple's clicking touchpad and multitouch gestures; their attempts have been either funny or sad, depending on your temperament. The MacBook Pro 15-inch's touchpad is not only enormous, but the multitouch gestures are as impeccable as that of the iPhone and iPad. And Apple adds a twist: The touchpad now supports motion scrolling, where vertical flicks can quickly scroll through long Web pages. The speakers, which flank the keyboard, provide plenty of oomph and base for avid music listeners and movie enthusiasts.

Identical Features, More Storage
The feature set is not as newsworthy as last year's addition of an SD slot. All the connectivity ports are all bunched up on the left side of the laptop, including the two USB ports, FireWire 800, a Mini DisplayPort, Gigabit Ethernet, Audio In and Out, and the recently added SD slot. Apple is still showing no signs that Blu-ray is in its future and instead has relied on the aging dual-layer DVD burner. The $830 Samsung R580, in comparison, has a built-in Blu-ray drive. And once in a while, I still get e-mails about how much folks miss the ExpressCard slot, which has since been replaced by the SD slot.

The only feature upgrade worth noting is the increase in storage capacity. With the base model, you now get a 320GB hard drive instead of a 250GB one. The midrange and high-end MacBook Pro 15-inchers come standard with 500GB drives. Apple is also offering 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB SSD drives as options; albeit for an obscene amount of money (The 512GB SSD option, for instance, costs an additional $1,400). As with all Apple laptops, you're backed with a standard 1-year parts and labor warranty.

The updated components are what folks have been waiting for before buying a new MacBook Pro. As expected, the MacBook Pro 15-inch base model transitions from a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 CPU to a 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor (the high-end model runs a dual-core Core i7 CPU). With the new processor, the MacBook Pro 15-inch benefits from advanced Intel technologies such as Hyperthreading (four virtual cores), TurboBoost (boosting the CPU's clock speed up to 2.93GHz), and an integrated graphics controller on the processor package. The base model, as with the previous version, ships with 4GB of DDR3 memory.

Since all of my tests are Windows-based, the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5) was tested with BootCamp, running Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64-bit (Speeds will vary in OS 10). The MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5) is substantially faster than the previous-generation MacBook Pro 15-inch. The MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5) saw PCMark Vantage and CineBench R10 gains of 76% and 59%, respectively, over the MacBook Pro 15-inch (SD Slot). Against current laptops, however, the MacBook Pro15-inch (Core i5) is on even ground. In fact, the Editors' Choice Samsung R580 had the slight advantage in PCMark Vantage, even though it runs a lower-clocked processor. Meanwhile, the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5)'s video encoding scores (0:46) were only 3 seconds faster than the Acer Aspire AS5740-6378 ($650 street, ), which scored 0:49, and the Samsung R580 (0:49).

Automatic Graphics Switching
Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5) The biggest question coming into this rollout was about the graphics. That's because Intel had moved its integrated graphics to the processor package. This prevents Apple from using Nvidia's integrated graphics chipset. The previous MacBook Pro 15-inch ran on two Nvidia GPUs: An integrated version for energy savings and a discrete one for 3D intensive tasks. The MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5) also runs on two GPUs, except the integrated solution now belongs to Intel; the other one is the newly minted Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics card. The 330M is a more powerful discrete chipset than the previous version. You see its impact in games such as Crysis and World in Conflict. In 3DMark06 tests, the MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5) pummeled its predecessor with a score of 7,371.

In the past, switching between the two Nvidia GPUs in MacBook Pros required logging out of the system. With the new MacBook Pro 15- and 17-inch models, Apple unveiled a proprietary technology called Automatic Graphics Switching (AGS), which makes the switch between graphics seamless and transparent. This technology sounds eerily similar to the one Nvidia developed for Windows-based laptops, called Optimus—but it's not. With AGS, developers "hook" into applications that exist within Apple's closed library—a smaller archive compared with those that exists for Windows. Optimus, in contrast, cross-references the GPU with a list of applications created by Nvidia. And unlike Optimus, AGS uses one GPU or the other and never both at the same time (which Apple claims is better for battery life), and you can manually flip a software switch (in System Preferences) so that it runs on the discrete GPU at all times.

So how does AGS work? For tasks like Web surfing, word processing, and listening to music, the MacBook Pro 15-inch defers to Intel's integrated graphics. The system switches to the GeForce 330M chip during 3D game play and when running professional applications like Adobe Photoshop, Aperture, and Lightroom. It even switches to the discrete GPU when you launch iMovie and iPhoto (for rendering images and scrolling through large photo galleries). Interestingly enough, when running 720p HD video in iTunes, the system defaults to integrated graphics, according to Apple. It's a little different with Optimus in that most forms of HD video will automatically switch to the discrete GPU. Apple demoed a tool that monitors the switch, but it isn't available to the public or to me at the time of my review. So the only way to know that AGS is working is to basically take Apple's word for it.

The whole point of switchable graphics is to maximize the laptop's battery life. According to Apple, you'll get 8 hours of battery life running on the discrete chip and 9 hours with Intel's integrated graphics. It also helps that the new MacBook Pro ships with a higher capacity battery (from 73WH to 77.5WH). Bapco's MobileMark 2007, however, reported a score of 3 hours 21 minutes. The previous Macbook Pro, in contrast, scored a 5 hours 30 minutes in the same test and Windows environment. The disparity can be attributed to the new Macbook Pro's faster processor and more powerful graphics card. Keep in mind that this is a Windows-only battery test, which doesn't take advantage of Apple's power management capabilities in Mac OS 10, including AGS (In Windows, the discrete graphics is a permanent setting). We are currently running a video streaming test (using a DVD movie) and Web surfing battery test (Apple's own) and will report those shortly. Stay tuned for our results.

Since our first battery score was performed in a Windows environment, we ran a second battery test in Mac OS 10.6.3, which was done with a standard definition video file (MP4). Apple's Automatic Graphics Switching technology looks for specific functions in an application, and video playback in Apple's Quicktime qualifies it for the Nvidia GeForce 330M graphics chip. In this test, the battery drained in 3 hours, 54 minutes. A web surfing battery test is being completed as we speak.

So what's the point in upgrading to the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Core i5) if it looks exactly like the one from last year? Well, the two biggest reasons include the big boost in speed and a more seamless way of handling graphics power. Of course, little things, like a higher screen resolution and bigger hard drives, may factor into your purchasing decision. It's a costly laptop, though, at least costlier than last year in that the price starts at $1,799 now instead of $1,699. Those who have been holding out for the newest Intel parts have gotten them and then some. But these are also the folks who make their living from finishing projects in a timely manner, which are often times dictated by the speed of the laptop. For everyone else, the Samsung R580 is just as powerful and costs half the price.

Apple

HP Pavilion All in One 200-5020

2010-04-21T19:54:00.001+07:00

HP continues its commitment to the all-in-one desktop form factor with its new HP Pavilion All in One 200-5020 PC ($780 list). It's meant to compete with the Editors' Choice low-end Apple iMac 21.5-inch (Core 2 Duo) ($1,199 direct, ), matching its 21.5-inch, 1080p-capable widescreen monitor, and much of its functionality. It has a few drawbacks, but does cost $400 less. That makes the Pavilion 200-5020 worth a look if you're in the market for a compact, powerful desktop PC, but be prepared to compromise some 3D performance and deal with a lot of bloatware.

Design
The Pavilion 200-5020 comes close to the perfect all-in-one design set forth by the current iteration of the iMac 21.5-inch (Core 2 Duo). The 200-5020's sports a 21.5-inch widescreen and a similarly styled base. The foot and hinge of the base pivot and tilt so you can find a comfortable viewing angle. Of course, since this system is an HP, it sports the same chrome-accented black plastic design theme as other HP desktops.
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The space below the screen can be used to store the included wireless keyboard. One thing in the Pavilion 200-5020's favor is that the keyboard includes the numeric keypad that was omitted from the Apple wireless keyboard. Also, I think the Pavilion's keyboard will be more comfortable for most people, because it's thicker than the svelte one that came with the iMac 21.5-inch (Core 2 Duo). The standard wireless optical mouse lacks a back button. Both the keyboard and mouse are wireless through the use of a USB dongle, which will occupy one of the system's seven USB 2.0 ports. The iMac 21.5-inch (Core 2 Duo)'s sleeker built-in Bluetooth solution doesn't need a dongle. The system lacks an eSATA port.
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To keep costs low, the Pavilion 200-5020 uses a tray-loading DVD burner. It isn't as elegant as the slot-loading drive on the iMacs, but again, it is $400 less. The system's 21.5-inch widescreen can handle true 1080p video content (1,920 by 1,080 resolution), but there isn't a Blu-ray option available. The system lacks a TV tuner, limiting you to online streaming HD videos or any other videos you've downloaded. Thankfully, the Pavilion 200-5020 has a copious 500GB hard drive for those video files.

Features
The Pavilion 200-5020 comes with a speedy 2.7GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core E5400 processor and integrated GMA X4500HD graphics. The graphics are anemic for 3D, but they are sufficient for viewing HD online videos. The Pentium CPU is slower, and has a smaller cache and slower front side bus than the Core 2 Duo in the iMacs, but the Pavilion 200-5020 can still keep up with the iMac 21.5-inch (Core 2 Duo) on multimedia tasks. The system lacks a Blu-ray drive, but it will support an external Blu-ray drive and Blu-ray ready playback software (like WinDVD 2010 Pro or PowerDVD 10 Ultra). The system comes with 4GB of DDR3 memory, which is plenty for the home user. As you'd expect, this all in one system comes with 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi.

The system arrives bogged down with a boatload of bloatware, and this is its downfall. Some programs are universally useful, like the included Microsoft Works 9 package, preloaded Hulu desktop and HP's MediaSmart program. The system's included Norton Internet Security package stops updating after a short 90 days. A year to 15 months would be better. Worse yet, the system's Start menu and the desktop both resemble the bright lights of Times Square. Ads and repeated program icons abound everywhere: eBay, QuickBooks, Quicken, TurboTax, HP Software Store, Hulu, Pandora, Snapfish/Picture Mover, Microsoft Office 60-day trial, and HP Games all muck up the sleek Windows 7 interface. PC Discovery in the system's HP Dock program on the top of the screen helps launch you to more screens where you can download or buy more services and products. Please, HP, follow Dell's lead and consolidate the bloatware in a single point on the system (PC Discovery), and make it optional to have it installed at the user's discretion. Otherwise the system's simple Windows 7 interface starts looking like a mall for the scatter-brained. We understand that system manufacturers add bloatware and ad links to subsidize the price of the system (the Pavilion 200-5020 is, after all, $400 less than the iMac), but we object to the scattershot placement of all the bloatware in the Start menu, on the desktop and in the HP Dock. It's hard enough for the average user to eliminate all the extraneous programs if they were in one place: but the ads and bloatware keep cropping up everywhere. Here's a modest proposal HP: Limit the bloat and ads to the PC Discovery section, and clean up the Start menu and desktop on future systems.

Performance
HP Pavilion All in One 200-5020 PC As stated above, the system has poor 3D performance. It wasn't able to even finish the basic 3DMark Vantage test. That said, it could still play very old DX9/DX10 games like Doom 3, but forget about newish games like Crysis and World in Conflict. The system's Intel GMA X4500HD graphics are really about HD video more than 3D gaming.

Now, the good news: The $780 Pavilion 200-5020 is almost a match for the $1,200 Apple iMac 21.5-inch (Core 2 Duo) in the multimedia department. The Pavilion 200-5020 completed the Windows Media Encoder test in a minute flat, and the Photoshop CS4 test in 1 minute 51 seconds. Contrast this with the iMac (WME 0:49, CS4 1:32), and you'll see the Pavilion 200-5020's appeal. The Pavilion 200-5020 is also only about 500 points behind the iMac on PCMark Vantage (4,946 points vs. 5,453), a narrow gap. This means that except for 3D games, the Pavilion 200-5020 should feel just about as fast as an iMac 21.5-inch (Core 2 Duo) on day-to-day tasks. The Pavilion 200-5020 is also faster than rivals like the MSI Wind Top AE2220 ($950 list, ) and Acer Aspire AZ5610-U9072 ($899 list, ).

The HP Pavilion All in One 200-5020 is speedy, moderately priced, stylish, and well equipped. So why doesn't it wrest the Editors' Choice from the more expensive Apple iMac 21.5-inch (Core 2 Duo)? Two reasons: 3D performance and bloatware, bloatware, bloatware. The iMac 21.5-inch (Core 2 Duo) has the Pavilion 200-5020 beat on 3D performance and comes with Mac OS X and iLife, that's it. The Pavilion 200-5020 is too expensive to qualify as an entry-level all in one desktop like the Lenovo C300 ($549 list, ), so that nettop system retains its Editors' Choice as well. I'd recommend the HP Pavilion All in One 200-5020 PC over all its touchscreen-equipped rivals: The Pavilion 200-5020 is a better deal than Acer AZ5610-U9072 and edges out the MSI Wind Top AE2220 in looks and performance. It also squeezes out the HP TouchSmart 300-1007 ($900 list, ) on price, features, and screen resolution. All in all, the HP Pavilion All-in-One 200-5020 is a very good system that's let down by the encroachment of advertising: The abundance of bloatware just keeps the system from gaining the EC.

Hp

The New 2010 Intel® Core™ i3 Processor

2010-04-20T19:09:00.003+07:00

About the New 2010 Intel® Core™ i3 Processor
The wait is over—now everyone can move up to smart performance. As the first level in Intel’s new processor family, the new 2010 Intel® Core™ i3 processor is the perfect entry point for a fast, responsive PC experience.

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology?
Enables each core of your processor to work on two tasks at the same time, delivering the performance you need for smart multitasking. Don't let too many open applications slow you and your PC down. Get smart performance now.
Intel® HD Graphics

Intel® HD Graphics provides superb visual performance for sharper images, richer color, and life-like audio and video.?2 Watch movies and Internet videos in high-definition, play popular game titles and get full support for Microsoft Windows* 7. It's all built in; no need for an extra add-in video card.
Connect in More Places

Access to the Internet, whether in your home or while you're mobile, is increasingly important. At home you have a variety of wired and wireless connectivity options with your Intel® Core™ i3 processor–powered PC. What about when you're on the move? You're covered there as well. Pairing Intel®-powered devices with a wireless broadband service package and a tiny USB modem from your service provider enables you to enjoy high-speed broadband Internet just about anywhereS without depending on WiFi hotspots. So power up and get connected!

Intel

Intel : Not Just Faster.Smarter

2010-04-20T19:04:00.003+07:00

What makes the all new 2010 Intel® Core™ processors so smart?
SMART TECHNOLOGY
Imagine having a processor smart enough to know when your PC needs a little more juice. Intel® Turbo Boost Technology gives you speed when you need it and delivers energy efficiency when you don't.?1

Also available on select models of the all new 2010 Intel® Core™ processor family, Intel® HD Graphics?2 provides superb visual performance for sharper images, richer color, and life-like audio and video.
SMART SPEED

We're all multitaskers. We edit photos, send email, watch video, sync our iPods*—and we want to do it all at once. Now we can. Intel® Hyper-threading Technology lets your processor work on two tasks at the same time.?3
SMART INVESTMENT

A new PC today opens more doors tomorrow. The all new Intel® Core™ processors adapt to your needs now and down the road. So you won't just keep up. You'll get ahead.

Intel

Samsung NP R522

2010-04-19T16:22:00.003+07:00

Anyone who enjoys the enhanced visual quality of High Definition (HD) multimedia will appreciate the ground-breaking design of the SAMSUNG R522 notebook. Its innovative 15.6” high resolution screen has a pure 16:9 aspect ratio, which is optimised for watching HD movies or playing games, with no black bars in widescreen, and making it easier to use Windows Vista gadgets. Equipped with the latest optical disc drive and built-in stereo speakers, you can enjoy HD content, with perfect image and sound reproduction, wherever you choose to be.

The power to perform at the speed of life
The R522 features state of the art Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor, which delivers unrivalled system performance, enhanced energy efficiency and advanced connectivity to keep you working longer.

Also Available in Intel® Pentium™ Dual Core Processor.
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium

You’ll love Windows® 7 because it makes the things you do with your PC every day faster and easier - so there are fewer steps between you and what you want to do.
Simplifies everyday tasks: Easier navigation, simpler home networking, improved device capabilities, and faster Web browsing with Windows® Internet Explorer® 8 makes your life easier, and computing experience more fun.
Safeguard Your Work: Your important data faces serious threats – from data loss and spyware, to outright theft of information. Windows® 7 strong security foundation and features helps protect users and systems against malware and other forms of security threats.

Makes new things possible: Windows 7 provides more choices for how you can interact with your PC, making it easier for you to enjoy photos, music, and video from almost anywhere.

A picture that’s close to perfection
The R522’s 16:9 aspect ratio immerses you in games and movies with an accurate representation — so you don’t have annoying black bands crowding your picture. You’ll watch movies the way they were meant to be seen. And see images that are fine-tuned with the sharpest details and boldest colours on a 15.6" HD LED display. An added bonus? It uses less power, so you can be entertained longer. Get more out of your on-the-go entertainment and enjoy a bigger, better picture.

USB Sleep-and-charge
Pack one less cord (or forget one less) on your next trip. The R522 lets you charge many of your mobile devices right through its USB charging port. And the R522 doesn't even have to be powered up. Go ahead, anytime, anywhere. Recharge your phone, your MP3 player and while you're at it, yourself.

Samsung

N81Vg

2010-04-19T14:30:00.003+07:00

Smart Looks – Cutting-edge Style
In designing the N81Vg notebook, ASUS utilized cutting-edge technologies, particularly in the use of ASUS Infusion Technology to create a scratch-resistant panel that retains its sheen even after prolonged use. Boasting a streamlined exterior with shiny metal-like inlaid patterns inspired by modernist art-deco, the N81Vg notebook delivers performance with style.

World’s 1st 14” Notebook with NVIDIA® GeForce™ GT 120M for HD Enjoyment

The N81Vg is the world’s 1st notebook to utilize the new NVIDIA® GeForce™ GT 120M graphics processing unit with 1GB VRAM, coupled with a 14” high definition display with a 16:9 golden aspect ratio. Combined with Altec Lansing speakers powered by Dolby Home Theater technology to deliver equally high definition sound, the N81Vg takes multimedia entertainment to the streets effortlessly. Users can also enjoy wireless video conferencing with a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam and microphone, as well as an optional Hybrid TV tuner which can be accessed through a highly convenient integrated remote control.
Smart Looks – Cutting-edge Style

In designing the N81Vg notebook, ASUS utilized cutting-edge technologies, particularly in the use of ASUS Infusion Technology to create a scratch-resistant panel that retains its sheen even after prolonged use. Boasting a streamlined exterior with shiny metal-like inlaid patterns inspired by modernist art-deco, the N81Vg notebook delivers performance with style.

Centrino Logo, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel Viiv, Intel vPro, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, Viiv Inside, vPro Inside, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

Product specifications may differ from country to country. We recommend that you check with your local dealers for the specifications of the products available in your country. Colors of products may not be perfectly accurate due to variations caused by photography and monitor settings. Although we endeavor to present the most accurate and comprehensive information at the time of publication, we reserve the right to make changes without prior notice.

ASUS

Bigger SD Cards On The Way

2010-04-19T14:24:00.004+07:00

Hard drive capacities keep getting larger, processors keep getting faster, and memory process keep getting smaller. These are all facts of life in the consumer electronics industry, and while talking about nanometers doesn't interest the average consumer, telling them that next month's memory cards will be bigger and cheaper just might get them to stop and listen.

Samsung has been on a rampage of late, pressing to get process technology sizes smaller and smaller in order to cram more memory onto form factors that we already rely on. Basically, 32nm memory can only squeeze so much onto a Secure Digital card; make that memory at 20nm, and suddenly you can fit more onto the same size card. We're simplifying things, but that's the gist of it. Today, Samsung Electronics announced that they have accomplished the industry's first production of 20nm-class NAND chips for use in SD memory cards and other embedded memory solutions. Based on this breakthrough, the introduction of 32 gigabit MLC NAND will expand the company’s memory card solutions for smartphones, high-end IT applications and high-performance memory cards.

Samsung’s 20nm-class MLC NAND has a 50 percent higher productivity level than 30nm-class MLC NAND. The write performance of a 20nm-class-based, eight gigabyte (GB) and higher density, SD card is 30 percent faster than the 30nm-class NAND and it delivers a speed-class rating of 10 (read speed of 20MB/s, write speed of 10MB/s). By applying cutting-edge process, design and controller technology, Samsung also has secured reliability levels comparable to 30nm-class NAND. Currently, Samsung is shipping SD card samples to customers that are built using the new 20nm processor, and production should expand (and begin to reach retail) later in 2010. Memory cards based on 20nm technology will be made available from 4GB to 64GB, but we are still waiting to hear about pricing and form factors (microSD, mini-SD, SDXC, etc.).

Samsung Producing Industry’s First Higher-performing 20nm-class NAND Flash Memory

SEOUL, Korea, April 19, 2010 — Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced semiconductor technology solutions, today announced the industry’s first production of 20 nanometer (nm) class NAND chips for use in Secure Digital (SD) memory cards and embedded memory solutions. Based on this cutting-edge technology, the introduction of 32 gigabit (Gb) MLC NAND will expand the company’s memory card solutions for smartphones, high-end IT applications and high-performance memory cards.

Mr. Soo-In Cho, president, Memory Division, Samsung Electronics, said "In just one year after initiating 30nm-class NAND production, Samsung has made available the next generation node 20nm-class NAND, which exceeds most customers requirements for high-performance, high-density NAND-based solutions." He added, “The new 20nm-class NAND is not only a significant step forward in process design, but we have incorporated advanced technologies into it to enable substantial performance innovation.”

Samsung’s 20nm-class MLC NAND has a 50 percent higher productivity level than 30nm-class MLC NAND. The write performance of a 20nm-class-based, eight gigabyte (GB) and higher density, SD card is 30 percent faster than the 30nm-class NAND and it delivers a speed-class rating of 10 (read speed of 20MB/s, write speed of 10MB/s). By applying cutting-edge process, design and controller technology, Samsung also has secured reliability levels comparable to 30nm-class NAND.

Samsung Electronics first began producing 32Gb NAND with 30nm-class process technology in March 2009. Now it is shipping SD card samples to customers, that are built with 20nm-class 32Gb NAND, and will expand production later this year.

Memory cards based in the 20nm-class will be available from 4GB through 64GB densities

Samsung’s timely introduction of its high-performance premium NAND will better support the growing memory requirements of high-density smartphones, high-end IT applications and high-performance memory cards.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2009 consolidated sales of US$116.8 billion. Employing approximately 188,000 people in 185 offices across 65 countries, the company consists of eight independently operated business units: Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, Digital Imaging, Semiconductor and LCD. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit Samsung

Alienware - Dell

2010-04-19T10:28:00.005+07:00

When you think about the market for a pre-built, proverbial "Killer Gaming Rig," you have to consider the class of consumer that would have interest in this type of system. For the most part, the average do-it-yourselfer isn't going to take much interest here, save for perhaps the appreciation of all the bleeding-edge technology and design quality that is the hallmark of such a system.

That said, there is obviously a significant market opportunity for consumers that want top-of-the line components and build quality for enthusiast-class gaming performance and head-turning aesthetics, without the hassle of going at it the home-grown way. Dell obviously saw this market opportunity when they snatched up the then not-so boutique system builder Alienware, back in March of 2006.

Historically, Alienware had been known for the same impeccable build quality and top-shelf components that put many a performance PC start-up on the map. However their chassis designs were a bit over the top for some folks to handle. With a pair of bulbous alien eyes looking back at you like a hood ornament with a bad attitude and bubbly, rounded high gloss chassis designs, Alienware machines were a "you either love 'em or hate 'em" sort of thing. That said, four years later, Dell has managed to assimilate the Alienware colony and what has emerged is a significantly more refined and stylish chassis design along with the same bleeding edge component selection and build quality.

Also, being one of Intel's large customers, Dell more recently afforded their Alienware division the inside track on Intel's benchmark crushing Core i7-980X Gulftown 6-core processor and the resources to get it validated for delivery to market quickly. We've had the new Dell Alienware Area-51 in for testing for a week now and have spent some quality time with the machine, helping it break its first sweat, globally we might add. In the following pages we're happy to give you a first look at what Dell likes to think of as their Killer Alien gaming rig. First we'll serve you up a quick video preview and then make sure to journey on for a deep dive look and benchmark analysis of the new Alienware Area-51 gaming PC. That said, there is obviously a significant market opportunity for consumers that want top-of-the line components and build quality for enthusiast-class gaming performance and head-turning aesthetics, without the hassle of going at it the home-grown way. Dell obviously saw this market opportunity when they snatched up the then not-so boutique system builder Alienware, back in March of 2006.

Historically, Alienware had been known for the same impeccable build quality and top-shelf components that put many a performance PC start-up on the map. However their chassis designs were a bit over the top for some folks to handle. With a pair of bulbous alien eyes looking back at you like a hood ornament with a bad attitude and bubbly, rounded high gloss chassis designs, Alienware machines were a "you either love 'em or hate 'em" sort of thing. That said, four years later, Dell has managed to assimilate the Alienware colony and what has emerged is a significantly more refined and stylish chassis design along with the same bleeding edge component selection and build quality.

Dell

Samsung R580

2010-04-18T10:40:00.002+07:00

Watching high definition content is a popular pastime that's keeping desktop replacements in demand. Whether it's streaming content from Hulu or renting a Blu-ray title through Netflix, a laptop with a big screen is usually high on the priority list. The Samsung R580 ($850 list, at Best Buy) is the least expensive laptop I've seen that comes with an Intel Core i5 processor and a Blu-ray drive. Factor in a 500GB hard drive and a nice midrange graphics card, handing it an Editors' Choice in the desktop replacement category is the only logical step.

Design
Shiny laminates featuring geometric patterns or floral designs on laptops are nothing new. While others, like HP, Gateway, and Toshiba, went with a single color, the R580 uses two: A deep cherry red stain in the center that fades into a thick black border. Embedded in the cherry/black glaze is a ripple pattern, which, altogether, Samsung is calling its Crystal Wave design. Though the material used is as plasticky as the HP Pavilion dv6-2150us ($799.98 list, ) and Gateway NV7915u ($600 street, ), the R580 stands out from the crowd. Even so, metal frames, like those found in the Asus UL50VF-A1 ($850 street, ) and the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (SD slot) ($1,699 direct, ), are more appealing from a design standpoint. At 5.5 pounds, it's lighter than the Dell Studio 1555-4285MBU ($749.98, ) (5.9 lbs) and the Acer Aspire AS5740-6378 ($650 street, ) (5.7 lbs).
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The 15.6-inch widescreen provides plenty of viewing space. Its price, though, limits the R580 to a 1,366-by-768 resolution, which is good enough for a 720p HD experience. Media centers like the Acer Aspire AS8940-6865 ($1,399 street, ) bump the resolution up to 1,920-by-1,080 for full (1080p) HD, while pricier systems like the HP Envy 15 ($1,800 direct, ) give you the option to upgrade to a full HD resolution. The island-style keyboard is nearly identical to the Asus UL50VF-A1, right down to the adjacent numeric keypad. It doesn't have a backlit keyboard like the Apple MacBook Pros, but there are LED lights on the corner of the touchpad. The mouse buttons are easy to click, though they aren't as soft as the ones found on the Dell 1555-4285MBU.
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The Blu-ray drive (BD-Rom) is the showpiece of the R580's feature set. I've scoured the Web for the 15-inch systems that have Blu-ray drives, and almost all of them cost more than $1,000. Fact is, Blu-ray titles are coming down in price and you can rent them for as low as $6 a month on Netflix. And if a 15.6-inch screen isn't big enough, you can use the included HDMI port and take the experience to a bigger display. The 500GB hard drive is also impressive, given that the Asus UL50VF-A1, Acer AS5740, and HP dv6-2150us come with 320GB drives. And basic amenities like 4 USB port (one of which doubles as an E-SATA connection), ExpressCard, an SD slot, and VGA are all present.

Performance
Samsung R580 The Blu-ray drive is just part of the R580's appeal. Offering it at this price with the latest Intel Core i5 processor is a feat few can pull off. The 2.27 GHz Core i5-430M processors and 4GB of memory are a solid combination, matching that of the Acer AS5740. According to video encoding (49 seconds) and Cinebench R10 (7,824) tests, the R580 blew away the Core i3 processors found in the HP dv6-2150us and Dell Inspiron i1464-4382OBK ($749.98 list, ). Its PCMark Vantage score (5,779) took top honors, while Photoshop CS4 scores indicate that this is a perfect machine for advanced photo editing.

While an Intel integrated graphics chipset is the popular standard among affordable laptops, Samsung goes against the grain by including an Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics chip. Not only will this chip optimize Blu-ray and HD playback, but it can also muscle through the latest 3D games. Crysis and World in Conflict scores were indicative of a smooth gaming experience, and 3DMark06 scores overtook those of the UL50VF-A1.

The disadvantage, however, of building a laptop around power is that battery life takes a beating. The R580 comes with a 48WH (6-cell) battery, which is consistent with its rivals. A 3 hour, 42 minute MobileMark 2007 score may not seem like much, but remember, this is a desktop replacement laptop that will probably sit near a power outlet most of the time.

The Samsung R580 is the cheapest desktop replacement I've seen that bundles a Core i5 processor and a Blu-ray drive. It's tailor-made for high definition enthusiasts who aren't ready to pay over a $1,000 for a fancy media center. Aside from some minor tradeoffs (a low resolution and small battery), they won't matter as much once you realize how much more you're paying for these amenities elsewhere.

Samsung

Samsung BD-C6500

2010-04-18T10:36:00.002+07:00

There's a lot to like about Samsung's BD-C6500, from its reasonable $249.99 (list) price to its wealth of Web apps and widgets, and excellent HD picture quality. Throw in integrated Wi-Fi, lots of A/V ports, 1GB of internal memory, and a cleverly designed remote, and you've got our latest Editors' Choice for mid-range Blu-ray players.

Design and Features
The BD-C6500's very compact 1.7-by-16.9–by-8.8-inch (HWD) piano black cabinet sports a faux brushed-metal front panel with a mirrored display panel placed in the middle. That display uses big, bright LEDs to provide disc status, playing time, and Wi-Fi status. Behind a drop down panel on the left side of the unit is the disc tray, and on the front right side of the device are touch sensitive Power, Open/Close, Stop, and Play/Pause controls, but Samsung neglected to add the equally important Reverse and Fast Forward controls here. On the far right is a USB port tucked away behind a rubber port cover.

On the rear panel you'll find the typical assortment of A/V connections, and then some. Video outputs include HDMI, component, and composite ports. In addition to an optical digital audio output and stereo analog jacks, the BD-C6500 offers eight analog outputs for connecting to a 7.1 surround sound system, a rare inclusion in this price range, and one that owners of legacy A/V receivers will appreciate. As with Sony's BDP-S570 ($249.99, ) and LG's BD570 ($299.99, ), this player can connect to the Web wirelessly via an integrated 802.11n adapter, or you can use the Ethernet port for a hardwired connection. Fans of BD Live can download content to the 1GB of internal memory rather than having to plug in a USB key. Sony's player has this feature as well, but the LG model does not.

The remote is 8.5 inches long and is matte black with a hint of glossy black trim. All 42 rubberized buttons are relatively large, evenly spaced, and not at all crowded. If you enjoy watching movies with the lights off, you'll love the main player controls, which are translucent white and glow in the dark (as opposed to being backlit). There's a 4-way rocker switch for navigating through the various on-screen menus, and oversized Volume and Channel controls at the bottom of the remote.

The simplified user interface uses bright icons to identify the five main menu choices, including Internet@TV (Web apps), Movie, Music, Photo, and Settings. The Settings menu is where you can adjust resolution and aspect ratio, calibrate surround sound speaker levels, configure wired and wireless settings, update the firmware, and assign parental controls. You can also choose one of five skins to jazz up the menu background. If you don't want to read through the user guide beforehand, a general setup wizard will guide you through the basic settings screens to get you up and running quickly.

Web Apps and Games
A plethora of interactive Web applications will keep you occupied between Blu-ray movies. Current apps include Blockbuster, Netflix, and Vudu movie streaming, Pandora Internet radio, Accuweather.com, Picasa Web Albums, YouTube, and USA Today. You also get an integrated Twitter client, which is nice if you want to keep tabs on friends on your TV, but entering text with the remote's keypad is painfully slow, and there's no way to save your login and password info, which is frustrating.

There are also a handful of games such as Dracula's Coffin, Kurakku, Texas Hold 'Em, Sudoku, and Rock Swap Adventures. You can lock or delete any app or add new ones as they become available using the Service Manager menu. The BD-C6500 is DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) certified so you can stream content from other DNLA products such as PCs or a NAS devices.

Performance
The player took an average of 10 seconds to load my test Blu-ray discs, which along with Sony's BDP-S570, is among the fastest player we've seen. It also represents a 22-second improvement over Samsung's BD-P1600 ($299.99, ) model that we reviewed last year.

Blu-ray playback performance is top-notch. Scenes from The Dark Knight and Mission: Impossible II were crisp and free of artifacts like jaggies and background noise. The player handled the HD HQV benchmarks without incident, acing the Film and Video Resolution, Noise Reduction, and Diagonal Jaggies tests. DVD upconversion was good, but not outstanding—it produced moderate background noise but did not exhibit any exaggerated smoothing, moiré, or jaggies.

Today's Blu-ray players are much more energy efficient than they were a year ago—the BD-C6500 consumed an average of 13 watts while playing a Blu-ray disc, which works out to a monthly operating cost of about 17 cents (based on 5 hours of daily use at 11.35 cents per kilowatt-hour). Last year's Samsung BD-P1600 model consumed double that amount.

Samsung's $250 BD-C6500 is an excellent example of how Blu-ray players have evolved into multifunction home theater devices. It offers more Web apps and interactive games than the similarly priced Sony BDP-S570, and its A/V port selection is more comprehensive than that of the Sharp BD-HP52U ($299.99, ) or LG BD570, both of which are more expensive. The Sony player will have the ability to play 3D Blu-ray discs later this year (via a firmware update), but the Samsung BD-C6500 edges it out slightly thanks to better overall performance and an outstanding feature set, to become our latest Editors' Choice Blu-ray player.

Samsung

Quality 2TB HD : WD,Seagate,Samsung

2010-04-18T10:32:00.001+07:00

Lately, it feels like the good, old, reliable hard disk drive (HDD) doesn't get any respect. When it comes to storage, Solid State Drives (SSDs) are getting all the attention these days--and it's no wonder, considering the speed, durability, low-power, and silent-running attributes of current solid state drives. But SSDs are also very expensive and offer relatively low-capacities when compared to traditional HDDs. The vast majority of systems that use some sort of fixed drive for storage--be they desktops, workstations, or servers--still use HDDs. And when it comes to maximum storage capacity in a 3.5-inch form factor, you simply can't get any higher these days than a 2TB HDD.

While most users would be hard-pressed to ever fill up a 2TB drive, there are still many who will manage to max them out--or at least come close--such as: Gamers who like to install and run numerous games; film fans who rip their favorite DVDs to disk (perhaps for watching movies on a TV via a home-theater PC or media server); video editors, professional photographers, and graphic artists who work with large image files; digital media hoarders who amass huge libraries of music, videos, and images; and especially those who manage file servers. Those who truly need as much storage as they can get their hands on, will use multiple HDDs--often configured in a RAID array. With costs as low as $0.07/GB (seven cents per GB), there's hardly any reason why your next 3.5-inch HDD shouldn't be a 2TB drive.

In this roundup we take a look at a total of nine 3.5-inch, SATA, 2TB hard drives, from Samsung, Seagate, and Western Digital. We had originally hoped to also include the 2TB HDD offerings from Hitachi as well, but Hitachi declined to participate in the roundup. During testing we also received the latest 1TB WD Caviar Black HDD from Western Digital as well, and decided to also include it here for comparative purposes. Lastly, our testbed had a 120GB OCZ Vertex Turbo Series SATA II 2.5" SSD installed in it that we used as the source drive for our file-transfer tests--we also ran our benchmark tests on the SSD as a comparison point. We discuss the SSD's performance when relevant, but we're not including it in any of our performance charts, as it's significantly faster performance results in too much disparity in the charts (imagine one long bar, while all of the rest are short). When testing was finally completed for this story, we had run six separate sets of benchmarks on 11 different drives. With multiple runs of each test, that's a lot of testing! By our estimates, we ran over a total of 250 tests.

BenQ’s GL Series LED Monitors

2010-04-18T05:13:00.003+07:00

Need a new LCD? Chances are BenQ has an option to cover your needs, but if none of the prior models have worked in your favor, maybe this new one will. The new GL Series LED monitors include the following: GL930 (18.5”W); GL931 (19”W); GL2030 (20”W); GL2230 (21.5”W) and GL2231 (22”W) LED.

These all feature a somewhat similar design to existing BenQ screens, with a glossy black bezel, a futuristic stand and a widescreen stance. Each display has a 12,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 5ms response time, the company's own Senseye Human Vision Technology along with a variety of connectors. Across the line, there's DVI, VGA, audio-in, a headphone jack and some models even have integrated speakers.

Unlike the CCFL technology used in the LCD monitors, the GL Series uses energy efficient LED backlighting panels, therefore, in comparison to conventional CCFL monitors, the GL Series consumes less power (14,3%); and even less (39.3%) whilst in Eco mode. The GL2030/A/AM/M will be available world wide in mid-April, whereas the GL930/A/AM/M; GL931/A/AM/M; GL2230/A/AM/M and GL2231/A/M/AM will be available worldwide in July; pricing has not yet been made public.

Benq

Toshiba To Intro Tablet PCs

2010-04-17T11:08:00.003+07:00

Slates, slates, tablets and more slates. That pretty much sums up the PC industry thus far in 2010, and if you thought the craze would die down some after the iPad's launch, you would be wrong. With Dell, Asus, NVIDIA and just about everyone else committed to dabbling in the Tablet PC/Slate world in some way, it was only a matter of time for a big name like Toshiba to step up and admit that they too would be throwing in an option or two.

In a Reuters report that mainly focused on the fact that Toshiba's PC sales have risen 50% in the U.S. during Q1 2010, something a bit more important to us was mentioned: new tablet PCs. Jeff Barney, general manager of digital products for Toshiba America, said his company "plans to launch so-called slate PCs this year," with options running on Windows 7 and Google's Android.

Currently, the company is evaluating a number of form factors, though if it's just a tablet, there are only so many directions they can take. There's even talk of a dual-screen model (similar to the Entourage Edge, we assume) with a 10" panel capable of handling the more complex aspects of Win7. Mr. Barney stated: We definitely see a place for the slate, we see there's a market there. It'll be expansive like netbooks, it won't be cannibalistic. Media consumption on these slates will be the main user activity."

No further details were given on pricing, nor was a shipping estimate made public. But one thing is for sure: the tablet PC battle is just now heating up, and with all of this competition, we're bound to see prices fall lower and lower as the months drag on.

Toshiba

ASUS Launches the Rampage III Extreme

2010-04-15T16:17:00.002+07:00

-- The latest Republic of Gamers extreme series of motherboards are garnering
praise in the gaming and overclocking communities with world class
performance, features and stability. --

Fremont, CA (April 14th, 2010) - ASUS, the leading provider of high performance motherboards, launches the highly anticipated Republic of Gamers (ROG) Rampage III Extreme and Maximus III Extreme motherboards in North America today. Featuring class leading designs and innovative features, the ROG Rampage III Extreme and Maximus III Extreme set a new standard for world class enthusiast motherboards. Rigorously tested and approved by leading enthusiasts, the Extreme series is engineered from the ground up for exceptional performance, stability, overclocking prowess, and most of all, reliability under extreme conditions.

Welcome To a New Age of Board Design
Computer enthusiasts and gamers alike have been clamoring for new and improved board designs along with expanded feature sets. How did ASUS meet these requests by offering the best balance between gaming and overclocking capabilities in an enthusiast level product?

It is simple; ASUS personnel across the company listened to, discussed with, and then implemented ideas from a variety of users in the gaming, enthusiast, and extreme overclocking communities. The world record breaking overclocking abilities of each board is attributable to superb hardware and BIOS designs that came about as the ROG team worked closely with key overclockers worldwide to ensure exceptional performance under extreme cooling along with comprehensive feedback on BIOS tuning.

While the new ROG Extreme series offers cutting edge overclocking capabilities it also provides an extremely stable and fast platform for gaming. It is this special balance between performance and stability that makes the new Rampage III Extreme and Maximus III Extreme boards so unique.

Innovation Design and Features in the Next Generation of ROG Extreme Motherboards
Solid and efficient power management is something every overclocker and enthusiast knows is critical in board design. ASUS’ new Extreme Engine Digi+, included on the Intel X58 based Rampage III Extreme and Intel P55 equipped Maximus III Extreme, allows new levels of control and performance by combining the best in digital and analog PWM designs.

New features help differentiate the ROG Extreme series from other motherboards when it comes to overclocking. These features include new LN2 mode and Q-Reset options that minimize cold boot problems during extreme overclocking along with dual 8-pin ATX power connectors and dual 4-pin Molex plugs to ensure proper is available to the CPU and Video cards respectively. In addition, the boards offer the ability to disable or enable the individual PCI Express x16 lanes so users can optimize the location of their video cards if custom cooling solutions are utilized or for debugging various setups.

ASUS implemented a new USB based BIOS flashing system that does not require a CPU, Memory or Video Card to update the BIOS. All the user needs is a working power supply to quickly update either onboard BIOS chip. The new ROG Connect software offers class leading overclocking and monitoring tools that can be controlled with a smart phone or a separate computer via quick connect technology to ensure the best possible overclocking experience.

The Rampage III Extreme and Maximus III Extreme also incorporate the latest in I/O technologies with full support for true SATA 6G and USB 3 to ensure the highest levels of performance for internal and external storage devices. The Rampage III Extreme introduces a class leading Intel based Gigabit network controller to ensure the user’s online experience is exceptional whether they are playing the latest game or viewing HD media content.

The Rampage III Extreme and Maximus III Extreme are available now at authorized ASUS retailers for an MSRP of $399 and $349 respectively.

For more information on the new Extreme Series, please log on to Rog Asus .
Specifications and Features are subject to change without notice.

Toshiba Tecra

2010-04-15T16:15:00.001+07:00

Toshiba today announced its Tecra M11 series, a new 14-inch notebook line that takes aim at business users but with a little pizazz. Sporting a sleek, textured finish on the outside and an Intel Core i3/i5 foundation on the inside, there's plenty of power here to tear through those productivity apps, and then some.

"Mobile professionals cannot sacrifice productivity on the road, needing all the conveniences of the office no matter where they are," said Carl Pinto, vice president of product development, Toshiba America, Digital Products Division. "The Tecra M11 Series represents our ability to provide the latest mobile technologies, smart features, and comprehensive security in a highly portable and affordable package. These laptops are built with our renowned quality and enhanced durability and we back the laptop with a generous three-year limited warranty to assure businesses can buy with confidence."

More than just lip service, portability comes in the form of a chassis measuring less than 1.5 inches thick and weighing just over 5 pounds. A baseline configuration starts at a little under $900 and includes an Intel Core i3 330M processor, 2GB of DDR3-1066 Memory, a 320GB hard drive, integrated Intel HD graphics, DVD burner, 2 USB ports, 1 eSATA/USB combo port, memory card reader, and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. Other options are available, such as a Core i5 520M processor, additional RAM, and Nvidia NVS 2100M graphics.

Toshiba

Intel Posts Another Record-Breaking Quarter

2010-04-15T16:12:00.002+07:00

Intel reported its sales figures for the first quarter of 2010 yesterday, and the company's market position could scarcely be better. Revenue in Q1 was $10.3 billion—a record for the quarter—while sales declined just three percent between Q4 2009 and Q1 2010. Processor shipments typically fall about nine percent during this period; Intel didn't just beat the odds, it trounced them.

"The investments we're making in leading edge technology are delivering the most compelling product line-up in our history," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "These leadership products combined with growing worldwide demand and continued outstanding execution resulted in Intel's best first quarter ever. Looking forward, we're optimistic about our business as Intel products are designed into a variety of new and exciting segments."

Intel isn't just designing products for new and exciting segments, it's ramping production more quickly than it originally planned. The company currently has two 32nm fabs and is ramping capacity more quickly than it originally intended in order to meet increased demand. By early Q4, Santa Clara expects to have a total of four facilities converted for 32nm production. Sandy Bridge—the 'tock' in Intel's tick-tock design—is already sampling and will enter production later this year.

Revenue for the first quarter was up 44 percent compared to Q1 2009, while the company's net income of $2.4 billion was up 244 percent for the same period. According to Intel executives, strong mobile demand drove revenue and ASPs to higher-than-expected levels; a trend they expect to continue throughout the year. The company implied that it's beginning to see signs of a burgeoning corporate replacement cycle, but ducked questions on whether consumer or corporate spending would drive revenue in 2010.

When it does arrive, said corporate refresh could be enormous. We discussed the vastly superior economics and performance-per-watt of new server ships from both AMD and Intel a few weeks back, particularly when compared to servers that are 4-5 years old. According to Intel, it's not just server rooms that are getting on in years, the average desktop is five years old and the average laptop, four. If the economic recovery continues, corporate purchases could surge in the next 6-12 months.

Atom Decline Mars A Nearly Perfect Quarter

The only bit of bad news in Intel's financial results was a 19 percent decline in Atom processor/chipset revenues in Q1. Intel's chief financial officer (CFO), Stacy Smith, dismissed the surprising falloff as caused by "inventory reductions after a strong consumer-driven fourth quarter."

This seems unlikely, or at least incomplete; Intel gave no sign in January that it expected Atom sales to decline in Q1 even as mobile unit shipments and revenue both grew. One of the points Intel has hammered home in its last three earnings calls is how closely it's monitoring channel inventory and supply. Investors were initially dubious when Intel released its Q3 2009 earnings and Q4 projections, but the CPU manufacturer held firm and turned out to be right. It's similarly dubious that the company took its eye off the ball—Atom/netbook sales were one of the only bright points of 2009 and a huge OEM focus.

It's possible that the beginning of the economic recovery and the launch of Intel's new mobile Core i3/Core i5 processors combined to knock Atom demand down a peg or three. Consumers who might have opted for an Atom 12 months ago could have stepped up for one of the newer chips (there are some very nice deals on low-end Core i3's available), or might have snagged Core 2 Duo systems that were cut to clear them out and make room for the new SKUs.

Another potential factor is that Atom, in its current incarnation, could simply be running out of juice. Atom is nearly two years old—it's practically ancient in Intel years—but the platform's performance has scarcely budged since its initial incarnation. The various netbooks built around the platform have gotten nicer, RAM loadouts have increased, and SSDs have become more affordable, but Intel has focused on lowering power consumption rather than increasing performance.

The majority of people who buy netbooks already have primary systems and fierce OEM competition have driven netbook prices through the $250 price point. After two years of meteoric growth, it's plausible to think that most of the consumers who wanted a netbook have already bought one. Intel finally thinks a performance boost is in order, as company CEO Paul Otellini noted:

"I think there will still be significant growth in the netbook business year-over-year. I think that there are rather than pricing, I think, we would look to features and integration as a technical novelty or twist here. The next innovation coming out on Atom is dual-core, which comes out in the second quarter, so that it will ramp for the holiday season this year and I think that will be a very attractive product."

We'll be looking forward to it; a dual-core Atom netbook CPU shouldn't actually be too difficult. Moving to the integrated Pineville SoC reduced total platform TDP from 11.8W to 7W, giving Intel a margin to work with while keeping power consumption low. It's also likely that we'll see dual-core SKUs running at 1.2-1.4GHz. The benefits of a second core are substantial enough that Intel could significantly cut the clockspeed of each chip while improving performance.

Intel

Falcon Northwest Mach V

2010-04-14T12:03:00.003+07:00

Falcon Northwest's latest foray into the gaming arena, the Mach V (Core i7-980X) ($4,999 direct, $6,388 with three 24-inch monitors) is an excellent gaming system for the upper strata of the hardcore gaming public. It's powered by a six-core Intel Core i7-980X processor and a dual-GPU ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics card. Other innovations like the triple-monitor ATI Eyefinity setup make you sit up and go "wow."

Design
The design of the Mach V "ICON" case hasn't changed too much over the past few years, because there's little reason to. Sure, cases like the one on the HP Blackbird 002 ($6,590 direct, ) and Maingear Shift ($6,399 direct, ) show some forward thinking and new ideas like removable hard drive sleds, but the aluminum chassis of the Mach V is big enough to support a variety of motherboards. Plus, it can hold three high-end graphics cards and a half-dozen hard drives and optical drives.

Keep in mind, you'll need to use a screwdriver to add extra hard drives, unlike newer desktops like the Maingear Shift and Gateway FX6831 (stay tuned for our review). I like the drive upgrade sleds that the Maingear and Gateway desktops use, since hard drive space is the next "easy upgrade" after system memory.

Falcon uses this chassis partly because it has worked for them in the past, but also because its vast flat surfaces are an excellent canvas for their hand painted systems. We got a bare metal chassis, but you can customize your Mach V with anything from a simple single color to an epic scene from your favorite game or movie.

The Falcon logo on the front panel is lit up, and behind the logo, there are four optical drive bays. One is occupied by the system's BD-ROM (Blu-ray)/DVD burner combo drive. There's also a multimedia card reader, with slots for newer cards like microSD and SDHC. The back of the case has the system's USB, FireWire and eSATA ports. The two eSATA ports are notable because they are paired with USB ports for power, so you can use one of the rare eSATA drives that draws USB power simultaneously over the same cable. Another new technology is in the system's two USB 3.0 ports: they are backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 devices, but when you connect a USB 3.0 drive, you'll get much faster transfer speeds. A pair of FireWire ports (one four-pin and one six-pin) are available for people still using older hard drives or camcorders.

I would have liked to have seen an extra bracket like a cardkeeper on the heavy ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics card. The cardkeeper can help keep the card immobilized during shipping. When I first booted the system, I got an error I'd seen before: the system wouldn't fully boot into Windows 7. It's a simple fix: I had to reseat the graphics card after the shipper had knocked it about. The rest of the system was certainly well put together, but those graphics cards with their massive metal heat sinks can become like beans in a maraca if your delivery guy isn't gentle.

Features
The Mach V (Core i7-980X) came with an Intel 80GB SSD and a 1TB data drive. The SSD helps to speed up booting up the system and loading games and other apps, while the 1TB drive is a fairly large storage capacity. The Intel SSD has one drawback: it is kind of small at 80GB. I had to uninstall some of my tests in order to run the next set because I ran out of disc space. Falcon NW has told me that faster and larger SSDs capable of 6Gbps throughput are now available, for a couple of hundred dollars more. The system also came with a Blu-ray reader with DVD burner combo drive. I would have liked to have seen a Blu-ray burner in a system at this price point. In any case, the system is still a powerhouse, since it comes with 12GB of memory, and the Intel Core i7-980X processor.

The system also came with three widescreen LCD monitors, which helps explain its $6,400 purchase price. Drop the monitors, and the system price alone is $4,999. Yup, that's still high, but the monitors allow a hardcore gamer to use ATI's Eyefinity ultra-widescreen technology. Take three compatible (and hopefully identical) monitors, connect them to the same ATI Radeon 5970 graphics card, then you will be able to play games with a much wider field of view. Think of it this way: on a normal 16:9 monitor, you can see out of the front windshield while playing a racing game. With Eyefinity, you can see out of the windshield, and both the right and left side windows, including all three rear view mirrors. This gives you the ability to pass your opponents within inches, instead of feet. It can also work on first person-shooter games like Alien vs. Predator, so you can see around your character at all times, rather than just what's in front of you.

Performance
Falcon Northwest Mach V Falcon built its reputation on the quality and the speed of their systems. The Mach V (Core i7-980X) is no different. It returned some of the fastest benchmark results I've seen, even approaching or besting previous systems with multiple graphics cards. The Mach V returned our best-ever score on Windows Media Encoder: 20 seconds. To put that into perspective, mainstream systems like the Dell Inspiron i570-6939PBK ($598.99 list, ) take upward of a minute on the same task, and nettops can take 3 to 5 minutes. Other quad-core systems take about 30 seconds.

The Mach V (Core i7-980X) was also speedy at the PhotoShop CS4 test, at 48 seconds. Older quad core performance PCs can take up to four minutes at the CS4 test. In the Futuremark PCMark Vantage test, the Mach V (Core i7-980X) got our second-best overall score of 20,766. It's safe to say that this system will take your everyday tasks and finish them almost instantaneously.

The Mach V (Core i7-980X) is a gaming-oriented desktop, and it's certainly a force to be reckoned with. The system's Crysis score of 117 frames per second (fps) at 1,280 by 1,024 resolution and World in Conflict (WIC) scores of 188 at the same resolution are hiccup free. The Mach V is also able to play WiC quite smoothly at the higher 1,920 by 1,200 resolution (87 fps). Crysis at 1,920 by 1,200 is almost playable 42 fps: gamers at this resolution may see the occasional stutter. Adding a second ATI Radeon 5970 may help: the Maingear Shift was able to run the same test at smooth 72 fps. The gaming prowess is a result of the massive ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics card, which has two GPU modules combined on one card. The new Mach V (Core i7-980X) is certainly as fast or faster on the games as triple-SLI (three Nvidia GeForce card-equipped) systems of the past.

Compared with the previous Mach V (Core i7-975) ($8,240 direct, ), the Core i7-980X version is a performance monster. It matches or beats the old Editor's Choice for gaming on most of the benchmarks, and adds triple-monitor support with only one graphics card. It also trounces other high end gaming competitors with single, dual, and triple graphics cards from last year. However, the Maingear Shift is the overall performance leader. The Shift also has a new chassis design that manages heat better, has cardkeeper brackets, and is nicer to look at unpainted. However don't count the Mach V out; it is a very good machine for high-end gamers and those loyal to Falcon Northwest.

Falcon

Toshiba Mini NB 305

2010-04-14T11:55:00.002+07:00

When the Toshiba mini NB205 was awarded the Editors' Choice in the netbook category, who knew its reign would last this long? The mini NB305-N410 is it's successor and will continue to thrive because it knows what netbook users want: A great user experience, a bargain price, and outstanding battery life. There are netbooks that come very close to these feats, namely the HP Mini 5102 and ASUS EeePC 1201N, but the NB305 still sits alone at the top. It inherits the Editors' Choice in the netbook category.

Design
Plastics help pare down costs and can really work for a design if a company knows how to use them. Case in point: The NB305 adds textures, whereas others, like the ASUS EeePC 1008P Karim Rashid Edition (stay tuned for the review), adds depth to it with lines and shadows. Metals are nice decorative touches, too, such as those on the HP 5102. Underwhelming designs, such as those of the Acer Aspire One (532h-2326) and Samsung NC20 (21GBK), on the other hand, use dark, glossy tops that have a tendency to attract finger prints and smudges.

The NB305-N410 will no longer have pink as a color option, but brown, white, and blue are still available. Other minor aesthetic alterations include the 6-cell battery, which no longer sticks out an inch from the back, but rather creates a small bump from the bottom. The indicator lights, which used to be on the right palm rest, have now moved to the front bezel.

Features
The NB305 still has the 10-inch widescreen and the 1,024-by-600 resolution. Unlike the HP 5102, Dell Mini 10, and Sony VAIO VPC-W11XX, the NB305 doesn't offer an option for higher resolutions (1,366-by-768). Netbooks with bigger screens and higher resolution, like the 12-inch displays found in the Asus 1201N and the Lenovo IdeaPad S12, would be the next step up. What makes the NB305 tough to beat is its typing and navigating experience. Its keyboard, touchpad, and mouse buttons are large enough to rival that of full-size laptops. Similarly, the Samsung N120 (12GBK) and HP 5102 have equally impressive user experiences.

There are three USB ports, one of which can charge any USB peripheral while the netbook is turned off. Every other port—VGA Out, Ethernet, Headphone, Microphone, and an SD slot—is consistent with other netbooks. It's not as feature-rich as the HP 5102, which has 7200rpm hard drives as standard components and SSDs and embedded 3G as options. Bigger netbooks like the Lenovo S12 and ASUS 1201N, meanwhile, come with an HDMI port.

The NB305-N410 did bump its hard drive to 250GB from 160GB, though. And through a partnership with Best Buy, Toshiba will also be selling an NB305 with an embedded 3G wireless card (activation not included, though), courtesy of Qualcomm's Gobi wireless chipset.

Performance
Toshiba Mini nb305-n410 Most of the core improvements are internal, as this update coincides with Intel's recent launch of its next-generation Atom platform, a.k.a, Pine Trail. Like the Acer 532h-2326 and HP 5102, the NB305 uses the 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor and new Intel GMA 3150 graphics. Memory is still held to 1GB of DDR2 under Microsoft's Windows 7 Starter requirements. Speed, however, is not what "Pine Trail" brings to the table, as SYSMark Preview 2007 and video encoding tests indicated (the scores are slightly lower than that of the NB205). Still, you wouldn't notice any of this speed degradation when surfing the Internet, running Microsoft Office 2007, or watching a video on the NB305.

Another reward of moving to a new platform is a lower power envelope, even if the NB305's battery scores didn't improve by all that much. On MobileMark 2007, the NB305 nudged up to 9 hours of battery life from the 8 hours 27 minutes of the NB205—a half-hour difference, but still noteworthy. Netbooks like the Acer 532h-2326 and HP 5102 push battery life into the 10 and 11 hour mark, but 9 hours is nothing to scoff at.

More energy savings also mean that Toshiba is able to keep its status as one of the most environmentally friendly netbooks in the business, acquiring green certifications such as EPEAT Gold, Energy Star 5.0, and RoHS. The company itself has an excellent recycling program in place should your netbook reach the end of its life cycle. Furthermore, I subjected the NB305 to PCMag's own energy tests, done with a P3 International Kill-A-Watt meter. At 9 Watts while idling, it's well within Energy Star's 14 Watt threshold. For all that, the NB305 receives the GreenTech award.

Best of all, the Toshiba mini NB305-N410 keeps the price where it is after adding the necessary improvements. Though they cost more, the HP Mini 5102 and ASUS EeePC 1201N give you more features and more performance if this netbook is not your cup of tea. At the end of the day, though, the netbook that gives you the most features and the best user experience, for the least amount of money, has my approval.

Toshiba

Samsung N210

2010-04-14T11:51:00.002+07:00

The Samsung N210 ($380 street) is not the flashiest netbook, nor does it pile on the most features in its category. Nailing down basic fundamentals is what makes it a viable contender in this cutthroat market. It maintains an excellent user experience, which includes a comfy keyboard, a big-enough touchpad and mouse buttons. Its decent performance scores and attractive pricing are surefire ways to build a strong fan base.

Design
The N210 is clad in shiny white plastics, coated over a brick pattern that's only visible if you look closely. Netbooks like the Asus EeePC 1008HA ($430.00 Street, ) and the Sony VAIO VPC-W11XX ($500.00 Direct, ) are made up of white plastics as well, and I've found that all of them are extremely resilient to finger prints and smudges. Metals, such as those found on the HP Mini 5102 ($400.00 Direct, ) and the Nokia Booklet 3G ($600.00 Street, ), have similar anti-smudge characteristics, as does the textured lid found on the Editors' Choice Toshiba mini NB305-N410 ($400.00 direct, ). At 2.9 pounds, the N210 is as heavy as the Toshiba NB305 (2.9 lbs) and HP 5102 (2.8 lbs).

The 10-inch widescreen and its 1,024-by-600 resolution are as generic as every other netbook. There are exceptions, such as the high-resolution screens (1,366 by 768) found on the Sony W11XX, HP 5102, and Dell Inspiron Mini 10s (HD) ($425 direct, ). And based on the latest batch of reviews, isolated keyboards are becoming more ubiquitous, surpassing those with interconnected keys. The N210's isolated keyboard measures 95% of full size and, pitch-wise, is identical to the one found on the HP Mini 210-1032NR ($350 list, ). The typing experience is exceptional, and further enhanced by a roomy touchpad and soft mouse buttons. Still, full size keyboards and better navigating experiences can be had with the Toshiba NB305 and HP 5102.
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Features
There is nothing extraordinary about the N210's feature set. Like every other 10-inch netbook, it comes with three USB ports, VGA-Out, an Ethernet port, and an SD card slot. It has built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi and a Webcam that, when combined, delivered a decent video chatting experience. It does come with a 250GB hard drive when others, like the Acer Aspire One 532h-2268 ($300 street, ) and Lenovo S10-3 ($370 direct, ), only have 160GB ones.

Performance
Samsung N210 So far this year, there hasn't been much variation in netbook performance, which boils down to the three common components found in most Intel-based netbooks—the 1.67GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM, and Windows 7 Starter Edition. The 1.83GHz Atom N470 processor is floating around out there—I've seen it in the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t ($650 direct, )—though from my findings the speed increments are not worth the upgrade. Upgrading the memory on the N210, however, is an easy task: A single screw holds the memory panel in place.

In video encoding tests, the N210 scored 4 minutes, 32 seconds, performing as well as the Toshiba NB30 (4:48) and Lenovo S10-3 (4:34). As expected, its SYSMark 2007 overall score was also in line with its peers.

Battery life is really the only performance differentiator here, since it's dependent on the size of the battery. The N210 ships with a 48WH (6-cell) battery, which, capacity-wise, is smaller than the ones found in the Toshiba NB305 (61WH), HP 5102 (66WH), and Dell Mini 10s (57WH). Thus, its score of 7 hours 23 minutes on MobileMark 2007 is lower than the Toshiba NB305 (8:59), HP 5102 (10:52), and Dell Mini 10s (7:42), but it's highly unlikely that anyone would complain about 7 hours of battery life.

Building a good netbook is not as easy as you might think. I've seen netbook makers who completely compromise one thing for the sake of another. While it may not be the perfect netbook, the Samsung N210 has all the basic fundamentals in place. It's priced aggressively, has a good user experience, and performed as well as its peers. If you're angling for near-perfection, however,you should check out the Editors' Choice Toshiba mini NB305-N410 or the HP Mini 5102.

SAMSUNG

Dell Inspiron i570

2010-04-14T11:44:00.002+07:00

For an entry-level desktop to win an Editors' Choice award, it doesn't necessarily need to deliver a knockout blow. At this segment of the PC market, it can simply out-score the competition by delivering a competitive feature set for the money while avoiding any deal breakers along the way. The Dell Inspiron i570-6939PBK ($598.99 list), a desktop bundle from Staples that includes and a 20-inch LCD, edges out other entry-level bundles, such as the HP Pavilion a4327c-b ($600, ) and the model it replaces, the Dell Inspiron 546 (i546-4356nbk) ($600, ). The Inspiron i570-6939PBK and HP a4327c-b are very similar bundles, both based on the dual-core AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU, but the Dell is the better deal because it features a larger hard drive and a more current integrated graphics chip.

We recommend it as an entry-level desktop bundle with one caveat: if you don't need an LCD, your same $600 can net you a quad-core desktop such as the HP Pavilion p6310f ($600, ). A quad-core PC will obviously offer better performance than a dual-core machine, but the Inspiron i570-6939PBK offers more than enough oomph for general home or office use.

Design
The Inspiron i570-6939PBK uses the same case as the previous Inspiron 546 we reviewed last fall. It's your basic mini-tower chassis that will fit under or on top of your desk. The front is a piano black with flip-down drive covers that present an attractive, simple appearance. The front panel features a multi-format media card reader, two USB ports, and headphone/mic jacks. Around back, you'll find four more USB ports, another set of audio ports, VGA and HDMI, one Ethernet and two modem jacks. It's a standard low-end setup that lacks mainstream PC connections such as an eSATA port and an integrated Wi-Fi antenna.

Inside, the PC offers some room for expansion, highlighted by a PCIe x16 slot that will let you add a graphics card. There are also open two PCIe x1 slots and a PCI slot that's occupied by a modem card. You also have a free 5.25-inch drive bay to which you can add another optical drive and a free 3.5-inch drive bay to add another hard drive. All four DIMM slots are occupied, so if you want to expand the system's 4GB of memory, you'll need to replace the 1GB sticks with higher capacity modules.
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The bundled LCD features a 16:9 screen, framed in a matte black bezel. The back of the display and its base, in a design departure, are a glossy white. No matter, the Inspiron i570-6939PBK and the display will fit in almost any home or office setting. A basic black keyboard and wired, optical mouse are also included.

Features
The Inspiron i570-6939PBK features a dual-core 2.8GHz AMD Athlon II X2 240 processor, 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, a 640GB hard drive, and integrated ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics. Any integrated graphics solution borrows resources from the main system memory and is incapable of playing the vast majority of intensive 3D games, but the ATI Radeon HD 4200 chip is AMD's most advanced integrated chip and offers a small modicum of gaming performance. It's also capable of displaying HD video and handling light 3D rendering, as shown by the benchmark numbers below. It offers better performance than the non-HD capable Intel GMA 3100 graphics in competitors like the HP Pavilion p6234f-b ($750, ).

The bundled 20-inch monitor, the Dell ST2010 LCD, lists for $150 and costs $130 at Staples. It features a cinematic 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1,600 by 900 screen resolution. The display lacks speakers, but a basic set of PC speakers is included in the Inspiron i570-6939PBK bundle. DVDs looked smooth and crisp using a VGA connection (which you can improve by using an HDMI connection; cable not included), and the wide aspect ratio is a benefit when viewing movies or two documents side by side.

On the software front, the Inspiron i570-6939PBK comes with Windows 7 Home Premium and little in the way of bloatware. HP and Gateway are both more egregious bloatware offenders. Microsoft Works and a 30-day trial to McAfee Internet Security highlight the software bundle.

Performance
Dell Inspiron i570-6939PBK A modern dual-core PC like the Inspiron i570-6939PBK with an ample 4GB of memory can handle nearly any task in the home or office. It posted better scores on all three of our multimedia benchmark tests than the previous Dell Inspiron 546 model, which used the slightly slower 2.7GHz Athlon II X2 215 processor on AMD's previous-generation ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics.

If you run demanding graphics apps with any regularity, or even if you might classify yourself as a heavy multitasker, you may be better served by passing on this bundle and purchasing a quad-core system. The HP Pavilion p6310f costs $600 (without an LCD) and not only does it boast a quad-core AMD Athlon II X4 630, but it also includes more RAM (6GB) and a huge 1TB hard drive. Compared with the Inspiron i570-6939PBK, the HP p6310f was 25 percent faster on PCMark Vantage, and 31 and 35 percent faster on our Windows Media Encoder and Photoshop tests, respectively. Most impressively, the HP p6310f nearly doubled the score of the Inspiron i570-6939PBK on Cinebench R10, but then again the CineBench test measures the system's ability to render 3D images in a modeling program (not the kind of thing that a regular web user will care about). Although a quad-core system clearly outperforms a dual-core system like the Dell i570, we still recommend this PC bundle for the simple fact that the vast majority of basic PC users won't take much advantage--if any at all--of quad-core processing. For general home use, we like this convenient Dell bundle for the features and performance if offers for the price, plus its clean, bloatware-free hard drive. It's the perfect package for the buyer is is either replacing their desktop setup (including, say, an ancient CRT monitor) or purchasing the first PC.

Among dual-core systems, the Inspiron i570-6939PBK ran as expected. Its benchmark scores showed incremental gains to that of the Inspiron 546. For example, it finished our Photoshop test 20 seconds faster than the Inspiron 546 and sped through the Cinebench R10 script with 14 percent better score. In anecdotal testing, Windows 7 felt fast and responsive, even under various multitasking scenarios.

In the end, the Dell Inspiron i570-6939PBK earns an Editors' Choice for entry-level desktop, replacing the Compaq CQ5210f ($390, ), because it serves up competitive features for the money inside a convenient bundle that includes an attractive, versatile 20-inch LCD. It makes for easy, one-stop shopping for basic home and office users. Do note that quad-core PC prices have dropped dramatically in the past year, so noticeably better performance isn't far from reach. Don't overlook a quad-core system like the HP Pavilion p6310f if you already own a serviceable LCD or find a deal on one.

Dell

ASUS K50ID-X1

2010-04-09T01:31:00.002+07:00

The ASUS K50ID-X1 offers a unique experience over other budget laptops by providing a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GT 320M graphics processor making the system a mobile PC gaming platform. This comes at a cost to the general performance of the system in a slower Pentium dual-core processor. Because of this, the system is suited best for those looking at low cost PC gaming and not a general purpose system.

ASUS has made some compromises in the overall features of the K50ID-X1 that makes the system a bit more specialized than the average budget laptop. While most companies have switched over to using the new Core i3 processor, ASUS uses the older Intel Pentium T4400 dual core processor. This means the system has much more limited performance for many demanding applications but it is sufficient for most general purpose and even the less CPU demanding PC games. It does feature 4GB of DDR3 memory but it has a lower memory bandwidth than newer systems.

Storage features are pretty typical of the budget laptop market. A sizable 320GB hard drive provides storage space for programs and data. ASUS does an odd partitioning scheme on the drive that would make it worthwhile to reformat and reinstall the OS after making the appropriate recovery discs. Playback and recording of CD and DVD media is handled by a dual layer DVD burner.

The feature that really sets the ASUS K50ID-X1 apart from other budget laptops is the graphics. Most systems use an integrated graphics solution to keep the prices down. ASUS has placed an NVIDIA GeForce GT 320M graphics processor with 1GB of memory. This allows the system to actually be able to play PC games on the system albeit at more limited graphics features. It should be able to handle most games at the native 1366x768 resolution with moderate detail levels and no filtering enabled. Some of the more taxing games may require less resolution or detail levels but none of the integrated graphics laptops can achieve this.

Battery life with the ASUS K50ID-X1 is not particularly strong. In my DVD playback test, it ran for roughly one and three quarter hours. This is well below average for this class of system and is likely the result of the added power draw of the dedicated graphics. Users can expect about two and a half hours of more typical usage before the system goes into standby mode.

Another feature that is noteworthy on the ASUS K50ID-X1 is the keyboard. It uses an isolated or chiclet style that has a very comfortable design that makes it very easy to type. The trackpad uses a dimpled design that some may like or hate. It has a very quick feel to it that mellows after some usage.

Overall, the ASUS K50ID-X1 is a very specialized system. If you want a low cost laptop that can be used for gaming on the go, it is one of the best options to be found for $650. On the other hand, if you don't intend to be using it for PC gaming, you would be better served by one of the better general performance Core i3 based laptops.

Asus & Buy Direct

Acer Aspire AS5740G

2010-04-09T01:20:00.003+07:00

Acer's Aspire 5740 series of laptops is not a major redesign but more of an internal upgrade of the platform to take advantage of number parts from Intel and ATI. The big change is the new Core i mobile platform from Intel that includes the HM55 chipset and the Core i3-330M processor in the AS5740G-5309.

While this is a relatively low model of the new Core i processor, performance is actually quite surprising. In many cases, this low dual core mobile part was able to outperform higher end Core 2 processors found in more expensive laptops just months before. It should be more than enough for someone on a budget that wants a decent performing laptop for even high end software applications.

Because of its relatively low price tag, storage features on the AS5470G-5309 are fairly subdued. It does come with a sizable 500GB hard drive spinning at 5400rpm that provides a fair amount of storage space. Performance of the drive is decent but falls short of some smaller drives that also spin at the 5400rpm rate and falls well behind 7200rpm drives. A standard dual layer DVD burner is also included which is typical for the $700 price range of this model.

The 15.6-inch display of the Aspire 5740G runs at a modest 1366x768 resolution. It would be nice to see a bit higher resolution but for its price it is not surprising. The screen was bright and colorful with decent viewing angles. The glossy coating did make it difficult to use in some lighting conditions because of the excessive glare and reflections.

The Aspire AS5740G-5309 comes with a new ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5470 dedicated graphics card with 512MB of memory. This isn't one of the higher grades of dedicated processors from ATI but it is able to handle casual PC gaming up to the displays 1366x768 resolution without much problem and is Direct X 11 compatible. Some newer games might be required to run at lower resolutions or detail levels but it is still capable and certainly a step up from the typical integrated graphics.

With its very low price tag, some things had to be downscaled. The battery is one of those items as it only comes with a 4400mA battery pack that is relatively small and light. While this keeps the weight and size of the Aspire 5740G down, it also means it has a below average running time. The system was able to run for just under two and a half hours in my DVD playback test before going into standby mode. This translates into roughly three and a half hours of more typical web usage.

In another price savings move, Acer has loaded the Aspire 5740G with a large number of applications. Many of these are trailware applications and they clutter up both the system desktop and hard drive. Performance isn't impacted much because of the Core i3's performance but it is still an annoyance.

Acer & Buy Direct

HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn

2010-04-08T10:23:00.001+07:00

Whether you want a personal monochrome laser small enough to share your desk with, or a shared printer suitable for a small office, the HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn ($229 direct) is worth a close look. It's compact, strong on text quality and surprisingly strong on speed, includes a network connector for easy sharing, and offers reasonably capable paper handling, including a duplexer for printing on both sides of a page. It's a little weak on graphics and photo quality, but if you really care about graphics and photos, you probably aren't all that interested in a mono laser in any case.

The P1606dn replaces the HP LaserJet P1505 Printer ($199.99, ) in HP's line, but with a number of substantial improvements. In particular, it's much faster, and adds both a duplexer and a network connector as standard.

At 9.7 by 15.2 by 11.2 inches (HWD) and only 15.4 pounds, the P1606dn is both smaller and lighter than most inkjets. However, it's large enough to hold a 250-sheet paper tray as well as the built-in duplexer. In addition, the 10-sheet multipurpose tray is a useful extra that lets you print on special paper without having to swap out the paper in the tray. There are no additional paper tray options, but the 250 sheets should be enough for personal use or for sharing among two or three people.

Physical setup is typical for a small mono laser. Set the printer in place, remove the packing materials, and load paper. To set the printer up on a network, as I did for my tests, you then connect the cables and run the automated setup routine from disc. I installed the P1606dn on a system running Windows Vista. According to HP, it also comes with drivers for Vista 64-bit; both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7, XP, Server 2003, and Server 2008; and Mac OS X version 10.4 through 10.6. In addition, HP says you can download drivers for Unix and Linux from HP's Web site.

The Good News: Speed and Text Quality
The P1606dn stands out for its speed. HP rates the engine at a substantial 26 pages per minute (ppm), and the printer delivers on the engine's promise.

I timed the P1606dn on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at an impressively fast 5-minute 36-second total. That's a touch faster than the somewhat more expensive Lexmark E260dn ($249, ), at 5:56. It's also notably faster than anything else in the P1606dn's price range, including in particular the Editors' Choice Brother HL-5340D ($200, ) at 6:47 and the Editors' Choice Samsung ML-2851ND ($300, ) at 6:35.

Text quality is another important plus. More than half of the fonts in our test suite qualified as both highly readable and well formed at 5 points, some passed both thresholds at 4 points, and the vast majority passed both at 8 points. One font needed 10 points to pass both tests, but it's the sort of highly stylized font, with thick strokes, that you aren't likely to use at small sizes. Unless you have a highly unusual need for particularly well-formed fonts at unusually small font sizes, you should be more than happy with the text.

The Not So Good News
Graphics are on the low end of typical for a monochrome laser, which translates to being good enough for internal business use, but only barely qualifying for that description. Among other issues, I saw visible dithering both in the form of annoying graininess and dithering patterns, a tendency to lose thin lines, and posterization (shading changing suddenly where it should change gradually). I also saw a streaking effect, with bands continuing across the page as apparent extensions to some filled in areas, including bars in a bar graph, for example.

I certainly wouldn't consider the graphics good enough for marketing materials, reports to important clients, or anything else that needed to convey a sense of professionalism. Depending on how demanding you are, you may or may not consider them good enough for things like PowerPoint handouts.

Photo quality is definitively at the low end of the range for current monochrome lasers. It's good enough to print recognizable photos as part of a Web page, say, but it's barely a match for a poor-quality photo in a newspaper. Depending on your tastes, once again, you may or may not consider it good enough for, say, a client newsletter or end-of-year family newsletter.

Other Issues
The P1606dn is the first monochrome laser printer to earn the PCMag GreenTech Approved Seal. It is RoHS and REACH compliant, Energy Star 1.1 qualified, and Blue Angel certified; it uses chemically grown toner, which saves energy during production compared with ground toner; and according to HP, there's a recycling program in place for both the printer and the cartridges.

On our practical tests, it took only a single button press to cancel a simplex print job, with only one additional page printing. Duplexing took only about 1.7 times as long as printing the same 50-page Word file in simplex (for a 189- rather than 114-second total).

The printer also includes what HP calls auto-off and auto-on features, which are best understood as a kind of enhanced sleep mode paired with an instant-on fuser. By default as shipped, the printer goes into a 1.6-watt sleep mode after 5 minutes without printing and automatically wakes when you print the next job. Being in sleep mode adds only a claimed 0.5 seconds to the time before the first page comes out.

HP's one-year warranty, with HP picking up the cost of shipping in both directions, is another plus. If the printer has a problem during the warranty period, and it can't be fixed by phone, HP says it will ship a replacement, along with a return shipping label, to arrive within five business days.

The P1606dn's limitations for graphics and photo quality are enough to keep it from being an Editors' Choice for either a personal printer or shared printer in a small office. And if you need a bit higher quality for graphics and photos you'll want to take a look at the Brother HL-5340D ($200 street) and Samsung ML-2851ND ($300 street) as possible alternatives. Both the Brother and Samsung printers also offer optional paper trays to give them a higher capacity than the P1606dn.

On the other hand, the P1606dn offers faster speed than any other printer in its price range, high-quality text, reasonably good paper handling, and eco-friendly features. If graphics and photo quality aren't much of an issue for your needs (as may well be the case if you're looking for a monochrome laser), and a 250-sheet maximum capacity is all you need, that may well be enough to make P1606dn your best choice.

Hp Laser

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e

2010-04-08T10:14:00.002+07:00

Lenovo is no stranger to the netbook genre, after successfully launching the IdeaPad S10 series and the S12 ($500 direct, ). But it had yet to launch a legitimate netbook for business users, one that it can proudly call a ThinkPad—until now. Though Lenovo doesn't want it to be known as a netbook, the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e ($550 direct) has all the trappings of one.

Except it's one of the few that I would actually recommend for business, since it has a great typing experience, dual pointing devices, and decent battery life for a machine that doesn't use the Atom processor.

Design
With its classic black chassis with the ThinkPad logo, the X100e can easily be mistaken for the ThinkPad X201 ($1,625 direct, ), as it's small and very portable. But make no mistake; the X100e's plastics don't seem as sturdy as that of its ThinkPad counterparts. It measures 8.2 by 11.1 by 0.8 inches (HWD), and at 3.2 pounds lighter than the 3.3-pound HP Mini 311 ($470 direct, ) and 3.5-pound Fujitsu LifeBook P3010 ($549 list, )—both netbooks with 11.6-inch widescreens. Because it has a bigger screen, the X100e is bigger than traditional 10-inch netbooks like the Editors' Choice Toshiba mini NB305-N410 ($400 direct, ) and HP Mini 5102 ($400 direct, ). You can also get the X100e in "Heatwave Red" at no additional cost.

The X100e's 11.6-inch widescreen is smaller than the ones found on ThinkPad X201 and Ideapad S12, both of which use 12-inch displays. And as I mentioned, an 11.6-inch is biggers than the 10-inch screens found on the mini NB305 and Mini 5102. The X100e's 1,366-by-768 resolution is also higher than the 1,024-by-600 resolution found in typical 10-inch netbooks. There are exceptions, however, like the 1,366-by-768 options that you can get with the Dell Inspiron Mini 10s (HD) ($425 direct, ) and HP 5102.

Features
The ThinkPad X100e successfully squeezed dual pointing devices into an 11.6-inch frame. The implementation is actually better than the one found in the Lenovo X201, as the X100e's touchpad is a little bigger and wider. In order to be truly called a ThinkPad, though, the X100e had to live up to their typing and navigating legacy—and it does. The island-style, full-size keyboard is clearly not a traditional ThinkPad keyboard, but the key caps are slightly curved and raised high enough so that it has the comfort of one. It's very similar to the typing experience found in the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 ($899 direct, )—a full-size laptop—and it's a better typing experience than that of the Toshiba NB305 and HP 5102. Along with the touchpad, it also includes the signature Trackpoint pointing stick and two pairs of very soft mouse buttons.

The feature set is respectable, but not outstanding. It comes with three USB ports, VGA-out, a 4-in-1 media card reader, and an Ethernet port. It doesn't have the HP 311's HDMI port or the Lenovo S12's ExpressCard slot. Wi-Fi (802.11n) is a standard feature, while Bluetooth ($20) and 3G are optional. The X100e includes a 5,400rpm, 250GB hard drive, with an upgrade path to 320GB ($30). Like every single netbook, you can find a Webcam situated above the screen.

The services are also what make the X100e an enterprise netbook. In addition to the 1-year warranty and global support, Lenovo offers image-creation, deployment and end-of-life data and asset-recovery services. Lenovo also includes part of its Thinkvantage suite, including Access Connections, Power Manager, and Active Protection.

Performance
Lenovo ThinkPad X100e With its AMD Athlon Neo processor, the X100e is speedier than the netbooks that run on the 1.67GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU. The 1.6GHz Athlon Neo MV-40 is the same processor as the one found in the Fujitsu P3010, MSI U210 ($430 street, ), and HP Pavilion dv2-1030us ($800 list, ). Unlike its Intel-based counterparts, most AMD-based netbooks, including the X100e, usually ship with 2GB of RAM and a decent graphics chipset—in this case, the ATI Mobility Radeon 3200. A slight boost in 3D horsepower and adequate memory (upgradeable to 4GB) are a blessing for HD enthusiasts, as all my high definition clips (720p and 1080p) played back smoothly. Most Intel-based netbooks, on the other hand, can't make this claim unless they're paired with an Nvidia or a Broadcom HD decoder chip, like that found in the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 (Ion) ($650 direct, ) and Dell Mini 10s (HD), respectively.

The X100e's video encoding score of 3 minutes 49 seconds was dominant against Intel-based netbooks like the Toshiba NB305 (4:48) and HP 5102 (4:38). If you want to run Adobe Photoshop CS4, this is the best netbook for the job; the X100e has the minimum resolution and RAM requirements that will enable a decent photo editing experience. Although its 3DMark06 scores were a lot better than Intel-based netbooks, this is clearly not a gaming machine.

Battery life is about the only performance tradeoff, since AMD parts aren't as energy efficient as Intel ones. The 63WH (6-cell) battery drained in 5 hours 23 minutes, which isn't as impressive as the 8- to10-hour scores of the Toshiba NB305 (8:59) and HP 5102 (10:52). A 3-cell battery is also available, but isn't worth having without the 6-cell.

Though the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e's battery life may not be as long-lasting as the countless netbooks that run on Intel parts, the extra horsepower from AMD's parts might help ease the doubts. From a business standpoint, it has a terrific user experience and viable business tools. If your netbook needs aren't as sophisticated as what the X100e can offer, the Toshiba mini NB305-N410 and HP Mini 5102 are less expensive and can crank out more battery life.

Lenovo

Gateway NV7915u

2010-04-08T02:16:00.003+07:00

Desktops are tough sells these days, given the growing list of desktop replacement laptops that are selling for just as much, if not less. Case in point: The Gateway NV7915u ($600 street) has 17.3-inches worth of desktop-quality screen real estate, running on a speedy Intel Core i3 processor, and, all things considered, is one of the best values in the market. For just $600, you can multitask to your heart's content and not suffer buyer's remorse the next day.

Design
Though it's using design techniques from two years ago, the glossy, in-mold decorated top still strikes a chord with consumers. The NV7915u's version is called NightSky Black and bears a strong resemblance to the HP Pavilion dv7-3183cl ($999 list, ). Desktop replacements like the Dell Inspiron 1764 (5955IBU) ($799.99 list, ) can be customized with different colors, while designs like the Acer Aspire AS8940-6865 ($1,399 street, ) and Acer Aspire AS7740-5691 ($649 list, ) have the glossy finish, but not much else in terms of style. The NV7915u is clearly not meant for commuting or small bags, as its 6.7-pound frame falls in between behemoths like the Dell 1764 (5955IBU) (6.2 lbs) and HP dv7-3183cl (7.1 lbs).

Features
The 17.3-inch widescreen is a sight to behold, perfect for users who work with multiple windows at a time. Better yet, the Acer AS8940-6865 has an 18.4-inch widescreen and an awe-inspiring 1,920 by 1,080 resolution. With a 1,600-by-900 resolution, the NV7915u's viewing experience is perfectly acceptable and consistent with that of its peers. The full-size keyboard is a bit flat for my taste, and the keys didn't have a good feel to them since the grooves between them are barely discernible. Still, the keyboard should be fine for touch typists, and it's soft for those who have sensitive fingers as well; but you can find better typing experiences on the Dell 1764 (5955IBU) and HP dv7-3183cl. The NV7915u has a spacious touchpad, while the easy-to-click mouse buttons are in the shape of a single bar; every other system in this review has dedicated mouse buttons.

A 500GB hard drive is the stand-out feature here, since many others are only offering 320GB at this price. Otherwise, it has a standard set of ports, which include four USBs, Ethernet, SD card slot, VGA, and HDMI-Out. It even has a modem jack for those who still heavily rely on their land lines. The lack of a Firewire port is understandable, but omitting an ExpressCard slot is a little surprising, given that others in its class are including one.

Performance
Gateway NV7915u The parts aren't top of the line, but at least Gateway isn't giving you a Celeron or Pentium equivalent. An Intel Core i3-330M processor is very respectable in terms of speed, right behind the Core i5s and the Core i7s. In video encoding tests, it fell 7-8 seconds shy of the Dell 1764 (5955IBU) (0:50) and HP dv7-3183cl (0:49), both of which run on a Core i5-430M processor. The NV7915u did really well in PCMark Vantage tests (5,182), breaking the 5,000 mark. All of the systems that run on Intel's latest Core processor will ship with DDR3 memory only, and most of them run on 4GB—the NV7915u is no exception.

Unfortunately, the price of the NV7915u will only net you an integrated graphics chipset. But if you're not a serious gamer or a CAD specialist, this isn't a big concern. Pricier systems like the Acer AS8940-6865 and HP dv7-3183cl ship with Nvidia discrete graphics cards, which are known for their 3D prowess. Regardless of price, battery life will be underwhelming, because the sheer size of the screen eats up a lot of it. The NV7915u scored 3 hours 32 minutes, which fell in line with the HP dv7-3183cl (3:36) and Dell 1764 (5955IBU) (3:01). The size of the battery is important, too. But if you want to maximize battery life, you only have one option with the NV7915u: a 48WH (6-cell) battery. Meanwhile, the Dell 1764 (5955IBU) has an option for bigger batteries.

Gateway may not be the big household name it used to be, but it undercuts the competition without making too many sacrifices. The Gateway NV7915u runs on the latest line of Intel processors, comes with a 500GB hard drive, and has plenty of screen real estate—all this for only $600. It's hard to complain, but if your budget is a little bigger, check out the Acer Aspire AS8940 series.

Gateway

Top 5 Business Laptops

2010-04-07T08:19:00.001+07:00

Finding a great laptop for work is serious business. After all, you need something that's durable, secure, powerful, light, and can last through an intercontinental flight. With the countless options available, it can be a daunting task to find the perfect one. Fortunately for you, we have already found the top five business laptops on the market today.

If weight is the biggest factor in your buying decision, then you couldn't do better than the Sony VAIO VPC-Z116GXS ($1,800 direct, ), our Editors' Choice for ultraportables. It weighs a scant 3 pounds, and runs a powerful Intel Core i5 CPU. Add to that switchable graphics and support for two solid state drives (our review unit came with only one 256GB SSD), and you've got the lightest and most powerful ultraportables around

Another ultraportable laptop that should be on your short list is the Lenovo ThinkPad X201 ($1,625 direct, ). While it might be mistaken for a netbook, given its 12-inch screen and tiny footprint, it's a lot more powerful. It packs a Intel Core i5 540M CPU. And because of a big battery, its battery life is an impressive 9 hours 36 minutes.

The HP Elitebook 2540p ($1,629 direct, ) also sports a 12-inch screen, but comes with a low-voltage Intel Core i7 CPU to maximize the system's battery life (8 hours 2 minutes, in this case). The chassis design is both aesthetically pleasing (with aluminum metals on its lid) and ruggedized for travel. Like the Lenovo X201, it sports dual pointing devices (pointing stick and touchpad), and it also has a full-size keyboard.

Those who crave a feature-packed business laptop will want to take a serious look at our Editors' Choice for business laptops, the Lenovo ThinkPad T410 ($1,484 direct, ). While its design is pretty bland, it's what's inside that impresses. It features a strong inner framework and shock-proof component protection. With its 2.53GHz Intel Core i5-540M processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, and Nvidia Quadro NVS 3100M graphics chipset, it made short work of graphics and CPU-intensive tasks. This much performance comes at the price of battery life; the T410 scored 5 hours 30 minutes on MobileMark 2007, though this is still respectable for most daily commuters.

For those looking for a business laptop that's both pleasing to look at and powerful to use, the HP EliteBook 8440w ($1,650 direct, ) is one to check out. Like the HP 2540p, it's ruggedized for travel, and it features a dual-core Intel Core i7 processor, workstation-class Nvidia graphics, and speedy hard drives. Like the Lenovo T410, it features a 14-inch screen and a big 9-cell battery. Its "fully-loaded" feature set includes 4 USB ports, FireWire, an ExpressCard slot, and a multimedia card reader. The HP 8440w adds a standard 3-year warranty to sweeten the deal.

Lenovo ThinkPad T410

2010-04-07T08:11:00.004+07:00

These days, many business users are willing to sacrifice performance in favor of the lightest laptop they can stuff in their bags. For the rest, a powerful business laptop can mean getting resource-intensive tasks done in a matter of minutes, instead of hours and days. The Lenovo ThinkPad T410 ($1,484 direct) may not be on the cutting edge of design, but it's the most well-equipped, fastest business laptop that the smallest of corporate budgets can afford.

Leading the way is an Intel Core i5 processor that dominated in speed tests, and a fantastic user experience that has withstood the test of time. The T410 takes over where its predecessor left off, inheriting the Editor's Choice for business laptops.

Design
Design is easily the most frustrating part about owning a Lenovo ThinkPad. It's black, thick, and lacks the elements that have made the HP EliteBook 6930p ($2,104 direct, ) and Dell Latitude Z600 (stay tuned for our review) so appealing from a design standpoint. Instead of sleek aluminum metals or tough magnesium alloys, the T410 is now using a mixture of plastics (PCABs) that may not have the desired look that trendy business firms are looking for. Still, the T410 is surprisingly sturdy and built around the same ThinkPad principles—a strong inner cage and shock-proof techniques—that have protected its predecessors from harm.

Speedy components and piling on features have the unfortunate side effect of adding on weight, as the T410's 5.5-pound frame is heavier than the original T400 (5.2 lbs) and the HP 6930p (5.3 lbs). If having the absolute lightest 14-inch laptop is a must, the Lenovo ThinkPad T400s ($1,995 direct, ) (3.9 lbs) and Toshiba Tecra R10-S4401 ($1,549 direct, ) (4.2 lbs) rank first and second.

Beyond its boring looks is arguably the best user experience on a laptop. The T410 keeps its amazing keyboard intact, while making some minor alterations: The Delete and Esc keys are larger, and key spacing has improved for a more tactile experience. It has the best implementation of a dual-pointing system, complete with its signature Trackpoint technology and a new textured touchpad. The four-mouse-button layout is a noiseless quartet and generates some of the most heavenly clicks in the business. The 14-inch widescreen is a boon for productivity because it's paired with an ideal resolution: 1,440-by-900. In contrast, the Toshiba R10 has the same screen size but comes with a lower 1,280-by-800 resolution; both the Lenovo T400s and HP 6930p have 14-inch screens with 1,440-by-900 resolutions as well.

Features<>
Lenovo

HP EliteBook 2540p

2010-04-07T08:07:00.001+07:00

Business ultraportables encompass a wide range of systems, the smallest of which have 12-inch widescreens. A 12-inch screen has to be the cut-off point here or else you would be venturing into netbook territory. The HP EliteBook 2540p ($1,629 direct) is certainly tiny, but it's also one of the most powerful, feature-packed ultraportables in the business.

This particular one is configured with a long battery life in mind (8 hours' worth) by pairing a low-voltage Intel Core i7 processor with an extended battery.

Design
EliteBooks are all fortified with magnesium metals that form a boxy-looking frame. Had HP not capped the top-half with fine aluminum metals, the 2540p would have had the kind of business-bland design we see in the Lenovo ThinkPad X201 ($1,199 direct, ). Good looks aside, the 2540p is sturdy, since all EliteBooks go through a series of low-stress torture tests that involve moisture, vibration, dust, and extreme heat and cold. All this extra padding comes in handy for the road, though it won't be easy on your back. At 3.9 pounds, the 2540p is discernibly heavier than the Editors' Choice Sony VAIO VPC-Z116GXS ($1,800 direct, ) at 3.0 pounds and just edged out the Lenovo X201 at 3.8 pounds.

A 12-inch widescreen is borderline-acceptable for business users. It's as small as the one found in the Lenovo X201, with the same 1,280-by-800 resolution. I would argue that a 13-inch widescreen, like the one found in the HP ProBook 5310m ($899 direct, ), the Sony Z116GXS, and the Lenovo Thinkpad X301 ($3,000 direct,) are better for productivity and multitasking. Furthermore, 13-inch screens go beyond the standard WXGA resolution. The Sony Z116GXS, for instance, sports a 1,600 by 900 screen.

As with its predecessors, the 2540p includes a full-size keyboard and dual pointing devices. It's a mushier keyboard than the one found on the X201, a boon for touch typists who have sensitive fingers. The pointing stick is unpleasant to use and isn't as smooth as the one on the Lenovo X201. It has a bigger touchpad than the Lenovo X201, widening the pinch between your thumb and index finger for easy one-handed navigation. Since the Sony Z116GXS uses a single pointing device (touchpad-only), Sony was able to maximize its size and optimize its responsiveness.

Features
Despite its size, the 2540p is jam-packed with features. It's one of the last remaining 12-inch systems that come with an internal DVD burner, though this feature is only available with a low-voltage processor. Standard voltage processors require bigger cooling methods, and thus, there isn't enough room for one. It has three USB ports, VGA-Out, an Ethernet port, ExpressCard, and SD slot. Unlike the Lenovo X201, the 2540p managed to squeeze in a DisplayPort and a Firewire port.

The 2540p's 1.8-inch hard drive is a minor concession, as rotational speeds top-out at 5400rpm at this size. You can go for the 2.5-inch hard drive option, but you lose the optical drive. Comparatively, the Lenovo X201 uses a 2.5-inch drive that spins at 7200rpm. The other alternative is to upgrade to a solid state drive (80GB and 160GB), similar to the 256GB option found in the Sony Z116GXS. Wireless options are as plenty as with the Lenovo X201, including ones for Intel 802.11n Wi-Fi cards, Bluetooth, and mobile broadband (Gobi 2000). And like all EliteBooks, a standard 3-year warranty comes with your purchase.

Performance
HP Elitebook 2540p Even with a low-voltage processor, the 2540p handled hardcore applications like Adobe Photoshop CS4 and the video encoding with ease. The reason why it did so well is because it's one of the first systems to use a low-voltage version of the Intel Core i7 (a 2.13GHz Core i7-640LM); the 4GB of DDR3 memory doesn't hurt, either. A low-voltage processor trails in speed against the standard voltage ones found in the X201 (Core i5-540M) and the Z116GXS (Core i5-520M), so overall tests like PCMark Vantage (where it scored 5,924) and CineBench R10 (7,873) clearly favored its two rivals. The 2540p does have an upgrade path to standard volt processors, but you lose the optical drive and the battery benefits in the process.

The appeal of a low-voltage processor is that it's battery efficient, so even though my unit shipped with a 62WH battery (6-cell), it still managed a score of 8 hours 2 minutes on MobileMark 2007. The Sony Z116GXS, with a similar battery (57WH), scored just 5 hours 10 minutes. Battery life still hinges on the size of the battery, which is why the Lenovo X201 nearly hit the 10-hour mark (9:36) with its 94WH (9-cell) battery. The 2540p has a 9-cell battery option as well, which HP claims will drain in 10.5 hours.

A business ultraportable with a 12-inch screen is a rarity, because too many features end up on the chopping block. The HP EliteBook 2540p makes the fewest sacrifices in the 12-inch space by including an internal optical drive, optimal connectivity ports, and numerous processor options. The Lenovo ThinkPad X201 has as many processor options, but trails the 2540p in terms of features and looks. If you want to take the ultraportable experience even further, the Sony VAIO VPC-Z11ZGXS sits in a class all by itself.

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