Wacom Intuos4

Pen tablets aren't just for commercial artists anymore. For proof, look no further than the just-released Wacom Intuos4 ($230 and up, street, depending on size), a worthy addition to the toolkits of professionals, casual artists, and photography enthusiasts alike. Used with Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Corel Painter 11, the Intuos4's impressive pressure sensitivity lets you lighten or darken areas of an image with precision. Putting the tablet to work with Photoshop's dodge, burn, blur, and sharpen tools gives you the kind of personal expression that's associated with a photographic darkroom. And if you're used to drawing with traditional art materials, such as chalk or watercolors, you'll find that the combination of Intuos4 and Painter comes remarkably close to that experience. Wacom is pretty much the only game in town when it comes to pen tablets, but the impressive Intuos4 proves that the lack of competition hasn't made the company lazy.
For this review, Wacom provided me with the medium version of the Intuos4. Think of this midsized, midpriced pen tablet as the Goldilocks model—not too large, not too expensive. The active area of the 10-by-14.6-inch (HW) pad, at 5.5 by 8.8 inches, is not as high but a bit wider than the 6-by-8-inch active area of the Intuos3 6x8. With the Intuos4, the company has switched from the active-area designations associated with its now-discontinued predecessor to the generic small, medium, large, and extra large.
A rubberlike finish along the bottom half of the pen helps you keep a firm grip. But it also attracts dust and lint, so when not in use, keep the pen in the supplied holder. The tablet has a sleek, all-black appearance, as opposed to the Intuos3's institutional slate-gray styling. The eight programmable ExpressKeys are sensibly grouped to one side, rather than being split between the left- and right-hand sides, as they were on the Intuos3.

Gateway FHD2400

The FHD2400 has nearly every video input you could want in a 24-inch display: component, composite, DVI, HDMI, S-Video and VGA. The only port lacking is the new, up-and-coming Display Port connection. The on-screen display menu is incredibly well designed and intuitive, and it has the full range of adjustment options. You can control primary colors or use one of the many presets. The ease of navigation through the submenus is refreshing as well.

It's not all about video with this monitor, either; for an extra $50, you can obtain a detachable sound bar that produces amazingly clear sound. The speakers even have great bass, and I couldn't detect any distortion when I cranked up the volume--a rare virtue in built-in monitor speakers.

This display features four USB ports, a headphone jack, and a standard native resolution of 1920 by 1200. It's fully adjustable by tilt, pivot, and height, and a unique swivel permits 360-degree rotation.

Gateway's FHD2400 didn't outperform the competition in image quality, but it found a comfortable spot in the middle of the pack, resulting in a score of Very Good. The display cost about $550 at the time of this review, making it a great choice for anyone in the market for a well-designed, strong-performing 24-inch monitor. You won't be disappointed with this display's range of inputs or its adjustment options.

AG Neovo H-W22

The H-W22 excelled at rendering Word documents and Excel spreadsheets with a consistent sharpness throughout. Whether the text background was white or black, jury members rated readability as very high overall. The monitor also produced pleasing graphics. Close-up pictures of fruit showed good texture, with natural-looking colors on blueberries and strawberries, and well-balanced saturation on reds, yellows, and blues.

A screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl showed the AG Neovo H-W22 to be a capable movie display. Blues and greens in scenes with water looked refreshing, and characters' skin tones were warm and natural, though at times a bit powdery, as if some faces had too much makeup on them. Light skin tones looked realistic, without the pinkish tones produced by some displays. The pirate Jack Sparrow's dark skin tones contrasted nicely with the soldiers' lighter skin tones. Uniforms in various reds and blues seemed well saturated, and the monitor revealed good background detail even in darker clothes and scenery.

The H-W22's design is very simple, with clean, uncomplicated lines. Its nicely integrated speakers avoid adding visual bulk to the thin-looking cabinet, but they sound tinny even at maximum loudness. Voices and dialogue often were so low that the characters were virtually inaudible.

Five simple, tactile buttons let you navigate the on-screen display (OSD) menu. Situating the power button in the middle of this otherwise useful group of buttons seems like a mistake, because it makes accidentally turning the monitor off when you're fiddling with the settings too easy.

With its simple lines, the H-W22 will fit nicely on the desk of anyone who prefers an understated monitor that offers consistently robust performance.

ViewSonic VG2230WM

Images of fruit slices looked sumptuous, thanks to the screen's brightness and natural-looking colors. Text on Web pages showed no signs of edge blur, so the VG2230wm should be good for people who spend hours reading Word documents or scanning long spreadsheets. Icons on these Office applications were well defined, and text (as on Web pages) was razor sharp.

ViewSonic's monitor lets you adjust its tilt, swivel, and height. The true swiveling base can rotate 360 degrees, and the height-adjustable stand extends the monitor across an unusually large range, making it ideal for a setup with multiple users. A small steel wire clip inserts on the side of the stand to secure the monitor to its minimum height; I would have preferred a built-in button to lock down the stand, so I wouldn't have to worry about losing the wire.

Integrated speakers are another of the monitor's extras. Not surprisingly, they seemed underpowered, producing muddled dialogue in our test DVD movies, though they handled the soundtrack and general background music better. The monitor's circular base is decorated with a raised wave pattern--a pattern that recurs on the sides of the black panel in the form of simple silver lines that slope at the bottom.

Four pill-size buttons and a small round button--aligned vertically on the right side of the monitor--provide access to the monitor's on-screen display (OSD) and its power, respectively. Unhelpfully labeled '1' and '2', the OSD buttons don't aid you in navigating the OSD menu, so you may want to fire up the CD manual if you plan to adjust to the monitor's settings significantly.

In displaying Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the monitor tended to render scenes a bit the light side, infusing many backgrounds and foregrounds with a washed-out sheen. Colors in general were nicely saturated, though reds were on the pink side. Lighter skin tones also seemed too pink or too light, while the pirate Jack Sparrow's skin didn't have a dark enough tone.

Nonetheless, this monitor is a serious contender for a workplace or home setup. It's reasonably priced ($319 as of October 9, 2007), has a thoughtfully designed cabinet, and provides eye-pleasing performance.

NEC LCD225WNXM-BK

Whereas most built-in speakers sound flat or tinny, the speakers on this display possess a full range of sound, though they lack the deep bass that a separate speaker system would provide. Their main limitation is volume: They don't get superloud.

The on-screen display (OSD) menu is far from spectacular. You can make all the adjustments necessary--such as brightness and contrast--and you even get individual color controls, but the menu's text and graphics are very small and unintuitive. A bit of common sense and good engineering could fix the navigation shortcomings.

When we tested the 225WNXM at the PC World Test Center as part of a collection of 19 LCD monitors in the same category (models with 20- to 22-inch displays), it ranked sixth in performance. The monitor did a particularly good job of rendering text but was less successful with graphics. This set's screen is treated with an antiglare chemical coating. If you prefer a glossier look, you'll have to search elsewhere.

An HDMI option on this monitor would have been nice, and the OSD certainly has plenty of room for improvement, but other than that this is a great 22-inch display.

HP W2207H

HP incorporated its Brightview glare panel in the w2207h, instead of using the chemically treated antiglare coating that appears on some of the company's other monitors, such as the the HP LP3065 and the the HP LP1965. This makes for a cleaner-looking image, but introduces more reflectivity as well.

The display, which has a native resolution of 1680 by 1050 pixels, comes with two side USB ports, plus HDMI and VGA inputs. HP doesn't bundle an adapter to connect the monitor's HDMI or VGA ports to the DVI connection that most PCs now use, though such adapters are inexpensive and readily available online. ? ? ?

The display sits in a thin (about 1-inch) glossy black bezel with rounded edges. Unfortunately, you can easily smudge the glossy finish with fingerprints when adjusting the display. Though the w2207h doesn't have a headphone jack, it does include a set of built-in speakers. Like most speakers built in to monitors, the HP's are weak in bass, resulting in flat, tinny audio. For soft background music or basic sound effects for games, however, the speakers are adequate.

HP includes MyDisplay software to help you perform simple monitor calibrations, and you can automatically rotate the screen when you pivot it. Overall, if this monitor finds its way into your home or office, you'll most likely be happy with it. Just be prepared to buy a DVI adapter!

Samsung 245T

The monitor's connectivity options include four USB ports, plus HDMI, VGA, DVI, composite, component, and S-Video ports. The only input missing is a Display Port connection, a linking technology that has gained popularity recently.

Despite the 245T's $649 price tag, you don't get a built-in Webcam or speakers; but the display does have a picture-in-picture option--a great feature to have, in view of all the input choices.

In our PC World Test Center evaluations, the monitor performed well, earning a score of Very Good. Nevertheless, it finished slightly below Samsung's own SyncMaster 2493HM (which has built-in speakers) in overall performance. The 245T's extra video inputs and USB ports (four versus the 2493HM's two) are the main differences between the two monitors. But those extras raise the 245T's price to about $150 more than the 2493HM's.

The 245T is best suited for users who need many connectivity options--because, say, they want to use it for PC work and TV/movie viewing. But the 245T costs about $100 more than Gateway's FHD2400, which has just as many inputs and received the same image-quality score.

Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP

Framing the display is a thin black bezel highlighted with silver accents on the top and the bottom. Dell includes video inputs for every possible connection: component, composite, Display Port, DVI (two ports), HDMI, S-Video, and VGA.

The monitor's on-screen display menu is clearly labeled and easy to navigate. Features include picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture, which displays two input sources side-by-side. This model comes with four USB ports--two on the back and two on the left side. Also on the left side, just above the USB ports, is a built-in reader for Compact Flash, MMC, MS, SD, and xD memory cards.

Dell bundles the UltraSharp 2408WFP with a CD containing drivers, a set-up guide, and a users' guide. Hardware extras include four connection cables for Display Port, DVI, USB, and VGA connectivity.

The images produced by this display resulted in a score of Very Good from our PC World lab. The UltraSharp 2408WFP's combination of good performance, input options, adjustability (it tilts, swivels, pivots, and can be adjusted for height), and excellent OSD make it the most full-featured and versatile monitor we've tested.

Regrettably (but understandably) this monitor's high-end performance, myriad features, and input selection come at high price. At about $700, it's one of the most expensive 24-inch displays we've seen.

Falcon Northwest Mach V

The Mach V sports a spanking-new (Nehalem-based) Intel Core i7 965 Extreme processor that's been overclocked from 3.2 GHz to 3.8 GHz using only air cooling. Added to this is more RAM than we've ever seen in a desktop machine--a whopping 12GB of DDR3-1066 memory--along with an Intel 80GB solid state drive for booting and a 1-terabyte, 7200-rpm Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 hard drive for storage. Although it didn't factor into our rating or system rankings chart (we rated all the gaming PCs in our current roundup on performance alone, excluding bundled monitors or peripherals), Falcon will also throw in a high-quality 22-inch Samsung 2243 LCD for an additional $400 on top of the system's $7395 price (as of November 11, 2008).

Although that premium price places it among the most wallet-crippling systems we've reviewed, you definitely get amazing bang for your buck. The Mach V achieved a score of 163 in our WorldBench 6 test suite. That's the highest result we've ever seen, but one that's equaled by two other new gaming machines: Hardcore Computer's Reactor and Xi's MTower HAF-SLI. The Xi pushes the limit for overclocking by cranking an older 3.33-GHz Core 2 Duo E8600 to an eyeball-popping 4.5 GHz, while the Reactor completely submerges its components in nonconductive oil (including a 3.2-GHz QX9770 CPU overclocked to 4 GHz); stay tuned for full reviews.

Helped out by dual 2GB ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics cards in CrossFire mode, the Mach V beat the frame rates of these and other recent gaming PCs for all the games (and resolutions) we threw at it. It even produced a smooth-playing average of 145 frames per second (fps) in Unreal Tournament 3 (under high settings) at 2560 by 1600 resolution. Next best in that taxing test: the Hardcore Computer Reaktor, whose three overclocked nVidia GTX-280 boards (in tri-SLI mode) achieved 113 fps in the same test.

This particular Mach V configuration includes an LG Blu-ray burner/HD-DVD reader, in addition to a Lite-on DVD writer. For expandability, four external 5.25-inch drive bays are open for upgrades, as are four internal 3.5-inch hard-disk bays. Overall, The Mach V's internals are well put together, with all cables neatly grouped and concealed where possible.

The Mach V's Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard holds a good number of ports: eight USB, two Firewire 400, and one eSATA. You also get built-in 5.1-channel audio and two ethernet ports. The front of the case is a touch more anemic, hiding four USB ports and a single Firewire 400 port beneath a locking door. At least there's plenty of room to plug in the Mach V's Logitech G15 keyboard (included). We'd almost rather not plug in its companion mouse, as the Logitech G9's misplaced DPI buttons are hardly satisfying for the kinds of games you'll be playing on this sweet rig.

Though it's loaded to the gills with high-end components, note that key parts of this killer system can't be upgraded without a big purchase, which some may find frustrating. For one thing, it has no available PCI Express x16 slots, which means that adding a new video card will entail replacing the two ATI Radeon HD 4870 cards (top-of-the-line units) that come with the system.

The Mach V is a new King of Speed that crushes every benchmark we threw at it. And for its price, you'd expect nothing less from this ultrapowered gaming machine!

Polywell Minibox 780G-9950

At 9 inches high, 11 inches wide, and 14 inches deep, the MiniBox fits in many places a tower wouldn't. Even so, it still offers enough interior space to accommodate a full-featured micro-ATX Gigabyte MA78GPM-DS2H motherboard, two free 5.25-inch drive bays (one external), a 16x PCIe slot, and two PCI slots. Its width also makes for a physically stable system--great for the living room or a child's first PC. Oh, and it even has a handle that folds out from the front of the system so you can carry the unit around like a 1980s boom box.

The MiniBox model's moniker informs us that it's strictly an AMD AM2+ system, starting with a 780G chip set, continuing with the latest 2.6-GHz Phenom X4 9950 CPU, and following through with a very fast ATI 4870 graphics card. The result of this relatively low-priced ($2350 as of August 8, 2008) combination, with some help from its RAID 0 tandem of 10,000-rpm Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drives, is a level of performance we don't generally see in a small PC--namely, a more-than-competent WorldBench score of 110.

The 4870 card also made for some fast gaming frame rates; it averaged a very playable 135 frames per second in Doom 3 running at 1280 by 1024 with antialiasing enabled. If you're willing to sacrifice some frames per second playing games, you can also configure a MiniBox without the 4870 and save a few bucks.

The MiniBox 780G-9950 system we tested is also a nice choice as a multimedia PC. This price includes a 22-inch Samsung SyncMaster 2253BW wide-screen LCD monitor, and the PC itself has a Blu-ray/HD DVD drive on board with HDMI output (with HDCP copy protection) on the rear panel.

Alienware AREA-51

The included video card, a 2GB ATI Visiontek Radeon HD4870x2, is no slouch for gaming. But it doesn't set any records, either. All in all, the Area 51's guts brought forth an above-average score of 120 on our WorldBench 6 tests--not bad, but still 10 to 20 points behind the fastest systems in our power desktops category.

At least Alienware gives you a small chance to upgrade your system and whip more performance out of this filly. There's space for two more PCI Express x16-friendly video cards, one more hard drive, and two 5.25-inch devices should you want to augment the Area 51's sole LG Electronics GSA-H55 20X Super Multi DVD writer. The Area 51's internals are well-managed and clutter-free, but we're just tired of the outside of the case--there's so much more that could be done over this dead horse of an alien-head design that the company keeps beating consumers over the head with.

For example, the Area 51's EVGA 790i motherboard hits the holy trinity of external connections with its six USB ports, one Firewire 400 port, and one eSATA port. But the front of the chassis only sports two USB and one FireWire 400 port. We might be sticklers for detail, but that's just not very much to work with. It's just barely enough to plug in the Area 51's two awesome peripheral offerings--a Logitech G5 mouse and a G15 keyboard. We're not sure which we like more: the soft, leathery feel of the G5 or the built-in digital orange screen of the ever-informative G15.

We can't bear to shoot Alienware's Area 51, but there's no question that this thoroughbred PC has outlived its days at the top of the system charts. At $3219 (as of December 3, 2008; $380 extra with a bundled Samsung 2253BW monitor), it's far too pricey a starter machine to be acceptable for power users, especially gamers.

CyberPower Power Infinity Pro

Our review unit shipped with 64-bit Windows Vista Ultimate. In our WorldBench 6 Beta 2 test suite, it earned a strong mark of 120. That score fell a bit short, however, of the 124 mark of a CyberPower Infinity Pro that we tested a couple of months ago, which uses the previous-generation, 3-GHz QX6850 Core 2 Extreme CPU. This result echoes the benchmarks that PC World obtained in similar tests comparing the QX9650 with the QX6850 chip that it is supplanting.

In the Photoshop, 3DS Max rendering, and multitasking components of our WorldBench series, the Power Infinity Pro earned the best scores among all power PCs we've recently tested, though its marks were only a few seconds faster than the results of the next-closest models. In some WorldBench application tests (3DS Max DirectX, Windows Media Encoder, and VideoWave), the Power Infinity Pro's scores merely tied those of other systems (the Xi Mtower PCIe and the HP Blackbird 002) that used older CPUs. Most perplexing was the Power Infinity Pro's sluggish performance in the Nero portion of our WorldBench suite, for which its score of 592 seconds was the slowest of the lot. While none of our WorldBench scores reflect the performance gains that Intel predicts for the QX9650 CPU in imaging, 3D rendering, and video encoding, it should be noted that none of the applications in our test suite are optimized to take advantage of the QX9650's new SSE4 instructions, which can greatly speed up tasks such as video encoding (in applications that use SSE4).

On the plus side, the newer Power Infinity Pro posted the fastest scores ever in all of our gaming graphics tests, beating older quad-core models that use the same EVGA 8800 GTX graphics board. The Power Infinity Pro achieved an impressive average of 193 frames per second (fps) while running Doom 3 and 223 fps running Far Cry, both at 1280 by 1024 resolution with antialiasing turned on, well ahead (by about 13 percent) of the second-fastest system, the nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra-equipped HP Blackbird 002 LCi, which posted results of 170 fps and 198 fps, respectively. That's not the 40 percent that Intel claims for gaming, but it's still pretty darn impressive. Though the Power Infinity Pro came with a single graphics board that performed well in our graphics tests, the system's Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard is capable of hosting two graphics cards in a CrossFire setup. (Taking advantage of the feature would preclude using an SLI-compatible card such as the EVGA 8800 GTX card in our test system.)

Without a doubt, one of the Power Infinity Pro's best features is its stylish Cooler Master Cosmos case, which sports sturdy bars on top that are helpful when you're lifting the case--especially because it weighs a ton. The top panel includes an easily accessible connection dock with USB, FireWire, and audio ports, plus an eSATA connector, with additional USB, FireWire, and other ports on the back. Five external drive bays are easily accessed behind the hinged front panel. Our test system included a Lite-On Blu-ray DVD drive, a multiformat DVD burner, and a multiformat card reader drive-bay module, leaving two open bays for expansion.

Opening the side panel (insulated to keep the system's noise levels down) is easy, and the neat and tidy interior has plenty of room for expansion. Adding upgrades couldn't be much easier, thanks to a tool-less design that features push-button locks and pull-out aluminum racks for easy hard-drive installation. But some upgrades could be costly: For example, adding a matching pair of Corsair XMS 1GB DDR3 RAM sticks to raise the system's memory to 4GB would cost about $400. A Thermaltake V1 CPU cooler, four 120mm case fans, and a cooling attachment for the graphics board provide sufficient thermal management.

The $4299 (as of 11/2/07) Power Infinity Pro model we tested represents only one of several different configurations that CyberPower offers. Our test system also came with a generous 1.8 terabytes of hard-disk space, consisting of two 150GB, 10,000-rpm Western Digital Raptor drives (configured in a RAID 0 array) for performance and two 750GB, 7200-rpm Hitachi drives for backup and data storage that can hold hundreds of hours of video.

The included dual Sylvania 22-inch wide-screen monitors (SK2201W-B) have thin bezels that make positioning them closely side by side easier, but you get no height-adjustment control for maximum flexibility in setting them up. The picture quality was very good, with crisp readable text (even at 8 points) and nicely saturated color when we viewed still or moving images. The cordless Logitech MX3200 keyboard presents a host of useful extra keys and a wrist pad that's comfortable to type on. The MX600 laser mouse also benefits from an ergonomic design that fits nicely in the hand.

The CyberPower Power Infinity Pro is clearly aimed at enthusiasts and other early adopters who don't mind paying a premium for the latest technology. But considering that the market has few SSE-4 optimized apps, mainstream users may want to wait a bit longer before taking the plunge

Dell Studio XPS

While the system's 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 isn't the fastest graphics card on the market, especially when compared with some of the dual-GPU offerings of other PCs in this category, it still performs well on our Doom 3 and Far Cry benchmarks: The Studio XPS achieved 202 and 236 frames per second, respectively, in those tests. Its WorldBench 6 score of 136 nestles it solidly within the top percentile of power desktops we've tested, coming just 5 points shy of the category leader at the time of writing: Polywell's $4000 Poly X4800-Extreme (equipped with a 3.2-GHz Core 2 Extreme X9770 and 4GB of speedy DDR3-1625 RAM). We'd take the Studio XPS for $2000 less, any day--at least, on paper.

What the paper doesn't show is the Studio XPS's weak internal design: It's disappointing enough to pull the system into the middle of our top-ten list instead of catapulting it toward the top of it. The only noteworthy expansion you're going to get inside of this chassis is room for a single hard drive. That's all, and even then, you have to screw into the side of the chassis in an unorthodox fashion. The system uses its two 5.25-inch bays for a Blu-Ray combo drive and a DVD reader/writer. The sole PCI Express x16 slot is already taken up by the video card, and an included TV tuner steals one of the three available PCI Express x8 slots. This chassis truly is an upgrader's nightmare.

Four rear USB ports join onboard 5.1 surround sound, an optical S/PDIF jack, a single eSATA port, one FireWire 400 port, and one Ethernet port on the back of the machine. The front of the case comes with an above-average offering of four USB ports, one FireWire 400 port, and an included media card reader.

As expected, the Studio XPS comes with a standard Dell media keyboard; its function buttons are useful for Web surfing and media playback, and the keyboard design is nice (even though it's slightly smaller than a typical keyboard). The two-button mouse has two additional back/forward buttons where your thumb rests.

Though standard parts and components can be customized and changed over time, Dell is relatively locked to its proprietary case and components. That's a shame, because in a normal, upgrade-friendly chassis, the Dell Studio XPS would shine as a solid PC for power users. The Studio XPS isn't a bad choice overall, just as long as you can stomach the hardships when you try to upgrade the system.

Dell Inspiron 530

Our test system was based on a 1.8-GHz Intel Pentium dual-core E2160 processor and had two sticks of 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM, for a total of 2GB of memory. It came with a 19-inch Dell SE198WFP wide-screen LCD (1440 by 900 native resolution), as well. Most value systems use integrated graphics that rely on main system memory, but the 530's graphics duties are handled by a 128MB nVidia GeForce 8300GS graphics card. The 250GB Western Digital Caviar hard drive provides an average amount of storage space for PCs in this price range, and our test unit had a DVD/CD combo writer, too.

As for performance, the 530 earned a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 73--commendable in the value desktop category, and slightly better than the 71 earned by the Compaq Presario SR5350F, which uses the same Intel Pentium dual-core E2160 CPU. The Inspiron 530 provided the best performance in the 3DS Max DirectX component of the WorldBench suite of all the value systems recently tested. Not surprisingly, therefore, it also earned the top scores among value systems for its graphics performance, making it the best choice for playing simple games. Because its graphics card has only a modest 128MB of memory, however, it still isn't powerful enough for intensive gaming titles, such as Doom 3 and Far Cry. In our Doom 3 tests, the system earned only a subpar score of 20 frames per second running at 1024 by 768 resolution with antialising turned on.

The 530's attractive, glossy white-and-silver midtower case is well ventilated, and its sliding front panel covers an external bay module containing a media card reader and connectivity ports. Inside the 530's case, you'll find that good old-fashioned screws secure the components, so you'll need a screwdriver when installing expansion cards and optical drives. Like most other value systems, the 530 uses a smaller motherboard that supports fewer expansion options than larger (and pricier) boards. Available expansion options include one 5.25-inch external and one 3.5-inch internal drive bay, two PCI and one PCIe x1 card slots (the PCIe x16 slot is filled by the discrete graphics card), and two (out of four) DIMM memory sockets. The 530 lacks FireWire ports, but they can be added as an extra-cost ($30) option.

The Dell monitor delivered sharp text and fine color quality in both still and moving images. The USB-based optical mouse and enhanced keyboard that Dell bundles with this system are comparatively better (in performance and features) than the standard-issue input devices that come with most value systems. Among the keyboard's extras are several quick-launch keys, a retro-style volume knob, and two upstream USB ports. The 530's online-only documentation is exemplary, with thorough, well-written instructions that are (thankfully) specific to the actual model, unlike the more generic documentation that some vendors often include.

If you want a value desktop with an excellent price-to-performance ratio and some room to grow, Dell's Inspiron 530 is arguably the best deal among the budget PCs we've tested recently.

Gateway FX6800-01E

The system includes a 2.66-GHz Core i7 920 processor (part of Intel's top CPU line) plus 3GB of DDR3-1333 memory. Joining that powerful combination is a 750GB Seagate hard drive--not quite as expansive as, say, the 1.5 terabytes of space on Polywell's MiniBox 780G-940, but enough to accommodate all the data you need to store.

The single ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card did an exceptional job of producing playable frame rates for all the games we tested, including an average of 51 frames per second on Unreal Tournament 3 (2560 by 2100 resolution, high quality) and 46 fps on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (2560 by 2100 resolution, high quality). Only the Maingear Dash, which uses two of the same cards in a CrossFire setup, surpassed this Gateway. The Dash also beat out the FX6800-01e on our WorldBench 6 benchmark, though by a scant two points, 117 to 115. (The fact that the Dash's Phenom II X4 940 processor is clocked 0.34 GHz higher than the FX6800-01e's CPU and that the Dash comes with an additional gigabyte of memory likely factored into the results, as well.)

This Gateway's peripheral offerings are generic, but at least they're boring with style. The two-button mouse is glossy black with a nice orange trim, and the keyboard uses half-size buttons and orange accents to spice up the otherwise drab functionality. We give the company credit for at least making the input devices fit the FX6800-01e's aesthetic theme. As for the PC's connections, eight USB ports grace the front and rear of the case. The two eSATA ports, single FireWire 400 port, on-board 5.1 surround sound, and front-panel media card reader are strong additions to the system, too, but we would have appreciated seeing at least one next-generation connector, such as DisplayPort or HDMI.

We love the FX6800-01e's case. It's a beautiful mix of glossy paneling and orange highlights that suggests a gaming PC more than it does a value desktop. The front CD bays are stealthily tucked behind clearly labeled paneling, and the included media card reader pops up and down out of the top of the chassis. Cooler still, the top panel on the case's front doubles as a touch-button controller for the system itself: You can skip music tracks and adjust the volume by poking the front of your PC, almost eliminating the need for a media-themed keyboard--almost.

The inside of the FX6800-01e is slightly marred by the wiring job, but it isn't all that bad. The area near the 5.25-inch bays is just a little cluttered. The system has space for an additional 5.25-inch device, two hot-swappable hard drives, and a single mounted hard drive. The motherboard boasts room for an extra PCI Express x16 device (CrossFire, anyone?), as well as PCI Express x4 and x1 cards. That's a great amount of expansion for a value PC, though not quite as much as the options you'd find in the average power system.

Gateway bundles a giant, full-color setup guide with the rig that details how to connect the monitor and cabling. The comprehensive reference guide is specific to the FX6800-01e, and it should answer even the most technical of questions a newbie might have. We appreciate Gateway's hand-holding for FX6800-01e owners, though the inclusion of an OEM operating system CD or driver CDs would have been nice as well.

The Gateway FX6800-01e is a solid desktop PC, and we'd expect nothing less for its price. But our Top 10 Power Desktops chart has some stronger machines that cost only slightly more; which one you choose just depends on what your budget's absolute cut-off point is

Dell XPS 630

Dell lets you choose either Windows XP or Windows Vista as the operating system, and you can add extras, such as an Ageia PhysX accelerator, a Blu-ray Disc drive, and up to 4GB of DDR2-800 Corsair Dominator memory.

The aforementioned gaming XPS 630's SLI-rigged 8800 GT graphics card certainly gives it an edge in graphics performance, but in this version of the XPS 630, the single 512MB nVidia GeForce 9800 GT card didn't do too badly: the system averaged a frame rate of 138 frames per second while running Doom 3 at 1280 by 1024 resolution with antialiasing turned on.

In general application performance, this XPS 630 (equipped with a 3.16-GHz Core 2 Duo E8500 CPU and 4GB of DDR2-800 Corsair Dominator memory) delivered a WorldBench score of 114, whereas the gaming XPS 630 (equipped with a QX6850 CPU) achieved a score of 123 in our WorldBench suite. That's a nice result, considering this XPS 630 costs substantially less, though it does so by trading off features. For instance, it includes a single 640GB, 7200-rpm hard disk (Western Digital Caviar SE16) versus the gaming version's two speedy 160GB, 10,000-rpm Western Digital Raptor hard drives configured in a RAID 0 array.

The XPS 630's industrial design is reminiscent of--but scaled back from--that of Dell's XPS 720 desktop. The 630's ATX case features brushed aluminum on the sides and top, with a choice of a black or red plastic front, and back panels with large grilles. The side panel easily unlatches to reveal a well-organized interior with neat cable management, a 750-watt power supply, and a tool-less hard-drive tray. For a case of its size, it offers respectable expansion room, with one open 5.25-inch drive bay at the front (a DVD±RW drive occupies the other bay). Four internal slots are open: two regular PCI, one PCI Express x8, and one PCI Express x1.

The motherboard for this system uses nVidia's 650i SLI chip set. Unfortunately, that chip set limits each of the system's two PCI Express x16 slots (used for the dual graphics cards) to 8X speed in SLI mode, raising the possibility of an old-school bandwidth bottleneck that is less common today than it used to be. Another issue: Dell's own LightFX software, which controls the colors of the case exterior's four LED lighting zones, has a conflict with this chip set that forces users to resort to nVidia's ESA light effects software instead. An open standard created by nVidia, ESA (Enthusiast System Architecture) promotes two-way communication between PC components. The XPS 630 is among the first ready-made PCs to support it.

The XPS 630 ships with Dell's standard wired optical mouse and multimedia keyboard combo that's perfectly serviceable but nothing special. You also get a 15-month subscription to the PC-cillin Internet security suite. Chip-set concerns aside, the XPS 630 is a well-built, highly customizable power desktop that delivers good performance for the price

eMachines ET1161-03

The system bears a sluggish a 2.3-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ CPU coupled with 3GB of DDR2-667 memory nestled into an ECS motherboard. A single Western Digital drive provides 320GB of storage, which you might consider the highlight of this machine's specifications.

The ET1161-03 also uses an integrated nVidia GeForce 6150SE chip that offers little in the way of graphical prowess: None of our gaming benchmarks could be considered playable. Unreal Tournament 3 failed to run, and on Far Cry--a five-year-old title that doesn't exactly tax modern systems--the ET1161-03 delivered a whopping 6 frames per second (at 1280 by 1024 resolution, with antialiasing turned on). Its WorldBench 6 scores were similarly disappointing, but the results fit the kind of performance we see on machines of this price; its score of 79 was around 30 points lower than the marks of the best value PCs we've tested. That said, some of those PCs are also two to three times the price of the ET1161-03.

To its credit, eMachines does a remarkable job of easing first-time users into the setup process for the ET1161-03. The system comes with a giant diagram that details exactly how to go about getting the PC and optional monitor up and connected. The package doesn't include any driver CDs--you can rebound from disasters only via a recovery partition embedded on the hard drive. But the system does come with a decent starter guide for working in Windows for the first time. Given that this desktop makes the most sense for novices, the extra attention to introductory detail is a great touch.

Given the system's low cost, we didn't expect eMachines to toss killer peripherals into the mix. A generic two-button mouse and a default keyboard are indeed all you get to play with, though the latter has two volume buttons--more than we can say for the keyboards of other value PCs. The system's connectivity is a tad anemic. It sports only four USB ports on the rear of the system, as well as a single ethernet port and integrated 5.1 surround sound. The front offers two additional USB ports and a media card reader. In total, that isn't a grand number of connections, but it is a little more diverse than the offerings of lesser-value competitors.

On the front of the chassis, the glossy case conceals the system's sole optical drive, a DVD reader/writer combo. The smooth look of the case is nothing remarkable, but it isn't bad either. As for the inside, we appreciate the extent of this machine's upgradability compared with other minitower value PCs we've tested. Two PCI Express x1 slots, a single PCI Express x16 slot, and room for one hard drive and a 5.25-inch device sit amongst a slightly messy cabling job. Considering that $400 gets you an average base system, we can see how one or two key upgrades would make a world of difference on the ET1161-03. And the total price after the addition of, say, a discrete video card would still make this desktop less of a hit to the wallet than other value PCs we've looked at.

You're getting what you pay for with eMachines' ET1161-03. Its performance is nothing pretty--in fact, it's horrible compared with that of most other value PCs. But the low cost is the key, and with an upgrade or two, the ET1161-03 could become a pretty good general-purpose PC. Adding a dedicated graphics card would remedy its lack of gaming performance as well.

Xi Mtower IGE-STACKER

This dual-core unit's performance surpassed that of the quad-core power and gaming systems we recently tested, and earned a record-breaking score of 139 in our WorldBench 6 Beta 2 test suite; the previous high was the CyberPower Gamer Infinity Ultimate's score of 129. Better still, at $3299 (as of September 12, 2007), it's one of the least expensive power-oriented PCs we've seen of late.

The MTower is equipped with Intel's fastest dual-core processor to date, the 3-GHz Core 2 Duo E6850, which Xi overclocks to 3.3 GHz (and covers under warranty). The CPU also boasts a faster frontside bus speed (1333 MHz) than its dual-core forebears had (1066 MHz). Using a single, 768MB EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX graphics board on an nForce 680i SLI-ready motherboard, our MTower was a racehorse in its graphics performance, earning the highest scores for most resolution settings among the four power systems we tested in the latest batch. For example, running at 1280 by 1024 resolution with antialiasing turned on in the graphically intensive game Far Cry, the MTower averaged 232 frames per second, compared with its rivals' average of 200 fps.

The MTower's black aluminum case (Cooler Master Stacker 832) features mesh grilles on both side panels as well as on the top and bottom sides. A hinged front panel conceals six external drive bays, two of which in our test model were occupied with a DVD burner and DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo player (but no multiformat card reader). Port connectors for USB, FireWire, and audio are sensibly located at the very top of the case, making them easy to access if the system sits on the floor. Additional USB and FireWire ports are provided on the back, but no parallel or serial ports for older devices are included.

The case's side panel and a second inner panel (featuring three of a maximum four 120mm fans) both come off easily without tools. The IGE-Stacker also has a liquid cooling system (Cooler Master Aquagate S1), and you can adjust its fan speed via a dial on the back of the rig (useful if you wanted to tinker with overclocking the processor yourself--though doing so would void Xi's warranty). As shipped, the liquid cooling of the MTower wasn't noisy or overly distracting, but I could definitely hear it humming along. Two of the four internal drive bays were filled with a pair of 150GB, 10,000-rpm Western Digital Raptor hard drives configured in a RAID 0 array, and of the four memory slots, two were occupied, giving our test machine a total of 2GB of DDR2 RAM. Our test model also offered two PCIe x16 and two PCI slots, but both PCIe x1 slots were unavailable: One was covered by the extrawide graphics card, and the other was blocked by the water cooler's adjustable dial bracket.

The bundled 22-inch wide-screen LCD, a ViewSonic VX2255wmb, delivered excellent color fidelity in both still and moving images, and readable text in small sizes. I also liked the convenience of its built-in microphone and 1.3-megapixel Webcam. The included Logitech Deluxe 250 keyboard and optical mouse were responsive but offered no extras; you may want to spend a few extra bucks on more versatile input devices.

If you don't require quad-core capability out of the box, the overclocked MTower IGE-Stacker offers top-flight performance and easy expandability at a very reasonable price.

eMachines T5246

At $620 (as of 2/7/08), the eMachines T5246 is the least expensive value PC in our lineup. But since it's a prebuilt retail system available in only one configuration (it's sold as the 4200+ Desktop at Best Buy), you can't mix and match components before you buy it. The T5246 comes with a 2.2-GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ CPU and two sticks of 1GB PC2-5300 memory (2GB total) mounted on a Gateway motherboard with integrated nVidia GeForce 6100 nForce 405 graphics. Our test unit also came with a 400GB Western Digital Caviar hard drive, providing more storage space than most value desktop PCs.

This test T5246 included essentials like a DVD/CD combo writer and a memory card reader; and for those still on dial-up, it even had a 56KB modem. But the 17-inch, $190 eMachines E17T4W LCD monitor (with 1280 by 720 native resolution) that was included in the price of our unit had only a VGA input. Although the flat panel produced sharp text and realistic color graphics, its screen space is considerably less than the 19-inch (and larger) LCDs that ship with some value business desktops we tested. My recommendation would be to go for a larger wide-screen LCD--such as the $210 eMachines E19T5W or the $220 eMachines E19T6W (both 19-inchers sold at Best Buy)--instead of this 17-inch model. For my money, the added screen real estate is worth the extra $20 to $30 you'd spend on one of these alternatives.

In our WorldBench 6 Beta 2 performance tests, the T5246 earned a score of 70--average for our test group. However, its scores in the Firefox and multitasking parts of the test suite were the best of the sub-$750 PCs here. But like most of the other systems that rely on integrated graphics rather than a discrete graphics card, the T5246 fared poorly in graphics performance--it's inadequate for fast-action 3D games.

The T5246's black-and-silver mini-tower case is a no-frills design with no front panel to cover the external drives and connectivity ports. Although the system includes parallel and serial connections for attaching older peripherals, it lacks FireWire ports. Open expansion options inside the generally neat and tidy interior include one external 5.25-inch and one internal 3.5-inch drive bay, and three card slots (one PCIe x16, one PCIe x1, and one PCI). Although you can add a discrete graphics card to the PCIe x16 slot, it will work only at half speed (x8) rather than at full speed (x16). So gamers take note: This system isn't well-equipped for upgrading to faster graphics.

The bundled input devices were a mixed bag: The eMachines multifunction keyboard worked fine, but I would have preferred a more precise optical mouse instead of the clunky ball mouse that was included. Gateway's setup guides and online documentation for this system are helpful and well done, and a final plus is the addition of a small set of dual speakers.

The T5246 provides respectable speed for everyday computing and a sizable hard drive. However, the small size of its bundled LCD and its weak graphics performance limit its appeal. Of course, you could spend an extra $70 or so to get a larger LCD and a cheap add-in graphics card, bringing up the price of the T5246 to approximately that of the $689 Dell Inspiron 530. But the Dell system would still provide better overall performance, including faster, full-speed (x16) graphics.

Acer Aspire Predator

Our test configuration (G7700-UQ9550A) ships with an Intel Core 2 Quad 9550 processor (stock-clocked at 2.83 GHz); 8GB of DDR2 (800 MHz) memory; and 1.92 terabytes of total storage, courtesy of three 640GB, 7200-rpm Western Digital Caviar hard drives. The system also features a single nVidia 9800GTX graphics board to power games and CUDA-enabled applications, along with separate DVD-writing and DVD-ROM optical drives. This Predator's price of $2199 (as of December 3, 2008) doesn't include Acer's matching $400 24-inch wide-screen G24 display, but you do get two awesome peripherals bundled in for the price: Logitech's G11 keyboard and G5 gaming mouse.

We love the Predator's exterior design, accented with stealth-fighter-like lines in metallic-orange. But the proprietary nature of its insides--complete with more plastic coverings than we ever needed to see--could make upgrading a frustrating situation. Given the lack of available 5.25-inch bay coverings on the case's front, you can't add more 5.25-inch devices to that section of the chassis. However, the four hot-swappable hard drive bays at the lower front of the machine (behind a lit-up, hinged door), redeems that shortcoming a bit.

Still inside the case, why is Acer liquid-cooling its quad-core processor without overclocking it whatsoever? If "acoustics" is the only answer, we frown: You can have a quiet and fast rig with liquid cooling, so there's no need to ignore the potential benefits of an overclocked processor. More frustrating still is that the system's Worldbench 6 score of 122 isn't exactly chart-topping. A little factory-side CPU tweaking could have gone a long way.

The aging nVidia 9800 GTX video card delivers acceptable (again, not stellar) performance; on the other hand, the Aspire Predator has two free PCI Express x16 slots for a dramatic degree of upgradability.

All in all, the Aspire Predator delivers solid performance for its price, but a few additional tweaks and a little reconfiguring could have squeezed even more performance out of this killer-looking machine. Cut the RAM in half, overclock the CPU, boost the video card, and cut another hole in the front of the case. Then we'll talk.