computer-reviews.net

Acer 22 inch 1680 x 1050 Widescreen LCD Monitor

Monday, November 12th, 2007 | Monitors | 1 Comment

With LCD prices continuing to drop, this wide screen monitor with high resolution makes the computing experience better with a much larger desktop area for all applications.

I love widescreen monitors. Well, I actually just love big monitors. Monitor space is even more important than desk space. Being able to fit more windows on the screen allows them to be spread over the screen rather than having to Alt-tab everytime I want to switch to something else. The ability to keep a source document and the document that you are inputting the information into, on the screen at the same time adds efficiency and ease-of-use to the computer.

Although widescreen is not necessary to achieve this affect, it does make more sense as we would naturally spread documents out next to each other, rather than on top of each other.

Here are a list of the main features:

• WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050)
• DVI and VGA inputs
• VESA mounting
• 5ms latency
• 22″ widescreen (16:10)

Twenty-two inches is really big, especially compared to the average seventeen inches that I use on a daily basis. The size of the screen is very impressive, the resolution of the monitor doesn’t match up well enough.

With such a huge screen, a slightly higher resolution would be preferrable. There is nothing wrong with the resolution, but for a monitor of this size, I would like to see a higher resolution, and although it makes everything on the screen that little bit smaller, it allows the work area to be maximized.

The monitor is a standard affair with both DVI and VGA inputs and all the OSD buttons at the front of the monitor, just below the screen. The most impressive feature is, of course, the price, and it is available from $260, less with rebates. I am willing to overlook the little niggles I have with the monitor for that price. Acer are well-known, so there is little risk, even at this price.

XFX nForce 680i Barebone with Pentium D, SLI and 2GB DDR2

Friday, November 9th, 2007 | Desktop Computers, barebones, gaming | 2 Comments

A stock clearance computer with a lot of decent parts, manages to provide a good spread of parts that by themselves can deliver well, but more importantly provide a good place to upgrade from.

The awe of SLI graphics has mostly died down. The benefits are still there, but hardly provide performance that can’t be achieved by a new graphics card. Not a complete computer, this set will require the addition of a CPU cooler to allow it to be used, and keyboard, mouse and monitor.

The basic kit includes the following:

• Ultra black case
• XFX nForce 680i SLI Socket 775 ATX motherboard
• Pentium D 925 3.0GHz Dual-core processor
• 2 x XFX GeForce 7300 GT 512MB PCIe video cards
• Maxtor 200GB hard drive
• Ultra 400W power supply
• 2 x Crucial 1GB PC5400 DDR2 memory modules

The Ultra black case is nothing special, it will hold your parts and just sit there like most cases should. The clear side will give a little thrill to those who really want to show off their computer’s internals, and lights can be added for a little extra glitz.

The motherboard is well featured with a firewire port, USB ports, 5.1 audio, Ethernet, 2 PCI slots, 2 PCIe x1 slots and SLI capable PCIe slots. Good all round. There are also RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 capabilities that are built onto the motherboard, but the hard drive will need to be upgraded.

The Intel Pentium D processor is one of the first run of dual-core processors from Intel. They are fast and offer speed benefits over their single-core counterparts. But there are some things to note. These processors use a lot of power, up to 135W, which is ultra high compared to the 65W for the Dual Core2 series that is newer, clocked lower and processes faster overall. It is still quick and considering the price, still worth it.

SLI graphics cards bring good performance, especially in SLI mode. Newer graphics cards, namely the 8000 series GeForce cards are more than capable of outperforming these two, but the newer cards are still expensive. These two are GT versions, so they are the fastest of their generation, which works to their favor.

A 200GB IDE hard drive and 400W Ultra power supply round out the package.

The package if fine, and good if you are on a budget. However, considering that top-notch gaming is the realm of the newest components, great deals are always going to set you behind the times. This is fine, but be aware that as games increase in their need for powerful graphics cards and processors, this system will fall behind fairly quickly.

HP Compaq 6710b Notebook PC

Thursday, November 8th, 2007 | Laptop and Notebook Computers | 2 Comments

The HP Compaq 6710b is a business laptop with a moderately powerful dual core processor, wireless capabilites and a solid set of features that’s suited to the needs of high-demand computing at a price that makes it attractive to even the most budget-conscious.

Dual core computing is well entrenched in the market now and often the only reason to not get one is the super-low prices on single core models. To keep up with the curve however, dual core certainly makes a lot of sense. The added power of a second processor core makes multi-tasking applications a much smoother process. The 1.8GHz Intel processor featured on this model is at the low end of the range, which certainly helps with its low pricing. The slowest models in a range often give much better per-dollar performance that the faster models.

Other features include:

• PC card slot
• 4 USB ports
• Firewire port
• LAN port
• Modem port
• Microphone input and audio output
• VGA port
• DVD writer with LightScribe
• S-video connector

The standard 1GB of memory is more than enough for most applications. Windows Vista Business is slightly less demanding on the system than Vista Professional so should be enough to handle your applications. Getting more would probably be a little overkill, but for a future performance boost both either one of the current memory modules would need to be replaced. Having a single 1GB card would make an upgrade a little less costly, as only a single 1GB would need to be added. Not a big gripe.

The screen is a 15.4 inch WXGA affair. This can handle up to 1280×800 screen resolution. Although fine for most laptops it might be a too little for the eyes, especially seeing how sizes are generally increasing. The resolution might need to be run a little bit lower than that to achieve good size of screen items, but will sacrifice a lot of on-screen real estate.

The standard hard drive that comes with this model is 120GB which is still enough for most applications. No large video storage though.

The other features include a DVD writer that includes LightScribe technology, which allows images to be burnt onto the top of the disc using the DVD writer. Maybe not that useful, but it does do all the usual DVD burning stuff as well. Wireless connectivity is included, but make sure to secure your connection when connecting.

Overall, a great buy for the money. The little complaints don’t take away from the overall functionality of the HP Compaq 6710b notebook computer.