Rich Brown,
Senior Editor
July 27, 2006
We've already reviewed a handful of Core 2 Duo systems, as well as the chips themselves. Today's official launch of Intel's new CPUs brings even more systems to light. Dell follows up its high-end XPS 700 with the mainstream XPS 410. HP adds Core 2 Duo to its full-size Pavilion line with the d4600y. Alienware and Velocity Micro pull out the stops with their high-end gaming boxes--Alienware's with a brand-new case.
We expect to see many more PCs with Core 2 Duo chips in them before long. Gateway has an updated FX510XL on the way to us, and we know of a handful of others en route, as well. If Velocity Micro's $999 Vector GX Campus Edition is any indication, we also expect to see Core 2 Duo across a broad spectrum of the desktops market. Throw in the recent price cuts from both AMD and Intel, and it seems clear that PCs are about to undergo a top-to-bottom change. We anticipate that a typical low-end PC will become much more capable and that the high-end will shatter the old performance records.
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| Review date | July 27, 2006 | July 26, 2006 | July 26, 2006 | July 27, 2006 |
| The Bottom Line | It's not the fastest PC (it's second), nor is it the most competitively priced, but Alienware's Area-51 7500 does have the most innovative case. With a wholly customizable lighting scheme in its new chassis, Alienware makes case lights functional, a trick no one has really pulled off yet. That and its fast performance make it stand above other current high-end PCs. | Brand-name shoppers will find that the upper-midrange Dell XPS 410 is an easy, if expensive, way to get into the next generation of CPUs without jumping all the way up to Dell's XPS 700 gaming monster. | With more extras than the comparably priced Dell XPS 410, the HP Pavilion d4600y would clearly be the better bet for mainstream users looking for a high-end PC, if not for its down-market look and limited configuration options. | The Velocity Micro Raptor DCX delivers the fastest performance we've ever seen, thanks to an aggressively overclocked Core 2 Extreme CPU. Because its price is $1,000 above that of the competition, however, we can't help but feel as though Velocity is buying a championship. That and recent case innovations from other vendors prevent us from giving it a higher rating. |
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| Features | ||||
| OS Provided | Microsoft Windows XP Professional | Vista Home Premium | Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 | Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2 |
| Hard Drive (2nd) | 250 GB | 320 GB | Info unavailable | 1 x 74 GB |
| Product Description | Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93 GHz | Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40 GHz - 20 in TFT active matrix | Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86 GHz | Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz |
| Audio Output | Sound card | Sound card | Sound card | Info unavailable |
| Graphics Controller | NVidia GeForce 7900GTX SLI - 512 MB | NVidia GeForce 7900GS - 256 MB | NVidia GeForce 7300LE - 64 MB | nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX - 512 MB |
| Storage Removable | None | None | None | Info unavailable |
| RAM | 2 GB DDR II SDRAM | 2 GB DDR II SDRAM | 1 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) - DDR II SDRAM | 2 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) - DDR II SDRAM |
| Hard Drive | 250 GB - Standard - Serial ATA | 500 GB - Standard - Serial ATA | 160 GB - Standard - Serial ATA | 74 GB |
| Manufacturer Warranty | 1 year warranty | Info unavailable | 1 year warranty | 1 year warranty |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93 GHz | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 / 2.40 GHz | Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86 GHz | Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz |
| Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications |
| Buying choices |
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