Rich Brown,
Senior Editor
July 19, 2006
You can't actually purchase a PC with one of Intel's new Core 2 Duo chips in it until July 27, but Dell, Falcon Northwest, and Velocity Micro will be among the first vendors to offer them. Each provided us with a config it will start selling when Intel rings the bell: Dell's XPS 700 and Falcon Northwest's Mach V are on the heavyweight gaming powerhouse side and Velocity Micro's Vector GX Campus Edition is for the back-to-schoolers. As you can see by the review scores, we like what we've seen so far. Thanks largely to Intel's new chips, these PCs are all fast and quiet.
You'll notice that we haven't given any of these PCs an Editors' Choice award. That isn't an accident. The Dell XPS 700 might actually deserve one, but we want to see what the other vendors have to offer before we go handing out any ribbons. Same goes for the Velocity Micro. Its price-to-performance ratio is very competitive, but not only do we expect we'll see more $1,000 or so Core 2 Duo PCs, AMD has price cuts on the way for its competing Athlon 64 X2 chips. Sure, we'll see some crazy benchmark results from the multithousand-dollar systems, but we expect the budget PC market is also about to get extremely competitive.
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| Price | Check Prices | Check Prices |
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| Average user rating | ||
| Review date | July 13, 2006 | July 18, 2006 |
| The Bottom Line | If you want a gaming-oriented Intel Core 2 Duo system and you have to have it right away, the Falcon Northwest Mach V pumps out plenty of frames per second but falls behind the faster Dell XPS 700 in other computing tasks. | The budget desktop scene is due for a shake-up with Intel's new chips and AMD's impending price cuts, but the Velocity Micro Vector GX Campus Edition is a strong opening volley. There's not much we'd change about this back-to-school package; it's as capable as it is attractive. |
| Similar Products | Compare more products | Compare more products |
| Features | ||
| Graphics Controller | nVidia GeForce 7950 GX2 - 512 MB | nVidia GeForce 7600 GS - 256 MB |
| Storage Removable | Info unavailable | None |
| Optical Storage (2nd) | Info unavailable | CD-RW / DVD-ROM combo |
| Floppy Drive | Info unavailable | 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy |
| Storage Controller | Info unavailable | Serial ATA ( Serial ATA-300 ) ; IDE |
| Type | Info unavailable | Personal computer |
| Hard Drive (2nd) | Info unavailable | - None |
| Printer | Info unavailable | None |
| Optical Storage | DVD?RW / CD-RW | DVD?RW (+R DL) |
| RAM | 2 GB DDR II SDRAM - 800 MHz | 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM - 667 MHz - PC2-5300 |
| Hard Drive (3rd) | Info unavailable | None |
| Cache Memory | Info unavailable | 4 MB L2 cache |
| Dimensions (WxDxH) | Info unavailable | 8.3 in x 19.3 in x 17.4 in |
| Processor | 1 x Intel 3.14 GHz | 1 x Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 / 1.86 GHz ( Dual-Core ) |
| Hard Drive | 150 GB - Standard | 1 x 250 GB - Standard - Serial ATA-150 |
| OS Provided | Microsoft Windows XP Pro | Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition |
| Product Description | 3.14 GHz - 20 in | Velocity Micro Vector GX Campus Edition - Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86 GHz - 17 in TFT active matrix |
| Card Reader | Info unavailable | 8 in 1 card reader |
| Product Form Factor | Info unavailable | Tower |
| Audio Output | Info unavailable | Sound card - 5.1 channel surround |
| Cache Per Processor | Info unavailable | 4 MB ( 2 x 2 MB ) |
| Monitor | LCD display - 20 in | LCD display - 17 in - TFT active matrix |
| Full specifications | Full specifications | Full specifications |
| Buying choices | ||
