CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 02/01/2007
- Updated on: 10/31/2009
You'll find a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 CPU at the heart of the PowerSpec T470. That entry-level chip in Intel's dual-core line is exactly the type of processor we'd expect to find in a $1,000 PC two months ago, but based on new PCs we've seen since the launch of Windows Vista, desktops are beginning to offer more CPU for your dollar. And unfortunately for WinBook, it hasn't kept up. The $1,029 Dell Dimension E521 we reviewed came with a 2.6GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+. And an $860 iBuypower Value 640 showed up with a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo E6400. It's certainly true that raw clock speed matters less than it used to in performance testing, but the benefits of Dell's faster chip were still apparent on CNET Labs' benchmark tests, and we can't ignore the results.
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Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
Our iTunes test showed the biggest gap between the WinBook and the Dell. The PowerSpec T470 lagged behind the Dimension E521 by almost a full minute in MP3 encoding time. Our CineBench test also shows that the Dell is faster in video encoding, as well. We wouldn't recommend either of these PCs for intensive digital-media editing or gaming, but for day-to-day tasks such as resizing photos, ripping and converting CDs, and editing home movies, the Dell Dimension E521 is a better choice than the PowerSpec T470. You should also note the iBuyPower on these charts. It beat the WinBook on all but our Photoshop test (likely because the WinBook system has twice the RAM), and the iBuyPower costs about $150 less.
If you're not worried about performance and instead want strong features, it's more of a toss-up, but we'd still take the Dell. Both come with Windows Vista Home Premium, accompanied by 2GB of 533Mhz DDR2 SDRAM. Both also have a low-end 3D graphics card that's adequate only for gaming. The PowerSpec has a slight edge in its optical drive capabilities. Where the Dell has a DVD burner and a DVD/CD-RW combo drive, the WinBook has two DVD burners, one with LightScribe for putting an image on the face of your discs. We think the Dell's larger 320GB hard drive is more useful, however, and for hard disk storage, the WinBook's 300GB drive falls just short.
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