2011年10月31日星期一

Gateway ZX6951-53: An All-in-One That Flaunts Its Curves

Smokin'! That's specifically what we explained upon acquiring the benchmark results for Gateway's most recent all-in-one desktop, the ZX6951-53.Yes, this method genuinely requirements a better title, but that aside, this 23-inch, $999 All-in-One desktop is exclusive for really a few factors.

Initial, and maybe most noticeable, is the system's curved design--a departure from the normal sq. construct we have seen on almost every single all-in-one that has arrive via our gates. 2nd, as well as a bit significantly less noticeable, will be the system's speed--simply put, it really is fast. But let's not bury the payout any longer: Minus a few facts here and there, the ZX6951-53 is among the greatest all-in-ones you should purchase.

Gateway's 1920-by-1080-resolution desktop packs a three.2GHz Intel Core i3-550 processor in its innards, accompanied by four gigabytes of DDR3 memory. The mix aids this all-in-one achieve a score of 121 on our WorldBench 6 sequence of tests--the fastest overall performance we have seen in the classification (outside of Apple's 27-inch Core i7 and Core i5 iMacs). The next-highest desktop, MSI's AE2420 3D, hits a score of 118 (having a cost tag of $1800).

The ZX6951-53's value is very aggressive for 23-inch techniques. We had been marginally dissatisfied to determine which the hard disk is barely 640GB as an alternative of a total terabyte. Nevertheless, the 1080p-friendly technique includes a Blu-ray combo drive built in--now that, we like.

We identified the image top quality of the ZX6951-53's multitouch panel pleasing towards the eye. The glossy display was a tad topic to glare dependent on the viewing angle (along with the environment wherever you might be making use of the desktop), nevertheless it does significantly to contribute towards the all-in-one's exceptional contrast ranges. Sturdy blacks and evocative whites brought out key particulars inside the images and flicks we seen. The display's saturation was not really pretty much as good, however--we would have liked to find out a lot more vibrant coloration and richer pictures all round.

It is difficult to uncover all-in-one desktops packing exceptional audio methods. To say that the average top quality of an all-in-one's acoustics is roughly that of the laptop's speakers can be a honest assertion, if not charitable. Gateway's ZX6951-53, luckily, emits bass-heavy, enveloping sound that virtually feels like an genuine speaker setup--the kind one would get as an aftermarket add-on to some typical desktop Computer. We have been pleasantly amazed by Gateway's work in this particular regard, because it really will help separate this entertainment-friendly desktop in the rest of the pack.

The rest of the system leaves a little for being wanted regarding the devices that you just can plug into it. We've currently pointed out the Blu-ray combo drive (that's about the facet of the ZX6951-53's chassis). It is joined by a total of two USB ports along with a solitary multiformat card reader split in between the system's two sides. The rear has six USB ports, a VGA output, a gigabit ethernet port (for many who favor a cabled connection more than the unit's built-in wireless-N connectivity), as well as a coaxial connection for the built-in Tv tuner. That's not a poor quantity of connections per se, however the ZX6951-53 lacks aspects like Firewire, eSATA, or perhaps more powerful show connections like DisplayPort or HDMI.

You can't update the ZX6951-53 in any way, which isn't specifically a rarity for all-in-one desktops, but nevertheless marginally disappointing. The method comes with a short, illustrated quick-start guide for getting the desktop up and jogging, and with 3 input products: a remote; a generic, wireless mouse; as well as a generic, wireless keyboard. Despite the fact that we would favor keyboards and mice for being a little bit more feature-packed, the wireless capabilities of those incorporated with the ZX6951-53 fit the premise of an all-in-one desktop perfectly.

So what's the bottom line? Gateway's ZX6951-53 all-in-one desktop is excellently priced for what it delivers: a strong picture on the multitouch exhibit, sturdy audio capabilities, category-leading speeds, and built-in Blu-ray assistance (with wireless connectivity, if streaming movies is much more your deal). Several tweaks could make Gateway's technique even stronger but, as it stands, you would be hard-pressed to find a greater all-in-one desktop for that ZX6951-53's value.

2011年10月27日星期四

Dell Precision M6600 Mobile Workstation: Businesslike and Capable

Workstations really are a diverse beast than your typical organization laptop, though modern day workstations look and behave considerably as PCs do. While the era from the workstation with custom, proprietary processing and graphics hardware is guiding us, the Dell Precision M6600 is amongst the new breed of mobile workstations; these programs endure the rigorous software and driver qualifications necessary to market to the specialist graphics or engineering markets.

The degree of overall performance you get in cellular workstations is remarkable. I am not merely speaking about CPU functionality, though the M6600 acquits by itself properly. I'm also such as its other touches, like the 17.3-inch RGB LED-backlit IPS panel with its extraordinary viewing angle and colour fidelity. The display supports the two capacitive and pen-based contact, too. The pen interface is valuable in some workstation-class programs, and the pen is pressure-sensitive, making it possible for for creative effects in Adobe Illustrator and other packages.

The exhibit is superb with photographic or video clip content. The M6600 we examined delivered having an Nvidia Quadro 4000M cell workstation-class GPU, which handles high-definition video properly. Upscaled DVD content was somewhat soft and noisy, even so. This can be not a gaming system, but you can perform games with reasonable body rates in case you dial down the detail configurations a little. For instance, in our checks, Grime three set for the Large preset ran at 53 frames for each second whilst Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Retribution ran at 52 frames per 2nd at its Ultra setting.

Audio top quality for audio is rather good, if just a little about the brilliant aspect. Bass is missing, of course, but it can be satisfying ample and loud enough that you'll be ready to utilize the speakers when nobody else might be annoyed.

We also ran the Cinebench 11.five benchmark, which exams performance employing Maxon's Cinema4D 3D rendering engine. The M6600 managed a 5.80 CPU score, putting greater than a Core i7-960 desktop CPU. Within the OpenGL check, it hit virtually sixty frames per 2nd. We also loaded up Adobe Master Assortment 5.five and checked out Photoshop, Premiere Professional, and Illustrator. We didn't conduct efficiency checks with those packages, but subjectively the method was responsive even underneath load. Possessing a pair of solid-state drives and 8GB of RAM definitely helps. The pen-based interface worked effectively, as well.

The M6600 scored an incredibly substantial 152 on WorldBench six, a result that's about par to get a quad-core Intel Core i7-2920XM CPU. The battery lasted a sound four hours, 22 minutes in our run-down assessments, thank you to the Intel Sandy Bridge CPU along with to Nvidia's Optimus technology, which permits the technique to operate the majority of the battery exams employing only the built-in Intel Hd Graphics.

Both the keyboard as well as the pointing gadgets are superb. The laptop features a touchpad and a pointing stick, using a trio of mouse buttons supporting each. A few mouse buttons are essential for any workstation, given that several skilled applications can make use of all of them. The keyboard has an excellent experience, offering just the right amount of tactile feedback and necessitating low-pressure key presses. The layout is probably the most usable I've seen.

The M6600 also has a lot of ports. Five USB ports are built-in; two around the left side are USB 3.0 ports, and 1 around the rear is actually a combo eSATA/USB two.0 connector. You receive a lot of choices for check connections also, like VGA, HDMI, and DisplayPort.

Moreover to the pair of 256GB solid-state drives, Dell features a slot-load DVD-RW push, though a technique of this class and expense need to sport a Blu-ray burner as a substitute. Normal networking options are constrained to 802.11n and gigabit ethernet, but Dell does provide Bluetooth and broadband-wireless alternatives, in case you require them.

All this energy and usability arrive at a expense, in weight and in bucks. This specific M6600 configuration will set you back more than $5700 (as of September 19, 2011). And you'll desire a at ease bag to carry it in: Sans the ability brick, the M6600 weighs 9 pounds, three ounces. Together with the large, flat, monolithic electricity brick, the whole affair weighs eleven.25 lbs.

What you get for that expense and bulk can be a strong workstation-class method that should operate your expert apps with aplomb. The addition of capacitive touch is valuable when you are presenting work to customers or workers, although the pen touch enhances your innovative attempts. If $5700 is also prosperous to your blood, you'll be able to choose for conventional rotating tough drives, a lesser GPU, and in some cases a lower-performance CPU, however this kind of adjustments will not lessen the bodyweight and bulk. Once you pull the M6600 out of your bag, your clientele will know you happen to be serious about your operate.

2011年10月24日星期一

Gateway FX6850-51U: A Strong Performer Gets Lost in the Crowd

Presenting strong general performance for an appealingly lower price, the $999 Gateway FX6850-51U paints a tantalizing photograph. But in a very category which is crowded with versatile, overclocked machines of all styles and sizes, this Computer gets missing in the shuffle.

Gateway's usage of Intel's Core i7-2600 CPU, a 3.4GHz pace demon that can immediately overclock by itself (when necessary) to a mighty 3.8GHz, is an excellent alternative for this inexpensive desktop. Combined with 8GB of DDR3 memory, the program attained a robust score of 159 on our WorldBench 6 examination suite. Certainly you can find faster techniques while in the Overall performance desktop PCs group, but none can rival the price-to-performance ratio that Gateway's desktop delivers.

The more compact, boutique vendors ended up initial towards the gate with Sandy Bridge-equipped desktop machines, and some have pushed their devices to your brink, via overclocking. Thus the Micro Convey MicroFlex 25B--technically categorized as being a Mainstream desktop PC--achieves a major functionality enhance with its overclocked Core i5-2500K processor, enabling it to outrun the FX6850-51U at a lower value ($849). To the Gateway system's credit, nonetheless, it incorporates a 1TB tough push that's much roomier than the MicroFlex 25B's 300GB providing.

The FX6850-51U's discrete Nvidia GT440 graphics board delivers a puny 33 frames for each 2nd on our Unreal Tournament 3 benchmarks (at 2560 by 1600 resolution and high quality). The Micro Convey PC's humbler Radeon Hi-def 6870 graphics board cranks out 112 frames for each 2nd within the very same test on the identical configurations.

Gateway houses the FX6850-51U in a normal Fx chassis with spring-locked panels around the front with the situation that conceal the system's two 5.25-inch bays and two 3.5-inch hotswap hard-drive bays. A recessed tray carved into your prime of the circumstance can make a great storage place for products that you plug into the system's two top-mounted USB ports or two front-facing USB ports. A multiformat card reader rounds out the face of this delightfully glossy (but getting older) chassis.

Regrettably, the system's interior is marred by messy wiring clumped toward the center, which will complicate set up of new units while in the solitary totally free five.25-inch bay or two totally free three.5-inch bays.

You receive two open up PCI Convey x1 slots. The system's wireless card occupies a third PCI Express x1 slot, as well as the one PCI Convey x16 slot inside the rig goes for the aforementioned Nvidia card. Absolutely nothing around the within of the circumstance is accessible without a screwdriver.

We ended up let down through the insufficient diversity inside the connections for this Pc.4 USB ports as well as a multiformat card reader adorn the system's front, and 6 much more USB ports look around the FX6850-51U's rear. They be a part of just one gigabit ethernet port and... that's it for main connections supplied through the motherboard. The Nvidia GT440 includes a link for DVI and HDMI, as well as the wireless networking is actually a good touch, but we're accustomed to seeing eSATA and USB three.0 connections on top-tier devices .

The keyboard and mouse involved with all the technique are predictably generic.

Gateway's FX6850-51U delivers robust overall performance in a beautiful (albeit acquainted) shell, but there are numerous intriguing options to select from--even at this superb price tag.

2011年10月21日星期五

HP Compaq 4000 Pro SFF: Fair Performance for a Compact Desktop PC at a Fair Price

The HP Compaq 4000 Pro SFF (which stands for Little Kind Aspect) is really a compact-size budget desktop with respectable overall performance and eight USB ports.

Our evaluation design, priced at $650 as of July 25, 2011, packed a Pentium Dual-Core E5800 processor working at 3.2GHz, 2GB of put in RAM (upgradable to 8GB), a 250GB hard drive, plus a 64-bit model of Windows seven Property Top quality.

In PCWorld's Globe Bench six benchmark exams, the Compaq 4000 Professional SFF attained a score of 110, an appropriate mark for any price range desktop Laptop; the present tenth-place budget desktop Personal computer, the Acer Aspire X3400, picked up a mark of 104, although the ninth-ranked Personal computer, the HP Pavilion p6640f, collected a 119.

On PCWorld's Unreal Tournament three graphics tests, the Compaq 4000 Professional SFF barely achieved a double-digit frame fee, at ten.5 frames per second--and which is at medium high quality configurations along with a display resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels. At those same options, most finances PCs will not do considerably far better, though--the HP Pavilion p6640f, for example, managed only a still-unplayable 21.nine fps.

The Compaq 4000 Pro SFF's compact chassis is basic and unassuming. The front consists of vertical (or horizontal, if the device is lying on its aspect) venting, but or else it can be just matte black plastic. The facet (or top) is emblazoned with HP's emblem. On the front with the machine are four USB ports, headphone and microphone jacks, the power button, and use of the DVD-RW drive.

The again of the Laptop capabilities offers four more USB ports, gigabit ethernet, VGA, DVI, a serial port, PS/2 ports for the two mouse and keyboard (which the incorporated peripherals use, sensibly plenty of), and line-in and line-out jacks.

Equally the mouse and the keyboard are black with silver accents. They may be comfortable to utilize, even though not specially sleek or contemporary. The keyboard's typical, elevated soft-touch keys are quiet and give excellent suggestions. The mouse adopts an ergonomic three-button optical design and style.

Although the Compaq 4000 Professional SFF's situation is compact, it gives a decent sum of area for internal enlargement. Opening the situation includes loosening one thumbscrew after which lifting the facet easily off. Inside you'll find one open PCIe x16 slot, one open up PCIe x1 slot, two open up PCI slots, and one particular open RAM slot; the RAM is upgradable to 8GB.

The HP Compaq 4000 Professional SFF, like many other budget devices, incorporates a plain chassis devoid of fancy attributes. Nevertheless, for the cost, it is a sound performer using a fair array of port choices. And because it's a bare-bones technique, you might be spared the bloatware that arrives with higher-end devices.

2011年10月9日星期日

Sony buying movie rights to Steve Jobs biography

Sony Corp.'s movie studio is in ultimate talks to acquire the motion picture rights to the very envisioned approved biography of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Employment by Walter Isaacson.

According to a person acquainted with all the matter, the studio is negotiating to pay about $1 million for that rights for the undertaking.

The person declined for being discovered because the offer has not been finalized.

Sony was also driving the Oscar-winning biopic "The Social Network," about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and "This Is it," a documentary made of concert rehearsal footage of pop star Michael Jackson.

The news was earlier described by Hollywood blog Deadline.com.

Right after Jobs' dying on Wednesday, publisher Simon & Schuster pushed up the release date on Isaacson's "Steve Jobs" by a month to Oct. 24.

Large numbers of pre-orders of the digital e-book for $16.99 pushed the title to No. one on Apple's iTunes store and No. 2 on Amazon.com. Pre-orders of the hard cover copy, for $17.88, put the book at No. 1 on Amazon.