Gateway’s SX2840-01 is a clever improvement of their fabulous SX2800-01. This slim tower has 2.93GHz quad core machine multitasks with ease and has very fast performance. The specs (6GB RAM, 64MB Video Card, 1TB Hard drive) make it perfect for home or office use. It’s got HDMI (video) out which means that you can also use it as a Home Theatre PC. The missing onboard wireless networking can easily be remedied by installing an internal or external device. The SX2840-01 is CNET Editors Choice for Feburary 2010.

You can buy the SX2840-01 for $559 at Newegg and $569 Amazon. Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s vast world of desktops perfection can be hard to find…unless you’re looking at the Apple iMac 27-Inch. Touted as the MB952LL/A, this All in One blows away the competition in terms of style, performance, and reliability. Everybody knows that with Macs “you get what you pay for.” Even though a similar PC desktop costs $500 less, Mac users aren’t afraid to shell out cash for a system with upper end components and greater reliability. $1,694 gets you a beautiful 27-inch LED display, a robust 3.06GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 1TB Hard Drive running at 7200 rpm. The ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card delivers above average multitasking and good 3D gaming performance. Interesting additions with this new iMac are the ultra thin wireless keyboard and multi-touch Magic mouse.

The MB952LL/A is priced at $1,694 at Amazon. You can see this 27-incher iMac in all its glory at Apple’s website. See the 27-inch iMac

HP’s TouchSmart 600 is the next step in the continually evolving all-in-one PC. This multitouch PC can be easily wall mounted in your kitchen and used for pulling up recipes and cooking on the fly. The touch screen can also used to surf the web and take notes, flip though photos, or watch videos via Hulu and Netflix. You can ready the CNET review here or see this PDF of all the specs.

The system (with Blue Ray player) is priced $1,599 at MacMall & the HP Home Store. If you forego the Blue Ray player you’ll only need to shell out $1,199 at Newegg and PC Mall.

No doubt about it – the MB950LL/A is a pretty cool IMac. This all-in-one comes with everything you need in a convenient simplified enclosure. The 21.5-inch screen has a high (1920 x 1080) resolution that allows you to watch high definition movies, play intense games, and utilizie all forms of entertainment. The IMac also comes with two interesting features: a wireless keyboard and magic mouse. This beast is powered by NVIDIA’s GeForce 9400M video card, and a 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

The MB950LL/A is the #1 selling desktop at Amazon; you can also find it at MacMall. At both stores it’s priced $1,125 after a $25 mail in rebate. Read the rest of this entry »

Lenovo has come out with a very interesting all-in-one entertainment multimedia desktop. The 21.5-inch display has a respectful 16:9 widescreen with 1,920-by-1,080 resolution. The chassis is just over an inch thick at its slimmest point and 2.4 inches at its thickest. The A600 has a 2.13Ghz CPU, 4GB of DDR3-1066 memory, and a nice 1TB sized hard drive. The A600 ranges from an affordable $699 to $999.

Review Summaries

The Lenovo’s 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 processor has a slower clock speed but overall results put the machine in fine company. Its scores a 87 in PCWorld’s WorldBench 6 test suite. The PC had a solid average of about 60 frames per second in a Enemy Territory: Wars and Unreal Tournament 3 tests (at 1024 by 768, and at normal and medium settings, respectively). Results fell to about 35 fps in each test when they bumped up the resolution to 1680 by 1050. Read More About the A600