Desktop PCs

Performance is a word that appears to have a different meaning depending on who you buy from. As you’d expect, it’s something many local PC makers offer in spades, while big brands often seem to have a different interpretation. However, if you need a desktop PC with the backing of a big brand and an onsite warranty, there are still plenty of alternatives to look at. The question usually comes down to how much performance and/or features you’re willing to compromise to get that extra support.

Dell's Inspiron One 2320 was the third, but also the slowest, all-in-one PC we reviewed here, with a 2.5GHz Core i5-2400S processor. It’s basically half the speed of the Lenovo Edge 91Z, but is only $250 cheaper. It’s a mix of desktop and notebook tech with a 3.5in 500GB hard drive (our review unit came with a 1TB model) and Nvidia’s GeForce GT 525M graphics chip. Frankly, we don’t understand why vendors bother with some of these budget graphics chips as they’re just not fast enough to game with — DiRT 2 at 13.81fps at 1,024 x 768 pixels isn’t our idea of fun.

A business-focused all-in-one PC, the Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 91z’s application speed puts it on top of the all-in-ones we’ve seen so far. Thanks to Intel’s 2.8GHz Core i7-2600S processor, it cranked our UserBench Encode test to just over 95, beating the Apple iMac and delivering the highest all-in-one score to date. Throwing in the Windows 7 Professional operating system also helps. It has a Radeon HD 6650A graphics chip, which has the capability of offering accelerated computing on supported applications.

HP's Pavilion h8-1130a is the fastest name-brand PC we’ve ever tested in PC User, managing to top 100 on our tough UserBench Encode media encoding benchmark. However, to get that speed you have to spend $1,799 and that’s without a monitor. It’s built around Intel’s Core i7-2600 processor, 8GB of RAM and a Pegatron H67-chipset motherboard. Storage features include a 1TB Hitachi hard drive and HP-branded Blu-ray/DVD combo drive. Wireless networking is included, but no digital TV tuner.

The Inspiron 620 was Dell’s conventional PC submission this month and in some ways, it’s passable value for $1,299, including Intel’s Core i5-2300 processor, 6GB of DDR3-1333 RAM, a 500GB hard drive and Blu-ray/DVD combo under the hood, with an 18.5in widescreen LCD panel for the display. That’s not going to worry local builders for value, but for a name brand at this price, we’ve seen worse.

Apple wanted to send us the $1,949 27in iMac, but could only get us the smaller 21.5in model in time for our roundup. In terms of raw hardware, the only difference between the two is the LCD panel: the 27in model has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels, while the 21.5in panel is 1,920 x 1,080. Otherwise, both have a Radeon HD 6770M graphics chip, 4GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. Up against the Dell and Lenovo all-in-ones, the iMac does pretty well on both performance and storage, although there’s only a standard DVD burner rather than Blu-ray.

In the battle of the name brands, Acer came out on top with its Aspire M3970. It doesn’t have quite the same speed as the HP and although it costs $150 more, you get a decent list of extras, including a 24in widescreen monitor. The M3970 uses a 2.8GHz Core i5-2300 chip and 8GB of RAM.

The 2TB Western Digital hard drive was as generous as we saw and you also get a digital TV tuner and Wi-Fi. Toss in a Blu-ray/DVD combo drive and it’s a decent list of features.

Sometimes, you just want to bust out of having to think about value and cram as much horsepower into a computer box as you can. However, performance is a word that has a different meaning depending on who you talk to and who you buy from. As you’d expect, it’s something the local PC makers offer in spades – on any type of application – while brand-name PCs continue to struggle with PC gaming. That's a certainly not a problem with the three local desktop PCs reviewed here, though.

Excel’s PE-590 ought to have been a cracker of a system, combining the very highly rated Core i5-2500K cranked to 4.5GHz with a high-end GeForce GTX 590 graphics card. And in terms of performance, it doesn’t disappoint. Topping 103fps on AvP at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, there’s enough grunt here to handle any game at any quality setting.

Pacstar followed much the same route as TI Computers with its 580 Value system, overclocking the Core i7-2600K to 4.5GHz and the 128GB SSD, 2TB hard drive and Blu-ray burner trifecta. The main difference was the lack of wireless networking and digital TV tuner, but also the change in graphics card, with a GeForce GTX 580 on show here.