Hasta La Gadget!

Today we’re going to be taking a look at the new Acer Predator AG3260 gaming PC. While “gaming PC” and “Acer” may not be two terms you immediately associate with one another, Acer has impressed in the past, and is now looking to wow consumers with its Predator G series of computers. In fact, we’ve reviewed a computer that’s quite similar to this one before, only now the Predator is back with Windows 8 and some slightly different hardware. The problem with building a gaming rig is still the same as always, though: PC gamers can be a fickle bunch, with the most hardcore not paying any attention to pre-built machines and instead building their own rigs. That isn’t an option for everyone, so can the Predator AG3620 offer enough to be worthy of those gamers’ dollars? Read on to find out.

Design

Acer has been putting out some good looking PCs lately, and the Predator AG3620 is no different. The black case has a pair of colored stripes running along the front and the top, with the word “Predator” emblazoned on both sides of the PC. The Predator only sports a mid-size case, which isn’t something we’re used to seeing in a gaming rig. Normally, full-size cases are the standard, given the large amount of equipment you need to pack into it.

At any rate, that mid-size case makes the Predator smaller than other gaming rigs, meaning it can fit into tighter spaces. It’s also surprisingly light for a tower PC – I had no problem lifting and carrying it, though admittedly weight isn’t usually an issue for a computer that will spend most of its life in the same place.

On the front is obviously where the DVD drive is, with two more bays for additional expansions in the future. The front-facing ports have all been moved to the top of the tower, with two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, the headphone jack, and the microphone jack all arranged in a neat little line behind the power button. Speaking of the power button, that’s what will draw your attention when you look at the top of the machine, as it’s big, red, and triangular – almost like one of those caution signs that warn you of rough driving ahead or other upcoming hazards.

Around the back, you’ll find more USB ports. There are six additional USB ports, to be exact, with four more USB 2.0 and two more USB 3.0. There’s also VGA and DVI ports, along with two HDMI ports. You’ve got the standard audio jacks underneath the additional USB ports, jacks for a mouse and keyboard, and an RJ-45 port for 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN.

Essentially, the ports are what you’d expect from any other gaming rig, though the Predator’s case is a bit louder than other PC cases. That isn’t a bad thing, as I have to say I like the overall look of the Predator. It may not be big, but it doesn’t need to be – all of the computer’s hardware fits nicely inside the case, and as I said above, that smaller form factor means it isn’t going to take up a lot of room when you get it home. As far as design goes, the Predator AG3260 is a winner.

Hardware

I need to start this section right off by saying that you’re not getting the best of the best with the AG3260 in terms of hardware. If you want a rig that’s packed with the highest-end equipment, you better start looking elsewhere because the Predator isn’t the machine you want. That being said, the Predator is packed with excellent or otherwise good hardware, as any gaming rig should be.

The third-gen Intel Core i7-3370 CPU is definitely the star of this show. Initially it’s clocked at 3.4GHz, though the computer can turn that clock speed up to 3.9GHz using Intel’s Turbo Boost technology. That may not be necessary when gaming due to the fact that the graphics card will cause a bottleneck, but it’s nice to have the option nonetheless. Of course, we expect an Intel Core i7 in a gaming rig – anything less and it couldn’t really be considered a gaming rig, after all. Still, it’s great to have it along for the ride, and as you’ll see a bit later, the Core i7 has no problem posting excellent scores in benchmark tests.

The Predator AG3620 also comes equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce GT630, which definitely isn’t the best graphics card NVIDIA has on offer. It’s still a relatively powerful GPU, but it would have been nice to see a card that’s even slightly more powerful. Don’t get me wrong, the GeForce GT630 will do its part to keep visuals looking good, but I feel like it’s going to cause some issues with bottlenecking, especially if Turbo Boost cranks the i7 up to 3.9GHz.

You should be set with the 12GB of DDR3 RAM the AG3620 ships with for quite some time, and here’s another area that Acer decided to make a few small cuts to save some money. With a lot of pre-built gaming rigs these days, it isn’t uncommon to see 16GB of RAM. Truth is, when it comes to gaming, we don’t need 16GB of RAM just yet, so 12GB should get the job done. You’ll probably need to add a bit more at some point down the road, but for now, there doesn’t seem to be anything lost with having 12GB of RAM instead of 16.

For internal storage, Acer has paired a 128GB SSD with a 2TB 7200RPM SATA HDD. I have to say that I’m a pretty big fan of the SSD/HDD hybrid setup, and with Windows 8 loaded onto the SSD, boot up and shut down times are sometimes surprisingly fast. Of course, you’ll run out of space pretty quickly if you try to pack everything on the SSD, but between that and the HDD, you should have plenty of space for your game library.

Sadly, you’ve only got a 16X DVD+R/RW drive, which means no Blu-Ray. That Blu-Ray functionality is definitely missed, considering the Predator AG3620 would be a computer that has no problem playing back HD video, but again, Acer decided to ditch the Blu-Ray drive to keep the price low. You could always swap the DVD drive out for a Blu-Ray drive, however, and since Blu-Ray aren’t super expensive these days, it might not be a bad idea to order one alongside your computer. As far as wireless connectivity is concerned, you’ll have 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 to look forward to.

While the hardware on the inside generally ranges from good to excellent, the keyboard and mouse don’t fall into that stretch. For PC gamers – this computer’s target audience – the keyboard and mouse are going to disappoint. Packed in with the Predator is a two-button optical mouse with a scroll wheel, so if you play FPS or MMO games, you’ll probably want a mouse with more buttons or adjustable DPI settings.

Just the same, you’ll probably want to swap the keyboard out for one made specifically for gamers. The keyboard again is standard fare, though I will say that the keys do have an interesting look. They also make a nice clicking sound like mechanical keyboards, but the problem here is that the spacing seems just a little bit off. Maybe it’s all in my head, but the keys seem slightly further apart than keys on other keyboards. Whether it’s just a personal hang up or not, I was making all kinds of errors while using the keyboard that comes packed with the computer. Hook up your gaming mouse and keyboard instead, because the equipment included with the Predator isn’t stuff you want to use for competitive gaming.

Software

The Predator comes running Windows 8 64-bit, which is bound to be a sore point with some gamers. While I don’t mind Windows 8, I know there are plenty out there who do. If you don’t have a touch monitor, some of the usefulness of Windows 8 will be lost, but all in all, I don’t see much of a problem with having the OS on the Predator. At the end of the day, it’ll all come down to personal preference.

Of course, with Windows 8 on board, you’ll have plenty of Microsoft’s apps from the start. This line up includes Internet Explorer, which I suggest you skip altogether, along with standard Windows 8 apps like People, Weather, News, Maps, and SkyDrive. All of the pre-installed Windows 8 apps vary in usefulness, but one of the main draws of the OS is that you can use the Store to download new apps for your start screen.

Acer has also included some pre-installed apps of its choosing, with Cut the Rope, Acer Explorer, Evernote, and Kindle present from the start. Both Hulu Plus and Netflix come pre-installed on the Predator, so if you have accounts with either of those streaming services, you can begin using them right away without the need for a download. McAfee is there to annoy you from the very first time you start up your computer, while Amazon and eBay also come pre-installed, giving online shoppers to portals to jump in immediately.

Others, like AcerCloud and Spotify will be appreciated by some users, but most will probably want to do a little bit of clean up once they get their Predator out of the box. Everything on the computer seems to be installed on the SSD, so deleting the apps you don’t want becomes even more important. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll have 1.79TB of free storage on the HDD, so you’ve got plenty of extra space to go a little crazy with your downloads.

Gaming and Benchmarks

After describing the hardware that’s in this rig, most PC enthusiasts already know what the benchmark results are going to say. In Geekbench, the Predator netted a score of 16152 – we’ve seen gaming computers score much higher than that, but the Predator’s score shows that its still a reasonably powerful machine. Similarly, in Cinebench the computer took home an OpenGL framerate of 26.72 fps while the CPU test awarded a score 7.44.

These results say the same thing: while the Predator isn’t the most powerful computer on the block, it still has some solid hardware working under the hood. That will ultimately get gamers who care first and foremost about gorgeous visuals without thinking about cost to turn the other way. However, for gamers who can settle for a decently powerful rig in exchange for a lower price point, the Predator probably isn’t going to disappoint.

Gaming seems to be a matter of compromise sometimes. Do you want games to run at 60 frames per second, or do you want to crank all of the graphics features up as high as they go? On most modern games, you won’t be able to do both, but you will be able to find a happy medium. In Skyrim, for instance, turning all of the graphics settings to ultra (which includes 16x antisotropic filtering and 8x antialiasing) and setting the resolution to 1080p produces a frame rate that rarely leaves the teens. At this point, the game is still playable, but stutters and slowdowns quickly wear on the nerves.

On the other hand, by flipping the switch from ultra to high – which brings antisotropic filtering down to 8 samples – we get better results. At these settings, the game runs right around 30 frames per second, sometimes dropping below that point when you’re in outdoor areas with a lot to see, and other times rising above when you’re indoors. That isn’t bad, considering that most console games run at 30 frames per second. The difference here is that on high settings, Skyrim looks much better than its console counterpart. If you can accept console-quality frame rate, you’ll still get a good looking experience.

The same is true for Batman: Arkham City. Bringing the resolution up to 1080p, turning FXAA to high, switching the detail level to very high, and turning on most of the eye candy features like dynamic shadows and reflection, we get right around 30 frames per second in-game. The frame rate will sometimes fluctuate between 25 and 30 fps, less frequently dropping down below 25, but almost never going below 20. Some may not like hearing that, but for me, the frame rate wasn’t really an issue. It should be noted, however, that DirectX 11 features and tessellation had to be turned off to get that frame rate, so that may be a sacrifice some players aren’t willing to make.

Unfortunately, if we move up to more recent games, the Predator begins struggling a bit. By playing Far Cry 3 with DirectX 9 and medium settings across the board, we get a frame rate that likes to linger in the low teens. There are times when it will jump up into the toward the 20s, but a low frame rate like that might turn some gamers off. Ultimately, the GeForce GT630 had some issues with Far Cry 3, but then again, titles like Ubisoft’s latest demand some serious hardware before you can get excellent visuals at an acceptable frame rate.

Wrap-Up

In many ways, I’m torn when it comes time to decide whether or not the Predator AG3620 deserves a recommendation. It’s true that the computer struggled with Far Cry 3, but with Arkham City and Skyrim, the results were pretty good. The fact that you can find the Predator AG3620 for around $1000 helps sweeten the deal quite a bit, but at that point, you might be better off spending a little bit more in return for a better GPU.

As it is, the Predator is a capable gaming rig, it just isn’t exceptional. It may be worth a purchase for gamers who want a solid gaming PC foundation and won’t mind upgrading their graphics card in a year or so. All the same, if you don’t mind giving the most graphics-intensive games a pass (or, alternatively, are willing to put up with playing them at low or medium settings), then the Predator is a decent, relatively inexpensive choice.

If you’re a PC gamer primarily for the amazing graphics that are achievable, it’s probably best to look elsewhere. Naturally, if it’s top-tier graphics quality you want, you’ll probably be building your own rig, and the Predator was never targeted at you in the first place. In the end, if you’re the type who thinks that graphics aren’t everything, or you’re looking for a somewhat cheap way of giving the PC gaming world a spin, the Predator may be worthy of consideration – but only if you’re willing to make some compromises.

Acer Predator AG3620 Review is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple doesn’t change things for the sake of change, and that’s why we’ve had to wait a few years for a redesign of the iMac. When a fresh model does arrive, though, it arrives in style: for 2012, the iMac is slimmer than ever, with a crisp new casing that borrows aerospace construction methods and iPhone display technology to wrap together a beautiful, slim computer that’s pleasing to the eye whether or not it’s powered up. Still, as Apple’s mainstream desktop, the new iMac has to perform, too, and with space at a premium there are some interesting choices to be made as to what goes inside. Read on for the full SlashGear review.

Design

Visual sleight-of-hand and some impressive manufacturing innovation have helped Apple come up with a new design for the 2012 iMac, which from certain angles leaves it looking as slender as a MacBook lid. In fact, the heavily tapered aluminum rear narrows to just 5mm at the edge, though it bows out toward the middle to accommodate everything that needs to fit inside an all-in-one computer.

That accommodation and construction uses everything Apple has learned so far from unibody notebooks, scaled up to suit a 21.5-inch or bigger desktop. So, you get carefully stacked logic boards and custom speaker enclosures, along with a single central fan that pulls cool air from a row of holes under the front edge, and pushes it back out of vents behind the tilting stand. You also get minimal upgrade potential: the 21.5-inch iMac is an entirely closed box, with nothing intended to be user-accessible, while the 27-inch iMac has a small panel by the power socket that allows access to the memory but nothing else.

“Apple’s production magic is friction-stir welding”

Apple’s production magic is friction-stir welding, more commonly used in the aerospace industry, and repurposed for the new iMac to bond the front and rear panels together. Traditional welding the seams wasn’t possible, thanks to the slimline build, and so a technique where the panels are pressed tightly together, heated, and fused was implemented. There’s a sizable reduction in weight, too, versus the old design – the 21.5-inch iMac is down 8 pounds to 12.5 pounds, while the 27-inch version is down 9.5 pounds to 21 pounds – which is useful if you’re moving the computer around.

Face-on, meanwhile, and you’d be forgiven for not realizing that you were looking at a new iMac. The black screen bezel and slim aluminum chin look just as they did before, and it’s only when you see things from the side that the new design stands out. The obvious loss from the blunt-edged last-gen model is the optical drive, with the 2012 iMac following the trend of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina and focusing on digital distribution for apps and multimedia.

On the back, as before, there are the ports clustered to the left side and the power button on the right. No matter which size iMac you choose, you get the same connectivity: a 3.5mm headphone jack, an SDXC memory card reader, four USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports, and a gigabit ethernet port; inside, there’s WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. Up front, there’s a FaceTime HD camera above the display, together with a pair of digital microphones that can use beam-forming technology to isolate your voice from ambient noise.

The new iMac’s speakers deserve a little attention on their own, given that they’re nothing like as anaemic as we feared they could be given the 40-percent smaller chassis. In fact, Apple has been able to accommodate two 20W amplifiers, one driving each of the speakers, which themselves fire down from holes alongside the front-edge air intakes. Despite the unusual positioning, sounds feel like they’re coming directly from the display and quality is strong. These speakers are easily capable of being cranked up to uncomfortably loud levels, without encountering any distortion until you’re at the very top end of the scale.

Display

Finessing the iMac’s display is no small part of the redesign process for 2012, though there’s more to it than pure pixels. The LCD panels themselves are the same as in the previous-generation – either a 21.5-inch LED IPS screen running at 1920 x 1080, or a 27-inch LED IPS running at 2560 x 1440 – but the way they’ve been assembled has changed.

Called full lamination, it’s a technique where the cover glass is fused to the LCD panel rather than sandwiching them together with a gap in-between. Apple – and others – have already used it to good effect on phones and tablets, but the 2012 iMac is the first time it’s been implemented on such a large display. The upshot is a thinner panel overall, by around 5mm, and an improvement in picture quality.

Despite the LCDs themselves being the same as before, the combination of full lamination and a new anti-reflection coating process makes a real difference when you’re sat in front of the iMac. Colors are brighter and punchier, the screen is impressively bright with consistent backlighting, and viewing angles are broad, with no inversions or color mangling even when sat almost side-on to the display. Graphics appear as if they’re swimming right at the surface of the glass, rather than being slightly inset from the black bezel.

Apple quotes a 75-percent reduction in reflection, helped by the so-called plasma deposition system which coats the glass layers with more precise coatings of the same materials used to cut glare on camera lenses and fighter pilots’ helmets. It’s a tough thing to measure exactly in a real-world setting, though there’s an obvious cut in reflections (see image above where a flash from camera is minimized) when you set old and new next to each other. We spent far less time tweaking the degree of tilt of the new iMac versus the old to find a position where artificial lighting and the sun didn’t prove frustrating, and even once we’d set up both to our liking, text and graphics simply look better on the 2012 model.

Fusion Drive

Until now, the iMac has been offered with a choice of up to two different storage options: traditional hard-drives, for those who want the most capacity, and SSDs, for those who want the most speed. The 2012 iMac keeps both those options, with a 1TB HDD the default (5,400rpm on the 21.5-inch; 7,200 rpm on the 27-inch) upgradable to 3TB HDD on the 27-inch, along with a 768GB flash storage option on the 27-inch.

For 2012, however, Apple adds a third option: Fusion Drive. A hybrid of HDD and flash storage, Fusion Drive pairs 128GB of speedy solid-state memory with either 1TB or 3TB of HDD capacity, promising the best of both worlds. On the one hand, the flash storage is far faster than the typical spinning-platter drive, but Fusion Drive is also a fifth of the price of the SSD option.

“For everyday use, the cost of FusionDrive is unbeatable!”

We’ve seen hybrid HDD/SSD drives before, of course, but Apple takes a slightly different approach. Rather than the relatively small amount of flash memory other companies have used for caching a few frequently-accessed files on their models, Apple’s Fusion Drive has a full 128GB of flash which allows a far greater number of files to be kept in the faster part.

Chunks of the OS, the apps you use most frequently, and the media you commonly play are all prioritized automatically, while over time OS X learns which content is infrequently required and shunts that to the more capacious, but slower, HDD. A true SSD will inevitably be faster across the board, but for everyday use Fusion Drive is hard to argue with, as the benchmarks in the next section demonstrate.

Specifications

All new iMac models use Intel’s Core i5 quadcore Ivy Bridge chips by default, with the quadcore Core i7 processors available as options on the more expensive versions of each core configuration. The cheapest 21.5-inch iMac uses the 2.7GHz Core i5, supporting up to 3.2GHz Turbo Boost, while its more expensive configuration gets the 2.9GHz Core i5, with up to 3.6GHz Turbo Boost. The latter can be built-to-order with a 3.1GHz Core i7, with up to 3.9GHz Turbo Boost.

As for the 27-inch iMac, that starts out with the 2.9GHz Core i5, with the more expensive pre-build getting the 3.2GHz Core i5. The build-to-order on the latter is Intel’s 3.4GHz Core i7, with 3.9GHz Turbo Boost. All of the chips come with 6MB of L3 cache.

Memory is 8GB as standard across the range, comprising two 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 chips. The 21.5-inch iMac can be specified with up to 16GB, while the 27-inch iMac can go up to 32GB. However, only the 27-inch iMac has user-accessible memory slots: the four bays are accessed via a panel behind the stand, whereas the smaller iMac isn’t intended to be user-upgraded. In short, if you think you’ll ever want more than 8GB of memory on the 21.5-inch iMac, you should bite the bullet and upgrade at the point of purchase.

Then there’s the graphics. Space constraints mean that Apple opts for mobile GPUs rather than desktop chips, though they’re the same Kepler-based NVIDIA GeForce examples that we’ve seen in the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina. On the 21.5-inch iMac, the entry-level model gets the GT 640M with 512MB of dedicated GDDR5 memory, with the more expensive model stepping up to the same GT 650M as in the Retina MBP, only with 512MB of memory (rather than 1GB).

On the 27-inch iMac, the entry-level GPU is the GeForce GTX 660M with 512MB, while the most expensive pre-configuration gets the GTX 675MX with 1GB of GDDR5. The latter is also the only 2012 iMac that supports a graphics upgrade, with the GeForce GTX 680MX with 2GB of GDDR5 memory a $150 addition.

Performance

Apple provided us with a 3.4GHz Core i7 iMac with 8GB of memory, the top-spec GTX 680M GPU, and the 1TB Fusion Drive; all together, it’s a configuration priced at $2,599. We kicked off with Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and the iMac scored a whopping 14,064, around 50-percent more than the 2011 model could manage. It’s worth noting that Apple’s portables have narrowed the gap between mobile and desktop, however; the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display scored 12,970 in Geekbench.

In the SunSpider test of browser performance, the new iMac completed in 133.3ms (faster is better); the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro scored 179.5ms in the same test. Cinebench, a test of processor and graphics performance, saw the new iMac score 42.72fps in the OpenGL category, and 7.32 points in the CPU category. Again, in contrast, the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro scored 34.40fps and 5.74 points in those categories respectively, with its 2.6GHz quadcore Core i7 and 8GB of memory.

FusionDrive certainly doesn’t hurt. In the Blackmagic test of disk performance, the iMac managed read speeds of 409.6 MB/s and write speeds of 318.7 MB/s using the flash/HDD hybrid. Given the flash storage is prioritized until capacity becomes an issue, it comes as little surprise to see those rates up around where recent all-flash models from Apple have performed. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, for instance, came in at 431.7 MB/s read and 382.7 MB/s write with its 500GB solid-state drive.

The difference is particularly clear when compared to a 2012 iMac without FusionDrive. We also tested a 21.5-inch entry-level iMac, with Intel’s Core i5 quadcore 2.7GHz, 8GB of RAM, and the standard 1TB 5,400rpm hard-drive. In Geekbench, the iMac scored 9164, but the big change is in drive speeds: without the hybrid technology we saw 90.7 MB/s read rates and 107.2 MB/s write rates.

All those numbers add up to a machine – when equipped with FusionDrive, at least – that simply flies in day-to-day use. Apps generally load in under 2-3 seconds, and while the iMac might use mobile versions of graphics chips, it’s still eminently capable of photo and video editing, and conversion; iMovie and Aperture run with no lag. Gaming is also more than possible, though we wish that – as on some all-on-one computers we’ve seen – there was a video input to use the great display with an external console. However, it’s possible to drive a second external display; up to a 2560 x 1600 panel, in fact, as well as the iMac’s own screen.

Value

The new iMac range kicks off at $1,299 for the base-spec 21.5-inch model, while the 27-inch iMac starts at $1,799. It’s worth noting that of the two 21.5-inch configurations, only the higher-spec can be outfitted with a FusionDrive, which means $1,499 plus $250 for the drive upgrade; there’s also a good argument to be made for maxing out the memory on the smaller iMac, since it can’t be upgraded later, which is another $200.

All versions come with an Apple Wireless Keyboard (a wired keyboard with numeric keypad is a no-cost option) and a choice of Apple’s Magic Mouse, the Magic Trackpad, or the wired Apple Mouse; for $69 you can have both the Magic Mouse and the Magic Trackpad. Those who simply must have an optical drive can pay $79 for the USB SuperDrive, though any external DVD burner should work.

The all-in-one computing market is small, but it’s not non-existent, and the new iMac does have a few rivals. Dell’s XPS One 27 runs at the same 2560 x 1440 resolution as the 27-inch iMac, and starts at $1,400 for the non-touch variant. That, however, uses Intel HD integrated graphics; if you want a discrete GPU, you’re looking at upwards of $2,100 and NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 640M, a weaker graphics chip than Apple’s entry-level 27-inch model. It does support multitouch, should that be a buying decision.

Vizio offers 24- and 27-inch All-in-One PCs, though they both run at 1920 x 1080 resolution, and the GPU – only discrete on the 27-inch – maxes out at the GeForce GT 640M LE. The range of processors is more humble too, with only the top-end 27-inch model getting a quadcore Core i5, though the maximum price of $1,539 makes them competitive for budget buyers.

HP’s Spectre ONE is a 23-inch, $1,300 option, meanwhile, kicking off with the same 2.9GHz quadcore Core i5 processor, but less RAM and a lesser GPU. Several of these all-in-ones offer a secondary flash caching drive, though typically around 32GB in capacity, and as such are less practical than FusionDrive.

Of course, the big difference between the iMac and these other all-in-ones is the OS: if you want Apple’s OS X, then the only way to get it is to buy a Mac. All of the alternatives come with Windows 8, and while that’s a capable platform, it’s not Mountain Lion, and thus a deal-breaker for many users.

Wrap-Up

The new iMac is a beautiful piece of hardware, that’s clear to see. Apple’s clever construction techniques have enabled a stylish, distinctive all-in-one, but more importantly they’ve legitimately improved the user-experience, too. The full lamination process takes the same display pixels as from the previous generation iMac and makes them work harder and look better; you’ll appreciate the many pounds dropped from the overall weight of each system from the moment you lift it out of the box.

“We’d recommend every buyer tick the FusionDrive option box”

With style comes a handful of compromises. As with Apple’s recent notebooks, there’s less room for user-upgrades: adding memory is basically the only thing that you can do, and even then that’s only an option on the 27-inch model. With both, then, it’s a case of digging deep when first ordering, particularly since having experienced the speeds on offer from FusionDrive, we’d seriously recommend that every buyer tick that option box.

DIY enthusiasts may miss the upgrade possibilities, but everyone else will be enjoying an incredibly capable computer. With strong performance the 2012 iMac proves that beauty needn’t be merely skin-deep, and that all-in-one needn’t mean conceding speed. That, and Apple’s creative use of components and design, makes it our pick of the all-in-ones.

Apple iMac 27-inch (2012) Review is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The folks at Vizio have brought forth their first serious effort in the Windows universe with a couple of notebooks and this device we’re reviewing today: the Vizio All-in-One PC. This machine has a giant, massively impressive display, wireless keyboard, trackpad, remote control, and external subwoofer that compliments the whole entertainment-ready machine quite nicely. Could it be that Vizio hit a home run their first time out in the park?

Hardware

This device comes in two iterations – there’s a 24-inch display model and a 27-inch display model, both of them with Full HD 1080p resolution under the hood. The display is, as Vizio should very well be expected to present, both extremely bright and readily sharp. The display has a 1.3 megapixel camera with microphone sitting right up top – this camera is ready to bring you basic video chat right out of the box.

The base of the computer has two SRS Premium Sound HD speakers in it, hidden from view entirely in the black bit under the silver metal top. Along with the subwoofer that sits separate from the main unit, you’ve got 2.1 sound that does not disappoint – you’ll not only have the sound you need to play games and watch videos on your own, you’ll be able to use this computer for a home entertainment system if you wish as well – it’ll definitely fill your apartment, that’s for certain.

On the back of the base of the main unit you’ve got three USB 3.0 ports, eSATA port for your external harddrives galore, and an ethernet port for wired internet. You also get two HDMI inputs so you can connect your gaming console and your cable box – or whatever other HDMI-capable devices you’ve got on hand – smartphones, tablets, anything your heart desires! The side of the base also has an SD card port, headset port (headphones and mic compatible), another USB 3.0 port, and a power button. Note the location of the power button, because if you don’t know it’s there, you’ll never be able to find it.

On that note, have a peek here at how minimalistic the design of this unit is. The only buttons you’re able to see are on the wireless keyboard and remote control – everything else is hidden. The Vizio design team took the desire of the modern market to gravitate towards Apple’s minimal silver designs and made a real effort to make it really Vizio-specific.

The keyboard presents a new look at what’s been hashed and re-hashed a thousand times over the past several years. Vizio flattened everything out, made the keys rather gigantic, and let the slight bezels between the keys be the only tactile notification that your fingers are on one key or another. The back of the keyboard – and the back of the rest of the accessories – are a soft-touch plastic so you’ll have a comfortable experience when you’re picking them up or using them on your lap.

The Wireless touchpad has a collection of multi-touch abilities that, while they’re certainly not perfectly tuned at the moment, present a high note for the future with Windows 8. With the next generation of Microsoft operating systems, this Vizio computer will be prepared with this lovely touchpad and the ability to update the software that makes it work whenever changes are needed. For those of you used to using a mouse with a desktop computer, you’ll need some getting used to with this accessory to be sure – its important to note that there’s no basic mouse included in the package – so get prepped!

The remote control or “Wireless Remote” that comes with this device is perfectly simplistic and comforting to hold and use. In combination with the other accessories and the keyboard’s ability to access online support at a single press, you’ll be good to go for whatever activities you’re hoping to do with the unit. That’s the Vizio V-Key up in the left hand corner, a single press bringing you in to Vizio’s ever-changing support webpage and guide.

The display, again, brings on 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and under the hood you’ve got a 3rd generation Intel Core processor – have a peek at the readout below this paragraph for the build information on the unit we’ve got here. You’ve also got NVIDIA GeForce dedicated graphics, NVIDIA Optimus technology included for automatic switchable graphics abilities, and a choice of build if you’re not wanting to pick up just the most basic model. You can upgrade to quad-core, decide between i3, i5, or i7 Intel Core architecture, and update your memory and hard drive as well!

Software

You’ve got Windows 7 onboard right out of the box, and you’ll be ready to go for Windows 8 whenever you’re ready to make that jump. Vizio created this device – and the rest of their first-wave party of PCs and notebooks – to be prepared for the Windows 8 wave. This is a Microsoft Signature machine – that means, and I quote, “a clean system; no bloatware, no junk, no compromises.”

If you want the software that normally comes on a PC, you’ve only to download it – you can find the vast majority of your favorites by hitting the V-key in the upper left-hand corner of your keyboard – simple! Also of course you still need a few extra bits to keep you safe from evil, so Microsoft Security Essentials comes with the system, inside to keep you safe from viruses and spyware. You’ve got 90 days of Microsoft Corp. technical support right out of the box as well.

What’s interesting about the entertainment aspect of this machine is that because Vizio wanted to not only come correct with a high quality display, but a unique experience as well, they made it possible for you to use the display even when the PC isn’t turned on. You do not need to turn the whole machine on just to use the display for your 3rd party machines – game consoles, satellite boxes, and HD devices of many kinds can make use of this ability.

Performance

Have a peek at our standard benchmark results here, coming straight from your best buddy Geekbench. Note that this computer has run exceedingly well for us during the whole review process, no complaints outside the obvious odd amount of time it took to get used to the touchpad in place of a mouse. The keyboard, mouse, and wireless controller all synced up with the computer in an instant and we had no connectivity problems at all. The wireless internet connection was also a bonus, with your ability to connect via ethernet appearing just for you hardcore wire-lovers it seems.

Wrap-up

This machine is surprisingly great. It’s only surprising that it’s great because Vizio is relatively new to the PC business – it’s not as if they’ve not been in the hardware business before, because they definitely have – but what a surprise it is to find them succeeding in their first effort in the Windows-toting universe. This machine is a perfectly legitimate all-in-one for your everyday Windows user, and as always, you’ll want to head to the store to give it a whirl before you purchase.

When you do test this machine out for yourself, pay close attention to how the monitor sits on the base, how you’re able to adjust it, and how well you like the wireless accessories. You’ll have absolutely nothing bad to say about the speaker system or the display, that’s for certain. This machine is available now in a variety of configurations, starting at around $800 – check it out!

Vizio All-in-One PC (24-inch, 2012) Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Today we’re taking a look at the Needletail SX, Arkh Flight Systems’ (AFS) new flagship gaming PC. AFS seemed to have one goal when putting together the Needletail SX: make an insanely powerful gaming PC regardless of cost. Indeed, you’re working with a lot of power with the Needletail SX, but money can’t be an issue if you’re looking to buy one, as you’ll be paying a premium price for access to such a rig. It the Needletail SX worth the hefty price tag? Read on to find out.

Hardware

When you pull the Needletail SX out of the box for the first time, you’re likely to be taken aback by how awesome everything looks. All of your hardware is enclosed in an excellent NZXT Switch 810 full case, which has a window on the right side so you can look inside and view your motherboard. The case itself is sleek, with more than enough room on the inside to add additional hardware should you ever want to. The case also comes equipped with a number of dust filters to make fan maintenance less of a chore. The case is glossy in most places, which means that it will attract fingerprints easily, but a little upkeep is a small price to pay to keep your Switch 810 looking great.

That sexy-looking case is filled with some of the best hardware around. Bringing everything together is an ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard. This particular motherboard features an Intel x79 chipset, and enough PCI express 3.0 slots to support 4-way SLI or Crossfire. Even though the Needletail SX already comes with more than enough graphics power, it’s nice to know that you can continue to upgrade should you need any more power in the future. On the back of the unit, we’ve got 4 USB 3.0 ports, 8 USB 2.0 ports (one of which is reserved for ROG Connect), and two eSATA 3.0 ports. The ASUS Rampage IV Extreme is an excellent motherboard, but then again it would need to be with all of this high-end hardware attached to it.

As far as the CPU goes, you’re working with an Intel Core i7-3930k, which has six cores and 12 threads. This CPU normally comes clocked at 3.2Ghz, but AFS takes care of the overclocking for you and bumps that up to 4.4Ghz before sending it off. The model we received uses Intel’s older Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, but it seems that AFS has since updated its models to use Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs. It goes without saying that you’ve got a lot of processing power under the hood, and even that’s something of an understatement. You’ve got an excess of processing power under the hood, as the i7’s six cores can handle whatever you need to do with this computer with plenty left to spare. One only needs to look at the Geekbench and Cinebench scores posted below to see that much is true.

Next up let’s talk about RAM. Surrounding the CPU in a rather nice looking display are 8 G.Skill Ripjaws Z 4GB DD3 cards at 2133 MHz. That means you have a whopping 32GB of RAM at your disposal – likely more than you’ll ever need, but there to ensure that everything runs extremely smooth. Indeed, that RAM helps make this computer incredibly fast, regardless of what you’re doing. You can play a game with all the settings maxed (more on that later) and never have to worry about stuttering, thanks partially to the amount of RAM you’ve got under the hood.

The dual SLI EVGA NVIDIA GTX680 graphics cards help with that too, naturally. With 2GB of video RAM each, this SLI setup can handle anything you can throw at it, as far as gaming goes. The GTX680 is one of NVIDIA’s enthusiast-level cards, meant only for those who take PC gaming incredibly seriously, and this computer uses two of them. Of course, installing two of the best GPUs around makes for a pretty significant price hike, but with these two working together, you won’t have to worry about updating your graphics hardware anytime soon.

The CPU is cooled by a Corsair Hydro Serious H100 cooler, and what’s interesting about this particular water cooler is that comes with adjustable fan settings. There are three settings in total – low, medium, and high – and the computer comes set to medium out of the box. You’ll be able to use the medium settings for most anything you’ll be doing with the Needletail SX, as it isn’t too loud (though it isn’t exactly silent either), and provides more than enough air to keep the computer cool while playing even the most graphics-intensive game. AFS recommends that you install a CPU thermometer widget to ensure that your CPU never runs above 82 degrees Celsius for too long, but in all of my tests, I never managed to get the CPU to heat up hotter than the mid-50s range. In other words, this cooling system does its job wonderfully, even when you’re intentionally trying to push it to its limits.

With storage, you’ve got a Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD and a Plextor M3 256GB SSD to take advantage of. Both are connected through SATA 6.0, and the operating system (in this case the Needletail SX is running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit) is stored on the SSD. With the 256GB allowed by the SSD, you might want to consider installing some of your most-played games on it, as load times are obviously dramatically shorter when running from the SSD. This HDD/SSD setup, along with the RAM and CPU, makes this beast ridiculously fast, so time spent waiting for something to boot or load is kept to a minimum.

You’ve heard enough about how great the hardware in this PC is, but the benchmarks prove that it isn’t just talk. With Geekbench 2.0, the Needletail SX managed to post a score dangerously close to 25,000. The processor was the star of the test, pulling in ridiculously high numbers, especially with the processor floating point test. Running Cinebench 11.5, we get impressive results once again. Cinebench is a benchmark tool that tests both the CPU and the graphics power, and both came back with excellent scores. The CPU test showed a score of 12.71, while the OpenGL test ran at a smooth 60.34 fps. It isn’t that often you get a computer that can put out scores like that – be it in Cinebench or Geekbench – which just goes to show that AFS was serious about building an enthusiast-level gaming PC when they put the Needletail SX together.

Gaming

I’ve already mentioned gaming a couple of times in this review, but now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. After reading through the hardware section, it should go without saying that gaming is wonderful on this machine, but just for the purpose of reiteration, I’ll say it anyway: gaming is wonderful on this machine. I tested Battlefield 3, Skyrim, and Batman: Arkham City (all at 1920×1080 resolution) on this rig, and it was able to play all of them as if it was nothing.

With Batman: Arkham City, I used extreme detail settings, NVIDIA 32x CSAA, high DirectX 11 Tessellation, and turned NVSS and HBAO on. The result was a game that ran consistently between 50 and 60 fps, with an upper limit of around 70 to 75. Changing the settings to 8x MSAA and keeping everything else the same, we get about the same results: 50-60 fps consistently with a max that sits right around 70. On 8x MSAA, I enjoyed 60 fps on a more consistent basis, but when you’ve got a frame rate that averages around 55 fps, the difference is hardly noticeable. Overall, the graphics were incredibly smooth and there was very little stuttering; normally, the game stuttered briefly when it was loading a new area, but that was it. Not too bad for a PC port that many people have issues with.

Moving right along to Battlefield 3, turning up the settings as high as they can go – that includes 4x MSAA and 16x Anisotropic filtering – I managed a frame rate that ranged between 70 and 90 fps. That’s when you’re in outdoor environments with a ton of action surrounding you. With indoor environments, the frame rate can jump as high as 120 fps. Like Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3 looked amazing on the Needletail SX, with almost no stuttering whatsoever.

Finally, we come to Skyrim, which is unfortunately locked at 60 fps. There are ways to change this, but using ultra settings, 8x Anti-Aliasing, and 16x Anisotropic filtering, the game ran at a solid 60 fps all the time. That’s with Bethesda’s HD DLC and Laast’s Pure Waters mod (along with a few weapons and armor mods) installed. With Skyrim on the Needletail SX, you get nothing but silky smooth visuals, and trust me when I say that this is the way Skyrim was meant to be played.

Again, the Needletail SX is an excellent gaming rig, and it’s sure to handle whatever kind of gaming challenge you give it. You’re working with a lot of power under the hood, and the good thing is that this hardware isn’t going to become obsolete anytime soon. If you want to game with the visuals maxed while still enjoying an excellent frame rate, you need look no further than the Needletail SX.

Wrap-Up

So I’ve been singing the praises of the Needletail SX for quite a few paragraphs now. If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m in love with almost everything about this PC. The word “almost” is key there, because there is one significant downside to the Needletail SX: its price. With all of that hardware you’ve got installed, this PC does not come cheap. It comes in at $4,499, and that doesn’t include the operating system. You’ll have to buy the operating system separately (AFS offers the many versions of Windows 7 as “additional options”), so if you want the exact build I was working with here, you’re going to have to shell out $4,698.

That is going to hold a lot of people back, but it’s clear that AFS didn’t want to make a budget PC with this one. The old adage “you get what you pay for” applies here, and that high price tag means that you’re getting one of the best (if not the best) pre-built gaming PCs around. The Needletail SX is Arkh Flight Systems’ flagship model, and the company has packed this thing with some of the best hardware currently available. The steep price tag means that only the most serious of gamers need apply, but if you’ve got the cash and you don’t want to build a PC yourself, then you should be very happy with the Needletail SX.

NEEDLETAIL SX gaming PC Review is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Today SlashGear has a real treat for those of you looking for no less than a top of the line gaming tower. This is the AVADirect Quiet Gaming PC build we’ve got here is a lovely combination of white plastic, metal, massive amounts of power, and processing so quiet it’s scary. This is without a doubt the most impressive PC I personally have reviewed for SlashGear, and with the custom build we’ve got waiting for you in this hands-on look, I fully expect you’re going to be scrambling to break your piggy bank to count up to $2019.16 USD to buy your own. Check it out!

Case

This case is massive, gigantic, and certainly not made for hauling around to LAN parties – there’s no handles here, folks. Instead this machine is made to remain stationary, made with so many fans and air ducts that it’ll never, ever get hot (it might, but we’ve not seen it yet), and it’s clean. This machine looks fabulous, with a classy white combination of plastic and metal parts and safety bumpers all around so there’s no clunks or clanks when you’re opening or shutting doors.

The front of the machine has a flat aluminum shape to it with a couple of peek-holes you’ll be able to see in the hands-on look at the machine in the video above. This front panel is a door which reveals your DVD drive, memory card ports, and whatever else you want to attach in the racks on racks on racks available throughout the front of the machine. This machine comes with room for so much customizability right out of the box it’s absurd.

The back of this AVADirect tower has a massive collection of ports which you’ll read about below and will be able to see in the hands-on video above. It’s all very neatly arranged, and up on top of the tower you’ve got a few more for good measure. The bottom of this case has that unique boost not just for your visual pleasure, but so air can move through the machine top to bottom. The bottom is open so air can travel through the case downward, upward, out the back, and out the front as well – there are fans behind that door up front and there’s a dust catch you can remove and clean underneath as well!

You’ve also got two distinctive sides to this machine, with the right side having a small area for cords to rest in, keeping them clear of the other side which is the deep home for all of your massive bits of next-level gear. For those of you that love lights, you’ll find a few well-placed green LEDs sitting down deep in the guts, blinking like it’s no big deal, while a couple of white lights shine up front through those crevices mentioned above so you know the machine has been turned on. Again – if you didn’t have a monitor plugged in to show you that the beast was turning on, you might never know it for how silent it is – that’s what the lights are for.

Sound Levels

With this build you’ll find a total of seven fans, eight if you count the one attached to the 3rd Gen Intel Core i7 hardware. With that many fans you might expect quite a bit of rustling to be going on inside this box, but no. You have to get up within a foot of this device to hear it make a sound – it’s that quiet. This device has SPCR Certification for quietness. This means that it must run under 20dBA at idle as well as under 27dBA under maximum load. Check out more about SPCR Certified PCs to get an in-depth idea of what this means for your own gaming room. Don’t expect to be lulled asleep by the hum of this machine – there really isn’t any.

Custom Build

This monster has a set of specifications that I do not hesitate to say are a dream for our modern age of gaming. In addition to the massive amount of ports you get on the top and back of this machine, prepping you for any and all display, 3rd party connection, and memory card situations, you’ve got processing and graphics power that’ll blow your socks off. You’ll notice at this point that I’m having trouble finding much that I do not like about this system, and for that I apologize – I’m a sucker for fantastically constructed machines.

QUIET GAMING PC, Core™ i5 / i7 Z77 Low-Noise Custom Gaming System
• NZXT H2 Classic Silent White Mid-Tower Case, ATX, No PSU, Steel/Plastic
• ANTEC TruePower New TP-750 Power Supply, 80 PLUS®, 750W, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, One 6-pin + Two 8-pin PCIe, SLI Certified
• ASUS P8Z77-V LX, LGA1155, Intel® Z77, DDR3-2400 (O.C) 32GB /4, PCIe x16, SATA 3Gb/s RAID 5 /4, 6Gb/s /2, HDMI + DVI + VGA, USB 3.0 /4, HDA, GbLAN, ATX, Retail
• Intel Core™ i7-3770K Quad-Core 3.5 – 3.9GHz TB, HD Graphics 4000, LGA1155, 8MB L3 Cache, 22nm, 77W, EM64T EIST HT VT-x XD, Retail
• PROLIMATECH Megahalems Rev. B CPU Heatsink w/ Dual 120mm NB-Blacknoise SilentPro PL-1 Ultra Quiet Fan, Socket 1155/1156/1366/775, Nickel Plated Copper, Retail
• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound, Polysynthetic Silver, Electrically Non-Conductive
• CRUCIAL, 16GB (4 x 4GB) Ballistix Tactical Tracer w/ LEDs PC3-14900 DDR3 1866MHz CL9 (9-9-9-27) 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC

• NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 670 950MHz, 2GB GDDR5 5000MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, 2x DVI + HDMI + DP, OEM
• OCZ, 120GB Vertex 3 SSD, MLC SandForce SF-2281, 550/500 MB/s, 2.5-Inch, SATA 6 Gb/s, Retail
• Western Digital 1.5TB WD Caviar® Green™ (WD15EARX), SATA 6 Gb/s, IntelliPower™, 64MB Cache
• SONY AD-7280S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner, SATA, OEM
• SABRENT CRW-UINB Black 65-in-1 Card Reader/Writer Drive, 3.5″ Bay, Internal USB
• CUSTOM WIRING, Standard Wiring with Precision Cable Routing and Tie-Down
• Smart Drive NEO Standard Silent Hard Disk Drive Enclosure, 5.25″
• Lamptron Deluxe Black Shakeproof PSU Gasket Silencer
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
• Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)

This build will cost you, again, a total of $2,019.16 in all, and if you’re wondering how much it cost to ship from the AVADirect facilities in Twinsberg, Ohio to where this review is taking place in Saint Paul, Minnesota here it is: $58.23. Not so devastating a shipping cost at all. Especially considering how well it was packaged – they even stuffed the inside of the unit with padding to assure nothing wiggled loose!

Benchmark Results and Performance

Have a peek at our standard test results here picked up by GeekBench. You’ll find that nowhere in our history of Desktop Reviews will you find a more powerful system, and of course the Laptop Reviews don’t stand a chance either.

We tested out Batman: Arkham City and we tested out Portal 2, Skyrim and Crysis 2, we played some HD videos and we rocked out a couple monitors at a time – and there’s nothing, no waiting time, everything is swift – it’s like this machine was made for the future. Have a peek at some more of the inner bits of the machine here as well:

The Bottom Line

This machine is well worth the cash you’re going to pay for it. For the couple thousand dollars you’re going to drop on this exact build you still couldn’t get the least expensive Mac Pro, and I dare you to find a more well put together PC for this kind of cash. This custom-made conglomeration of top-tier gamer-friendly parts makes me want to forget about factory built machines entirely. There’s just no going back after this.

If you’re not all about having the best of the best or have no use for processing and graphics power that’s going to blow you away with even the most heavy games on the market, this build is not worth the cash. You can pick up the standard build of this machine – with the silence, the case, and slightly lower power than what we’ve got here for $1107.51 from AVADirect too – that’s probably going to be good enough for most gamers out there on its own.

If however you want the most powerful, silent, and aesthetically pleasing gaming PC on the market, this is it. You can grab it from AVADirect’s online store today – and don’t forget to customize!

AVADirect Quiet Gaming PC Custom System (Z77, Core i7 Ivy Bridge) Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.