PCs, Peripherals and Software
Toshiba Satellite E105-S1402
The 14.1-inch Toshiba Satellite E105 is a solid all-around laptop that delivers on Best Buy's Blue Label promises: longer battery life, lightweight design, and lengthy warranty.
Epson Artisan 800
The Epson Artisan 800 produces impressive color prints, photos, and text documents, and it outpaces the competition in almost all of our speed tests. We're impressed by its performance, but hesitate to recommend this printer based on the poor build quality and error-prone software.
ZDNet Product Perspectives
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Dell Studio XPS
You can find flashier PCs than Dell's $1,299 Studio XPS, but few have as much power where it counts. We don't recommend its small, pared-down case for upgraders, but this PC will satisfy anyone who needs a loaded, powerful PC for gaming and consumer-level digital media editing.
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Averatec Buddy
Two hours of battery life is simply not enough for the otherwise unobjectionable and basic Averatec Buddy Netbook.
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Gateway FX6800-01e
With lots of useful features (some cleverly hidden), Gateway's FX6800-01e stands out from the boring mainstream pack. It also uses Intel's new CPU and motherboard combination to provide speed and upgradeability. You can find faster PCs for a similar price, but few with this much promise.
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Toshiba Satellite E105-S1402
The 14.1-inch Toshiba Satellite E105 is a solid all-around laptop that delivers on Best Buy's Blue Label promises: longer battery life, lightweight design, and lengthy warranty.
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Sony Vaio AW125J/H
Sony's Vaio AW125J/H is an aesthetically pleasing multimedia machine, and those familiar with Sony's high-end laptops will be surprised to find out it's also the cheapest 18-inch Blu-ray-equipped laptop we've tested.
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Toshiba U405D-S2874
Toshiba's thin-and-light Satellite U405 is an attractive 13-inch MacBook alternative, but its weak performance means you simply don't get enough computing power for your money.
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Velocity Micro Edge Z-55 (Intel Core i7-920)
Velocity Micro's Edge Z55 provides a powerful example of the leap ahead in performance afforded by Intel's new Core i7 CPUs. Velocity Micro's own overclocking efforts don't hurt either. Any PC gamer would love to make this upper midrange desktop their own.
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HP Pavilion dv3510nr
Best Buy listened to its customers and then teamed up with HP to create the Pavilion dv3510nr, one of the big box store's first Blue Label laptops. This sleek-yet-loaded 13-inch laptop deserves a blue ribbon, too, for its all-around excellence and value.
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Belkin N+ Wireless Router
The Belkin N+ Wireless Router is a great performer with excellent range and throughput speed. If its bulky design and lack of 5GHz frequency support don't put you off, the router is worth every penny of its $100 or so price tag.
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Asus X83VM-X1 - Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 GHz, 14.1-inch TFT
The Asus X83VM-X1 is a well-rounded 14-inch mainstream laptop. It boasts a pleasing design (aside from the stiff, loud mouse buttons), and excellent application performance and 3D graphics performance for the money.
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Dell Studio S1535-143B
The Dell Studio S1535-143B strikes a fine balance between Dell's XPS and Inspiron lines, offering good looks and decent performance for less than $1,000, even if the previous model had a slightly better processor.
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Sony VGNFW270J/W
With a sleek design, HD-friendly display, and a Blu-ray drive, the 16-inch Sony Vaio FW270 is a near-ideal portable entertainment center.
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Falcon Northwest Mach V (Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition)
Falcon Northwest's latest Mach V provides a model for the coming trends in high-end computing. From the latest Intel CPU, to solid-state storage, to copious amounts of memory, there's lot to admire about his PC. You will also have to pay for it, which unfortunately will thwart all but the most well-off gamers and enthusiasts.
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Epson Artisan 800
The Epson Artisan 800 produces impressive color prints, photos, and text documents, and it outpaces the competition in almost all of our speed tests. We're impressed by its performance, but hesitate to recommend this printer based on the poor build quality and error-prone software.
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Alienware M17
Alienware is trying to have it both ways with the new M17, combining a relatively low starting price with some very pricey upgrades, including quad-core CPUs and ATI CrossFireX video cards. Our configuration wasn't very exciting, but turned in capable gaming scores.
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Asus X83VB-X1
A poorly designed keyboard and stiff mouse buttons prevent a higher recommendation for the Asus X83VB-X1, which is an otherwise well-built 14-inch laptop that delivers chart-topping performance for a low price.
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Gateway MC7801u
With an HD-friendly 16-inch screen and beautiful design, the affordably priced Gateway MC7801u makes an excellent portable media center, provided your HD content is not on a Blu-ray disc.
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Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition
Thanks to an expensive new motherboard requirement, Intel's new Core i7 desktop processors will remain enthusiast and professional-level parts until more affordable complementary hardware comes out later next year. Speed never comes cheap, however, and if you're willing to spend for it now, you'll find yourself in possession of the fastest CPU on the market.
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HP Pavilion A6620f
The HP Pavilion a6620f makes a decent case for its budget price. We like the design and the built-in digital-audio ports, and if you're on an unbreakable budget, the a6620f will get you through a variety of processes, but we recommend saving up for a system that will give you a more powerful set of components for a negligible price difference.
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Gateway DX 4720-03 - Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5 GHz
The Gateway DX4720-03 performs admirably and actually holds its own against triple-core computers thanks to its impressive list of features. It also has plenty of room for internal expansion, so we recommend this budget system if you need the speed but don't crave a ton of CPU power.
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Laptops and Desktops Blog
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Details of AMD's Phenom II desktop chips keep leaking out
AMD will announce its second-generation Phenom quad-core chips at the big Consumer Electronics Show in January. But at the current rate at which the company is leaking information about its...
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Holiday Gift Guide 2008: Top 5 Netbooks
The biggest surprise of 2008 was the arrival of netbooks. Asus was the first in the pool with its Eee PC, and after some initial hesitation, the big guys...
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First Core i7 desktops from Dell, Alienware and Gateway
Now that Intel has officially released its Core i7 processor, fresh desktops are arriving daily. Dell has released four systems with Core i7 processors, including one mainstream Studio XPS desktop...
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Qualcomm's Kayak "PC alternative" pictured
Here's a picture of Kayak, the "PC alternative" for emerging markets that Qualcomm announced yesterday. It looks pretty much the way the company described it: sort of a cross...
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First laptops "designed by" Best Buy look like winners
HP's first 13-inch consumer laptop, the Pavilion dv3510nr, is getting good grades, including an Editors' Choice award from CNET.com. The Pavilion dv3510nr is one of two Blue Label notebooks--the other...
More on ZDNet
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Holiday Gift Guide 2008: Top 5 Netbooks
The biggest surprise of 2008 was the arrival of netbooks. Asus was the first in the pool with its Eee PC, and after some initial hesitation, the big guys were ...
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More OLPC Give One Considerations
It's the second day of sales for the OLPC Give One Get One program on Amazon; the site is still up and still claiming next day delivery is available (anyone ...
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OLPC revives G1G1: too little, too late
Oh, there's lots of excitement that OLPC is bringing back Give One, Get One for this holiday season. Amazon is selling the green machines in pairs (one for a kid ...
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OLPC's 'Give 1 Get 1': What a difference a year makes
The One Laptop Per Child OLPC program on Monday launched this year's 'Give 1 Get 1' program and it's simply stunning how the environment has changed. I did the Give ...
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From Windows Capable to the Linux laptop
Personally I find something touchy and silly in some of HP's efforts in this direction. Women want the same things from their laptops as men, for instance. But the key ...
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