MiniTower
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Dell implants Sandy Bridge CPUs within biz-minded Vostro 460 mini tower
Tried booting your corporate PC lately? Dollars to donuts it takes longer than three minutes to complete. The point? You need Sandy Bridge, and you need it now. Dell's hoping your IT department will agree, with the introduction of the Vostro 460 mini tower bringing along Intel's second generation Core processors (Core i5 and Core i7 options are available), Turbo Boost 2.0 and an understated design. Customers can also load it up with as much as 3TB of storage, a Blu-ray drive, 1GB NVIDIA or AMD discrete graphics card and a USB 3.0 expansion card. You'll also get a tool-less chassis, eight USB 2.0 ports, inbuilt security services from Trend Micro and a starting price of $599. Surely that fits into the Q1 budget somewhere, right?
Dell rolls out Vostro 230 Slim Tower, Mini Tower desktops
They may not be quite as sleek as their latest laptop counterpart, but Dell's two new Vostro 230 desktops are both at least fairly compact and, most importantly, cheap. Available in both Slim Tower or Mini Tower form factors, the desktops start at just $389 or $299, respectively, but can of course be upgraded significantly from there, including processors up to a 3.0GHz Core 2 Quad Q9650, a maximum 4GB of RAM, up to 2TB of storage (from two 1TB drives), and your choice of NVIDIA GeForce G310 or GeForce GT220 graphics (in addition to the standard integrated option). Hit up the link below to configure one for yourself.
Acer introduces Aspire M5800 and M3800 desktops, H235H display
Acer's been on a tear with the new gear lately, and while we're not going to say we're as hot for the new Aspire M5800 tower as we are for, say, the Timeline, it's still a pretty nice little machine -- you're looking at a 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad with 8GB of RAM, 1.5GB GeForce GT230 graphics, a 740GB drive and HDMI out for $800. Not bad at all. Little brothers Aspire M3800 and X3810 are far less interesting, with a 2.5GHz Pentium and integrated X4500 graphics for $450 in a tower or $529 in a low-profile case. Not exactly mindblowing, but you've still got HDMI out, so they could make for reasonably cheap HTPCs if you don't need much more than Flash support. Acer's also got a new display out, the 23-inch H235H, which offers 1080p resolution, 2ms response time, a 160-degree viewing angle, and 100,000:1 contrast ratio for $239.
Atom-powered Compaq Presario CQ2009F desktop now on sale
Compaq Presario's got a new 4.41- x 10.71- x 9.69-inch box for your consideration, and it goes by CQ2009F. 'Course, those following the scene in Taiwan probably know it better as the mini-Q, but apparently the model name had to be purged of any personality before being introduced to America. The so-called nettop (or maybe mini tower is more fitting here) houses an Intel Atom 230 CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, GMA 950 graphics set, a 160GB 7,200RPM hard drive, Ethernet, integrated audio, a 6-in-1 card reader, a few USB 2.0 ports, VGA output and loads of additional software that you'll have to quickly uninstall upon arrival. You'll find Windows XP running the show, and the built-in DVD burner should handle the storage duties. Nah, performance junkies won't find much (read: anything) to love, but who wouldn't appreciate the $269.99 price tag?[Thanks, V & Brian]
Lenovo 3000 J105 small business minitower reviewed
With a street price of under $500 you certainly can't expect to get the company's high-end jet pack and armor-plating features, but according to PC Mag's review, Lenovo still manages to pack some solid performance into their 3000 J105 small business-oriented desktop. The 3000 J105 is most noteworthy, however, for being Lenovo's first non-IBM branded minitower, although business-types will be pleased to learn that it retains a popular feature of the ThinkCentre line, the ThinkVantage help and recovery utility. Keeping in mind that this model is meant for crunching numbers and not fragging enemies, the 2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 3200 , 80GB hard drive, and 512MB of RAM serve their purpose well, and there's enough software in the box to get some work done without shelling out too much more cash. Other nice touches include both PCI (but no PCIe) and AGP card slots for super-cheap graphics upgrades, a not-hideous-looking case, and the always-appreciated lack of Chinese spyware. Overall the J105 earns a three-and-a-half star "Good" rating, which is probably due mostly to its value, considering that it's able to throw down decent benchmark results that are within a stone's throw of machines twice the price.
