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Advice
Apple mac iMac 24” Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e
£1,149 £320
apple.com lenovo.com
We tested the fastest-available, he Lenovo ThinkCentre
2.8GHz version with the optional A61e is said to be one of
750GB hard disk, which added the most energy-efficient
about another £100 to the PCs in the world. It is En-
price tag, bringing the ergy Star 4.0 compliant,
total cost of our configu- EPEAT Gold rated and
ration to £1,559. For more on the de- has the same carbon foot-
sign, features, and service and support of the fourth-generation iMac, print as a small daffodil. Well, possibly.
check out our in-depth review of the 20-inch, 2.4GHz iMac.
For around £320, it's intended for businesses that want to
When we tested the 20-inch, 2.4GHz iMac, we came away impressed lower their energy costs, or for energy-conscious users who want to
by its application performance, with it more than holding its own be kinder to the environment.
against competing Windows-based, mainstream desktops. The same
can easily be said for the 24-inch, 2.8GHz iMac. Some eco-friendly products just don't look right. It's funny then, that
Lenovo -- creators of some of the ugliest PCs in the world -- should
With its faster processor, the 24-inch, 2.8GHz iMac is expectedly faster design its own energy-efficient desktop. The ThinkCentre A61e
than the 20-inch, 2.4GHz iMac on all of our application benchmarks - never stood a chance on the looks front!
- as well as many similarly priced Windows machines.
Most small form factor PCs (SFF) we've seen look great, and so
Of particular note is the 2.8GHz iMac's performance on our multime- should the A61e, in theory. It's lightweight, has the same approxi-
dia multitasking test -- perhaps our most punishing benchmark. The mate dimensions as a phonebook and can be positioned in either
test performs simultaneous video and audio encoding, which typically landscape or portrait orientation. Unfortunately, the ubiquitous IBM
taxes the resources of most systems. The 24-inch, 2.8GHz iMac's styling -- read: tacky black plastic and garish colour highlights -- will
best-of-class performance on this test is an excellent indicator of the appeal to relatively few.
iMac's potential for tackling processor-intensive applications and jug-
gling the demands of multiple applications concurrently vying for sys- It's pretty functional on the inside, too. The case allows tool-free ac-
tem resources. cess so memory can be added or removed within a matter of sec-
onds. But that's all. The A61e has no room for expansion -- not even
Serious multitaskers and some prosumers can definitely gain addi- a spare SATA port. Once you've bought it, you can only add things
tional screen area to support more open applications on the desktop, via USB.
and the modest performance bump can make a difference during
longer video or audio renders. Perhaps the ideal user is someone who
needs as much processing power as possible from a Mac but can't PROS: Cheap & green
justify the much costlier Mac Pro. CONS: Not upgradeable
PROS: Very stylish,very fast & virus free
CONS: Will not be 100% compatible
HP dx5150
(SFF) version has the same approximate footprint as the screen area
£387
of a standard 17-inch TFT monitor.
HP.com
There's very little in the way of input/output connectivity at the front,
The dx5150 Small Form Factor is
aside from the obligatory pair of USB ports and a couple of head-
aggressively targeted at those on a
phone and mic jacks. There's a decent range of I/O ports at the rear,
tight budget. However, unlike the
but it's hard not to notice the lack of luxuries such as a memory card
plethora of cheap, ugly desktops
reader or even a floppy disk drive.
that litter the budget market, it
stands out thanks to its promise of
Given the dx5150's low price, it's no surprise to learn it's not stuffed
contemporary styling, solid build
to the gills with modern hardware. Our sample uses an Athlon 64
quality and quiet, efficient operation.
3200+ processor, which in fairness is still a fairly potent solution that
Producing a computer that achieves
will let you carry out pretty much any PC-based task at a decent
these goals is a thankless, difficult
speed. It's not the sort of processor you'll want to brag about to your
task, so it'll be interesting to see
technophile friends, who'll probably disown you for admitting the PC
whether HP achieves its goals with-
only has 512MB of DDR memory. Fortunately, this can be upgraded
out delivering a fatally compromised and ultimately pointless PC.
(to a maximum of 4GB), as can the CPU, which can go as high as an
Athlon 64 4000+.
Design wise the dx5150 is a welcome throwback to the desktop PCs
of yesteryear. It uses a horizontal 'desktop' orientation instead of the
PROS: Very good solid HP office machine
more typical space saving tower layout, but it's far from bulky. Unlike
CONS: Could struggle with really demanding tasks
HP's 'ultra compact' version of the dx5150, this Small Form Factor
Business Matters issue 164 • 59
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