HP Pavilion Elite HPE-500f PC (Black) review

Here is a little overview of modest HP home computer. This HP Pavilion is not exactly a gaming desktop, but it seems to be very popular for some reason. It doesn't have a fancy computer case with led lights or an expensive high-end graphics card like most gaming desktops. HP Pavilion Elite HPE-500f PC (Black) is a solid computer with six-core processor and lots of RAM, that can also handle some less demanding games like The Sims 3, Left 4 Dead 2 and World of Warcraft.  
Graphics card: This HP has AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics card with 512MB DDR3 of video memory. HD 6450 is pretty weak, even DDR5 version of this card is more than 2 times slower than ATI HD 5670. It is sufficient for casual gamers, but too weak for people who want to play DirectX 11 games like Metro 2033. Although most games can be played with lowered details.
Processor: HP Pavilion Elite HPE-500f is equipped with a 2.7GHz, six-core AMD Phenom II 1045T. It's great for multi-threaded applications and video editing, but most programs don't benefit of having 6 cores. Additionally, higher clocked Phenom II X4's are better in gaming.
Other specs: This HP Pavilion has generous amount of RAM (4x 2GB DDR3 sticks), large but slow hard drive (1.5TB 5400RPM), Wireless LAN, 15-in-1 card reader and DVD burner with LightScribe. Like most computers, HP HPE-500f PC uses Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.
Conclusion: HP Pavilion Elite HPE-500f PC is a great home computer that has things that most gaming computers don't have. But it is not suitable for serious gamer, who plays latest games.
Alternative for gamers: Titanium Gamer AMTI7007 has 7x faster video card for $12 more, but weaker processor and smaller hard drive, Titanium Gamer AMTI7009 is a good choice for $900.

HP Pavilion Elite HPE-500f PC (Black)

Pros:

 Wireless

 8GB RAM

 Six-core CPU

Cons:

 Bad graphics card
 Only 300W power supply

Specifications:

• 2.7GHz AMD Phenom II 1045T
• 8GB DDR3  RAM
• 1.5TB hard drive
• AMD Radeon HD 6450 512MB DDR3 
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Best Gaming Graphics Cards For The Money, May 2011 (under $100)

Choosing the right budget graphics card is not very easy, there are dozens of different models and variety of manufacturers. Not all video cards are worth their price, often other graphics card with same price is many times slower. Prices between manufacturers can vary a lot too, same card by other company can cost even $70 more. In this post I list best gaming graphics cards for the price from $40 to $100. Remember that availability and prices change very fast, this means that some info can be out of date.


Best graphics card for $40:

In this price range there are two graphics cards (DDR2 versions of ATI HD 4650 and Nvidia 9500GT) that should have almost identical performance. They are both OK for older games but some new and very demanding games only run at low settings/resolution. 9500GT (SPARKLE SFPX95GT512U2HP) has a silent passive cooling but HD 4650 (SAPPHIRE 100253HDMI) is a low profile (it should come with a full height bracket) card with a small fan.

Nvidia GeForce 9500GT 512MB GDDR2

• DirectX 10
• 128-bit memory interface
  
• Minimum PSU: 350W

ATI alternative:

ATI Radeon HD 4650 512MB GDDR2 

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $50:

For $50 you can get a Nvidia GeForce GT 240 which is a big step up from both HD 4650 and 9500GT. This specific card is pretty loud, according to some customer reviews.

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 1024MB DDR3

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

ATI alternative:

ATI Radeon HD 5550 DDR3 is less powerful than GeForce GT 240 DDR3, but it has DirectX 11 support. Although, it's pretty pointless for this slow graphics cards.

ATI Radeon HD 5550 1024MB DDR3

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $60:

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 is also the best graphics card for under 60 dollars. There is no point to spend extra cash for ATI HD 4670 which has same performance as GT 240.

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 1024MB DDR3

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

ATI alternative:

More expensive ATI Radeon HD 4670 is not really worth the price, I highly suggest getting much faster ATI HD 5670 / HD 4830 instead, they only cost $10 more.

ATI Radeon HD 4670 1GB DDR3

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $70:

The best video card for $70 is ATI HD 5670. It's slightly faster than GT 240 DDR5, but little bit weaker than HD 4830 that has much higher power consumption and no DirectX 11 support.

ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB DDR5

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Nvidia alternative:

Nvidia GT 240 512MB DDR5 is little bit more powerful than cheaper GT 240 1GB DDR3. The minimum power supply requirements is strange for this card, most GT 240's require 300W PSU.

Nvidia GeForce GT 240 512MB GDDR5

• DirectX 10.1
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 450W

Best graphics card for $80:

Best graphics card for under $80 is the ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB. HD 5670 is little bit weaker than GeForce 9800GT, but it's DirectX 11 compatible and it consumes much less power.

ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB DDR5

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Nvidia alternative:

9800GT is a card that I really don't recommend. It's very common that Nvidia 8800/9800 series cards die after few years of use. 9800GT is little bit faster than GT 240 DDR5 and ATI HD 5670.

Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3

• DirectX 10
• 256-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Best graphics card for $90:
Same as $80, no better deals for this price.

Best graphics card for $100:

Fastest gaming graphics card under 100 dollars is the ATI Radeon HD 5750, but I strongly suggest getting much faster ATI Radeon HD 5770 instead. It doesn't cost much more.

ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5

• DirectX 11
• 128-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 450W

Nvidia alternative:

GTS 250 is not much slower than HD 5750, but GTS 250 has significally higher power consumption and no DirectX 11 support. Even when it requires a weaker power supply.

Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 512MB DDR3

• DirectX 10
• 256-bit memory interface
• Minimum PSU: 400W

Comparison of 24 best gaming computers ($701 to $900), April 2011

In April's $701 to $900 gaming computer comparison chart we have 24 different desktops that are marketed as gaming computers. Most of them can easily handle modern games at decent settings, as expected for this price range. But some (brand computers) have $40 graphics cards that are almost useless for today's and future games. Not so surprisingly the fastest graphics card of all desktops is the AMD HD 6870, it is ~15% faster than HD 6850. Next best is the ~30% slower ATI HD 5770 which is 10-15% faster than Nvidia GTS 450 and ATI HD 5750. After them is ATI HD 5670 that has less than 1/2 performance of HD 6850. Anything lower should be avoided if you want to play games at highish settings. All graphics cards have ranking  next to the model number, see link below for the video card ranking list.
http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/502403-graphics-card-ranking-5th-time-last.html
Gaming CPU hierarchy chart:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i3-2100-recommended-processor,2895-5.html

iBUYPOWER Gamer Extreme AMD AM573D3 Review

Everyone likes to play newest computer games maxed out with high frames per second. But running latest titles at high settings requires something better than a $399 computer with a integrated graphics card. Thankfully, you don't have to buy a $1500-$2000 gaming computer to play high graphic games, $800-$900 gaming desktops with AMD HD 6850 or Nvidia GTX 460 will do the job fine. Obviously you can't get a brand computer (HP, Dell, Alienware) with HD 6850 or any other fast DirectX 11 card for under $900. This is why I review this iBUYPOWER Gamer Extreme AMD AM573D3, which has very decent specifications for a sub-$900 gaming desktop.
Graphics card: This iBUYPOWER uses the powerful 1GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6850, its performance is similar to Nvidia's 1GB GTX 460. The AMD HD 6850 is powerful enough for playing most games at max settings. Remember that HD 6850 and HD 6870 are upper mid-range video cards of the Radeon 6000 series, HD 6950 / HD 6970 / HD 6990 are the new high-end.
Processor: CPU is also an important component in a gaming computer, decent gaming PC should at least have a good quad-core processor. Lower clocked AMD six-cores are not really good for gaming. iBUYPOWER Gamer Extreme AMD AM573D3 Gaming Desktop Computer - Black has one of the fastest AMD quad-core processors, the 3.4GHz AMD Phenom II X4 965. It is a great processor, but it's much slower than more expensive Intel's Sandy Bridge i5 and i7.
Other specs: The other specifications of this computer are pretty standard for this price range: 4GB of dual channel DDR3 memory, 1TB SATA III HDD and Windows 7 Home Premium.
Conclusion: iBUYPOWER Gamer Extreme AMD AM573D3 is a nearly perfect gaming PC that offers great value for money, but there are couple slightly better alternatives.
Alternatives: similar desktop with same price, but with 8GB RAM - Titanium Gamer AMTI9098, minimally slower processor, better video card - Titanium Gamer AMTI7009, more future proof computer with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5-2500K - CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme GXi220.

Pros:

 Very fast graphics card

 Balanced build

 

Cons:

 None 

Specifications:

• 3.4GHz AMD Phenom II X4 965 processor
• 4GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM
• 1TB SATA III hard drive
• 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6850
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

iBUYPOWER Gamer Power AMD AM567D3 Review

This review is about another low-budget gaming desktop, the iBUYPOWER Gamer Power AMD AM567D3. The specs of this computer are pretty good for this price, they are similar to some ~$700 gaming PCs. This doesn't mean it's powerful enough for playing latest games at highest settings. The ATI HD 5570 is an lower end graphics card which has performance similar to HD 4670, this means it can nicely play few year old games with med-high settings at low resolutions. Lets have a closer look at the specifications. For just $569.99 you get an awesome 2.8GHz AMD Phenom II quad-core processor, 1GB ATI Radeon HD5570 video card, large 1TB HDD and 4GB RAM. iBUYPOWER Gamer Power AMD AM567D3 Gaming Desktop Computer also comes with a Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, not sure if it's 32 or 64 bit version. As you can see from the $501 to $700 gaming computer comparison chart, there are no better deals in this price range. This iBUYPOWER is perfect for people who want the cheapest pre-built gaming PC that is capable for gaming.

Pros:

 Good specs for price
 Big hard disk

 

Cons:

 None 

Specifications:

• 2.8GHz AMD Phenom II x4 925 Processor  (AMD Phenom II 9xx review)
• 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory
• 1TB SATA II hard drive
• 1GB ATI Radeon HD5570  (ATI Radeon HD 5570 review)
• Windows 7 Home Premium

Comparison of 26 best gaming computers ($501 to $700), March 2011

This is the first comparison of best gaming computers. There are total of 26 cheap gaming desktops in this comparison chart, priced from $501 to $700. You can see that there is wide range of computers for every taste. Some have a powerful processor and weak graphics card, although some have very balanced specs. There are seven columns in this chart: model name, price, graphics card, processor, RAM, HDD and operating system. They are also colored, warmer color means weaker components. Green is excellent, yellow is OK and red is very bad. Most computers come with 4GB of RAM which is plenty for normal use. Some computers doesn't have an operating system or just have a 32-bit Windows that doesn't support over 4GB of RAM.

iBUYPOWER Gamer Power AMD AM550D3 - nice all-around computer, although there is confusing info in technical details (about video card and CPU).

Designs Plus PC - perfect gaming computer with very powerful AMD HD6850 and 64GB SSD. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an operating system.

Titanium Gamer AMTI9042 - fast 3.2GHz quad-core processor, average video card.

iBUYPOWER Gamer Power A933SLC Liquid Cooling - desktop with new Sandy Bridge i3 dual-core processor and NVIDIA GT 430.

CybertronPC X-Sniper SIAN11202BUBBL - decent PC without operating system.

Titanium Gamer AM6022 - great budget gaming computer with lots of RAM.

Titanium Gamer AMTI9092 - dual-core CPU, 8GB RAM, average graphics card.

Titanium Gamer AM6020 - gaming PC with nice graphics card and 64-bit Windows 7.

CybertronPC X-Plorer2 4210ABBL - no O/S, below average video card, lots of RAM.

WidowPC WGMI-1NG721 - nothing good, no operating system.

iBuyPower Gaming PC (941TE) - fast dual-core Intel i3, not so good graphics card.

AMD Radeon HD 6850 COD-BlackOps Pre-Assembled PC - good video card, no OS

CybertronPC X-Sniper SINN4120BUBUP - bad graphics card, below average specs.

iBUYPOWER Gamer Power 918I Gaming PC - fast dual-core, weak graphics card.

WidowPC WGMA-1A7800 - outdated computer, inadequate graphics card, no O/S.

CybertronPC X-Cruiser 2 CANN4120RBP - below average video card, 32bit Windows.

CybertronPC X-Cruiser2 CAAN1120UBQ - very weak graphics card, small hard drive.

iBUYPOWER Gamer Power A922i - fast dual-core processor but integrated video card

CybertronPC X-CRUISER2 GMCINN4120S - OK computer with below average specs.

Titanium Gamer AMTI9020 - everything good except the graphics card.

iBuyPower Gaming PC (930TE) - good dual-core system with weak video card.

iBUYPOWER Gamer Power AMD AM567D3 - decent gaming computer with low price.
CybertronPC X-Sniper GMSAAN4120BR - very slow video card, 32-bit Windows.

CybertronPC Spartan TGM4220A Gaming PC - low-end graphics card, tri-core CPU.
CybertronPC X-Cruiser 2 CANN4120RBL - below average computer without an O/S.

Some links for further research:
ATI Radeon HD 6850 Review
Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 Review
ATI Radeon HD 5450 Review
Performance summary of some video cards 
Best Graphics Cards For the Money: March 2011 
Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: February 2011
AnandTech CPU comparisons with benchmarks

Titanium Gamer AM6020 Gaming Computer Review

Titanium Gamer AM6020 is a very interesting gaming computer for $669.99. It is probably the only sub-$700 gaming computer that has both good graphics card and an operating system. Titanium Gamer AM6020 uses the Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 which is significantly faster than ATI's HD 5670 and HD 5570 that are very common in $600-$750 gaming computers. This Titanium Gamer also has a decent AMD quad-core processor - 3.0GHz AMD Athlon II X4 640, rather average 4GB DDR3 RAM and 500GB hard disk. The Titanium Gamer AM6020 Gaming Computer is equipped with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, just like most new computers. It is hard to find better pre-built gaming computer for under $700 that has better specs and an operating system. I really recommend Titanium Gamer AM6020 if you don't mind the strange computer case.

Pros:

 Nice graphics card
 Quad-core processor

 Good price

Cons:

 None   

Specifications:

• 3.0GHz AMD Athlon II X4 640  (AMD Athlon II X4 640 review)
• 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM
• 500GB hard drive
• NVIDIA GeForce 450 GTS 1GB GDDR5  (Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 review)
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full Version CD - 64 bit

Systemax Gaming PC SG-1010 MMO review

Systemax Gaming PC SG-1010 MMO is a powerful gaming computer that has fairly good specs for the price. Most importantly it has a fast graphics card and a quad-core AMD Athlon II. However this PC doesn't have the fastest quad-core, it's only clocked at 2.6 GHz, a little low for games that doesn't use all 4 cores. But its DirectX 11 graphics card - ATI HD 5770 can play every game with ease, HD 5770 also has relatively low power consumption. Let's take a look at other main specifications of this gaming computer. This Systemax has 500GB hard drive, 4GB

Microtel AM6025 Gaming Computer review

If you are looking for computer around $700 that plays most games released today, then this Microtel is is worth a look. The Microtel AM6025 Gaming Computer comes with a 3.4GHz AMD Phenom II X4 965 quad-core processor which offers excellent gaming value, and ATI Radeon 5670 1GB graphics card which is sufficient for most today's games. If you want more future-proof gaming computer, then I suggest getting some other desktop. You can't expect playing future games at high settings with a $75 graphics card. Hard drive and RAM are both pretty average for this price range, good enough for most people.

CybertronPC X-Sniper SAAN4120BRBSL review

CybertronPC X-Sniper would be a perfect budget gaming desktop if it didn't have one weak link, the graphics card. The graphics card is a low-end ATI HD 4350, which is couple generations old. HD 4350 doesn't even pass minimum requirements for most latest games. Other specs are relatively good: reasonably fast dual-core CPU, enough RAM and plenty of hard disk space for this price range. Keep in mind this "gaming computer" doesn't have an operating system.

iBUYPOWER Gamer Extreme A928i review

iBUYPOWER is pretty famous for budget gaming computers, let's see what this mid-range gaming desktop has to offer. iBUYPOWER Gamer Extreme A928i is equipped with powerful Intel i5 760 (not latest Sandy Bridge architecture) quad-core processor clocked at 2.8GHz, which is paired with reasonably fast 1GB ATI HD 5750 DirectX 11 graphics card. Other specifications are pretty low for this price: 4GB of RAM and 500GB SATA hard drive. One interesting thing about this computer is the 700W power supply, which will give you headroom for future upgrades (if it's