Pentium 4 Steps Up a Notch
Edited By Melissa J. Perenson
For this month's reviews of systems and peripherals, click the links below.
- Office PCs
- Notebook PCs
- Home PCs
- Scanners
- Color Laser Printers
- 17-Inch Monitors
- CD-RW Drives
- Digital Cameras
This month marks the debut of the first computers we've tested that use Intel's latest version of the Pentium 4 CPU. Code-named Northwood, the processor doubles the amount of on-chip level 2 cache and, Intel says, runs at a lower temperature than the first-generation P4. Dell and MicronPC supplied two of the four Northwood-based systems appearing on our Top 15 Home PCs and Top 15 Office PCs charts. Also, home and office versions of Gateway's 700XL make our respective power charts; the home model includes video editing software that complements the system's DVD-RAM/R drive, which allows you to record videos to DVD.
Top 10 Color Laser Printers
One of three new models on the chart, Lexmark's C910n (at
left) has automatic color correction and prints on tabloid-size paper.
Top 10 CD-RW Drives
Two firsts: Shown at right, a Sony drive with a Memory Stick
slot (left), and a Lite-On 32X/12X/40X model.
Top 10 Digital Cameras
The sole new low-cost entry on our chart: at left, Toshiba's
$279 PDR-M25, a basic point-and-shoot, 2.2-megapixel model that produces sharp
images.
Top 15 Office PCs and Top 15 Home PCs
Systems with Intel's Northwood Pentium 4 CPU reach the
charts. The MicronPC Millennia TS Professional (on top at right) is on the
office chart; versions of the Gateway 700XL make both.
Freelance writers Joel Strauch and Carla Thornton, and PC World editors Richard Baguley, Tracey Capen, Seán Captain, Lisa Cekan, Rebecca Freed, Alexandra Krasne, Heather Morra, Melissa J. Perenson, Kalpana Narayanamurthi, and Alan Stafford contributed to this month's Top 100 section. Ulrike Diehlmann, Robert James, Elliott Kirschling, Jeff Kuta, Tony K. Leung, and Thomas Luong of the PC World Test Center performed testing on the products reviewed here, with support from Julio Giannobile and Julian Weatherby. Edited By Melissa J. Perenson
Your Guide To The Top 100
Each month we test a large number of PCs, printers, monitors, and other products. Only the best products land on the charts, which are refreshed monthly.
System configurations are shown as tested. The overall rating for each product is calculated on a 100-point scale and reflects results from our hands-on evaluations and performance tests. A 90-point score is exceptional, while one in the 70s is above average.
The PC WorldBench 4 score is a measure of how fast a PC can run a mix of common business applications as compared with our baseline machine, a Gateway Select 1200 with a 1.2-GHz Athlon processor, 128MB of PC133 SDRAM, and a 20GB hard drive. For example, a PC that scores 120 is 20 percent faster than the baseline system. The policies score is based on vendor support policies (not shown on charts). For additional details on how we compile our charts, see the Top 100.