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Skip Navigation LinksPC Authority > Group Tests > Christmas Crackers!

Christmas Crackers!

by Staff Writers  on Jan 1, 2000
Christmas is a time where gifts are given and tradition dictates that the gift has to be a surprise. In keeping with tradition we sent invitations for manufacturers to submit a Christmas stocking fill
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Christmas is a time where gifts are given and tradition dictates that the gift has to be a surprise. In keeping with tradition we sent invitations for manufacturers to submit a Christmas stocking filler PC. Each and every one of the contenders you see in the following pages called back to quiz what was meant by a Christmas PC. Our response was simply 'Surprise us'.

In a way each of the ten PCs we received in time for this feature is an interpretation of Christmas value, made by the manufacturer of the PC. Were there any surprises in the stocking? There were some pleasant surprises that brought the grin of a child on Christmas morning unwrapping the presents on a floor littered with wrapping paper. There were also some rather boring interpretations of Christmas put before us. These gained the looks of the child who finishes unwrapping the package to find dear old Aunt Mabel has sent a Bali t-shirt two sizes too small again. See our Hits and Misses page (p. 60) for more.

To emphasise the 'surprise me' flavour to this Labs, we had prices ranging from $1,795 to $3,500. Choices in CPUs ranged from the latest AMD Athlons and Intel Pentium IIIs to Celerons. We had the usual suspects in motherboard chipsets like Intel's tried and trusted 440BX and the AMD Irongate but we also saw the likes of VIA chipset contributions on three of our candidates.

Monitors continue to be a can of worms for the consumer. As we have discussed before, a monitor is not just a monitor, but your prime interface with the PC. Most of the time we can say that PC hardware follows the adage of get what you pay for but a monitor that comes included with the purchase of a PC may disguise the actual quality of display. Our monitors accompanying these systems reflected what you'll find in the open marketplace - take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly.

On-site warranties were few and far between but are around. Hard disk capacities are up. This time last year 6Gb of storage was a reasonable deal but this year's model will see 6Gb as an absolute bargain minimum - 8 or 9Gb is the usual and one vendor actually submitted a drive with a massive 20Gb capacity. Wish our file server came with that!
Have a look in these pages if you're in the market for a late decision on a PC for Christmas. And widen that chimney for Santa's passage.
This article appeared in the January, 2000 issue of PC Authority.


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