Computer Shopper (March 2006)

138 Pages·2006·12.182 MB·English

by  Various

With over 300 products in every issue, Computer Shopper magazine is
the most comprehensive guide to today's technology and delivers:
• The widest breadth of products.
• The most in-depth product reviews.
• The most product round-ups.
• The most buying advice.
Look inside!
BUY THE RIGHT LIGHTWEIGHT LAPTOPS: STOP VIRUSES WITH
MOTHERBOARD EXPERT SHOPPING TIPS NEW SECURITY APPS
(cid:186)
THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO TODAY’S TECHNOLOGY COMPUTERSHOPPER.COM
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Celeron, Celeron Inside, Centrino, Centrino Logo, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel SpeedStep, Intel Viiv,
Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, Xeon and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries
in the United States and other countries.

Toshiba recommends Windows(cid:2) XP Professional.
Satellite(cid:2)
Smart notebooks for every budget.
Starting at$699
Tecra(cid:2)
The reliability business demands.
Starting at$999
Portégé(cid:2)
Thin, light and powerful.
Starting at$1,599
Qosmio™
4-in-1 personal entertainment center.
Starting at$1,699
libretto(cid:2)
Power of a desktop in the palm of your hand.
Starting at$1,799
Portégé(cid:2)R200 Notebook PC
Style and performance come together
in an elegant ultraportable.
Intel(cid:2) Pentium(cid:2) M Processor Ultra Low Voltage 753
for faster execution of instructions at lower power
Genuine Microsoft(cid:2) Windows(cid:2) XP Professional
Toshiba EasyGuard™ enhancements1for increased
mobile security, system integrity, network connectivity
and overall ease of use
Starting at$1,999
ToshibaByDesign.com/R200
1.800.TOSHIBA
1. Toshiba EasyGuard technology comprises a number of features some of which may or may not be available on a particular Toshiba notebook depending on the model selected. See www.easyguard.toshiba.com for detailed information. 2. Weight
may vary. See Weight Legal Footnote at www.info.toshiba.com. 3. Battery life may vary. See Battery Life Legal Footnote at www.info.toshiba.com. 4. Hard drive capacity may vary. 1 Gigabyte (GB) means 109=1,000,000,000 bytes using powers of 10.
See Hard Disk Drive Capacity Legal Footnote at www.info.toshiba.com.5. Toshiba’s shock absorption technology provides higher impact protection for your system as compared to Toshiba systems without similar shock protection features based on
Toshiba’s drop tests. Toshiba’s standard limited warranty terms and limitations apply. Visit www.warranty.toshiba.com for details. libretto, Portégé, Satellite and Tecra are registered trademarks and EasyGuard and Qosmio are trademarks of Toshiba
Magnesium Alloy Chassis
Exterior casework material used in aerospace
manufacturing maximizes durability without
adding unnecessary weight. 60GB Hard Drive4
Toshiba micro-engineering
fits 60GB of data in a tiny
1.8-inch drive.
Thin. Light.
Goes for hours.
Toshiba is always striving to make notebooks smaller, thinner, lighter —without
compromising functionality. The Portégé(cid:2) R200 is the latest result of that HHHHaaaarrrrdddd DDDDrrrriiiivvvveeee
philosophy. Its sleek chassis is built from materials similar to those used in fighter PPPPrrrrooootttteeeeccccttttiiiioooonnnn4544
jets. And starting at 2.68 lbs.2and just over half an inch thin, it still has enough 3D accelerometer
battery life to last up to five hours.3Portability plus performance. detects free falls
and quickly
Size plus stamina. That’s 360˚innovation. That’s Toshiba.
prepares the hard
drive for impact
to help protect
Where can innovation take you?
your data.
ToshibaByDesign.com/R200
Fingerprint Reader
Embedded biometric sensor
helps prevent unauthorized
access for better security.
Up to Five Hours of Battery Life3
Proprietary battery design and low-voltage
processor optimize battery efficiency.
Innovation by design.
America Information Systems, Inc. and/or Toshiba Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Inside, the Intel Inside logo, Celeron, Intel Centrino, the Intel Centrino logo and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries
in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. While Toshiba has made
every effort at the time of publication to ensure the accuracy of the information provided herein, product specifications, configurations, prices, system/component/options availability are all subject to change without notice. Toshiba is not liable for pricing,
typographical or photography errors. Prices listed are based on products listed at ToshibaDirect.com at time of publication printing. Reseller/Retailer pricing/products may vary. © 2006 Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

(cid:2)
CONTENTS
118 At-a-glance guide to 34
notebooks priced at $749 or less.
MARCH 2006 VOLUME 26 NUMBER 3 ISSUE 312
DESKTOPS
24 Apple iMac G5
26 Sony VAIO VGC-VA11G
26 HP Media Center m7260n
Photosmart PC
27 Lenovo ThinkCentre A52
27 Shuttle XPC P 2600g
27 Sony VAIO XL1 Digital
Living System
NOTEBOOKS
28 Toshiba Satellite L25
28 Apple iBook G4 28
61
32 Lenovo ThinkPad Z60t
Features 32 Vigor Ares
COMPONENTS
CPU SHOWDOWN
34 ATI All-In-Wonder X800 XL
61 Dual-Core Duel
34 Diamond Xtreme Sound 7.1
The battle is joined! Find out which processor should be in your
34 Logitech G7 Laser
next PC as nine dual-core CPUs from AMD and Intel square off Cordless Mouse
in a no-holds-barred speed test.Plus,check out six scorching DISPLAYS 34
new dual-core desktops. 38 BenQ FP202W
GUIDE TO MOTHERBOARDS 38 HP L1706
76 Board Review 38 Sony SDM-X95KB
A superior motherboard is the foundation for a powerful PC— PRINTERS
but also a tricky,multifaceted purchase.Never fear: Our author- 40 Epson Stylus C88
itative guide and evaluations of perfor- 40 HP Photosmart 3310
mance and budget boards will help you 40 Xerox Phaser 8500N
nail the right one. MOBILE PRODUCTS
INTERNET SECURITY SUITES 42 Audiovox PPC6700SP
83 Detect and Protect 42 Creative Zen Vision
Every day,hackers and writ- DIGITAL CAMERAS
40
25 Nikon Coolpix S4
ers of malicious code get
44 Canon PowerShot A610
smarter at attacking
44 Kodak EasyShare P850
systems.Fortunately,
44 Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30
security software
DIGITAL AUDIO
is keeping
48 Cowon iAudio G2
sharp,too.
48 Creative Zen MicroPhoto
See which of
48 Kensington SX 2000
these five suites
DIGITAL LIVING
best protects you from
52 Dell W3201C
the Net’s most nefarious 52 Pioneer PDP-4360HD
threats. 76 52 Sony DVP-CX995V 48
SOFTWARE
54 Ulead PhotoImpact 11
54 Adobe Premiere
Elements 2.0
56 CyberLink PowerBackup 2
Page 150
Page 76 56 SystemSuite 6
Page 83 Professional
56 Toast 7 Titanium
57 AVG Anti-Virus Free
Edition 7.2
Page 61
57 Push the Freakin’ Button Pro 2.4
42The Creative Zen
57 WinRAR 3.5
Vision portable video
player is aptly named: TOP 25
Its interface is intuitive, 58 The best performance desktops,
Page 96 and its dazzling screen
affordable notebooks,laser
Page 92 ipsa as sd tehlieg huts.aBbuilti tdyo teess ti?t printers,PC speakers,and DVD-
Page 141 creation/video-editing software.
52
computershopper.com March 2006 7