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CNET editors' rating:
4.0 stars
Excellent
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 25 reviews
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Product summary
CNET Editors' ChoiceOct 02
The good: Fast; excellent speakers; cool-looking case.
The bad: No weekend support; onsite service is optional.
The bottom line: The ABS Digital 8 offers leading-edge performance and features at a low price but with limited standard support.
Specifications: Processor: Intel Pentium 4 (2400 MHz); RAM installed: 512 MB; Hard drive: 100 GB; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 10/02/2002
- Updated on:01/08/2003
State of the art
The Digital 8 comes packed with up-to-the-minute features. These include a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 with a 533MHz frontside bus, 512MB of PC1066 RDRAM, a 100GB hard drive with an 8MB buffer, both DVD-ROM and CD-RW drives (the latter is a 40X unit), and a 128MB GeForce4 Ti 4200 graphics card.
As you'd expect with this configuration, the Digital 8 gets top marks in our benchmark tests. Its SysMark2002 scores tie with those of similarly priced but less impressively configured PCs such as the Dell Dimension 8000 series. The Digital 8's fast 223.3fps (frames per second ) in Quake 3 is also pretty good for its class. However, on application tests, the system manages only a slim 4 to 6 percent lead over the 2.4GHz DDR SDRAM-based Falcon Northwest Mach V, so the extra gigahertz may not be necessary if your budget's tight.
Add style and sound to speed
If its performance and configuration don't grab you, the case and the peripherals will. Granted, brushed aluminum is becoming old hat. But ABS's version, with a clear acrylic side panel, looks like an electronic fish tank. It might even be small enough to share space on your desk with the 19-inch ViewSonic PF790 display. The monitor's 0.25mm dot pitch and flat screen present an excellent canvas for 2D and 3D graphics, as well as video. But you'll also need to find space for the 5700-series Creative Inspire 5.1 speakers, a six-piece Dolby Digital set that also includes an external control box. You can tuck the 30-watt subwoofer out of sight, but the 21-watt center channel and the four 7-watt satellites deserve thoughtful placement for optimal sound. They're a perfect match for the Sound Blaster Audigy card, which includes a rear FireWire port for video capture. ABS even bundles Corel WordPerfect Office 2002 and Norton AntiVirus, so you can use your PC for more than gaming and watching movies.
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- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 25 reviews
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