Systemax Venture S925 Budget Desktop PC

The Bottom Line
Systemax's Venture S925 budget desktop PC is based on an older architecture design that puts it at a bit of a disadvantage to newer systems. Sure, it's not as fast as the Core Duo's or Athlon processors, but it gets the job done for a reasonable price.

Pros

* Dedicated Graphics Card
* Relatively Inexpensive

Cons

* Older Pentium D Processor
* Lacks FireWire
* Slower Memory

Description

* Intel Pentium D 925 Dual Core Processor
* 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 Memory
* 250GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
* 20x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner
* NVIDIA GeForce 7300LE Graphics Card with 256MB
* AC'97 Audio with Stereo Speakers
* 10/100 Ethernet
* Six USB 2.0 Ports, 9-in-1 Media Card Reader
* Vista Home Premium

Guide Review - Systemax Venture S925 Budget Desktop PC

The Systemax Venture S925 is actually a fairly dated system. Rather than the newer Pentium Dual Core or Core Duo processors, it uses the Pentium D 925 dual core processor. Even most of the AMD Athlon 64 X2 processors are a better choice for performance than this. On the other hand, it should do just fine for most general and Internet applications. The one gigabyte of memory is typical for a budget system, but it is a somewhat slower PC2-4200 speed. This will let it run the Vista operating system OK, but with some slowdowns.

Storage wise, the Venture S925 is a mix. The 250GB hard drive is a bit smaller than the standard 300GB found in budget desktops. This is still a good amount of space for applications and digital media. The dual layer DVD burner is a bit faster than the standard 16x models used in most systems, but it isn't going to save much time when burning a CD or DVD.

The graphics are a bit of a surprise though. Most budget systems rely on integrated graphics processors that have very limited performance. The Systemax Venture S925 instead uses a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce 7300LE PCI-Express graphics cards. This does give it a bit of a benefit over integrated solutions as it doesn't use up system memory and has a bit better 3D performance. Don't expect too much though as this is a very low end graphics card and is not suitable for things such as 3D gaming.

All of this makes the Systemax hard to place. It generally falls slightly behind most budget desktop systems in terms of performance and storage, but it has the dedicated graphics. The nice part about it though is that it is generally less expensive than many other companies offerings.