Velocity Micro Gamer's Edge 1500 Evaluation - Take 2 - @ [H]

Really have to wonder why [H] keeps going back to the same companies when there are still so many more out there....

 
Ominous Gamer said:
Really have to wonder why [H] keeps going back to the same companies when there are still so many more out there....

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Thanks for your feedback. We are constantly incorporating more companies into our program - we have 3 new companies' products in our offices right now.

However, for companies that have signed on with our evaluation program, we will revisit them often - if you look at the frequency that these companies show up in other review publications, you'll see this to be the norm. This is one thing that I agree with when it comes to how other people do it. If we feel a company has value we will constantly monitor them and their products and share what they are doing with our readers.

In this case it was really exciting to see Velocity Micro step up to the plate and deliver us a completely different experience than we have had in the past.
 
i love the system reviews, i click through a couple times a day hoping to see new ones.

one thing i've noticed as an overall trend, people always complain about the price of the system, and you inevitably have to post along the lines of "well, that was 2-3 months ago, it costs xxxx now with these upgrades"...could you include a statement to that effect in the review under (or in) the "what we ordered" section?

other than that, solid review as always, i love the battery of tests you throw at these systems. keep up the good work!
 
djshelto said:
i love the system reviews, i click through a couple times a day hoping to see new ones.

one thing i've noticed as an overall trend, people always complain about the price of the system, and you inevitably have to post along the lines of "well, that was 2-3 months ago, it costs xxxx now with these upgrades"...could you include a statement to that effect in the review under (or in) the "what we ordered" section?

other than that, solid review as always, i love the battery of tests you throw at these systems. keep up the good work!
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Yup, working on the best way to do that right now. In the VM article we stated that the parts have since been upgraded and what they were exactly. We will probably have the closest approximation to current pricing in an asterix or something.

Also, we make sure to provide plenty of links to a vendor's website where you can check out exactly what the up-to-the-minute pricing may be.
 
Dangling fan? That isn't a good way to start a review :rolleyes:. Overall nice review. I wish people would shut up about price though, we all know we can build it cheaper, get the hell over it.
 
Just read your Velocity Micro and OverdrivePC Reviews and I noticed an inconsistancy in the categories of Purchasing, Presentation and Packaging and Multimedia and Productivity.

In your Velocity Micro Review, Brian gave a 9/10 for Purchasing, Presentation and Packaging whereas Abe gave OverdrivePC a 10/10 for the same category. After re-reading the comments from Brian I can not determine why they only received a 9/10 when there was no criticism. It seems Briand should also have givent a 10/10.

Similarily, Brian gave Velocity Micro a 9/10 for Multimedia and Productivity whilst Abe gave OverdrivePC a 10/10. In Brian's comment he states the software did not support 5.1 surround sound which seems to be the only complaint. Abe similarily comments on the lack of 5.1 surround sound support however Abe still awards OverdrivePC a 10/10. Surely if both systems lacked 5.1 Surround Sound support in DVD playback and that was the only problem then both systems should score the same.

Just want to hear what [H]ard|OCP's opinion is on this.
 
Ominous Gamer said:
Really have to wonder why [H] keeps going back to the same companies when there are still so many more out there....

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Welll.... since I am someone considering Velocity Micro, I am glad to see a re-visit. Also, the fact that the company improved some things that [H] criticized makes you think they might really be listening... constructive criticism at work. I love the fact that the company seems gung-ho on quality improvement.

About the review.... I was going to ask a similar question as the one posted by DaLurker. Why this score, while there were no complaints?:

Purchasing, Presentation and Packaging – 9/10

Otherwise, thanks for another great, detailed review.
 
DaLurker said:
Just read your Velocity Micro and OverdrivePC Reviews and I noticed an inconsistancy in the categories of Purchasing, Presentation and Packaging and Multimedia and Productivity.

In your Velocity Micro Review, Brian gave a 9/10 for Purchasing, Presentation and Packaging whereas Abe gave OverdrivePC a 10/10 for the same category. After re-reading the comments from Brian I can not determine why they only received a 9/10 when there was no criticism. It seems Briand should also have givent a 10/10.

Similarily, Brian gave Velocity Micro a 9/10 for Multimedia and Productivity whilst Abe gave OverdrivePC a 10/10. In Brian's comment he states the software did not support 5.1 surround sound which seems to be the only complaint. Abe similarily comments on the lack of 5.1 surround sound support however Abe still awards OverdrivePC a 10/10. Surely if both systems lacked 5.1 Surround Sound support in DVD playback and that was the only problem then both systems should score the same.

Just want to hear what [H]ard|OCP's opinion is on this.
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I also agreed the OverdrivePC got little overscored. The comp's pure power probably heavily influenced the reviewer score. Things like multimedia and especially value. I mean it was a great system, but for 3k+? It might have been an 8 or 9 in value, but not a ten.

This comp on the other hand looks great for $1500 and earned every part of its 9.4 score.
 
DaLurker said:
Just read your Velocity Micro and OverdrivePC Reviews and I noticed an inconsistancy in the categories of Purchasing, Presentation and Packaging and Multimedia and Productivity.

In your Velocity Micro Review, Brian gave a 9/10 for Purchasing, Presentation and Packaging whereas Abe gave OverdrivePC a 10/10 for the same category. After re-reading the comments from Brian I can not determine why they only received a 9/10 when there was no criticism. It seems Briand should also have givent a 10/10.

Similarily, Brian gave Velocity Micro a 9/10 for Multimedia and Productivity whilst Abe gave OverdrivePC a 10/10. In Brian's comment he states the software did not support 5.1 surround sound which seems to be the only complaint. Abe similarily comments on the lack of 5.1 surround sound support however Abe still awards OverdrivePC a 10/10. Surely if both systems lacked 5.1 Surround Sound support in DVD playback and that was the only problem then both systems should score the same.

Just want to hear what [H]ard|OCP's opinion is on this.
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I am not speaking for [H] but it would seem to me that the inconsistance would be the fact that the reviewers are human and each person sees things slightly differently. If 3 people see and accident you get 4 different versions of the events.
 
What's with the recent rash of pre-built system reviews? I suspect most ppl. visiting [H] prefer to build their own and aren't really interested in full systems..
 
I have discussed your concerns with Brian and here's your answer:

When you're talking about the difference between a 9 and a 10, you're talking about the difference between "excellent" and "outstanding."

There were little "bonuses" that we didn't expect from Overdrive PC that pushed that score higher than the Velocity Micro - which was still a very very good system.

The Overdrive PC website, for example, had a discussion forum - Velocity Micro's didn't.

Overdrive's "offline purchasing" meant that the computer was hand-reviewed by a particular tech to see if the parts met our needs and made sense together, and of course, there's the human contact factor. VM had your standard automated purchasing system. Not that this is in any way a bad thing.

When doing an evaluation, some areas tend to affect other areas. In this case, build quality -or at least the superficial parts of build quality- also affected presentation.

As for the multimedia performance: No, they both didn't have 5.1 surround sound, but we also lump in the performance in our DVD encoding test. The OverdrivePC simply dominated in this area. We rarely hand out 10/10 for multimedia and productivity to anything but dual core systems. (which is not to say that a dual core system will guarantee a 10/10) 9/10 is about as good as single-core computers get because multimedia is heavily influenced by raw clock cycles and many of the associated programs are multi-threaded.

A 9/10 or 10/10 on multimedia and productivity doesn't heavily influence a final score - meaning we don't dock a single core system even a tenth of a point in the final score if it's already scoring in the "9's". This category is simply not a make or break category for a final score unless there is something blatantly wrong. If the Overdrive PC had a single core processor, and everything else fell into line in regards to price, etc, it probably would have gotten a 9/10 but will have still earned the 9.7 in the bottom line.
 
Sparrow_69 said:
What's with the recent rash of pre-built system reviews? I suspect most ppl. visiting [H] prefer to build their own and aren't really interested in full systems..
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We're expanding our reader base an will be rolling out a new site design that caters to not just enthusiasts but your everyday consumer. Look for it this month.
 
Spectre said:
I am not speaking for [H] but it would seem to me that the inconsistance would be the fact that the reviewers are human and each person sees things slightly differently. If 3 people see and accident you get 4 different versions of the events.
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Thanks, and while that is true about human nature, we're very aware that we're 4 different people and we make all necessary efforts to retain a consistent scoring methodology. That includes documented guidelines, making sure to read each other's work, discussing scores amongst ourselves, and when it comes down to it, I'm the common thread as the Managing Editor, and my name is always on every article.

We strive to be fair to our readers and the vendors who participate in our program.
 
Yeah that's true, I'd had forgotten about that.. I'm not sure if that's a good thing for enthusiasts like me though... [H] ressources will now have to be producing content for different segments, and I fear the enthusiast portion will suffer..
 
Sparrow_69 said:
Yeah that's true, I'd had forgotten about that.. I'm not sure if that's a good thing for enthusiasts like me though... [H] ressources will now have to be producing content for different segments, and I fear the enthusiast portion will suffer..
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Don't worry about that, Kyle has actually expanded enthusiast content (as you can see by the addition of new motherboard editors), and my team is solely focused on consumer gear - so the net effect is that we're growing AND increasing content across the board.
 
You didnt mention which video card drivers came install with it. It was mention in the recent system review.
 
Spectre said:
I am not speaking for [H] but it would seem to me that the inconsistance would be the fact that the reviewers are human and each person sees things slightly differently. If 3 people see and accident you get 4 different versions of the events.
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I agree with this and certainly my first opinion of the situation is indeed they're different people. However a publication can only be trusted if their reviews are consistent. Merely chalking differences up to different people is not good enough.

I find when researching for a product I tend to read multiple reviews from the same site/publication, some of which are for products I already own. This way I can gauge accurately whether their opinions are in line with mine. In the event they are not I can tell what is difference between my opionion and that of the reviewer. That way when I read other reviews I can extrapolate whether their conclusions will similar to mine. Thus the need of consistency is paramount.

I'm not saying there can't be little differences but the questions I posed I feel are fairly important in determing [H]ard|OCP's guidelines for reviewing these systems.

Chris_Morley said:
I have discussed your concerns with Brian and here's your answer:

When you're talking about the difference between a 9 and a 10, you're talking about the difference between "excellent" and "outstanding."

There were little "bonuses" that we didn't expect from Overdrive PC that pushed that score higher than the Velocity Micro - which was still a very very good system.

The Overdrive PC website, for example, had a discussion forum - Velocity Micro's didn't.

Overdrive's "offline purchasing" meant that the computer was hand-reviewed by a particular tech to see if the parts met our needs and made sense together, and of course, there's the human contact factor. VM had your standard automated purchasing system. Not that this is in any way a bad thing.

When doing an evaluation, some areas tend to affect other areas. In this case, build quality -or at least the superficial parts of build quality- also affected presentation.

As for the multimedia performance: No, they both didn't have 5.1 surround sound, but we also lump in the performance in our DVD encoding test. The OverdrivePC simply dominated in this area. We rarely hand out 10/10 for multimedia and productivity to anything but dual core systems. (which is not to say that a dual core system will guarantee a 10/10) 9/10 is about as good as single-core computers get because multimedia is heavily influenced by raw clock cycles and many of the associated programs are multi-threaded.

A 9/10 or 10/10 on multimedia and productivity doesn't heavily influence a final score - meaning we don't dock a single core system even a tenth of a point in the final score if it's already scoring in the "9's". This category is simply not a make or break category for a final score unless there is something blatantly wrong. If the Overdrive PC had a single core processor, and everything else fell into line in regards to price, etc, it probably would have gotten a 9/10 but will have still earned the 9.7 in the bottom line.
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Thank You Chris, that is exactly what I needed to know. I have to admit after reading OverdrivePC's review I was very impressed and certainly the scoring demonstrates that. I just wanted to make sure elements of excellence that show OverdrivePC goes above and beyond their competitors is what gets them the score, not just "wow" factor. Your examples highlight the excellence beautfifully.

Also I'm glad to know that Dual Core vs. Single Core performance does not affect the final score of the system. Each have their purpose and not everybody needs a dual core powerhouse. The price difference of the two affect the purchasing decision, and I'm glad that the final score merely illustrates the systems capabilities within its own realms and that you're not comparing apples to oranges.
 
A good review but I want to compair it to overdrive's for a second. First off I want to say how I like that you gave the hours and everything for Velocity. Second I was saying in overdrives that I thought they should have better tech support hours to get as high of scores in tech support or value(take your pick). While Velocity doesn't give 24/7 support by default they do have pretty good hours of support. This goes more on to me thinking overdrive should have recieved less as to me I think this would make Velocity's "better". Mind you I have not used either company so I can't speak first hand on them.

Velocity Micro also provides hefty tech support hours of 7AM to 11PM EST during the business work week, and 10AM to 4PM EST on Saturday.
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You said that this support is done in house. I think tech support should have hours put more into consideration. As I said while this is not 24/7 it is done by the company and not sourced out and most people would be able to call them in this range of hours.

Also is it just me or are you guys bad luck? It just seems like you have failures with almost every system you have tested. Maybe one of you just pissed off the ups guy once? Also in the future maybe try getting them to send you other parts instead of an optical drive as that has been your test failure almost everytime(I think one of the reviews you did a card reader that was not bad)
 
Good review, you hit all the important points.

There is some repetition of the "copy and paste" variety in the review where you say the same thing several times, like the fan incident, it's resolution, and the remarks of Mr. Copeland.

I also appreciate your remarks regarding preloaded software and Velocity's ability to customize the preloaded software. I hate junk cluttering up a new computer.

P.S. I'm looking for a [H]ard review of laptops in the $1700.00-$2100.00 price range that can handle playing DVDs and running current games without chugging ;)
 
jahcs said:
Good review, you hit all the important points.

There is some repetition of the "copy and paste" variety in the review where you say the same thing several times, like the fan incident, it's resolution, and the remarks of Mr. Copeland.

I also appreciate your remarks regarding preloaded software and Velocity's ability to customize the preloaded software. I hate junk cluttering up a new computer.

P.S. I'm looking for a [H]ard review of laptops in the $1700.00-$2100.00 price range that can handle playing DVDs and running current games without chugging ;)
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Yup, there are people who prefer to skip to certain sections so sometimes we tend to repeat certain issues that are pertinent or required to explain something we bring up on another page. This is particularly true on the conclusion page - some people may just read the conclusion and we want it to stand on its own.
 
I was under the impression (after reading another another very in depth thread somwhere on the [H]) that as an OEM you can provide an OEM copy of the OS or a restore disc of somekind but not both? I wish I could find the thread right now but I don't have time. As an OEM myself I would love to offer both but currently only provide the OEM OS CD and then the driver CD's themselves. If someone could clarify this that would be great.

But another great reivew nonetheless! I've read every one so far. Keep up the great work guys...
 
jack_flack said:
I was under the impression (after reading another another very in depth thread somwhere on the [H]) that as an OEM you can provide an OEM copy of the OS or a restore disc of somekind but not both? I wish I could find the thread right now but I don't have time. As an OEM myself I would love to offer both but currently only provide the OEM OS CD and then the driver CD's themselves. If someone could clarify this that would be great.

But another great reivew nonetheless! I've read every one so far. Keep up the great work guys...
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That is usually the case unless a company has an agreement with Microsoft. The rules as laid out in the MS OEM System Builder's program have changed a lot over the years.
 
swatbat said:
Also is it just me or are you guys bad luck? It just seems like you have failures with almost every system you have tested.
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It is standard procedure to do an RMA with each system to test the company's responsiveness. If something does not break, we generally RMA something simple like a CDRom drive that is easily diagnosed as "broken." I thought we were very clear on that.

The second time we called, on a Wednesday afternoon, we were on hold about 10 minutes when a man called Chan answered the phone. We told him that our optical drive was making “chunka-chunka-chunka” noises, and after making sure that we could handle installing the drive on our own, he sent out a replacement drive via UPS ground. In reality there was nothing wrong with the DVD+/-RW drive. As part of our evaluation process we RMA at least one part.
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jahcs said:
There is some repetition of the "copy and paste" variety in the review where you say the same thing several times, like the fan incident, it's resolution, and the remarks of Mr. Copeland.
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I would like ad something here just so we are all on the same page. First I do appreciate the issue you are talking about above. If you read every motherboard review we do, you will see some of this as well. The fact is that we want to make sure every single evaluation has the ability to stand on its own merit, not requiring you to be a daily HardOCP reader. In order to do this, we have to "copy and paste" some content. While we love our regular readers, transient traffic makes up over half of our reader base. For the most part, from our research, what we find is many folks just come to HardOCP when they need some specific information or they are upgrading or making a new purchase. Seeing how transient readership makes up such a large part of our readers, we can't just assume "they know the program."

So please cut us some slack on the regurgitation, it might bog you guys down a little, but we think it helps out greatly by allowing non-HardOCP readers to not be left out in the cold.
 
Another enjoyable read.

I think that this latest Velocity Micro is a real bang for the buck computer.

I have read every system review so far. Are these vendors including an organization book and a thank you letter? I know maingear gave something to that effect. The overdrive scored better on packaging/presentation maybe this is why?
 
I will be glad to see these types of systems at Best Buy. The problem is, unless VM and Best Buy get together to offer rebate promotions, these will never sell there. There have been "Other" brands of PCs at best buy before, and they have never sold well because sitting right next to this PC for $1500 will be an HP system with similar specs (minus a video card), bundled with a 17" LCD and a printer for $999 after MIRs.

The one thing I would mention is in your hardware rundown towards the beginning of the article it would be helpful to mention that the system FSB is overclocked 5%. I had to hunt through the article twice to find that fact.
 
swatbat said:
No I know why you rma an optical drive I'm just saying in general. It seems like you all have had your fair share of both stabilty issues and some other hardware failures. In this case the unit had a bad card reader and a loose fan, the fragbox fnw ended up saying a bad video card after all was said and done(although you think the chipset didn't help). The windowpc had a dent and a bad ps. I'm saying bad luck as you seem to have a high rate of failure. As far as my sugestion to try things other then the optical drive I mean that more to give a little bit more of a challenge for the tech support. Maybe say the hd is clicking, fan making bad sounds, etc. Things that are not too hard to figure out but that test the techs a little bit.
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I am not really sure what to tell you about this. Just telling you our experiences. Funny we got some people saying we get cherry picked boxes and you telling me you think we get lemons. Hehe.

As for the tech support suggestions, the optic drive is just for RMA, if you read you will find that we usually cover several issues. :) If there are no issues, we make stuff up, and that has been documented in past reviews as well.
 
Leon2ky said:
Dangling fan? That isn't a good way to start a review :rolleyes:. Overall nice review. I wish people would shut up about price though, we all know we can build it cheaper, get the hell over it.
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Thank you! I too am tired of seeing someone in every review thread say that some OEM computer is way overpriced and can be self built for 10% of the price. The people reading these reviews for purchasing reasons dont care too much about price but more about what they get for that price. They have no interest in building one themselves and will not write down every piece of equipment look at component reviews, then go check Newegg or some other site to price it out.
 
jahcs said:
I appologize for not being clear. Chris_Morley got what I was saying which is that within the same article certain things were repeated basically in their entirety multiple times.
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My fault on that, sorry.

Under my instruction, the desktop evaluation format is laid out so that you don't have to read the entire thing to understand it. When it comes to publishing on the Net, most of our readers go straight to the conclusion page. Many never see anything else. So as a provider of evaluation content, I had to ask myself, are we doing the right thing by forcing people to read the whole 9 pages to get the message of the article. I decided that to truly be serving to our readers that we needed to put together a conclusion page that would give them a good solid outline of the entire message of the evaluation. Then if you are still interested, you can go back and look at the parts that are of interest to you.

Yes, it makes for some redundancies, but that is by design.
 
swatbat said:
It seems like you all have had your fair share of both stabilty issues and some other hardware failures... I'm saying bad luck as you seem to have a high rate of failure.
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IMO it's not too unusual. There are two problems, first from stuff banged up during shipping and the second from stability (outright failures or overclock related). C'mon, who hasn't had stuff broken by the shipper? If you mail order enough stuff, you WILL see your share of busted up items. Complete computers and cases are the most common, and no shipper is immune. For stability problems, just read the forums! Endless tales of woe - not passing Prime, dumping out of 3DMark, failing Memtest... both overclocked and stock speeds. Someone with a rock stable and highly overclocked system may scoff, but those guys aren't all lying - heck they probably think you are the one lying with your tales of an A64 3200+ running at 3GHz prime stable with default volts and 45ºC load temps!

That said, for a full system review these problems need to be reported because people who buy complete systems may not be the type to spend a whole weekend figuring out why they are getting a particular glitch. They are spending their hard earned cash to buy a working computer, not a work in progress. How the vendor deals with these issues is almost more important than not having these issues to begin with.

jack_flack said:
I was under the impression (after reading another another very in depth thread somwhere on the [H]) that as an OEM you can provide an OEM copy of the OS or a restore disc of somekind but not both?
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As I understand it, Microsoft's OEM agreement (besides the retardation of their overpriced OPK that discriminates against small-time builders) states that you can only have one Windows SETUP.EXE. That's why older systems with Windows 95/98/ME that had the .CAB files in the C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS directory did not have a SETUP.EXE in there. The .CAB files were provided twice, once on CD with a SETUP.EXE and once on the HDD sans SETUP.EXE for the convenience of not having to pop in the CD all the time.
 
jebo_4jc said:
I will be glad to see these types of systems at Best Buy. The problem is, unless VM and Best Buy get together to offer rebate promotions, these will never sell there. There have been "Other" brands of PCs at best buy before, and they have never sold well because sitting right next to this PC for $1500 will be an HP system with similar specs (minus a video card), bundled with a 17" LCD and a printer for $999 after MIRs.
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I can't speak for the brick and mortar stores, but the systems are apparently selling really well online - they often say "soldout". Or, it could be that the number in stock is very limited....

BTW, they used to put them on sale (online), but haven't done so- I think since after Christmas.

On this same subject, I went into my local BB (Pittsburgh, Pa) and asked one of the guys in the PC section if they carried Velocity Micro. He looked at me like I was from Mars! And I don't think it was the third eye in the middle of my forehead that got his attention... :D
 
As always....nicely done.
Man, it seems like VM cant catch a break.
Id love to hear the tech conversation of a guy who just spent 1500 bucks and when he hit the power switch, heard the sound of the fan banging around in his case.....woah. Even worse if he bought it at Best Buy!!!!!

I enjoyed then read. I am really getting alot out of these and have turned alot of people here to read up before they buy. :D
 
I can tell you this, I have seen a LOT of boxes come in over the last 8 years with a loose heatsink and fan combo in them. It is not that out-of-the-ordinary. The fact that it still happens sort of stumps me though. Of all the things in there to come loose, that is likely the one thing you want to stay put as it has the ability to really mangle the mobo and cards. It seems to me that someone shipping systems on a daily basis would go with a full-proof solution on fastening them when they are installed. Just my 2 cents.
 
I thought the review was well-done as always and it was nice to see VM revisited. I think that Brian is becoming my favorite system reviewer, btw.

This was great:

"Our flight was free of turbulence. To make the flight experience more realistic, I squished myself in between two fat guys and played “Legally Blonde 2” on an overhead screen without the sound. Afterwards, I ate a $9 tuna fish sandwich."
 
swatbat said:
Yea it just seems like you all have had a pretty high failure rate. Things do fail yes but usually not like they have for your reviewers.
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I think it is funny that you think this. Maybe this is the first time the world's eyes are being opened to the "real world" of systems such as this. Given our program over the months now, I have no reason to believe that we are getting more problematic systems than any one else. We are just buying PCs, the same way you guys are.

Morley and Brian had one actually let the smoke out today after gaming on it for hours.
 
swatbat said:
Yea it just seems like you all have had a pretty high failure rate. Things do fail yes but usually not like they have for your reviewers.
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I was just making sure Chris saw my response above, and I realized something. Over two years ago when we started playing games in video card evaluations, instead of running the usual canned benchmarks, I got a lot of resistance. I got tons of emails that stated, "You guys are doing it wrong, the benchmarks on the other sites show a big difference in card X and you totally missed it." The fact is that the canned bencmarks miss showing real world gameplay differnces ALL THE TIME, and is why we stopped using them. Considering that, maybe we are just seeing some real differences that running a few bencmarks like the magazines do and then calling it "editors choice" because of the exceptional EPenis score don't uncover?
 
I've had the pleasure of owning 3 systems from this vendor and have never been let down. My latest was just received on 2/8/06 in the form of their Vision GX-V. I love to do FPS's but was not interested in an SLi configuration. The Vision came w/ the Modified Lian Li case in black, Asus A8N-VM CSM MOBO, I upgraded to the Antec 550 PS, 1gig of High Performance Mushkin #991433, DVD burner, 200 gig HD, Floppy, AMD 3700+ w/ Arctic Cooling (my fan stayed on through shipping) for $1009 w/ free shipping. I added a 6800Gt 512MB that I had already and have ordered another gig of memory from NewEgg. Overall the past few days have been enjoyable to say the least. The system is rock solid stable and gaming performance is phenomenal. I highly recommend them and feel their prices are very nominal for the quality you receive, and their service is second to none.
 
Thanks to the [H] for another fair review. We were fighting with a bad batch of CPU cooling fans in December, and it was clearly something you couldn't miss. Thanks for mentioning our awareness of the problem, which has since been corrected by us, in collaboration with Arctic Cooling.

On the subject of a Windows OEM installation disk and a Velocity Micro recovery disk: We have verified with Microsoft that it's OK to include the original OEM disk and an image of the hard drive, because the image is not installable. There is no copy of setup.exe or any other means to reinstall this image on any system other than the machine it was made on or an exact duplicate, and the Windows CD key is still not transferable. It's only a duplicate of the hard drive's image, so we want customers to just enjoy it for what it is.

On the topic of Best Buy: We could not be happier with the relationship we have with Best Buy which began in June of 2005. They have always demanded that we deliver systems to them exactly like we would deliver to any direct customers. They don't want us to cut corners to keep costs lower, or skimp on quality. We would never consider these options. We are in only select stores around the US that cater more to gamers. Our fully functional demo units in some stores also enable anyone interested in seeing a Velocity Micro PC the ability to go to a store, check out our aluminum chassis, see the wiring job (all Best Buy units have side windows) and play games on the PC before they walk out of the store with one in there hands on that day. No 2-3 week wait, no buying a PC from pretty pictures on the internet, and with the same quality and choice components you'd get if you ordered it just like [H] did. You will have far less chance of shipping damage, too, because we ship by trailor instead of leave it to UPS. Sales are going exceptionally well, as noted by a reader who notice they are sometimes out of stock online. Don't worry, more are on the way, including more T1425 systems with FX-60's.

Tech support and overnighted parts: Our techs - located right here in Richmond, VA - have the full authority to overnight any part if they feel it's needed or the customer asks. If a system is down, you can be sure any vital parts will be shipped by next day air. If the issue is less critical and the customer indicates there is no immediate rush, we may decide to ship by ground instead, unless the customer requests otherwise. The media reader is not usually considered vital unless the customer declares it to be. If you need it, just ask.

Thanks, again, for an honest and fair shot.

Randy Copeland
President & CEO
Velocity Micro, Inc.
 
The graph at the end of video performance is exactly what I want to see, not only in reviews of OEM machines, but in video cards as well. It does an excellent job in expressing the type of FPS and the fluidity one should expect from a product.

The max and min framerates are useful to put the avg frame rate in context - that is, if the average frame rate is closer to the max than the min, you know to expect consistently high framerates throughout while only a few short moments of poor performance. You didn't go on for pages and pages for each game, filling it with tedious and mundane comments for a review of an OEM system.

For vid card reviews, you would do that of course, but for IQ and general playability, not graphs.

Good job on the review. I'm looking forward to the new [H] site.
 
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