GCN LAB REVIEW: Ace Vision 6Gt
Connecting state and local government leaders
The Ace Vision 6Gt PC would do well for an administrator who doesn’t want to pay a lot for performance and has a good deal of components to add.
Pros:Cons:
Performance:
Upgradability:
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Value:
Price:
The Ace Vision 6Gt is a fairly fast system with a great amount of space for expansion. Its government price makes it one of the best bargains available for agencies looking to expand to dual-core processors.
In addition to the expected ports, the Vision had an eSATA port and FireWire port. In addition, we found two DVI video ports hardwired into the motherboard, which is unique in this roundup. Its 500G of hard-drive space should be enough for most users.
We found plenty of room for expansion in the Ace Vision. There is room for another five 3.5-inch bays (two external) and three external 5.25-inch bays, which is easily the most in this review. The two empty memory slots mean that as much as 16G of additional RAM can be added before replacing the current 4G. The one part of upgrade capacity where the Vision does not excel is in peripheral slots, having only one PCI-E2 x16, two PCI-E x1 and a single PCI slot available. However, there are three additional spots available on the case, so when it comes time to replace the motherboard, a larger one could take advantage of these.
We were able to get inside the Vision fairly easily. We needed only to unfasten two thumbscrews to get the cover off. Once inside, there was plenty of space, and the cables were well organized. The only major difficulty would be in the insertion and removal of devices in the drive bays because a screwdriver is needed to open the other side panel and secure the drives to the framework.
In our benchmark performance test, the Ace Vision scored 963.9, which was in the middle of the pack and a decent score. It’s 3.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 processor and 4G of memory did the lion’s share of the work needed to produce this score. However, the lack of a graphics card with 3-D acceleration prevented it from taking top honors in this category.
Possibly the most impressive feature of the Ace Vision 6Gt is its price for government organizations. Its list price of $1,568 is decent, but the government price of $978 is fantastic. This PC would do well for an administrator who doesn’t want to pay a lot for performance and has a good deal of components to add.
Ace Computers, 877-223-2667, www.acecomputers.com
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