Saturday, August 15, 2009



Forex Web Trader Review The Forex Web Trader system is a good system as it trades very comfortably. You can just log in to this website and start trading on your account. This way you will be saving time.

The best feature of this system is that you do not have to login to a computer all the time. If you are some where outside then you can still login to the website through your mobile phone.

This way you will be kept up to date with the transactions that you have traded on. You can even venture out not being bothered about the trade as you know that you can login at any time from anywhere.

This system is easy and can be understood very easily by anyone who is a newcomer in this field. The system can be used by experts as well. The trading system that is provided by Forex Web Trader is good and has certain functions that are well developed.

They also provide you with a support panel of experts who will guide you on a day to day basis as on certain issues regarding trade. The tips that are provided are very helpful and should be followed.

How to Trade Forex

Trading foreign exchange is exciting and potentially very profitable, but there are also significant risk factors. It is crucially important that you fully understand the implications of margin trading and the particular pitfalls and opportunities that foreign exchange trading offers. On these pages, we offer you a brief introduction to the Forex markets as well as their participants and some strategies that you can apply. However, if you are ever in doubt about any aspect of a trade, you can always discuss the matter in-depth with one of our dealers. They are available 24 hours a day on the Saxo Bank online trading system, SaxoTrader.

The benchmark of its service is efficient execution, concise analysis and expertise – all achieved whilst maintaining an attractive and competitive cost structure. Today, Saxo Bank offers one of Europe's premier all-round services for trading in derivative products and foreign exchange. We count amongst our employees numerous dealers and analysts, each of whom has many years experience and a wide and varied knowledge of the markets – gained both in our home countries and in international financial centres. When trading foreign exchange, futures and other derivative products, we offer 24-hour service, extensive daily analysis, individual access to our Research & Analysis department for specific queries, and immediate execution of trades through our international network of banks and brokers. All at a price considerably lower than that which most companies and private investors normally have access to.

The combination of our strong emphasis on customer service, our strategy and trading recommendations, our strategic and individual hedging programmes, along with the availability to our clients of the latest news and information builds a strong case for trading an individual account through Saxo Bank.

Terms of trading are agreed individually depending on the volume of your transactions, but are generally much lower in cost when compared to banks and brokers. Your margin deposit can be cash or government securities, bank guarantees etc. Large corporate or institutional clients may be offered trading facilities on the strength of their balance sheet. The minimum deposit accepted for an individual trading account depends on the account type. Trade confirmations and real-time account overview are built into SaxoTrader, while further account information can be produced in accordance with your specific requirements.


Forex Trading Basics

The global foreign exchange market is the biggest market in the world. The 3.2 trillion USD daily turnover dwarfs the combined turnover of all the world's stock and bond markets.

There are many reasons for the popularity of foreign exchange trading, but among the most important are the leverage available, the high liquidity 24 hours a day and the very low dealing costs associated with trading.

Of course many commercial organisations participate purely due to the currency exposures created by their import and export activities, but the main part of the turnover is accounted for by financial institutions. Investing in foreign exchange remains predominantly the domain of the big professional players in the market - funds, banks and brokers. Nevertheless, any investor with the necessary knowledge of the market's functions can benefit from the advantages stated above.

In the following article, we would like to introduce you to some of the basic concepts of foreign exchange trading. If you would like any further information, we suggest that you sign up for a FREE Membership on this website, where you will be able to exchange views with other Forex traders and get answers to any questions you might have.

Margin Trading

Foreign exchange is normally traded on margin. A relatively small deposit can control much larger positions in the market. For trading the main currencies, Saxo Bank requires a 1% margin deposit. This means that in order to trade one million dollars, you need to place just USD 10,000 by way of security.

In other words, you will have obtained a gearing of up to 100 times. This means that a change of, say 2%, in the underlying value of your trade will result in a 200% profit or loss on your deposit. See below for specific examples. As you can see, this calls for a very disciplined approach to trading as both profit opportunities and potential risks are very large indeed. Please refer to our page Forex Rates & Conditions for current Spreads, Margins and Conditions.

Base Currency and Variable Currency

When you trade, you will always trade a combination of two currencies. For example, you will buy US dollars and sell euro. Or buy euro and sell Japanese yen, or any other combination of dozens of widely traded currencies. But there is always a long (bought) and a short (sold) side to a trade, which means that you are speculating on the prospect of one of the currencies strengthening in relation to the other.

The trade currency is normally, but not always, the currency with the highest value. When trading US dollars against Singapore dollars, the normal way to trade is buying or selling a fixed amount of US dollars, i.e. USD 1,000,000. When closing the position, the opposite trade is done, again USD 1,000,000. The profit or loss will be apparent in the change of the amount of SGD credited and debited for the two transactions. In other words, your profit or loss will be denominated in SGD, which is known as the price currency. As part of our service, Saxo Bank will automatically exchange your profits and losses into your base currency if you require this.

Dealing Spread, but No Commissions

When trading foreign exchange, you are quoted a dealing spread offering you a buying and a selling level for your trade. Once you accept the offered price and receive confirmation from our dealers, the trade is done. There is no need to call an exchange floor. There are no other time-consuming delays. This is possible due to live streaming prices, which are also a great advantage in times of fast-moving markets: You can see where the market is trading and you know whether your orders are filled or not.

The dealing spread is typically 3-5 points in normal market conditions. This means that you can sell US dollars against the euro at 1.7780 and buy at 1.7785. There are no further costs, commissions or exchange fees.

This ensures that you can get in and out of your trades at very low slippage and many traders are therefore active intra-day traders, given that a typical day in USDEUR presents price swings of 150-200 points.

Spot and forward trading

When you trade foreign exchange you are normally quoted a spot price. This means that if you take no further steps, your trade will be settled after two business days. This ensures that your trades are undertaken subject to supervision by regulatory authorities for your own protection and security. If you are a commercial customer, you may need to convert the currencies for international payments. If you are an investor, you will normally want to swap your trade forward to a later date. This can be undertaken on a daily basis or for a longer period at a time. Often investors will swap their trades forward anywhere from a week or two up to several months depending on the time frame of the investment.

Although a forward trade is for a future date, the position can be closed out at any time - the closing part of the position is then swapped forward to the same future value date.

Interest Rate Differentials

Different currencies pay different interest rates. This is one of the main driving forces behind foreign exchange trends. It is inherently attractive to be a buyer of a currency that pays a high interest rate while being short a currency that has a low interest rate.

Although such interest rate differentials may not appear very large, they are of great significance in a highly leveraged position. For example, the interest rate differential between the US dollar and the Japanese yen has been approximately 5% for several years. In a position that can be supported by a 5% margin deposit, this results in a 100% profit on capital per annum when you buy the US dollar. Of course, an even more important factor normally is the relative value of the currencies, which changed 15% from low to high during 2005 – disregarding the interest rate differential. From a pure interest rate differential viewpoint, you have an advantage of 100% per annum in your favour by being long US dollar and an initial disadvantage of the same size by being short.
Please refer to our page Forex Rates & Conditions for current Spreads, Margins and Conditions!

Such a situation clearly benefits the high interest rate currency and as result, the US dollar was in a strong bull market all through 2005. But it is by no means a certainty that the currency with the higher interest rate will be strongest. If the reason for the high interest rate is runaway inflation, this may undermine confidence in the currency even more than the benefits perceived from the high interest rate.

Stop-loss discipline

As you can see from the description above, there are significant opportunities and risks in foreign exchange markets. Aggressive traders might experience profit/loss swings of 20-30% daily. This calls for strict stop-loss policies in positions that are moving against you.

Fortunately, there are no daily limits on foreign exchange trading and no restrictions on trading hours other than the weekend. This means that there will nearly always be an opportunity to react to moves in the main currency markets and a low risk of getting caught without the opportunity of getting out. Of course, the market can move very fast and a stop-loss order is by no means a guarantee of getting out at the desired level.

But the main risk is really an event over the weekend, where all markets are closed. This happens from time to time as many important political events, such as G7 meetings, are normally scheduled for weekends.

For speculative trading, we always recommend the placement of protective stop-lossorders. With Saxo Bank Internet Trading you can easily place and change such orders while watching market development graphically on your computer screen.

Make More Money by Tuning Your Automated Forex System

moneyAre you one of these types of forex trader?

- You just purchased your first forex robot, and you’re ready to jump in and start making some big money
- Your forex robot has been making great money for while but profits have decreased.

If this is you, now may be the right time to tune your forex robot.

Backtesting and tuning is essential before you first trade a system. The system you purchased may work great ‘out of the box’, but it is always wise to test the system before trading real money.

Knowing how and when to tune your system is equally important. No system will be profitable forever. Forex market conditions change possibly making your winning system a loser. However, backtesting and tuning can get your trading system back in line with the market and making money again.

Historical Backtesting

Backtesting is running a system against historical market data to see if the system may be profitable. Almost every forex trading system marketed in trading magazines or on the Internet shows backtest results. Here are some important statistics to look for:

  • Profit factor – This is the ratio of total dollars (or other currency) on winning trades to total dollars on losing trades. A profit factor above 1 means that the system was profitable in backtesting. In my experience, trading systems with a profit factor below 2 in backtesting may be unprofitable in live trading. While a higher profit factor is better, a profit factor above 5 indicates that the system is overly optimized for historical data and may be unprofitable in live trading.
  • Win/Loss Ratio – This is the ratio of winning trades to losing trades. There is no ideal number for this statistic, so you should pick a system that fits your personality. For example, if you have a low tolerance for losing trades, pick a system with a higher win/loss ratio. Likewise, if you can handle more losing trades, a system with a lower win/loss ratio is okay. A trading system with a lower ratio must have a higher average winning trade compared to the average losing trade (see below).
  • Average winning trade to average losing trade – For any system, you will want to know the amount of your average winning trade compared to the amount of your average losing trade. Like win/loss ratio, there is no ideal number. This statistic works in conjunction with win/loss ratio. The higher your average win to average loss, the lower the win/loss ratio can be and vice versa.

It is also important to know the period of the historical data used for the test. Ideally, the system should be tested for as much historical data as possible. The historical period should also end as close to the present as possible. This approach tests the trading system under a wide range of market conditions.

Walk Forward Optimization

Walk forward optimization is a similar but alternative approach to testing trading systems. Walk forward optimization uses historical data, but adjusts the trading system’s parameters during the backtest. For example, the parameters may be set using three months of historical data then tested on the next month to get the trading results.

So, you might test and optimize the trading system’s parameters from September 2007 to November 2007 then use those parameters to run the system on December 2007 data. This process is then ‘walked forward’ to the present. Trading systems that are sensitive to current market conditions use walk forward backtesting and optimization to see more accurately, how the system would perform. Walk forward optimization is more time consuming than simple backtesting but may identify more profitable system settings.

Forex System Tuning

Trading systems that are fully backtested and making money will eventually be out of sync with market conditions. When this happens, profits will go down, and the system may become unprofitable. Trading profits can be restored by backtesting and tuning the system for the current market conditions. Ideally, you would use both backtesting methods above to determine the most profitable settings for the trading system. Tuning your forex trading system can significantly increase the profitability and extend the useful life of the system

Conclusion

You should backtest and tune a forex system in the following situations:

  • Before trading a new system live (with real money)
  • When a profitable system becomes less profitable or starts losing money

Backtesting and tuning the trading system will make sure that the system has the most profitable settings for the current market conditions and the currency pair you are trading.

I will post an additional article in the future that describes the backtesting tuning process in detail.

6 Reasons Why Forex is a Great Way to Make Money

Make money with forexMaking more money usually requires significant time (a job), significant money (starting a business), or both. Unfortunately, most people want to add time and money…not give them up. So, how do you create a better lifestyle without giving up the very thing you are looking for?

Forex trading offers some unique benefits that break the traditional money making rules. You can work at your convenience, leverage your time and money, and create the flexible, stress-free lifestyle you’ve always wanted.

Below are some of the majors advantages that forex trading offers:

Trade Forex When It Fits Your Schedule

The forex market trades 24 hours a day from 5:00pm ET on Sunday to 5:00 pm on Friday. With three distinct trading sessions in the Asia, Europe and the US, you can trade on your own schedule. There a great trading opportunities in all three sessions.

Simple, Quick Startup

You can open a trading account in as little as 5 minutes with as little as $25. There is no other opportunity that has 1) the huge upside potential of forex trading and 2) the ease of getting started.

Trade Forex From Anywhere

You can trade forex from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. You can trade forex while sitting on the beach or skiing in mountains. Does your boss let you do that? Better still, you don’t even have to have your own computer if you use a service called a virtual private server.

Make Money in Up or Down Markets

Many people have seen their retirement savings cut in half by the stock market declines in recent months. With forex trading, you can make as much money when the currency market goes down as you can when it goes up.

Try Forex Trading Without Risking a Dime

How many jobs or businesses have you been able to try, risk free, before investing your time or money? I suspect not many. Forex trading has a unique feature called a demo account. Every forex broker will let you open a demo account to try forex trading before you ever risk a dime of your money. Demo accounts typically start with $50,000 to $100,000 in ‘play’ money and uses live market data. With the demo account, you can perfect your forex trading before ever risking your money.

The Forex Market is Easy to Follow

Information about stocks is abundant, but so are the stocks. Finding a trade opportunity in the equities markets may mean sifting through data on thousands of stocks, while the forex trader has only six major currencies to research. Additionally, the vital information that moves equity markets, such as revenues and profits, is proprietary and private. In contrast, virtually all of the news that bears on the forex market is in publicly disseminated reports from governments or research institutions, and released to everybody at the same time.

Conclusion

The unique advantages of forex trading make it the perfect way to make money for many people. Jobs require your time at the employer’s convenience. Forex trading lets you make money when you want, where you want. Many businesses require startup capital of $10,000 or more. You can start forex trading for as little as $25. Jobs and businesses require you to commit time and money. Forex trading offers demo accounts to try trading before you commit. Stocks and futures trading can be difficult to learn and follow. Forex has a small number of major currency pairs with readily available information.

If you’ve been looking for ways to create abundant time and money, forex trading should definitely be on your short list.

Behind the Scenes: How Automated Forex Trading Systems Make You Money

How Forex Robots make you moneyThe income and free time you can gain by trading forex are real. However, even experienced forex traders fall into traps that make them lose money. Trading in a ‘mechanical’ way is the goal of every trader, and helps you avoid most or all of the major trading mistakes.

The easiest way to trade mechanically is to use an automated trading system. A good automated system effectively manages trading capital, follows a set of entry and exit rules, and executes the trades flawlessly. Investing in a good automated trading system will put you ahead trading forex providing the time and money to do the things you really want to do.

Protect your trading capital

The number one reason traders lose money is poor money management. Or even worse, some traders use no money management at all! The size of your trades should be an integral part of any good trading system.

Using a fixed percentage to risk on each trade is a simple, well-studied, and very successful money management strategy. Risking 2% of trading capital on a trade is generally accepted trade size. For example, if your trading account is $10,000, your maximum loss on any one trade would be $200. As your capital increases, you would increase the maximum loss on a trade. Assume your trading capital has increased to $15,000. At this point, your maximum loss per trade would be $150. Easy, right?

A trading system should manage the ‘risk percentage’ based on win/loss percentage, the size of the average win compared to the average loss, and other unique system characteristics. There are no hard and fast rules, but generally, you could raise the risk percentage with a higher win/loss percentage and/or a higher average winning trade to average losing trade.

While the system should manage trade size based on its unique trade characteristics, you maximum trade loss should match your personal comfort level. A good system should reduce your stress not increase it.

Follow Trade Entry and Trade Exit Rules

Picture this situation. You just entered a trade based on your entry rules. The trade is profitable, and the market is continuing to move your way. You then get your exit signal. You know you should get out of the trade, but the market looks great. You are sure you could make more money by staying in the position. So, you ignore the exit signal and stay in the trade. All of a sudden, the market turns against you. You try to exit but the liquidity has dried up as other traders pull their orders. By the time you get out of the trade, you made less profit or even worse, lost money on the trade.

The second biggest reason that traders lose money is not following their system’s trading rules. A well designed and tested forex trading system gives you a statistical advantage in the market. However, if you do not follow those rules, you lose the advantage and will ultimately lose money trading. An automated trading system greatly increases your profitably, since the system always follows the programmed trading rules.

Flawless Trade Execution

Automated trading systems will outperform a human every time when it comes to executing trading signals. People are slow. Computers are not. For example, trading systems that make frequent trades and are in the market a short time can have a very high percentage of winning trades. However, those systems must execute trades quickly and flawlessly to achieve their designed profitability. A system like this would only be profitable if you let a computer make the trades.

The example above shows how critical trade execution can be in fast trading system. But, what about a longer-term trend system? Does trade execution really matter all that much? The answer is still yes. Even in a long term system, quick and accurate trade execution will slightly increase the profitability of each trade which compounds over time. That extra little profit really adds up over time.

Trader Flexibility

This may seem trivial, but if you are not using an automated system, you will have to sit in front of your computer all the time to watch for trading signals or trading exits. How fun is that? You are in this for fun too, right? An automated forex system will allow you to step away to get a cup of coffee, answer the door, feed the dog or whatever. Without an automated system, you don’t have that luxury.

Conclusion

Using an automated forex trading system will increase your profitably by steering you away from common trading pitfalls. A good trading system will:

- Manage trade size to increase profitability and minimize risk
- Consistently follow the designed trading rules
- Quickly and accurately execute trades
- Provide some flexibility during trading hours

By using an automated forex trading system, you will make more money, faster trading forex giving you the time and money for the things you really want to do.

Friday, August 14, 2009


Creative Zen Flash-Based MP3 Player Review

Mar 22, 2008 - Creative's superslim Zen has a gorgeous 320-by-240-pixel color display, an FM tuner, a built-in microphone, robust video- and photo-viewing capabilities, and the ability to import contact management information--and oh, yeah, it plays music.


The Zune 120GB is a worthy alternative to the iPod Classic, but many of its cool new features come at a cost.

Diminutive flash-based MP3 players may have a physical advantage, but they don't address the needs of users who prefer to carry their entire music and media library on one device. Microsoft's latest hard-drive-based Zune player, the Zune 120GB, targets precisely those users. With its innovative twist on music discovery, it's a worthy alternative to the recently updated 120GB iPod Classic--and, at $250, it's the same price as that Apple device, too.

Other than a storage boost and a new glossy-black look, the real changes differentiating the Zune 120GB from its 80GB predecessor lie in the 3.0 firmware--which, oddly, is not preinstalled on the new Zunes (you must visit Zune.net to obtain it). What's more, the player's major added features--built-in wireless and "Buy from FM"--may be interesting, but mostly they serve as incentives to get you to buy from the Zune Marketplace or subscribe to the $15-per-month Zune Pass.

The Zune 120GB is the same size and weight as its predecessor; but at 0.5 inches thick, it's bulkier than the 0.41-inch sixth-generation iPod Classic. It does weigh a bit less, though, at 4.5 ounces versus 4.9 ounces for the Classic.

This edition of the Zune has a glossy plastic front and a black (rather than silver) back. The all-black look is very sleek but prone to fingerprints and scratches. If you want to preserve your Zune, buying a case (sold separately, priced from $20 to $35) will be necessary.


The O2 is an impressive portable video player, but it lacks a few crucial features.

Cowon is known for its high-quality portable video players; and the company's newest model, the O2, doesn't disappoint. With its gorgeous touch screen and crystal-clear sound, the flash-based Cowon O2 ($220 for 8GB; $250 for 16GB; $300 for 32GB) is sure to please customers looking for a fairly inexpensive PVP. But several gripes we've had with previous models--such as lack of ID3 tagging and no support for DRM-protected files--apply to the O2 as well.

Earlier this year, we reviewed the Cowon A3, which offers video-recording capabilities, as well as the Cowon Q5W with Internet browsing. The O2 doesn't provide these frills; it's a straightforward video and audio player. (But for $10 more, you can purchase a cable to hook the O2 up to your TV.)

Like the A3, the O2 supports an astonishing number of video files and has no file size limits. As a result, if your media collection contains files that use various video formats, you won't be burdened with the task of converting them to a unitary format. The O2 natively supports ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX, h.264, M-JPEG, MKV, MP4, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, MTV, OGM, WMV, WMV 9/8/7, and XviD.

Video playback on the O2's 4.3-inch screen is smooth and sharp, with the right amount of brightness and color balance. The 480-by-272-pixel screen isn't as impressive as the A3's 800-by-400-pixel display (or the gorgeous 800-by-600-pixel screen found on the Archos 5), but video on the O2 looks great anyway.

The O2's audio quality and support are as impressive as its video output. The unit's audio player supports AC3, Apple Lossless, FLAC, G.726, Monkey Audio, MPEG-1 Layer 1/2/3, MusePack, Ogg FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, PCM, True Audio, WavPack, and WMA. In our PC World Test Center's sound tests, the O2 had a signal-to-noise ratio average (the higher the number, the cleaner the sound) of 85 db--higher than some of the top-ranked players on our chart. The O2 has some great sound-enhancement features too, like a 10-band equalizer and settings for 3D sound quality. In my hands-on tests, audio sounded crisp, with no detectable static or distortion. The included earbuds don't do the sound justice, however, and they were a bit too large to fit comfortably my ears.



This model shoots full-resolution bursts at up to 60 frames per second.

You've seen photos that freeze the action as a baseball hits the bat, a race car bounces over a curb, fireworks burst in the sky, or a droplet splashes into a glass of milk. Even a hobbyist photographer can take shots like these easily with the Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1, which captures up to 60 fps (frames per second) and offers several ways to exploit this unique ability.

On a trip to the ballpark, I loved the mode that prerecords frames as you half-press the shutter release. The camera saves the images only when you click the button the rest of the way. I could easily set up a shot and wait for the action. If the hitter missed the ball, no problem--I just released the button and tried again next time.

When I caught a hit, I could review the sequence on the bright 2.8-inch LCD to choose the clearest shots of the ball hitting the bat and bouncing away. However, I found I often missed the next play while I was busy selecting the images, or even while waiting for all 60 images to be stored on my SDHC media card.

The EX-F1 also makes shooting video a joy. It can record full 1080i HD video as well as video in standard TV format. However, I had most fun at the baseball game filming high-speed video. The camera can shoot reduced resolutions at up to 1200 fps, but 300 fps is plenty to reveal the slow-motion contortions of a pitcher throwing the ball.

If the image-stabilized, 12X-zoom makes sports photography a breeze, the camera's automatic face detection ensures that portraits are in focus and accurately exposed; you get a full set of manual modes, too. The built-in flash has two light sources--a regular strobe and an LED source for longer bursts. You can also attach an external flash to the hot shoe. One drawback: The wide-angle view is too narrow for dramatic scenery shots or large family portraits.

The camera has a solid feel, with mostly sensible controls and feedback, but I often hit the three buttons to the left of the lens by mistake. I like that you can configure the ring around the lens to adjust the focus, zoom, or frame rate. I usually hate electronic viewfinders, but I frequently found myself using the tiny screen to compose shots accurately, despite its lack of realism.

The sensor's 6-megapixel resolution may seem low these days, but it's a reasonable compromise to achieve the camera's high frame rates. Image quality stood up very well to models with 8 megapixels or more in our lab tests, showing fine exposure and low levels of distortion. The chunky lithium ion cell pumped out enough power to cope with all 500 of our battery test shots. That's important because you can use a lot of juice just waiting for the right moment, let alone shooting many shots in succession.

At $1000, the Casio EX-F1 isn't cheap. But for subjects such as sports and wildlife photography, where high frame rates and HD video stand out, it could be worth every penny.


Gateway FHD2400 24-Inch Wide-Screen LCD Monitor Review

Jun 5, 2008 - Gateway pushes the versatility envelope with its 24-inch FHD2400 monitor. It combines good image quality, a slick design, a great on-screen display menu, and optional speakers that provide fantastic sound.

The FHD2400 has nearly every video input you could want in a 24-inch display: component, composite, DVI, HDMI, S-Video and VGA. The only port lacking is the new, up-and-coming Display Port connection. The on-screen display menu is incredibly well designed and intuitive, and it has the full range of adjustment options. You can control primary colors or use one of the many presets. The ease of navigation through the submenus is refreshing as well.

It's not all about video with this monitor, either; for an extra $50, you can obtain a detachable sound bar that produces amazingly clear sound. The speakers even have great bass, and I couldn't detect any distortion when I cranked up the volume--a rare virtue in built-in monitor speakers.

This display features four USB ports, a headphone jack, and a standard native resolution of 1920 by 1200. It's fully adjustable by tilt, pivot, and height, and a unique swivel permits 360-degree rotation.

Gateway's FHD2400 didn't outperform the competition in image quality, but it found a comfortable spot in the middle of the pack, resulting in a score of Very Good. The display cost about $550 at the time of this review, making it a great choice for anyone in the market for a well-designed, strong-performing 24-inch monitor. You won't be disappointed with this display's range of inputs or its adjustment options.


This Gateway is one of the better power PCs available, if the price and limited upgradability don’t scare you away.

Unless you glanced at a specification chart or popped their tops, you'd have no way of distinguishing between the Gateway FX6800-05 and its less expensive cousin, the FX6800-01E. The two systems use an identical chassis with carbon-copy labeling and colors, and they ship with the same input devices. But the beefier FX6800-05 delivers great performance that the FX6800-01E can't touch.

The core of the FX6800-05 consists of a 2.93-GHz Intel Core i7 940 processor and 6GB of DDR3-1066 memory. The second-tier CPU helps rein in the FX6800-05's price at $3000 (as of April 16, 2009)--a high price for a power PC on our chart, but reasonable in view of the included 80GB Intel X-25M solid-state drive--a unique, speedy storage addition that amply justifies its added cost. This SSD serves as the system's primary boot drive, complemented by a 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drive.

The system's ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics board bests all nVidia-based Power PCs on our graphical benchmark tests. Its mark of 87 frames per second on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (at 2560 by 2100 resolution and high quality) is among the frame rates we've recorded for a power PC--and only 4 fps lower than the best-performing power PC on this benchmark, the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme XT-K. Both machines use identical video cards.

The FX6800-05's solid-state drive helps the system achieve a WorldBench 6 score of 141--tied for second place with the Polywell Poly X4800-Extreme among power PCs--despite its unexceptional CPU. If Gateway were to swap in the fastest Core i7 processor, we'd expect this machine to outperform all other current power systems on this benchmark.

Counting the two 3.5-inch hot-swap bays in the front of the chassis, our test system came with three of four the hard drive bays free to accept new storage offerings. But there's room for only one extra 5.25-inch device because the system's Hitachi-LG DVD burner occupies one bay, and the case's front-panel media controls fill a second. The system's Gateway TBGM01 motherboard contains a single free PCI Express x16 and PCI Express x4 slot. You can install a second graphics card in CrossFire configuration if you wish, but there are minimal opportunities for upgrading overall.


Polywell Poly X4800-Extreme Power Desktop PC Review

Aug 22, 2008 - Polywell certainly named this power desktop computer correctly. Its 3.2-GHz Core 2 X9770 CPU is Intel's current state-of-the-art Extreme (overclockable) chip, which means that this is an extremely fast desktop. At $4799 (as of August 8, 2008), it's also extremely expensive. Then again, no one ever said state-of-the-art would be cheap; the X9770 CPU alone costs nearly $1500; the equally fresh-from-the-mint MSI nVidia GeForce GTX280 graphics card, about $500; and the 4GB of DDR3 1600 memory goes for nearly as much. But the steep cash outlay that's called for buys you a knock-your-socks-off WorldBench 6 score of 141, as well as a gaming experience of 207 to 266 frames per second. Extremely fast indeed.


Apple's 13-inch laptop sees the return of FireWire.

When Apple released the aluminum unibody MacBook in October 2008, the differences between the MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop lines narrowed to a point where folks began to wonder when Apple would decide to merge the two lines into one. With the introduction of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro model (in two versions)--and the reconfiguration of the MacBook line so that it now features a single white 2.13GHz MacBook--a clear distinction between the two lines is back.


TravelMate® 6593

The TravelMate 6593 is a best-in-class notebook, complete with manageability and security features. The sturdy magnesium-alloy chassis offers on-the-go protection, and an optional docking solution is available for quick connection to office peripherals.


Aspire® 8920

Explore the edges of mobile computing with an Aspire® Gemstone blue notebook from Acer®.

The Aspire® 8920, the first 18.4" wide-screen notebook with full HD 1920 x 1080* resolution, delivers incredible style, power, control, high-definition and sound.

The unique style of the Gemstone Blue is expressed through a distinctive color, one that reflects the power, performance and control the Aspire® 8920 gives to everyone who uses it.

Featuring Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology, the Gemstone blue has power in abundance. At work the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor allows you to do more with less effort, and at play it intensifies your digital entertainment experience.

The Aspire® 8920 puts you in control. One of the most striking design elements is the touch-sensitive CineDash media console that responds instantly and keeps the entertainment flowing, just the way you like it.

This is the first notebook to come with a 16:9 screen and true 1920 x 1080 high-definition resolution. Every pixel is displayed without compression or distortion for a visual experience that is second to none.

Dolby® is the undisputed king of high-definition sound. With Dolby Home Theater®, Acer® Tuba CineBass booster and the five integrated speakers on the Aspire® 8920, you’ll hear your favorite entertainment in a whole new way.


Bigger, better, faster, more: This notebook expands on HP's all-purpose Pavilion dv3 while lowering the price.

Editor's Note: This laptop is a special fixed-configuration model offered only at the Best Buy retail chain.

Hewlett-Packard's latest laptop for the back-to-school set is basically a beefed-up but lower-priced ($750, as of August 10, 2009) version of its earlier Pavilion dv3: You get a 14-inch display (up from 13.3 inches on the dv3), more battery life (thanks to a huge 12-cell battery); and a lot more horsepower. You also get an understated plaid case pattern (not visible in the photo gallery image above, unfortunately) that lightens the case's otherwise serious demeanor.

The glossy (and therefore glare-prone) screen offers a 1280-by-800-pixel image, for a nonstandard 16:10 aspect ratio--just as the dv3's screen did. By comparison, the 1366-by-768-pixel screens on some other 14-inch notebooks (such as the Dell Studio 14z) yield a true widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, so you avoid the narrow letterbox bars that are visible above and below video images on the dv4-1465dx. Still, the dv4's display reproduces color well. The Dark Knight looked suitably moody, and action didn't get lost in the shadows.

Measuring 13.2 by 9.4 by 1.5 inches and weighing 6 pounds, this laptop is no ultraportable. Much of its heft is due to its 12-cell battery, which sits below the rig, propping up the unit at a more ergonomic angle and delivering good battery life (just over 6 hours in our PC World Test Center tests, well above the average of 4 hours we get with all-purpose laptops though far short of the outstanding 8-hour battery life turned in by the $1419 Lenovo ThinkPad T400).

For power, the dv4-1465dx relies on a 2.1-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive. This configuration yielded a score of 75 on our WorldBench 6 test suite, certainly adequate for everyday work tasks. The integrated fraohics subsystem includes VGA and HDMI outputs for high-definition video but the dv4-1465dx isn't a great gaming machine.

The dv4-1465dx has a smooth-as-silk keyboard that feels nothing like the rough rubbery keyboard on Dell's Studio 14z. Which style you prefer is strictly a matter of taste (or touch). The dv4's coating certainly gives fingers the sensation that they're dancing over the supple keys--and it may resist abrasion from Cheetos grit, too. I just wish that HP had made the function keys at the top of the keyboard bigger. They are so small that I had to crane my head to find the button I wanted to hit.

Though the touchpad is shiny and neat, its long, narrow trench of a touch zone doesn't provide enough space for unrestrained navigation. And the mirrored surface rapidly becomes a smudgy mess of fingerprints. Still, I liked its feel and the rigid-but-comfortable button feedback.

The Altec-Lansing speakers got reasonably loud, but the Dell Studio 14z and the Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 turned in much better audio performance. If you decide to buy the dv4-1465dx, you might as well go straight for the headphones.

The dv4-1465dx takes connectivity seriously, offering gigabit ethernet ports, three USB ports (one of them a hybrid eSATA port that's perfect for high-speed data), a flash card reader, a PC card slot, a DVD-RW, an olde tyme modem, two headphone jacks, a mic, and a touch-inductive shortcut panel above the keyboard that provide quick access to audio controls and to the onboard 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

HP continues to load its notebooks with games, demos, and other software that you're bound to uninstall the second you get home, but I appreciated the HP Advisor bar (which sits atop the desktop view and gives you a handy shortcut for online searches) and the PC Health & Security button (for a one-stop summary of status data about the laptop. It's by far the handiest of the preinstalled apps.

The dv4-1465dx is a serious step up from the dv3 of earlier this year. And at $750, this machine looks to be a good option, though not the best one around.

Other laptops specially configured for retail sale at Best Buy include the Dell Studio 14z, the Sony VAIO VGN-NW125J, and the Toshiba Satellite M505-S4940. And check out our video coverage of the four laptops from Best Buy in "Back-to-School Laptops: We Review Best Buy's Exclusives."


As a very inexpensive business laptop, the IdeaPad G530 is functional and durable, but that's about it.

Let's start by stating the obvious: At $499 for a 15-inch budget laptop, Lenovo's IdeaPad G530 won't win any benchmark sprints. For a notebook to get into this low price range, sacrifices have to be made and corners cut. The primary concern with a notebook of this class is its value, not its absolute performance or some amazing feature set.

You get a feel for how basic, how utilitarian the IdeaPad G530 is the moment you pick it up. It's light for its size, and slim on fancy extras. Fully decked out in basic Lenovo matte black, it's about as unassuming as a modern laptop gets. The standard-size keyboard isn't hard to type on, and includes arrow keys in the "inverted T" arrangement and Page Up/Page Down keys. Extra keys above the keyboard consist of volume up, down, and mute, along with a single programmable key that can be set to launch a program, open a document, or open a Web page--plus a physical button for Lenovo's OneKey Recovery feature. (Does Lenovo expect us to restore our system so often that we need a physical button for it?)

The trackpad motion is smooth and accurate, but the pad has no special features. It's a standard two-button trackpad with edge scrolling. A pair of USB ports is on the left edge toward the front, with another pair on the right. An ethernet jack is on the left, and a modem jack is on the right front edge, a sure sign that this unit is meant for business travelers, the only ones who still want modems. The microphone and headphone jacks are in the center of the front edge, next to the Wi-Fi switch. Rounding out the package is a 1.3-megapixel Webcam, which you can use to log in to your machine instead of via a password, using the built-in VeriFace software.

Specs-wise, you get what you pay for: The Pentium dual-core T3400 CPU isn't the world's fastest, with a clock speed of 2.16GHz, 1MB of L2 cache, and limited bus speed. This notebook uses Intel's GL40 motherboard chipset and adds 3GB of DDR2-667 memory. The 5400rpm 250GB hard drive is fairly average. The Wi-Fi maxes out at 802.11g, when 802.11n is all the rage. The results of this entry-level hardware is predictably low performance. The WorldBench score of 82 is one of the lower scores we've seen on recent general-purpose laptops, but it's not as low as you might expect. 3D gaming is pointless with the machine's limited processor and Intel GMA 4500 integrated graphics, even at low resolutions.

An upside is that these fairly low-end parts tend to be easy on the battery, and the IdeaPad G530 ran for over 3 1/2 hours in our battery test. That's not quite netbook territory, but that's not half bad for a cheap laptop with a 15-inch screen.

Speaking of the screen, we've seen better, though it's nice to get 15 inches at all in a notebook this inexpensive, and the 1280-by-800 resolution is nice. The contrast ratio and horizontal viewing angles make the G530 a really poor choice for doing any sort of work where visual precision is required, and the screen washes out or shifts color if you move your head too much.

The overall experience of using the IdeaPad G530 is one of, well, using a cheap laptop. There doesn't appear to be any sort of durability issue, but it doesn't feel solid the way more substantial notebooks do. The screen quality suffers as soon as you move your head. The integrated speakers are functional, but you don't want to listen to music using them. The system has a VGA output port, but no digital video output at all. The ethernet port is 10/100, not gigabit. You're stuck with 32-bit Windows Home Basic.

It's all too easy to focus on the negatives, though. Too easy to lose sight of the fact that, as a 15-inch, $499 notebook, it's one of a rare breed. It's clearly designed and built for businesses that need cheap notebooks for traveling employees and that will be functional enough for them to check their e-mail, update that spreadsheet, or pull important files off a customer's DVD-ROM and send them back to the home office. For this market, it's a fairly good bargain.

It's far from a barn-burner and will obsolete itself faster than a slightly beefier and more expensive notebook, but we keep coming back to that low, low price tag and all that it implies. If you crave long battery life, but you're okay with poor performance, a netbook like Toshiba's NB205-310 could be a better use of your cash. Trying to find a good deal for a general-purpose machine for under $500, though, can be tricky. Heck, as of late, the most affordable all-purpose laptop we've tested is another Lenovo: The IdeaPad Y450--and its list price is about $300 more. In the end, home users looking for a back-to-school notebook or a replacement for an aging computer can do better.