Systemax Hornet2 B76

The Systemax Hornet2 B76 is a bit of an enigma. It carries the price of a high-end unit, but its bland silver-and-black plastic chassis doesn't look the part. Worse, its performance is more in line with the budget-priced Everex entry here, which costs $1,100 less. Without a high-def DVD drive, TV tuner, ultra-high-res screen, and a top-end graphics solution, we can't figure out what Systemax is charging $2,000 for.
 
To be sure, the system has some good features. Our unit came equipped with a top-of-the-line 2.33-GHz Core 2 Duo T7600 processor and 2GB of RAM. The 120GB hard drive is fine for this class, and the full-sized keyboard is particularly comfortable and quiet (though dedicated multimedia control buttons would have been nice). The 8.8-pound system is manageable for occasional travel, and we were pleased to see the thank-you card taped to the side of the box, initialed by the assemblers and QA inspector in Fletcher, Ohio. That touch is more typical of boutique builders like Falcon Northwest and Velocity Micro.
 
The 17-inch 1440 x 900-pixel glossy widescreen is sharp and clear. Colors in DVDs popped, and the panel handled motion well. Viewing-angle performance side to side was fine, but we noticed a drop-off in brightness when we moved just a bit off-center vertically. Port selection is typical for a desktop replacement, with three USB ports, plus FireWire, S-Video, and DVI connectors. There's also a PC Card slot and a 4-in-1 card reader. Third-party software is limited to CyberLink's DVD utilities and Computer Associate's eTrust antivirus program.
 
Performance was about average among the desktop replacement machines we've tested. The Hornet2 scored 4,157 on PCMark05 (higher than the Everex entry, but lower than the others here). The 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU managed 5,722 on 3DMark03, which trails the Nvidia-powered systems in the group (which scored above the 7,000 mark). Indeed, this machine is best suited for only casual 3D gaming; the Hornet2 delivered 29 fps on F.E.A.R. on autodetect settings with 1024 x 768 resolution; these scores are lower than what we would expect from any desktop replacement, but especially from one with this price. Wireless throughput was good, however, at just over 16 Mbps at both 15 and 50 feet, as was the machine's nearly two hours of battery life.
 
If our as-tested configuration came in closer to $1,500, we might be more enthusiastic about the Hornet2. But for $2,000 we expected more.

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