14 DAY TRIAL // ASRock didn't raise much of a fuss over the ASRock Vision 3D 252B Home-Theater Personal Computer, but it didn't really have to, considering that certain people grabbed one and reviewed it.
Home-Theater Personal Computers usually aren't interesting or strong enough to warrant a review, but the folks at HotHardware made an exception for the ASRock Vision 3D 252B.
Their conclusion was that this system might just be one of the few pre-built systems that even DIY customers could consider satisfactory.
The do-it-yourself market is the one where customers know enough about computers to buy parts individually and set up the machines on their own.
HTPCs, min PCs, nettops and high-end gaming machines are pre-configured computers that brand vendors offer to those without such know-how (or people who want them for the looks).
Pre-built PCs do cost more than the sum of their parts though, and the ASRock Vision 3D 252B isn't free of this curse: it features a price of $900 / 738 Euro.
The reason HotHardware considers the machine worthwhile, even with such a price, is that "the component choices, connectivity options, and form factor all hit the sweet spot."
The heart of the machine is an Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 2520M mobile central processing unit, with two cores, 4 threads, 2.5 GHz / 3.2 GHz clock speed and 3 MB cache memory.
8/16 GB of DDR3-1333/1066/1600 MHz RAM (random access memory) back said CPU, or whatever other 2nd Generation Intel Core i7 / i5 / i3 Dual-Core is selected.
Furthermore, ASRock provides an NVIDIA GeForce GT540M Graphics card (with 1GB GDDR3 VRAM), plus Lucid Virtu technology (for automatic switching between it and the CPU's HD 3000 IGP).
Other specs include 750 GB HDD (7,200 RPM), USB 3.0, audio/mic jacks (7.1 CH HD Audio with THX TruStudio), Gigabit Ethernet, multiple video outputs (HDMI, DVI) and Microsoft Windows 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista / Vista 64-bit / XP / XP 64-bit OS.