Hands on: Make the most of high-definition

Results
With the T2600 fitted, the test configuration scored 263 in Sysmark 2004, with 321 in internet content creation and 215 in office productivity.

Switching to the T7600 saw the overall score increase to 315, with 388 in internet content creation and 255 in office productivity. Our T7600 sample proved resistant to overclocking, managing a small increase from 2.33 to 2.38GHz, where it scored 320 overall.

The T2600 coupled with the Sapphire card showed a CPU consumption of between 75 and 90 per cent with Casino Royale, and up to 100 per cent with choppy playback with X-Men III. Switching to the T7600 clocked normally saw this fall to between 43 and 66 per cent with the same scenes in Casino Royale, and 51 and 64 per cent in X-Men III.

Instant hit
Upgrading from the T2600 to the T7600 immediately solved any playback issues we’d been experiencing, while boosting application performance by almost 20 per cent. It also worked fine in our motherboard and low-profile case.

The downside is that the T7600 carries a high price tag of up to £400, which is a tough sell when desktop Core 2 Duos are available so much cheaper. But that’s the price you pay for top performance in a potentially small form factor.

Processor prices always fall, but if you’re worried about improving HD playback and can accommodate a full-size graphics card, you could buy the Gigabyte GV-NX86S256H, tested in the November issue, for about £130. If you’re running drivers and a software player that both support the GPU’s acceleration, you could reduce your CPU consumption to less than 30 per cent, while also enjoying top 3D performance.

As our entertainment PC could only accommodate low-profile components, the T7600 was the perfect upgrade, also freeing up a T2600 for a future home server project.