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Intel's latest Pentium 4 chip runs at 1.7 GHz--a 200-MHz bump from last year's first P4s. Even so, our tests find the chip still locked in a tight battle with AMD's premier CPU, the 1.33-GHz Athlon.

The P4 beats the Athlon in a few test areas, notably video encoding. But on most counts the slower (in MHz) Athlon wins out, proving again that speed isn't everything. Moreover, top-line P4 systems continue to remain more expensive than comparable Athlon and PIII PCs.

We looked at two shipping 1.7-GHz P4 systems: HP's Vectra VL800MT, a corporate PC with 256MB of RDRAM and Windows 2000; and Gateway's gamer-friendly Performance 1700, with 128MB of RDRAM and Windows Me.

Gateway's Performance 1700 PC squeaked past comparable Athlon PCs with a PC WorldBench 2000 score of 170. That's four points better than an HP Pavilion 7875 with a 1.3-GHz Athlon and 128MB of DDR memory (for more on the Pavilion 7875, see Top 15 Home PCs), and two points above the average of five 1.2-GHz Athlon PCs--an imperceptible difference on most applications. However, the Performance 1700's score beats the average of four 1.5-GHz P4 PCs by 8 percent, a boost you're likely to notice.

On two music-encoding tests, the Athlon-based HP 7875 and the P4-based Gateway performed evenly. As in previous testing, the Athlon PC excelled at the floating-point-intensive AutoCAD test, while the P4 system outperformed in video encoding. Both ran Windows Me.

On Windows 2000 systems, the relative performance was much the same, except on PC WorldBench 2000. Here, a 1.33-GHz Athlon-based Micro Express PC with 256MB of DDR memory earned a 231, while the HP Vectra came in at 209--a noticeable difference of over 10 percent (for more on the MicroFlex 1333A, see New Products).

Component Pieces

HP maintains the business focus of its Vectra line, bundling its TopTools desktop management program with the unit. The Vectra we tested came with a crisp 18-inch LCD. Though lovely, it adds $2349 to an already-steep $3999 for the PC alone (a 19-inch monitor costs $449). You also get a 12X DVD-ROM drive, NVidia GeForce2 GTS graphics with 32MB of SGRAM, a 40GB hard disk, and a 10/100 ethernet card.

Gateway's gaming system skips the management features, but offers better components and sells for far less: $2699 with a 19-inch monitor. You get NVidia GeForce2 Ultra graphics with 64MB of DDR SDRAM, a 75GB hard disk, a 12X DVD-ROM drive, a 12X/8X/32X CD-RW drive, a 56-kbps modem, a 10/100 ethernet card, and speakers.

Either P4-based system will cost more than most comparable Athlon-based PCs. For example, the MicroFlex 1333A includes a 15-inch LCD and sells for $1799; the Pavilion 7875 sells for $1898 with a 17-inch monitor.

Bottom line: If you do a lot of video editing or encoding, consider a P4 system. For other tasks, steer toward a PC with an Athlon or a PIII.

SUMMARY

Gateway Performance 1700 Street price: $2699 Gateway 800/846-2000 www.gateway.com

SUMMARY

HP Vectra VL800MT List price: $6348 Hewlett-Packard 800/752-0900 www.hp.com/desktops

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