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Compaq is among the first to offer a desktop system sporting Advanced Micro Devices' 1.4-GHz Athlon, the chip inside the PC that posted the fastest PC WorldBench scores yet.

Compaq's Presario 7000Z series is now available with a 1.4-GHz Athlon, and you can buy its Presario 5000Z with the AMD Duron-950, which the company also announced this week.

Compaq joins Polywell and Xi Computer as the first vendors to ship systems based on AMD's latest--and fastest yet--Athlon CPU. The Polywell system posted a score of 246 on PC WorldBench 2000, making it the fastest Windows 2000-based system yet tested.

Both new Compaq systems are marketed through Compaq's "Built for You" program and are available in a variety of user-specified configurations.

Presario 7000Z configurations start at $1277. A basic configuration includes 128MB of DDR memory, a 20GB hard drive, a 48X CD-ROM drive, and a 17-inch monitor. Compaq targets the Presario 7000Z at video enthusiasts and offers various multimedia applications for the unit, depending on the configuration you choose. For high-end users that choose a DVD-R drive, the company offers MyMovieStudio, which provides tools to record and edit professional-looking home movies.

The Presario 5000Z is available starting at prices as low as $779. Entry-level configurations include 64MB of memory, a 20GB hard drive, a 48X CD-ROM drive, and a 15-inch monitor.

Both are available online or through Compaq's "Built for You" kiosks at participating retailers.

Shuffling Systems, Chips

Compaq gears the Presario line toward home users. The company recently eliminated several of its corporate-minded models in an effort to streamline its overall product line. The company dropped its well-known Armada and Deskpro product lines and several other brands to more clearly delineate its business and home products.

It recently unveiled a new line of sleek, black-and-silver business products dubbed Evo. That family extends to handhelds as well as desktop systems and notebook PCs.

The new Athlon, AMD's fastest, uses Double Data Rate (DDR) memory technology to boost its speed and its graphics capabilities. AMD's previous fastest chip is the 1.33-GHz Athlon; its fastest previous Duron runs at 900 MHz. Rival Intel's Pentium 4 is available at 1.7 GHz, and both chip makers say they expect to ship 2-GHz CPUs this year.

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