AMD A8 3870K 

Pretty impressive speeds considering that this SSD runs just $29.99 shipped after a $20 rebate.

The CPU core on the newer chip has been bumped up from 2.9GHz to 3GHz, though the GPU clock remains unchanged at 600MHz—but both are now unlocked.

OCZ rates the Vertex Plus R2 60GB SSD as having a peak sequential read speed of 180MB/s and a write speed of 80MB/, so we are close to these numbers.

The new OCZ Vertex Plus R2 was much faster with a sequential read speed of 166.7MB/s and a write speed of 82.22MB/s..

As you can see from the photo above you have two DDR3 memory slots, four SATA II ports, one PCIe x16 slot, a PCIe x1 slot and a old school PCI slot.

The OCZ Vertex Plus R2 uses an Indilinx controller and has a peak sequential read speed of 180MB/s and a write speed of 80MB/s..

This system can easily perform mainstream tasks like web browsing and office work with ease and can even do some light gaming.

Enough that while it's not going to be our chip of choice for a workstation or enthusiast games rig, if you want a small, low cost PC which is capable of occasional games at console quality, it's a steal.

Not only can this thing handle most games at low to medium settings, It can also be overclocked well.

Plus, you get an increase in overall system performance, which helps you become more productive and have a more enjoyable experience!

With more fine-tuning and a really good cooler, we've seen reports of much higher clockspeeds, but we're not overly sure it's ultimately worth it for the performance returns.

Pictured above are the two systems that we will be comparing the performance of.

If you're thinking of adding in a mid-range card like the HD 6870 or even something as powerful as an Nvidia GeForce GTX 560Ti, though, Intel just wins through – although it's a draw in CPU limited games like Shogun 2 and Skyrim.

When it comes to 3D tasks like gaming, the on board HD6550D is simply in a different league to Intel's laggardly HD Graphics 3000 cores.

Because it has four native cores it outperforms Core i3 in tasks like media rendering and so on, although Intel's computational engine is still superior in games – even if its graphics lags far behind.