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This is the first time that the Poweroid brand has appeared in Computeractive so we were quite interested to see what kind of system was on offer.
The first thing we noticed was that Poweroid has made something of an effort to make the 1101 appear distinctive, with blue paint and a smattering of chrome trim on the case. Even the generously proportioned 19in Iiyama monitor has a hint of pastel blue about it.
A fan is built into the side of the case, although any fears we had about this creating excess noise turned out to be unfounded.
Capable of resolutions up to 1,600 x 1,200, the Iiyama Vision Master 1451 displays a nice picture and can be easily adjusted using the front-mounted navigation buttons.
The only minor criticism lies with the slightly curved screen. Curved screens cause slight distortions of the image and have more problems with reflections from environmental light but, that aside, the Iiyama is a good display.
Poweroid doesn't furnish its computers with much in the way of set-up literature aside from the handbooks for the individual components that make up the system.
This complicates the set-up procedure for novice users who may want a knowledgeable friend on hand. Anybody familiar with PCs will have it up and running soon enough.
The Poweroid is fitted with an AMD Athlon 2000+ XP processor, 256MB of DDR memory and an 80GB hard disk. It proved itself to be no slouch, performing convincingly and racking up very presentable scores in our system tests.
The ATI Radeon 8500DVI All in Wonder graphics card is a splendid addition to this PC and really sets it apart from the crowd. It offers unparalleled connections and excellent 3D performance, something our graphics tests were able to bear out.
Having this card provides the system with a multi-directional FireWire port for connecting to a digital camcorder, and the integrated TV tuner allows users to watch telly on the PC and provides a wealth of audio and video capture options.
The Poweroid's sound comes courtesy of an integrated six-channel sound card which makes good use of the bundled Creative Inspire 5300 speaker system.
As well as all the usual connectors, the Poweroid features a network port, two extra front-mounted USB ports and an integrated SmartMedia card reader, which is nice for owners of digital cameras that use them.
Expansion potential is pretty good too. Two of the four IDE connectors are occupied, leaving two spare for adding extra hard disks into the three vacant drive bays.
DVD-Rom and CD-RW drives are fitted which means that this Poweroid wants for very little. The Microsoft Internet Pro keyboard with two built-in USB ports and a Microsoft mouse are the icing on the cake.
At £986, it's difficult to fault this machine. There could be a little more software to complement StarOffice and the antivirus package. In addition, Poweroid assures us that better documentation will accompany the PC when it is sold.
Price: £986 (inc. VAT)
Contact: Poweroid 0870 220 0444
www.bestpricecomputers.ltd.uk
Also consider: Multivision Vision Gamer Pro
A competent gaming PC at a fair price. £1,213 **** Issue 114.
See also:
A little PC with a lot of features and a DVD+RW drive thrown in. 01 Nov 2002
Time sticks a monitor and a few extras on an old model and comes out with a half-decent PC. 11 Oct 2002
Intel's Celeron comes of age in the battle of the budget processors. 15 Aug 2002
If you're in the market for a new PC, look no further than this. 13 Aug 2002
Good specs, combined with a low price and a three-year on-site warranty, make this a great value piece of kit. 06 Jun 2002All Desktops
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