Evesham Axis 2200+

AMD raises the stakes again, but can it beat Intel?

Price: £1174

Manufacturer: Evesham

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Verdict

Pros:

Fastest AMD machine ever; great gaming performance; fantastic value.
Cons: Still can't beat the Pentium 4; lack of software.

Tim Smith, Computeract!ve 07 Aug 2002

As the speed of PCs develops, so does the technology behind them. This new system from Evesham is a prime example that uses the latest AMD processor.

The Athlon XP 2200+ is the fastest Athlon available. It is actually physically smaller than previous processors in the range. This means that more processors can be made from each bit of silicon, so prices for systems based around the new chip are kept very competitive indeed.

But keen pricing only buys you so much credibility in the PC market. Everybody wants more power and the test for the new Athlon is how it stacks up against Intel's improving Pentium 4.

Before we decided that, we looked at this Axis system as a whole. Evesham has backed up its new processor with components to match it for speed and value. A very generous 512MB of DDR memory will keep Windows XP Home very happy for a long time to come.

Storage is provided by an ample 80GB Maxtor hard disk, while moving your data to and from the Evesham is easy thanks to the DVD-Rom and CD-RW drives.

The graphics card is a GeForce 4 Ti4200, felt by many to be the best value card available. Games testing showed that it can handle all the newest games without breaking into a sweat and the flat-screen Samsung Syncmaster SM957 19in monitor does it all justice.

Sound comes courtesy of a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy. An added advantage is that this card comes with a FireWire socket that can transfer information faster than the two USB ports which form part of the system.

The speaker set is the Cambridge Sound Works DT5300 which, when paired with the Audigy, offers a full 5.1 surround sound experience.

A 56K modem completes the options of connecting the PC to the outside world. The lack of a network adapter is a small disappointment but one that can easily be rectified as there is plenty of space inside the system.

A good-quality Microsoft keyboard is included, along with an optical mouse from Logitech.

Like all Eveshams, this is an easy system to set up. At the top of the box is a poster explaining what needs to be plugged in where. Switching on leads straight to Windows and the Desktop has been thoughtfully set up at the best resolution for the monitor.

Evesham includes Big Fix software that automatically downloads updates for the computer when needed, which is an excellent idea. Unfortunately, only a little software is included so the work that can be done 'out of the box' is rather limited.

In our benchmark tests, we found this to be the fastest Athlon we have ever seen. The bad news is that it still cannot compete with the fastest Pentium 4, which comfortably outperforms this chip.

It's not really a fair comparison because the Athlon is far cheaper than a top-end Intel system but for out-and-out performance, Intel still has the edge.

Despite this, the power of the Axis 2200+ cannot be disputed. Gaming performance is just as good as anything that has been tested, and this makes it a very attractive system at the price.

Price: £1,174 (inc. VAT)

Contact: Evesham.com 0870 160 9500
www.evesham.com

Also consider: Evesham Evolution 2.53
The fastest Pentium 4 PC available, but a lot more expensive. £1,996 ****.

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