Group test: Power-packed PCs

Buying a new PC to run the Windows Vista operating system may not be necessary for most of us – even the Home Premium version of Vista only requires, in theory, a 1GHz processor.

However, a ‘minimum spec’ PC isn’t going to guarantee a pleasant Vista experience. After all, what’s the point of using new Vista features, such as Flip 3D (the updated 3D version of the document-scrolling Alt-Tab command), if it crawls across your screen like treacle, or using the new DVD Maker feature while watching TV on Media Center if it brings your CPU to its knees?

To get the best out of any operating system, you need something with some horsepower behind it. We have rounded-up five Vista-capable machines that are kitted out with enough processor, memory and graphics power to make Vista – and, of course, XP or Linux, for that matter – fly.

We set a price limit of £999 for these PCs and, not surprisingly, manufacturers went right up to the maximum price on every PC that was submitted.

There was a fair degree of uniformity among these systems – processors all in the 2.1 to 2.5GHz range, most with 2GB of memory and very similar graphics cards.

In fact, this was one of the most uniformly impressive groups of PCs we have seen for some time, with only minor features – such as TV tuners, wireless cards and speaker systems – to set them apart. Therefore, we have had to be ultra-pernickety in our scoring.

So if you think you’re ready to get your hands on Vista, these are the sort of PCs that you should be looking at.

This article is part of a group test of £999 PCs
See also:
Ambros Shuttle SD32G2
Chillblast Fusion Tundra 6300
Evesham Solar Creation
Mesh Elite E6600
PC Nextday Zoostorm 4-6403 Advanced PC
Graphs and table of features can be read via our Pdf downloads above.
Editor's choice is at the bottom of the next page

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