Labs

If you're looking for a modest, unassuming office system, this ain't it. With its transparent side panel, blue neon lighting andthick, chiselled black case, the Cyberpower has 'gamer's PC' written all over it.

For a gaming machine, though, £550 is a pretty strict budget. The Gamer Infinity 600's processor is the same cheap and cheerful 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo found in the Advent system, which costs £30 less. But Cyberpower has managed to get much more performance out of it, overclocking it to 3GHz and backing it up with 2GB of memory. It was therefore no surprise when the Cyberpower proved to be the second quickest system on test, a far cry from the performance

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of the Advent.

The graphics card is a major consideration for a gaming PC, and Cyberpower has sought a compromise between price and performance. ATI's Radeon HD 3850 is one of the best value cards at the moment, and while it's no match for the likes of an nVidia 8800, it should let you play most current games at the native 1440x900 resolution of the supplied 19 inch widescreen display.

Unfortunately, that monitor is where the tight budget is most painfully evident. The Hanon screen, while bright and fast enough for gaming, doesn't quite have the size, looks or image quality of some of the others on test. The wired keyboard and mouse are also rather basic, though they are at least responsive and pleasant to use, and gamers will be grateful they're not wireless.

There are no luxuries such as a TV tuner, memory card reader or WiFi adaptor, but you do get a voluminous 300GB hard disk.

The Spartan approach to features and peripherals may not appeal, and the case design isn't the most discreet. But if games are your priority and money is tight, or you want an all-round PC that won't fall over when you try a bit of gaming, the Gamer Infinity 600 delivers just about as much performance as you're likely to see at this price.