Product Reviews

PCs with quad core processors are extremely fast in certain applications, but are usually expensive. Evesham's Solar CR88 comes equipped with Intel's Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU, and you can buy it with plenty of change from £1000. That's especially surprising since it also has nVidia's latest graphics card, the GeForce 8800GT.

The CR88 was certainly fast in our 2D tests. You might be forgiven for expecting a quad core processor to be twice as fast as a dual core, and the advantage might reach that level in programs designed to take advantage, such as video encoding software. But most everyday programs, even fairly demanding ones such as image editors, haven't been rewritten for quad core PCs, so the improvement over dual core won't be as marked.

Gamers will undoubtedly be pleased by the speedy performance of the GeForce 8800GT. Demanding 3D titles such as Prey and Call of Duty 2 played smoothly with high frame rates, even with detailed settings turned on. The cordless Logitech keyboard and mouse are less impressive, though. They're good enough for casual use, but the keys feel spongy and the wireless interface causes a slight lag in mouse movement that could be lethal during frantic gameplay. A more responsive USB set would have been more appropriate.

The 22 inch widescreen display has a resolution of 1680x1050 pixels, which gives you plenty of room for working on panoramic photos, killer spreadsheets or any application with a lot of on-screen clutter. It's also very bright, which is

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good for watching movies and also means it should stay usable for longer as the backlight gradually dims over the years. Image quality isn't quite good enough to be ideal for colour-sensitive image editing, but it's fine for everyday use.

PCs under a grand tend to come with cheap surround sound speakers, which often don't sound particularly pleasing. The CR88 instead ships with a 2.1 set, Creative's i-Trigue 3220, but their quality is still disappointing. Music sounded muddy, and bass was vague and distant. Music fans will want to replace these, as will keen gamers.

Internal affairs

The 500GB hard disk should be spacious enough, and if you do need more storage there are three empty bays for extra hard disks. No memory card reader is included, and adding one internally would occupy a bay. There are already two optical drives, which is convenient for copying discs.

There's a second PCI Express x16 graphics card slot on the motherboard, so you could add a second nVidia graphics card in SLI mode for even better 3D performance. However, the position of this slot means a second graphics card would make one of the three PCI slots inaccessible. This could prove inconvenient if you need lots of internal add-ons. We're also concerned that the 350W power supply might not cope with two graphics cards.

Despite the lacklustre peripherals, the Solar CR88 is a compelling choice if you need a very powerful PC that's also fast when playing the latest games. If you don't use programs optimised for quad core, Mesh's slightly pricier Elite E6850 CBX (reviewed in issue 201, or search for 147921 at www.computerbuyer.co.uk) is the better buy. Although it doesn't have a quad core processor, it almost matches the CR88's 3D performance, and has a dedicated sound card and more disk space.

Although the CR88 comes with a one-year onsite warranty, you should be aware that Evesham, a long-established British PC company, is experiencing ongoing financial difficulties; more staff were laid off in January. Before buying, you may want to check the latest news online.