Labs

The ChillBlast PC was one of the more refined on test, with the simple case sporting not only some clean lines but a good cooling arrangement. The slash cut out of the front door (which hides all those ugly drives and so on) gives the glowing intake cooler direct access to air, which a quiet 120mm fan exhausts from the rear. There's plenty to keep cool, with the powerful

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GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB card and already speedy Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 factory overclocked from 2.66GHz to 2.93GHz. There's plenty of performance here.

ChillBlast supplied a good screen, the LG Flatron L226WTQ-SF. Like all the other screens here it has a spacious 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, but in use it was clearly superior to all but the PC Nextday's AOC. The LG screen produced a good solid black while at maximum brightness, which gave us vibrant and vivid colours. The white was pure, too, and we saw little colour bias. But while image quality was generally high, the LG wasn't so good at finding detail in the shadowy areas of films, games and photos. It also suffered from slightly narrow vertical viewing angles, and the solid bezel tended to rock around a little in its base.

The speakers are powerful enough for personal use, and the supplied mouse and keyboard are serviceable if unexceptional. The two-year collect and return warranty is a bonus.