Labs

Sometimes the winner of a group test is obvious when you take it out of the box. The Fujitsu Siemens case looks great, but the monitor is a particularly stunning model for the price. The Scaleoview is one of only two 22 inch screens supplied. Like the Chimei that comes with the Mesh, it provides 1680x1050 pixels to accommodate creative applications like photo editing, and is large enough to do justice to DVD movies, even in a living room. But its picture quality is much better than the Chimei, bright and with accurate colour reproduction.

Strolling around the Quad

Despite having blown some of the budget on this excellent display, Fujitsu Siemens have still managed to give the PC itself a specification that reads like a wish list. The processor, in common with most of the other machines, is an Intel Core 2, but while the other systems have two processors on board, the Scaleo's Q6600 contains four. This means its modest clock speed of 2.4GHz belies its actual performance in Windows Vista tasks; four processors certainly aren't twice as fast as two, but while your PC is busy with an intensive task like scanning the system for viruses or converting a video, you can still get on with other work without everything grinding to a halt. The presence of a quad core chip in this price bracket is a welcome surprise, and the supplied 2GB of RAM is enough to do it justice.

It's hard to pick

ADVERTISEMENT

fault with the rest of the system. The 500GB hard disk is the largest size on test, and more than enough to be going on with. And, because the Scaleo is a full-size PC (unlike the HP), it'll be easy enough to upgrade if you ever do run out of space. You don't get many frivolous extras - there's no TV tuner, as with the Mesh, for example - but again, adding one would be easy and affordable, whether internally on a PCI card or as a USB device.

The positives continue on the outside of the case. Five USB sockets might not be particularly outstanding, but the two six-pin FireWire ports make this PC an ideal choice if you're planning on importing video footage from a digital camcorder, especially as one of them is conveniently mounted on the front.

Tripping over its feet

If the Scaleo has an Achilles heel, it's in gaming performance. Here the quad core processor is no help, and the 8600 GS graphics card is better suited to undemanding titles such as The Sims than the latest 3D shoot-'em-ups. You'd need to turn video quality settings right down to get recent titles working. And if one corner has been cut in this system, it's by choosing a ball mouse rather than the optical type supplied by all the other makers. Mouse balls generally get gunged up and lack the accuracy of optical mice, and that can be frustrating.

But there are benefits to compensate for these failings. Microsoft Works 8.5 is included, and while we're not fond of this very limited suite it's notbad for free (you can always download the superior OpenOffice for yourself). Nero 7 Essentials is supplied as well.

Finally, of course, there's the price. The more expensive systems on test can't match the Scaleo's powerful processor, which will handle everything you throw at it for years to come. The graphics card, by comparison, would be relatively easy to upgrade if you got a taste for gaming. If you're after the finest PC for under £700, the Scaleo should be at the top of your shopping list.