Product Reviews

There was a time when the prospect of AMD producing a faster chip than Intel seemed impossible. It would have been like your local burger bar winning a Michelin star. But times change, and AMD has since left Intel in its wake, first trouncing the PIII with its Athlon. And then, to add insult to injury, AMD had the audacity to break the sacred 1GHz barrier before Intel. For the larger company, this was a PR disaster which was swiftly compounded by another: Intel's 1GHz Pentium III was convincingly slower than AMD's dramatically-named Thunderbird Athlon.

But though Intel may have been knocked down, it certainly isn't out. And, back in its think tanks, its boffins have been busily building what it hopes to be an Athlon killer: Pentium 4. To see just how quick this brand new design is, we threw it in the ring with a fast Athlon system and let the two fight it out.

The Panrix Fusion Ultra is an incredibly striking PC for four reasons. Firstly, its size - all the other PCs in our Lab are simply dwarfed by it. The next characteristic to mark the Fusion as something out of the ordinary is the noise it makes when you switch it on. If you can cast your mind back to when Intercity trains were allowed to clatter along at full tilt, the Panrix sounds pretty similar. Next up in the quartet of impressive characteristics is the price: £2,599, which is probably more than I'd spend on a car. And the fourth resonating feature? Well, that would be the Pentium 4 bit.

Pentium 4 is a completely new kind of processor. The P4 at the heart of this Panrix runs at a colossal 1.5GHz. Despite all its new and efficient construction, the chip still requires some serious cooling, judging by the belt and braces heatsink and fan that's fitted.

Next to the CPU are two Rambus memory modules. Rambus is

ADVERTISEMENT

an advance on the standard SDRAM, being capable of moving a greater volume of information per second. Indeed, Pentium 4 is intended to be teamed with Rambus, as comparatively slow SDRAM would effectively hold the processor back from running at its optimum efficiency. The Rambus RIMM modules themselves are strangely attractive, being clad in blue plastic. In the Panrix, there are two, each boasting 128Mb of memory.

The PC's hard disk is nothing short of sinful: a 60Gb IBM Deskstar with a UDMA-100 interface. Tests revealed that it was fast, thanks in part to the fast burst transfers that its UDMA-100 interface allows. The drive also has a spin speed of 7,200rpm, which helps data transfer along no end. As for the size, all I can say is I've never tested a bigger drive.

In keeping with the larger-than-life credentials of all the Panrix's components, the graphics card is nothing short of jaw-dropping. It's a 3D Prophet II Ultra with 64Mb of RAM, based on the all-conquering nVidia GeForce2 graphics chipset. Combine this card with 256Mb of super-fast memory and a cutting-edge processor, and you've phenomenal potential speed. Indeed, the system scored 8322 in 3DMark, running at 1024x768 in 16-bit colour.

Just for a bit for fun, I set 3DMark to its toughest test setting: a resolution of 1,600x1,200. Just to make the Panrix think a bit more, I also ran the test in 32-bit colour. Incredibly, the Panrix still managed to score 3176 - a mind-numbing result, considering the amount of work involved.

The monitor is of excellent quality. It's a 17in Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 720, with a very flat aperture grille tube. Its image quality is impeccable, being sharp, crisp and beautifully contrasted. The controls too are easy to use, making this a real cracker of a display.

Sound is handled by a combination of an integrated sound chip and a Yamaha YST-M5S50 speaker set. Thanks to its enormous subwoofer, the Yamaha's bass response is quite sufficient to take the enamel off your teeth. When it comes to more delicate sounds, the satellites are more than capable, too.

The Panrix Fusion Ultra is certainly an impressive PC. Every component is the best money can buy. But its final asking price simply isn't justified by its performance. Pentium 4 is all about potential performance - over the coming months it'll become faster, cheaper, and a more sensible option.