Product Reviews

Now here's something a bit different. Most of the high-end PCs we review at Computer Buyer are aimed squarely at gamers, and the money is spent on powerful graphics cards and fast processors. But not everyone wants or needs the latest graphics card, and if you just want copious amounts of hard disk space and a big screen for everyday work, you might end up paying over the odds for a PC with more power than you need.

With the Scorpius ST3, Cube247 addresses this by combining a mid-range processor and graphics card - Intel's Core 2 Duo E6600 and ATi's Radeon X1650 Pro - with twin 400GB hard disks and not one, but two big screens.

The PC itself matches the screens' black and silver colour scheme nicely, although some might find the design of the front panel a little fussy. To match the two hard disks and two monitors, there are even two DVD drives: the top one is a fast dual-layer DVD writer, which will burn to any kind of DVD you care to throw its way, and the lower drive is a basic read-only DVD-ROM. That's really handy, because you can make copies of CDs or DVDs direct from one to the other, rather than having to make a temporary copy on the hard disk first.

Not that hard disk space is likely to be a limiting factor in this system. The two drives, from leading maker Seagate, are set up to appear as a single 745GB drive in Vista. (If you're wondering what happened to the other 55GB, some capacity is always lost when the disks are formatted for Windows, and the rest was never there at all, because of the way manufacturers misleadingly quote disk sizes). If you prefer, Cube247 will configure the disks to mirror each other, giving you the ultimate in hassle-free backup; you'll sacrifice half of that 745GB for peace of mind.

Drives and devices

Above the hard disks is a floppy drive. This is an odd choice in 2007 - we'd expect to see a media card reader occupying this space in a modern PC.Around the back of the Scorpius ST3, old and new standards are mixed again. At the top are outdated serial and parallel ports - handy if you have a really old printer or other peripheral, but irrelevant for today's USB products - and immediately below them are two eSATA ports, the latest and fastest way to add external hard disks.

You'll also find six audio sockets, as the motherboard sports built-in 7.1 surround sound. The speakers actually supplied are a more sensible 5.1 set from Creative. Like the monitors, the P5800 speakers come from Creative's budget range, but will be more than adequate in a small room. They offer decent power for music and movies, although the subwoofer is on the weedy side and, when driven hard, tends to produce sounds more akin to flatulence than movie effects.

The speakers are well suited to surround sound games, although gaming isn't the Scorpius' strong suit. The Radeon X1650 Pro has two digital

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DVI outputs, but could only manage a score of 60% in our Call of Duty 2 test, showing that it's not ideal for demanding 3D games. Turn the detail levels and resolution down, though, and most games will run fairly smoothly, so you're not completely out of luck if an occasional shoot-'em-up session takes your fancy. Performance in our general benchmarks was better, scoring 168%.

Big screen action

If you're thinking those twin monitors are a bit of a white elephant, you clearly haven't used a PC with two screens. Once you've tried it, you'll wonder how you ever managed with only one. You can specify the Scorpius with two standard 19in monitors or two widescreens. The former is a typical setup for showing your work on one screen and user interface on the other. For example, when editing photos, you can fill one screen with the image while using all the toolbars and controls on the other. It's an even bigger help with video editing, where you have more controls to fit in, and also helps with music.

For this purpose, dual widescreen may be overkill, but it makes sense these days because you may well want to watch movies or TV shows on your PC, or even edit the widescreen video footage that's now produced by consumer camcorders.

We opted for widescreens, and got a pair of GNR TS902Ws. These are essentially no-frills budget models, but side by side they'll certainly impress the neighbours, and they're perfectly adequate for Internet browsing, playing games or watching a movie. Text is crisp and colours are vibrant, making photos and video look great. Wide viewing angles mean it's no problem if several people want to watch together. Our one criticism would be lack of contrast: subtly different shades of the same colour occasionally blur into one. It's also a shame that Cube247 supplies basic VGA cables instead of the digital DVI connection that both the PC and monitors are capable of using. Via the analogue interface, an unnecessary series of conversions compromise picture quality, although to be fair we found the difference wasn't too marked.

The choice is yours

The Scorpius' unusual specs serve as a reminder that choosing a PC isn't like buying a lawnmower. Certain models may be advertised and reviewed, but most PC makers will be happy to customise them to your requirements; you can effectively have whatever you want. Take a look at Cube247's website, and you'll see the ST3 itself is almost endlessly configurable. If the idea of two screens appeals, you could start with a different system and add them, ensuring that the graphics card has the necessary outputs.

You could find a more fully rounded system than the Scorpius, although you'd need to spend more money. The ST3 is one of the noisier PCs we've seen in a while, largely due to a fan right at the front which cools the hard disks. The drives themselves are noisy, too, clicking away when accessing files. Like some of the other bits, the keyboard and mouse are bargain basement; we'd have liked to see cordless units at least. Another niggle for a PC at this price is the short one-year warranty and the fact that you'll have to pay to send the PC back to Cube247 if anything goes wrong.

Overall, though, the ST3 is fairly good value. It has enough power for demanding applications like video editing, and plenty of RAM to keep things running smoothly. There are a few corners cut, but the two screens are a huge boon.