Product Reviews

The Pulsar 350 is a fairly well stacked PC. Beating at its heart is a 350MHz Intel Pentium II processor sitting on an Intel 440BX-based motherboard. The 440BX motherboard chipset runs memory at 100MHz, as opposed to the older 66MHz standard, which improves the system performance. 64 megabytes of the requisite PC-100 SDRAM is fitted.

The motherboard also has an AGP (Advanced Graphics Port) slot, filled with an ATi Xpert@Work graphics adaptor. This card is based on the 3D Rage Pro chipset and although it's getting a little long in the tooth these days, it provides acceptable performance in 2D and a modest boost for 3D games.

The motherboard provides two ISA and four PCI slots, and neither of the ISA slots are occupied. Filling one of the PCI slots is a generic PCI sound card which produced reasonable digital effects. The other PCI card is an internal modem, which gives the user access to the joys of the Internet, and helps make the most of Windows 98.

The system case is a stylized affair with an attractively-rounded fascia. A flap in the fascia can be removed to reveal three empty drive bays (two 5.25in and one 3.5in) where you might want to fit a CD recorder or tape backup system. It doesn't look quite so pretty with the flap pulled off, though.

Packard Bell has its own branding on the monitor, which is as unusual-looking as the system case. It's a 15in unit with two stereo speakers mounted on either side of the screen. The picture was clear and well focused at 800x600 resolution, so we thought it worth trying a higher mode. However, the monitor wouldn't even produce an image at 1024x768.

On the plus side, the built-in speakers were surprisingly good. There's a bass adjustment

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at the rear, and the sound produced was the best I've heard from monitor speakers. Even music CDs sounded pretty decent, though the attempts at 3D sound didn't quite cut the mustard. There's a rotary volume control below the front fascia, while the volume can also be adjusted from buttons integrated in the top of the keyboard.

Actually, the keyboard has an array of extra buttons, which do everything from bringing up the help menu to starting the CD player and changing the tracks. This isn't the first keyboard I've seen of this type, but it's good to see that all the buttons worked without having to muck about with drivers. Along with the keyboard comes a Packard Bell mouse, complete with scrolling wheel. It might aspire to being an IntelliMouse, but it doesn't possess the same comfort-factor as Microsoft's rodent.

Taking care of storage is a 6.4Gb Fujitsu hard disk. Fujitsu doesn't have a reputation for producing the fastest hard drives around, but at least the capacity should keep most users happy for some time.

As well as Windows 98, Packard Bell has bundled a copy of Word 97. This is still the best word processing package you can buy, and constitutes a great inclusion with any PC. There's a box full of leisure and education CDs, including some great games like Ultimate Race Pro and Total Annihilation. Also included are a Gary Rhodes CD for budding chefs and a GCSE English tutor for the kids.

Performance wasn't great, closer to that we'd expect from a PII 300 rather than a 350. This is most likely due to the dated ATi graphics and lacklustre Fujitsu hard disk.

Overall, the Pulsar is well aimed at the home buyer. It has a distinctly user-friendly feel that computer novices will warm to. All the plugs and connectors are colour-coded, so there's no confusion about what goes where, and the array of software should give every member of the family something to play with. What's more there's a whole alternative Windows interface provided that children and complete beginners will find a lot less daunting than the real thing.

For this kind of money, it is possible to get a PC with a far better monitor. However, if you're a complete novice you'll appreciate the Pulsar 350's level of hand-holding and neat ease-of-use features. Well worth considering.