Product Reviews

The Dabs is clad in mid-sized metal, with a healthy four drive bays of each size. It turns out not to be so well equipped for upgrading, though, as the Abit motherboard is based on Intel's 440LX chipset, which runs no faster than 66MHz (for 100MHz capability, you'll need 440BX). Up to four DIMMs can be fitted, for a maximum memory of half a gigabyte, though it isn't of the faster PC100 type. This means that if you want to boost this PC's performance in about a year's time, you'll probably have to replace the processor, motherboard and RAM, rather than jst the processor, as other PCs allow.

Inside, the usual three ISA and four PCI slots are present, two of the latter taken by sound card and modem. The rear of the machine has sockets not often seen in a PC, one each for Composite Video and S-Video. These allow you to use a TV as an alternative screen, or even record your greatest PC achievements on your VCR.

Happily, this machine arrived pretty much ready to roll, with Windows and application software already installed. It was also correctly regionalised - that is, set up for use in the UK with British keyboards under Greenwich Mean Time. This is all-important: in the UK we use different keyboards, currency, spelling and numeric punctuation from either the US or Europe. We also drive on the left. Any mistakes here can be corrected in Windows Control Panel, after the machine starts work, but it's simpler all round if things are set up correctly before the machine leaves the workshop.

When the Dabs launches Windows it asks for your details so it can finish installing itself with your nationality and keyboard. After a reboot, it wants your name and the twenty-five character Windows 'product key', followed by an optional password. It then finds information about your monitor itself and asks you for your local time, which is a convenient point at which to check the system clock, which was only a few seconds fast.

ADI makes some very nice monitors, and a few not-so-nice ones. The 15in ProVista E44 supplied with the Dabs lies somewhere in the middle. It would have been brilliant four years ago - now it's just so-so. But then, it's probably

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no longer even possible to buy monitors as bad as those of the early nineties, when flickery screens were the norm and you were lucky if the thing could resize its image on both axes. The graphics card is an ATI Xpert@Play, an older ATI card but one with the ability to output to TV or VCR through S-Video or Composite sockets. TV displays offer only restricted resolution and refresh rate, but they're still handy for groups of people.

A 56K modem is included, and this PC is ready for the Internet, e-mail, voice mail and faxing. Using the Net will certainly increase your phone bill, but a 56K connection should help to keep costs down. 56Kbps is the fastest modem speed around, which means data downloads at a higher speed and therefore lesser expense. It's becoming increasingly clear that a PC needs a modem nearly as much as it needs a video card.

Modems aside, Dabs has a few extra bits up its sleeve. It comes with a Canon BJC-250 printer. This is one of the cheapest inkjets around, and (like all at the price) very slow. Quality's acceptable though, so it's fine for occasional letters or playtime colour printing. Dabs also provides a lightweight joystick, good enough to get you going but likely to be replaced as soon as you get serious. A decent joystick costs £35-plus.

Lotus SmartSuite, one of the three premier-league office suites, is included. Most prefer Microsoft Office, but SmartSuite is just as effective for most office uses.

While most companies leave it at that, Dabs pushed the boat out furthest, adding a bundle of assorted software from Europress, including the delightful Rally Champ driving game, several sorts of GCSE language crammer, an encyclopedia, a suite of minor office applications, plus Games Factory. Also promised (though not in our package) is a set of Symantec applications including Norton Utilities and AntiVirus, Route Planner UK and Ireland and the CorelDRAW 6 art package. Quite a collection.

Performance of this PC isn't really up to scratch. The PII 300 processor means it's not what you would call slow, but the results of our tests showed it was nearly 30% slower than the leader at this price point: a significant shortfall. The disk is slow, and the ATI Rage Pro graphics chip has already been superseded by the Rage Pro Turbo. You can see why.

The most complete package in many ways, the Dabs was supplied with printer, joystick and much the biggest software bundle than you normally find on a budget PC. But the LX chipset means its motherboard can't operate at 100MHz, so upgrading this PC to your dream PII 450 will mean a new board and memory at least. It's a dead end, when compared with rivals. That said, if you've no intention of upgrading, the Dabs offers a lot for your money.