Product Reviews

The Carrera was missing a front panel - a victim of courier bashing. We eventually located it inside the PC.

Features

The Carrera sports an Athlon 650, backed by 128Mb of SDRAM. Unfortunately these aren't matched by the other components. The TNT2-based graphics card is a generous 32Mb, but it's the M64 version - burdened by a slower 64-bit memory interface. This means performance suffers in 3D at high resolutions. Still, it's a decent 2D performer.

Ergonomics

Carrera hadn't installed DirectX 7, the latest version of Microsoft's 3D graphics instructions - we had to do this before we could run the latest version of our 3D test, 3DMark 2000. Not

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a big problem - we're still publishing scores for 3DMark 99 Max - but we prefer to see the latest drivers installed. The Carrera case is unusual in that the front had to be removed before we could get a look at the inside, which was tidy enough. The LG Studioworks 775N monitor is one of the better screens here, with a futuristic OSD. The Keytronic keyboard is also good, with a firm feel and good typing action. However, the Microsoft mouse lacks a wheel.

Expansion

Three free 5.25in bays bring a lot of expansion potential to a small case. The Asus K7M motherboard can take Athlons up to 750MHz. It even has one of the older ISA slots. Only one of three DIMM slots is occupied, allowing up to 512Mb of additional memory.

Performance

In 3DMark 99 Max, the nVidia TNT2 M64 card can't compete with the all-conquering GeForce chipset. It's even outdone by the Rage 128 graphics in the Mesh and Gateway, resulting in a last-placed 2874. However, the sheer power of the Athlon 650 pushed the Carrera to the middle ground in standard 2D applications.

Conclusion

There's nothing very wrong with the Octan M650R, but in present company it lags, lacking the graphics oomph, disk space and software offered by the winners.