Labs

Business PCs

NEC PowerMateML460 Pro [PC Pro]
COMPANY: NEC	PRICE: £544(£639 inc VAT)
RATING:	ISSUE: 150 DATE: Feb 07

Verdict: A small and quiet PC that's more powerful than most businesses will need.

As the current A-List alternative to the Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo, this Labs wouldn't be complete without the NEC PowerMate ML460 Pro. Combining the powerful Core 2 Duo E6600 with Intel's vPro technology and a quiet-running, small-form-factor chassis, it's a formidable offering for business use.

Unlike the model we reviewed before, this version has only 1GB of memory, but it hardly hindered performance, as shown by the overall score of 1.38 in our 2D benchmarks. If anything, this is too much for business tasks, so you can opt for a lesser CPU and save money if the machine will only ever be used for Word, Excel, Outlook and Internet Explorer.

Likewise, the 250GB hard disk is likely to be too much storage, while a DVD writer is another over-the-top component, but is

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useful for archiving. As it's a notebook drive, it keeps the height of the ML460 Pro down to just 91mm and allows a USB notebook floppy drive to be shoehorned in as well. Like the Fujitsu Siemens, the entire front panel and top section slide off for maintenance. The drives at the front hinge out of the way to allow memory to be added or removed. The disadvantage is that there are only two sockets and only one of those is free. Everything but the CPU heatsink and PSU can be quickly swapped out without tools.

Due to the small size of the chassis, there are no spare bays and only a single PCI slot on a riser. This means you can, at least, fit a full-height PCI card. With just two fans, the ML460 Pro is an extremely quiet PC. When idle, we measured only 30dBA from the front.

The Q965 Express-based motherboard has an integrated TPM chip, but it's a shame NEC doesn't provide any software to utilise the hardware encryption. Should Windows need reinstalling, the Instant Recovery application can restore the original factory state from a hidden partition.

Covered by a three-year next-business-day warranty, the NEC only lacks expansion potential. But, if you don't need a DVD writer and can live with a 48-hour warranty response time, the equally fast Fujitsu Siemens costs almost £100 less. Ultimately, the PowerMate has to settle for second spot.

By Jim Martin