Evesham Axis 2400+MK - update

Posted on 20 Feb 2003 at 12:19

Regular readers of the PC Pro forums will have noticed a fiery debate about the Evesham Axis 2400+MK, which was reviewed in the February 2003 issue of PC Pro

To clarify the matter, this is a joint response from PC Pro and Evesham Technology:

The graphics card

Evesham meant to send in the review machine with a Radeon 9500 graphics card, but accidentally sent a Radeon 9500 Pro instead. When PC Pro alerted Evesham to this fact, Evesham agreed to supply the Axis 2400+MK with a Radeon 9500 Pro card for £1,069 plus VAT rather than the £1,049 price it was originally meant to be.

Unfortunately, the build specification at Evesham wasn't updated. Consequently, when PC Pro readers rang to ask for the machine Evesham's sales staff told them that they could only get a Radeon 9500 card and the price would be £1,049 plus VAT.

PC Pro alerted Evesham to this problem, but due to a communication problem some of Evesham's sales staff continued to tell readers that the Pro version of the graphics card was no longer available.

This has now been rectified, but Evesham apologises to all those readers who were misinformed.

As a result of this confusion, a number of PCs were sent out with the wrong card in place. To check which version of the card is in your PC, we advise you to download 3DMark2001 SE from www.madonion.com and run the benchmark at the following settings: 1,024 x 768 resolution, 32-bit colour, no antialiasing, triple frame buffer, 32-bit texture format, 24-bit Z-buffer depth.

If you received a 9500 Pro, your PC should score over 12,000 3DMarks. With a Radeon 9500, expect a score closer to 10,500. Make sure no other applications are active when running the test.

The motherboard

Because of difficulties in getting Asus boards and the tight timetables to submit reviews, Evesham sent in an Asus A7N8X Deluxe board with the Axis 2400+ MK when it intended to sell it with the standard A7N8X. There was a sticker on the box explaining this, but unfortunately the PC Pro reviewer didn't notice it, and so the review was incorrectly printed showing that a Deluxe board was included.

Realising that there would be many disappointed Pro readers, Evesham compromised and supplied the Leadtek board (WinFast K7NCR18D-Pro), which was an upgrade on the Asus that should have been reviewed. This includes FireWire, but not the DualNet feature. Evesham unfortunately failed to let PC Pro know about this mistake, which is why no correction has been printed until this point.

Some PC Pro readers will have received the standard Asus motherboard. If this applies to you, please contact Carolyn Worth at Evesham (cworth@evesham.com).

As this was an honest mistake, PC Pro is happy with the compromise solution offered by Evesham. We apologise to readers who need the DualNet feature for the disappointment, as this will involve an upgrade of £45. However, it doesn't detract from our overall opinion of the PC.

Ordering confusion

Another problem surfaced when readers rang in asking for the Evesham Axis 2400+ MK, and were directed to a PC with an identical name from Evesham's standard offering. From now on, Evesham systems sent into PC Pro will have a unique name.

Evesham's review policy

Evesham is committed to providing readers with what is reviewed. Occasionally there are changes that are unavoidable due to circumstances beyond Evesham's control but customers and PC Pro will be notified of any changes.