Product Reviews

While many users prefer to buy their systems direct over the telephone or by email, some people still prefer to try before they buy. If you're near a supplier you can look your prospective purchase in the eye at a show room. However, with the majority of large companies having a single national outlet, this often isn't possible. It's here that companies like PC World fit in; there may not be one on every corner but there's usually one within most people's reach.

This is the first time we've reviewed an Advent system, a brand that's mainly available from branches of PC World. From the outside, the Advent 8595 looks rather plain with an unremarkable fascia design. With its case removed, you're confronted by a system that's not the tidiest I've ever seen, although upgrades shouldn't be a struggle as most major components are accessible. The only potential stumbling block is that to remove the processor you need to make space by taking the graphics card out first in order to release the CPU catches.

I was also a little disappointed to see that the Advent uses two 32Mb DIMMS to yield its 64Mb of RAM. Even though the motherboard still has two free sockets for upgrade, a single 64Mb DIMM isn't much more expensive and is a far more elegant solution.

Backing up the processor and RAM is a Seagate Medalist 8641 UltraDMA hard disk, which offers 8.6Gb of storage. Even in today's climate of applications swallowing gigabytes like they're going out of fashion, the Advent shouldn't start reporting 'disk full' errors too quickly. Moving to the 32-speed Panasonic CD-ROM drive, there's little to criticise here as it's a fast and quiet drive. Even in budget systems DVD drives are becoming increasingly commonplace but CD-ROMs still have a long life ahead of them.

As for the graphics card, you really can't go wrong with an ATi Expert

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98. It's based on the Rage Pro chipset and confirmed as a fine all-rounder, providing more than adequate 2D performance for must SoHo business applications, and support for 3D acceleration too. My only gripe is that the Advent didn't ship with an up-to-date set of drivers for the card, using the Windows 98 standard drivers instead. This may seem like a small point but the ATi drivers allow for more control, particularly of monitor refresh rates.

At the other end of the VGA cable is a rather disappointing unbranded 15in monitor that doesn't do the ATi card justice. According to the manual, at a resolution of 1,024 x 768 the monitor maxes out at a refresh rate of 60Hz, which is simply unacceptable. In operation the Advent's monitor is really only comfortable at 800 x 600, where an 85Hz refresh rate is possible. Image quality is slightly grainy, but focus is adequately sharp. The screen itself doesn't suffer unduly from glare and avoids the trait of a real budget monitor - that tell-tale goldfish bowl curve. Sadly, the controls, although usable, aren't particularly intuitive. There's only one row of LEDs over a series of icons on the case to select image settings and a plus and minus key to alter them.

If you're interested in the expanded PC functionality that a modem brings you under Windows 98, the Advent packs in a PCI Diamond SupraExpress 56K modem card. Sound is handled by an unfamiliar Vortex PCI card which is quite impressive. Running some demos that come with the card, it shows a degree of accomplishment in 3D surround sound. Sadly, the card is somewhat hobbled by the accompanying Multimedia speakers, which proved woefully underpowered despite boasting 120W PMPO.

System performance is definitely in the average bracket. A Pentium II/400 with 64Mb of RAM is still a fast combination, and there aren't any painfully slow components, but the scores delivered by the advent in our benchmark tests weren't awesome by any means.

Looking at the system as a whole, I'm left with the feeling that the Advent 8595 doesn't really do much to stand out from the crowd, and some aspects like the monitor really let the whole machine down. The PC World advantage is that you can, if you want, check the system out before you buy and even walk out of the shop with one under your arm. Sadly, that's the only real advantage this Advent has to offer. All in all, there are definitely better deals available elsewhere.