Product Reviews

Desktop computers

Carrera Octan M700 [PC Pro]
COMPANY: Carrera	PRICE: Ł1,199 (Ł1,408 inc VAT)
RATING:	ISSUE: 70 DATE: Jun 00

Verdict: Thanks to impressive performance and a huge number of features for the money, Carrera continues its winning form.

Carrera has supplied some high-quality systems for review in PC Pro over the last few months, such as the award-winning Cygnus M733 (see issue 66, p88) and the Octan 750 (see issue 69, p79).

The core configuration of this PC consists of an Athlon/700 processor and 128Mb of RAM. This is fitted to an Asus K7M motherboard that retains two free DIMM sockets and three free PCI expansion card slots. This combination provides a good balance between performance and value for money.

Data storage is catered for by a Maxtor 92732U8 hard drive, a 27.3Gb model that also happens to be pretty fast (reviewed issue 68, p124). The ultimate combination of performance and capability for removable storage is provided by separate DVD-ROM and CD-RW drives; in this instance both made by Panasonic - an SR-8585 and CW-7585 respectively.



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This leaves three free external drive bays for future upgrades in the spacious midi-tower chassis. As usual, all the cables are neatly tidied out of the way, making it easier to access the internal components.

Super-fast 2D and 3D graphics are produced by a Hercules 3D Prophet graphics card, which is based on the nVIDIA GeForce 256 chipset with 32Mb of DDR SDRAM. This is combined with the ultimate 17in monitor (see issue 65, p128), an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 410 with great image quality thanks to the super-flat Mitsubishi Diamondtron aperture-grille tube. These two components make the graphics subsystem of the Carrera a force to be reckoned with in this month's Labs test.

Multimedia is also strong thanks to the Sound Blaster Live! Value sound card and Altec Lansing ACS54 speakers. A generic 56K modem is also supplied for fast Internet connectivity. The bundled copy of Lotus SmartSuite Millennium will allow you to get working straight out of the box. Finally, the Microsoft mouse and Key Tronic keyboard are as impressively comfortable as usual for data input.

With all the hardware backed up by a superior two-year, on-site warranty, the Carrera represents impressive value for money. However, the Octan M700's real selling point is the superb performance generated by the Athlon/700 processor and Hercules 3D Prophet graphics card, and despite some hot competition it's a deserving Labs Winner.