Product Reviews

Sony's first UK desktop PC failed to impress us. Although the VAIO PCV-LX1 (see Reviews, issue 81, p143) was great to look at, the limited components and upgrade path coupled with a high price made it a choice for the style-conscious only. Fortunately, with the VAIO PCV-RX1, the emphasis on form over content has swung in a much more favourable direction. It still looks great, but the insides are much more like a standard desktop - and all the better for it.

The RX1 still offers a neat two-tone exterior, with flip-down flaps hiding unsightly ports and removable media slots. Overall build quality is high, with a strong sense of durability about all removable panels and flaps. The Pioneer DVD-ROM drive and Sony's CD-RW have non-standard fascias to fit in with the design, so replacing them would ruin the PC's appearance. Fortunately, the DVD reads at 12-speed and the CD-RW writes CD-Rs at a state-of-the-art 24-speed and CD-RWs at ten-speed, so you won't need to upgrade for some time. Under the top of the two panels, both of which use magnetic clips to keep them shut, are the floppy drive and a Memory Stick slot. The other panel at the bottom conceals an i.LINK and two USB ports. So whether your aims are digital video editing, copying tracks to your MP3 player or digital photography, you're well catered for. However, in the latter two cases you could be tied to Sony peripherals due to the exclusivity of Memory Stick - other vendors may have finally succumbed by the time you read this though. The RX1 even comes with software for all three activities, with Adobe's Premiere 6 LE and Photoshop 6 Elements, plus Sony's own SonicStage for managing your MP3 collection.

With a core specification of a 1.7GHz Pentium 4 backed by 256Mb of RDRAM, the RX1 has enough power for most types of multimedia creation or consumption. This is fortunate, as the RAM is on four 64Mb sticks, taking up the entire complement of Rambus sockets. The Seagate

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hard disk weighs in at a hefty 80Gb, enough even for video editing using the four-pin i.LINK port, and there's a second internal 3.5in drive bay free for upgrade. However, you can't add any removable drives other than externally.

Audio is perhaps the weakest peripheral link, as the Sony relies on Yamaha AC-XG integrated sound. This will be fine for most audio applications, and it even sports an optical digital output for Dolby AC-3 5.1 sound using an external decoder, but with no MIDI port the RX1's audio won't be good enough for budding musicians.

The Sony has everything you need for getting online or networked out of the box. A Lucent WinModem offers a V.90 connection, while a Realtek RTL8139 integrated chipset provides 10/100BaseTX networking. There are still two PCI slots free on the miniATX Asus P4T-LE motherboard, which should be ample considering the level of integration. There's also a second, six-pin i.LINK port and a third USB port on the back, either of which could be used to attach external peripherals such as removable storage or a scanner. Rounding off the bundled peripherals is a reasonable set of Sony speakers, a comfortable if slightly unresponsive Sony keyboard and a solid Sony mouse with wheel.

Considering the 1.7GHz Pentium 4 powering the system, the RX1 acquitted itself reasonably well. The overall 2D benchmark result of 3.52 was a little behind Dell's similarly specified Dimension 4300 (see Reviews, issue 86, p153), but way ahead of propriety solutions like Compaq's Evo D500 (see Reviews, issue 87, p145). So, not bad for a Pentium 4, but no match for an Athlon XP. Where 3D was concerned, the RX1 was less impressive, managing 2,373 in 3DMark2001 and 3,506 in 3DMark2000, which is due to the modest Sony-badged Nvidia GeForce2 MX graphics. But at least you can upgrade this, unlike Sony's LX1 predecessor. For most entertainment usage, the GeForce2 MX should be sufficient.

The system we looked at came with a decent 15in Sony LCD flat panel, but this isn't included as standard with the system and would add £399 to the overall price. In fact, the £1,021 price tag doesn't include a monitor at all. So the Sony PCV-RX1 is no bargain, considering what you can get these days for under £1,000. But none of the alternatives will look as good as this VAIO, and few would have the build quality and feature set. The Sony isn't too expensive to be prohibitive, so if you want a great-looking PC with a good feature set and respectable performance, the VAIO PCV-RX1 is well worth considering.