Product Reviews

Just when you thought that Intel might have given up on Rambus with its SDRAM-based 845 chipset, along comes Systemax with a PC that not only uses RDRAM, but also utilises the new 478-pin Pentium 4. You can see why. We still have to wait for Intel to produce a DDR chipset, and the ongoing legal battle between Intel and VIA over the P4X266 chipset (see Horizons, issue 84, p45) hasn't helped matters either. If you want to keep up with the latest Pentium 4 and still have the fastest performance, then it looks like you need to fork out for Rambus at the moment.

The price premium isn't too bad now though. The fact that Systemax can produce a 2GHz PC with all the trimmings and 256Mb of RDRAM for just £1,299 shows that Intel is feeling the pressure, and so it should be. The biggest threat is the lightning-quick performance from AMD's new Athlon XP processor. By comparison, the Mesh Matrix XP1800-Ti5 (see p149) costs the same amount of money, comes with more features but, more importantly, trounces the Systemax with its overall benchmark score of 5.24 - another performance triumph for AMD. That said, the Systemax's overall benchmark score of 4.37 isn't bad for a Pentium 4, but it's a fair way behind the 4.67 from the 2GHz Dell Dimension 8200 (see Reviews, issue 85, p144).

The Pentium 4 has previously had the upper hand in 3D performance, and Systemax has chosen to complement this with the use of Gainward's new GeForce2 Ti graphics card. Running 3DMark2001 at 1,024 x 768 in 32-bit colour returned a reasonable score of 4,280, and 3DMark2000 was similarly quick with a score of 6,985. Again, it all looks good until you compare it to the Mesh which achieved scores of 7,611 and 10,156 respectively. Not only does the Mesh have the benefit of the SSE-enhanced Athlon, but it also has the bonus of Nvidia's new GeForce3 Ti 500 (see p171), all for the same money.

Performance

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wasn't all that Systemax had in mind for the P2000RV Lifestyle 1280 though. It's a fully featured multimedia system, intended mainly for the home. For a start, there's a huge Cambridge SoundWorks DTT2200 5.1 speaker set hooked up to the Sound Blaster Audigy Player sound card - great for DVD movies and games. And you can even have a play on the latter straight out of the box - it features a bundle of six games including Deus Ex and a Microsoft SideWinder game pad.

With a GeForce2 Ti graphics card, a Samsung DVD-ROM and 5.1 speakers, all that's needed is a large screen to provide the ideal multimedia atmosphere, and the supplied 19in Trinitron CTX PR960F fits the bill nicely. It runs happily at a resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 with bright vibrant colours, although again the Mesh wins out slightly with its superior Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 920 monitor. For DVD movie playback, however, you could always utilise the TV-out on the graphics card with a larger TV.

All the essential functionality is here to make this a fully featured system - there's a huge 61.5Gb of hard disk space on the IBM Deskstar 60GXP hard disk and you can write CDs at up to 16-speed with the Samsung CD-RW. There's also plenty of room for upgrades with one internal and one external 3.5in bay, as well as a 5.25in external bay. The Gigabyte GA-81TX motherboard also offers a total of six PCI slots, and four are still free for future peripheral upgrades, although one of these is made redundant with the additional Audigy gameport backplate. Finally, there are two RIMM sockets free for adding extra memory - something that may become advisable in the future, especially taking the supplied Windows XP Home operating system into account.

There's also some great additional software in the form of Microsoft Works Suite 2001, and the three-year warranty includes a year of on-site maintenance. All of this makes the Systemax a reasonably well-rounded 2GHz package for £1,299 plus £25 for delivery.

The only issue arises when you compare it to a system like the Mesh, which offers substantially faster performance, a better graphics card, a larger 80Gb hard disk, twice as much memory and a better monitor - all for exactly the same price. It's not the fault of Systemax that its chosen components have a hefty price premium, but the end result is a machine that's ultimately uncompetitive in the new market. If you can live without the Intel brand, then the Mesh Matrix XP1800 is a vastly superior PC.