Product Reviews

When a system's price is nearly £2,000 including VAT, we have a right to expect something special, and that's exactly what Viglen is tempting us with in its HomePro3 600PS. Showcasing Intel's latest and greatest Pentium III chip, it really does have something for everyone. For business you've got a set of powerful core components running basic office software, for entertainment there's DVD movie playback, and whether you're a teleworker or just keen to chat with those Australian-based relatives, you can keep updated with Intel's Create & Share Camera Pack.

All this equipment is packed into a fairly unobtrusive case with modest dimensions, seductive curves and reasonably quiet fan array. This should help the HomePro3 600PS to integrate into any setting.

The focus is on having a solid core of components, with no single part being included to the detriment of others. The 128Mb helping of SDRAM is to be expected for a processor of this speed. If future applications beg for more then the Intel 440BX-based motherboard has room for two more DIMMs. To cater for your permanent storage requirements a 17Gb Fujitsu hard disk is supplied. This is connected via the UltraDMA/33 interface and formatted to just 16.1Gb. It isn't the fastest of Fujitsu's drives, with a 5,400rpm spindle speed and an average 9.5ms seek time, but it's perfectly adequate for a system of this type.

If you do start seeing the bottom of your storage barrel you can take advantage of the quad-speed CD-Recorder to off-load up to 680Mb on to CD-R or CD-RW. A much more enjoyable use for the Sony CDReWriter would be to use the bundled CeQuadrat WinOnCD 3.6 to compile some audio CDs, assured by Sony's reputation of audio quality.

The excellent Matrox G400 Millennium addresses any likely graphics demands. This is one of the few cards currently available with true hardware support

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for DirectX Environmental Bump Mapping, for realistic irregular surface textures in the latest 3D titles. In addition, 32-bit colour support and a hefty 32Mb video memory will ensure that the next generation of games titles will be displayed to their best potential. The Matrox can also drive two monitors (or a monitor and TV) in different resolutions independently from each other or as part of an extended Desktop.

There's no dedicated MPEG-2 decoder card but the G400's motion assist, coupled with the speed of the processor, ensures that frame drops are minimised on DVD movie playback using the Sony six-speed DVD-ROM. Creative's SoundBlaster Live! Value is a good starting block for the sound system, and even channelling this through the Yamaha YST-M528 speakers produces good enough results for your basic multimedia elements, but it doesn't really do justice to the DVD format. The real enthusiast would be looking to fork out for a Dolby 5:1 Decoder with full surround speakers to use this system for DVD movie playback.

3Com's 56K V.90 PCI modem provides Internet connectivity, and Intel's Create & Share Camera Pack gives the visuals. Viglen also bundles Creative's MC1000 Microphone for a nifty videophone setup.

For display, Viglen has provided its own-branded Trinitron 19in monitor. The overall warmth of the colours is impressive, and the image remains bright and clear even at the edges of the screen. This high quality was evident using the requisite 1,024 x 768 resolution for a screen of this size, right up to a remarkably solid 1,280 x 1,024.

Inside the system, tightly wrapped cables were clipped out of harm's way so that the spacious interior design afforded a maximum of airflows to all components. Future upgrade paths are also open to you with two ISA and two PCI peripheral slots as well as two 3.5in bays, one with front access.

Some of the Pentium III/600's processor-to-motherboard compatibility problems were highlighted during performance testing, but rectification through microcode updates should ensure the final product is less troublesome. The 3DMark 99 Max results were impressive enough at 3,642, although you could find better performing systems. In our 2D application tests it's certainly faster than most 550MHz Pentium III systems, but not to a very convincing extent. Still, it's early days for the Pentium III/600, and as a well-rounded system the Viglen HomePro3 600PS is going to take some beating.