Product Reviews

Normally when we see a new processor we get rather excited. But the Sempron is a bit of an exception. AMD is keeping quiet on the matter but, as far as we can gather, the 3100+ is simply the 32-bit Athlon XP in Socket 754 form. Even more suspiciously, the other available versions of the chip are still in Socket A.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing; the Athlon XP continues to be a fine chip, and it's far faster in our benchmarks than Intel's Celeron, which AMD is targeting.

Evesham opts for the 3100+ version of the Sempron, which runs at 1.8GHz with 256KB of Level 2 cache. We were suitably impressed by performance, with the SK31 scoring 2.19 in our benchmarks. This actually beats the Athlon 64-based Systemax, and isn't far behind the Mesh. And in terms of 3D scores, the machines are inseparable. So, unless you plan to move to a 64-bit operating system, it theorectically makes sense to buy a Sempron machine, with a 3100+ chip costing $126 per unit compared to $233 per unit for the Athlon 64 3000+.

This then leaves money for Evesham to lavish on the rest of the system. In terms of core spec,

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however, there's not much difference between the Axis and the Matrix. There's 512MB of RAM split across two DIMM sockets, leaving one free, a 160GB Serial ATA hard disk, ATi Radeon 9800 Pro graphics and a dual-layer Sony DVD writer capable of writing to DVD+R and DVD-R at 8x.

The two manufacturers go different ways when it comes to the TFT but, unfortunately for Evesham, Mesh's choice is marginally superior. The Acer AL1721 looks very nice, but the image is grainier than that of the ViewSonic and the backlighting isn't as even. In everyday use, we prefer Mesh's choice, but Acer's screen should at least appeal to gamers - there was little lag thanks to the 16ms response time.

Gamers might also prefer surround-sound speakers to the 2.1 Altec Lansing 2100 set Evesham provides, but note that MSI's K8N Neo motherboard supports six-channel audio if you want to upgrade later. We're quite happy with the 2100s, though, as there's none of the tangle of wires that stems from 5.1 speakers, and they're even a good choice for music playback. If you're sensitive to fan noise, you might find yourself keeping music playing in the background too, as the hum emanating from the Axis is a little irritating.

So where did the money go that Evesham saved by using a Sempron rather than Athlon 64 chip? Certainly some will have been lavished on the Microsoft keyboard and mouse, both of which are fine examples, and Evesham's customers also benefit from having BigFix loaded - this automatically alerts you to potential problems with your system, and provides the necessary solutions.

But these alone aren't enough. The Mesh's quieter running, faster speed and superior TFT make it the clear choice.