Gladiator Trident PCP6000 PC

Gladiator's Trident sits towards the budget end of the market, but at first glance you could mistake it for a more expensive system. The chassis is a stylish Akasa number, the 19in Xerox monitor looks good in matching black, and the Logitech keyboard and mouse are a cut above the normal OEM inclusions.

The core components are equally set to confound expectations. Gladiator has settled on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processor. This runs at an impressive 3GHz, although it isn't as fast as similarly clocked Intel Core 2 Duo chips: our application benchmarks produced a final result of 1.22, where a 3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo would probably score around 1.60. Still, 1.22 is a respectable score in a budget system, and it's helped along by 4GB of RAM. Interestingly, Gladiator pre-installs a 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium. This makes full use of the 4GB of RAM (the 32-bit version would only see 3GB), but if you do opt for the 64-bit version of Vista, make sure peripherals are compatible.

Storage comes courtesy of a 500GB Samsung hard disk, complete with a 16MB buffer. The optical drive is hidden behind a flap when closed - once opened the flap conceals the open button, so the only way to close it is to give the tray a nudge. The drive itself is a solid choice, capable of burning to all current-generation discs.

The 8600 GTS is the fastest of Nvidia's crop of mid-range graphics cards, although our tests suggest it's best suited for current rather than next-generation titles. DirectX-10 support is present, but our Call of Juarez test stuttered along at just 10fps at medium detail settings. Call of Duty 2, again at medium settings, ran at a much smoother 38fps.

The Xerox XM3-19WB doesn't support DVI, but the pair of D-SUB ports means you could share it between two systems. The 19in diagonal is cramped compared with the 22in models bundled with the Zoostorm and PC Specialist PCs, but this reflects the difference in price. For most uses, a 1,440 x 900 resolution is fine. Image quality is acceptable, with surprisingly accurate colours for a budget monitor. Brightness levels aren't the best, though, and a lack of contrast means images don't have the punch of the best monitors.

We'd have liked to have seen a memory card reader, but there are six USB ports ready and waiting for external peripherals. Video buffs should note the lack of FireWire, while audiophiles might lament the omission of optical or coaxial S/PDIF, with only an eight-channel analogue output for audio. The motherboard is a Jetway M25GT6-SG. It supports up to 8GB of RAM, and the 4GB of RAM installed is on two 2GB sticks, leaving plenty of room for upgrades. Two empty PCI slots and one PCI-Express 1x slot mean you can add any kind of expansion card you wish. There's also a free PCI-Express 16x slot, but no support for either CrossFire or SLI. Of the six SATA connectors on the motherboard, two are occupied by the optical drive and hard disk, with four remaining for additional drives. The Nvidia nForce 5500 chipset provides support for RAID0 and RAID1 arrays. At 450W, the PSU will easily cope with such an array, and the modular cable design means it sprouts only as many power connectors as you have devices, reducing clutter inside the chassis.

The Trident is a capable and fast PC. The monitor is clearly a budget unit, but it's good enough for everyday use; the PC's warranty is better than we'd expect - it's only 12 months, but cover is on-site. It all makes the Trident a quality PC for a decent price; just bear in mind that Gladiator also makes a truly bargain-basement PC, the £340 Trojan PCP3600 (web ID: 122195). But the Trident is 50% faster and more future-proof, so if those are vital factors then the extra money won't be wasted.

Author: Seth Barton