Evesham Cosmos Pro

IMPORTANT NOTE
This review was written before PC Pro became aware of the current situation at Evesham, now run by a different management team. Currently, PC Pro does not recommend anyone buys an Evesham system.

The Cosmos Pro is the second most expensive system this month behind the monstrous Scan. But at £2,552, it has to offer something special to persuade us that it's worth the extra cash. It starts off on the right foot with a pair of the fastest currently available 8800 Ultra graphics cards, the same spec as the Scan.

Accordingly, it absolutely destroyed most of the field in our 3D benchmarks, although it fell slightly short of the Scan for no apparent reason in our older Call of Duty 2 tests. It can comfortably run the majority of today's games at the 24in TFT's 1,920 x 1,200 native resolution, and the Samsung SyncMaster 245T is a fine choice - essentially the same as the A-Listed 245B, but with an HDMI port for added flexibility.

Evesham continues the Ultimate theme with that version of Vista, adding a pair of DVD writers, a set of 7.1 surround speakers and an X-Fi sound card to power them. The three-year on-site warranty is an excellent inclusion as well, but given this high specification we were distinctly underwhelmed by the single 500GB hard disk, which cut a rather lonely figure in the 3.5in racks with no other drives for company.

The 3GHz QX6850 CPU is clocked at standard speed, and we were a little disappointed by the use of a stock Intel cooler. But it ran without a hitch throughout our intensive tests, scoring 1.61, and it's actually a surprisingly quiet PC at just 36dBA when idle.

However, for a PC at over £2,500 we expected at least 1TB of storage, and we'd also have liked extras such as a Wi-Fi card or a TV tuner, particularly as they don't cost a great deal these days. The Evesham also doesn't have anything quite as exciting as the Scan's Blu-ray/HD DVD hybrid drive either.

And that's why, ultimately, we're not recommending this PC: we figure if you're willing to spend this much, you may as well spend the extra £170 on the genuinely "ultimate" Scan.

Author: David Bayon