Systemax P1700AP

The compact low-profile case has become a trademark of big names like HP, Compaq and Acer and certainly seems to be the popular choice for business. But Systemax has stepped in to show there's room for the little guys, and the P1700AP shares more than a form factor in common with the Acer Veriton 3300 (see Reviews, issue 87, p149). If you ignore the minor differences in the fascia and the name on the box, you've essentially got the same combination of an AOpen Pentium 4-rated H340 case and an AOpen MX4BS motherboard.

This prompted a quick specification comparison, which gave the more recent offering from Systemax the clear advantage. Although it shared the Acer's price of £649, it beat it on processor speed, memory, graphics, hard disk size, optical drive, bundled software and warranty. The 1.7GHz Pentium 4 is supported by 256Mb of PC133 SDRAM and presides over a 40Gb hard disk and a 32Mb GeForce2 MX 200 graphics card. This is a sound enough core, garnished with a Samsung CD-RW with 24-speed write and ten-speed re-write capabilities, and an integrated Intel PRO/100 VE Ethernet adaptor.

Systemax points out that if customers need an upgrade path - educational buyers might, even if corporates may opt for total replacement - then the AOpen motherboard will take Pentium 4 processors up to 2.4GHz, and the three DIMM sockets (two of which are free) can handle a maximum of 3Gb of SDRAM. There are also three low-profile PCI slots going spare, although whether these will see any use with both networking and audio integrated already is debatable.

The interior of the case is fairly busy without much elbow-room, but the designers have made life easier with sensible touches like using only two thumbscrews to secure the lid, and a hinged upper drive cradle that opens to access the hard disk.

Externally, there's a full set of legacy ports (two nine-pin serial, parallel and PS/2 for both mouse and keyboard) for peripherals still providing perfectly good service. Two of the four USB ports are also mounted on the front panel, along with microphone and headphone jacks. Let's face it, this is the sensible place for audio and plug-and-play ports.

Despite the somewhat close quarters inside the case, the issue of cooling and airflow has been addressed satisfactorily. The CPU mount is right next to the fan in the power supply, and its heatsink has its own large fan to ensure a vigorous breeze over the processor and across the adjacent heatsink atop the 845 north bridge.

One of the major selling points of this machine is its conveniently small size. The case has a modest horizontal footprint of 325 x 395mm (W x D), and is a mere 95mm thick. It's designed to stand vertically as well as flat down on the desk, and has detachable plastic feet to ensure stability if you opt to have it standing up. This means it can be squeezed in underneath, beside or even behind a TFT monitor, leaving more room for work, elbows and food. Those currently usurped from their desks by a PC the size of a troop carrier will appreciate this.

Small-format desktop machines can be a bit like notebooks sometimes, failing to deliver the performance their on-paper specs would lead you to expect. This was certainly the case with the Acer, but the Systemax held up better. There were several reasons for this, including the faster processor of course, but also the more generous allocation of 256Mb of RAM and a faster graphics card and hard disk than those fitted to the Veriton. The result was an overall score of 3.34 in the 2D benchmarks, which still doesn't set the skies alight, but does at least reach acceptable levels for a general-purpose business/educational PC.