Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo P5925 EPA

Various Fujitsu Siemens PCs have monopolised our Business PC A List category for over two years. Their superb green credentials and intelligent design make for good value, and the Esprimo P5925 EPA continues this trend with the lowest price of all six systems this month.

It's a medium-sized BTX-format case and the layout is innovative. Removing the side panel reveals a hard disk cage built into a hinged internal panel, which opens, gate-like, via a simple thumbscrew. Swinging it open gives screw-free access to two vertical disk bays, one of which houses a relatively small 80GB drive. More importantly, though, with this out of the way, there's ample room to tinker with the rest of the components.

A 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo E6550 provides plenty of power, and our concerns about the single gigabyte of memory were eased by a score of 1.05 in our benchmarks. This is on a par with several of the smaller systems here and the bonus is that the Fujitsu combines this with 41W idle power consumption. It's quiet, too, with a 23dBA idle noise level.

The Fujitsu's core specification isn't the best here, but there are other nice touches that will be more useful in a business environment than raw power. As with previous Esprimo models, the P5925 features a switched monitor outlet, so your display is powered through the PC and switches off whenever the PC does. The quick-release springs on the drive bays are secure yet simple to use, as are the clips on the rear expansion slots, and a smart card reader can be added to further security.

On paper, several other PCs here are better equipped, but the power savings offered by the Fujitsu business range are appealing, as is the low price tag. The tiny Lenovo will appeal for space-saving reasons, and the NEC has the best specification, but for covering all the bases the P5925 earns our Labs Winner award and retains Fujitsu's A List place.

Author: David Bayon