PC Specialist Fusion 945 X2 in Desktop PCs

PC Specialist has gone all out for performance with its latest enthusiast-level PC. The processor at the heart of the Fusion is the AMD Phenom II X3 945, a quad-core, 3GHz chip with an 8MB cache and a monstrous TDP of 125W. Corsair supplies the memory: in this case 8GB of 1,333MHz DDR3 XMS3 RAM, complete with silly-looking heatsinks on top for better heat dissipation.

It sounds extraordinarily fast, and it is. The Fusion stormed through our benchmarks to a sensational overall result of 1.78. And while this isn't as superlative-inducing as the Yoyotech Water Dragon 3.6 was - Intel's Core i7 processors routinely break the 2.0 barrier in our benchmarks - but it's still incredibly impressive.

Those gaming credentials are supplied by the ATI Radeon HD 4870X2, which runs at 750GHz and has 1GB of GDDR5 RAM. Not only that, but it borrows 1GB of the system's main RAM, for a total of a little over 2GB. It dispatched our Crysis benchmark - still one of the sternest 3D tests a PC can face - with ease. At the monitor's native setting of 1,920 x 1,200 and Crysis set to its highest settings our benchmark ran at a smooth average of 34fps.

The monitor in question is LG's Flatron W2452TX. It's a huge monitor for a desktop, with a diagonal of 24in, and a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,200. It's also extraordinarily bright at its default setting: a little too bright, in fact, for a darkened room.

Once it was turned down a little it was impressive: accurate, punchy colours make this a great panel for entertaining. You get an equally impressive speaker selection. Logitech's X-540 5.1 set offer a well-balanced frequency response and plenty of volume. They're perfect for gaming, and do justice to Blu-ray films as well.

The optical drive fits the bill: it's capable of reading both Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs, and of writing DVDs of all stripes. Below it in the chassis sits a memory card reader that works with all the usual suspects, and offers a spare USB port as well. The hard disk is appropriately top-end: 1TB of internal storage means the 945 X2 has few flaws as a main PC.

As you'd hope for on a PC costing the better part of £1,500, the 945 X2 has been meticulously put together. Peering through the window on the side of the Antec Nine Hundred case revealed carefully-bundled cables, which leave the motherboard easily accessible for quick upgrades. It makes for good airflow as well: a pair of 120mm case fans on the front and another on the back keeps things cool.

It's not all in the best taste, unfortunately: the fans light up bright blue when you turn the system on. The speed of the fans can be adjusted via a set of small switches, but the blue lights are permanent. There's another 120mm fan mounted on the window of the case; thankfully, this one doesn't light up. The centrepiece is in the roof of the case: an enormous 200mm fan for pulling hot air out of the system.

And there's expandability galore. The Asus M4A79T Deluxe motherboard has integrated power and reset buttons to save time while making upgrades, and has three free SATA ports. The case itself outstrips the motherboard here, with six free internal bays. You also get a spare PCI slot, plus three spare PCI-Express x16 slots.

USB expansion is covered by no fewer than nine ports on the case, bolstered by another two on the Logitech G15 keyboard. The keyboard itself deserves a mention: turn the PC on for the first time and it lights up bright orange.