Evesham Evolution 3 CR

With its Chieftec Black Dragon case, the Evesham Evolution 3 CR is an impressively monolithic creation. The sturdy, lockable case is a major improvement on the standard Evesham offering, and at this price you'd hope so. It may not have flash neon lights, but it's extremely smart and offers great protection to the system's innards.

A lockable front panel protects the bays and power buttons from unwanted tampering, and the door can be detached if needed - handy if you're constantly using the optical drives. These consist of a 2x DVD-RAM and 2x DVD-RW combo drive, plus a speedy 52x/24x/52x CD-RW. The DVD-RAM will please those looking for convenient and secure storage, although sadly there's no support for DVD+RW.

The lack of front-mounted USB ports is the only disappointment with the case, especially considering the base unit's weight and size. However, the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum's black front-mounted drive offers a fully OHCI-compliant FireWire port, and at the back you'll find six USB 2 ports and another FireWire port on the Audigy 2's backplate. You'll also notice the surprising inclusion of an ADSL modem, which indicates the sort of market Evesham is aiming at - those who can't or won't wait around - and these users won't be disappointed.

It's not just high-speed Internet you get with this PC; you're also looking at the fastest Pentium 4 setup. Inside, you'll not only find the much-anticipated Intel D875PB2 motherboard (see Intel 875P Canterwood) offering a quad-pumped 800MHz front side bus to complement the new 3GHz Pentium 4, but also 512MB of dual-channel 400MHz DDR SDRAM, Serial ATA and a 128MB ATi Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card.

This machine's speed matches the sleekness of its appearance. Using the Radeon 9800 Pro, the Evolution is one of the fastest 3D setups we've seen, and in 3DMark2001 SE it shows its mettle. Running at 1,024 x 768 in 32-bit colour, the Evolution produced a sizzling score of 17,110, and this only dropped to 11,703 with 4x anti-aliasing and 8x anisotropic filtering enabled.

The 2D benchmark results, however, were slightly disappointing. While the Evolution is £100 cheaper than Evesham's own Ultimate PC Labs-winning Axis 3000+ TD2 (see p112), the overall 2D benchmark score of 1.80 looks decidedly pedestrian next to the 2.08 from the Axis. The Axis' striped Serial ATA RAID array certainly helped, but it's still a disappointing debut for Intel's latest technology.

However, should you wish, as it were, to evolve the Evolution further, there's still plenty of room for growth, especially with the prospect of faster 800MHz Pentium 4 processors being available in the future. There are also four spare internal 3.5in bays and an ample 360W PSU.

No £1,899 system is complete without a big flat panel, and the Samsung SyncMaster 191T doesn't disappoint. It's a pleasure to use, benefiting from excellent clarity and contrast and wide viewing angles. With a 25ms response time, it's adequate for current games too. Meanwhile, the Creative Inspire 6700 6.1 speakers provide reasonable sound, and the Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse make things tidier.

If you won't miss the RAID array or extra disk capacity, the Evolution 3 CR stacks up well in comparison with the Axis, and 3D performance is phenomenal. Once you factor in the superb case, leading-edge components and ADSL modem, this is an excellent choice if you want an all-singing, all-dancing PC.

Author: Ross Burridge