Evesham Evolution 20:20

Get out your party hats: Evesham is 20 years old. Never one to miss a marketing opportunity, the company has released this anniversary PC, but if you're hoping for something truly special to mark the occasion prepare to be disappointed. The 20:20 is a good-value, well-built PC - but that's about it.

Inside the standard Evesham case is the little brother of the Labs-winning Gigabyte SINXP1394 (see issue 103, p134), the Gigabyte 8SQ800 dual-channel motherboard. It boasts the same SiS655 chipset, but misses out on features such as RAID.

With a 2.66GHz Pentium 4 and 512MB of PC2700 DDR memory split over two DIMM sockets, the Evolution 20:20 is set for decent performance, especially with its 120GB Maxtor hard disk with 8MB of cache. The overall 2D benchmark score of 1.67 was suitably impressive.

Inside, the case is pleasingly tidy and carefully built, and the easily removed side panel provides good access. There's also room to add external peripherals, thanks to six USB 2 ports (two of which are front-mounted) and a three-port FireWire card. Add the V.92 modem and this leaves a single backplate free - possibly for a 10/100 Ethernet card, as a port isn't integrated onto the motherboard.

The Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (see p128) also offers a FireWire port, but its chief assets are plenty of gaming features and good sound quality. Creative's Inspire 6.1 surround speaker system keeps it company and is capable of delivering some great sounds.

Removable storage is handled by a nifty 52x/24x/52x Samsung CD-RW and a Panasonic DVD burner. This supports 2x DVD-RAM and 2x/1x DVD-RW, but not DVD+RW. The 19in Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 93SB monitor is another reasonable choice, but focus was poor, particularly if you crank up the resolution. We recommend running it at 1,152 x 864 at 85Hz.

The combination of the large screen and the 6.1 speakers makes this is a great system for gaming and watching DVD movies. ATi's Radeon 9500 graphics helped the 20:20 to 11,398 in 3DMark2001 SE at 1,024 x 768. With a fan on the north bridge processor, as well as an 80mm case fan, there are quieter systems, but you shouldn't find it too distracting.

With a price of £1,049 including delivery, the Evesham 20:20 stands up well to the competition when it comes to value, especially if you want a Pentium 4 system. Thanks to its Athlon XP chip, though, the more visually striking Multivision Ionix 930 (see issue 103, p54) costs £50 less, comes with a better monitor and is faster too.

Author: Ross Burridge