Evesham Axis 64 FX-53

Ever since its release, there have been all sorts of questions about the future of Athlon 64. But the real question is, while 64-bit computing is definitely the future, do any of us really need it now? Chances are probably not, but buying a PC like this Evesham, which is based on AMD's Athlon 64 FX-53 processor, will not only give you all the performance you need now, but also keep you in good stead for years to come. For example, Longhorn, the next major revision to Windows, isn't due for at least 18 months, but when it comes, it's predicted that very few 32-bit PCs will be able to run it at any decent speed - it's just too advanced.

Running at 2.4GHz, this chip is merely a clock speed ramp of the FX-51 chip we saw five months ago. It therefore has a dual-channel, 128-bit memory controller. This offers a significant increase in bandwidth compared to the single-channel option used in standard Athlon 64 chips and Intel's Pentium 4. And despite rumours to the contrary, it retains the FX-51's 940-pin architecture too. The downside to this is that it requires expensive, if more reliable, ECC or registered memory rather than traditional DDR memory. This is an extra expense that seems unnecessary, and particularly disappointing given ECC memory is also regarded as being a tad slower.

But that doesn't prevent this PC from being one of the fastest we've ever seen. Using a whole gigabyte of DDR memory, the Axis 64 FX-53 screamed through our real-world tests, achieving 2.66 overall. This makes it at least 10 per cent faster than the FX-51 PCs we've seen; a perfectly logical speed increase as its clock speed is 9 per cent faster. As is the case with Athlon 64 chips, it was particularly impressive at multimedia tasks, as well as general office work.

It's no slouch when it comes to 3D graphics either. Using a 256MB ATi Radeon 9800XT, otherwise known as the fastest graphics chip around, it attained a very impressive score of 19,496 in 3DMark2001 SE. While this may not be the fastest score we've seen, it's more than capable of playing games released this year, and will likely sustain your gaming needs for the year after. The supplied ViewSonic monitor is great for both work and play, offering wide viewing angles and excellent image quality overall.

Evesham has chosen a mid-tower case for this system, rather than the massive black tower it opted for with the FX-51 chip. There's no sacrifice when it comes to upgradeability, though, as it's chosen the same SK8N board from Asus. Two of the five PCI slots are used up: the first by Creative's Audigy 2 ZS card - widely regarded as the best 7.1 sound card available. This, coupled with Creative's excellent Inspire T7700 7.1 speakers and the aforementioned ViewSonic monitor, means this PC would be ideal for watching DVDs. The other PCI slot is taken by a 56K modem. The PC is also fully network ready, thanks in part to the Gigabit Ethernet port built into the SK8N board and also to the use of Windows XP Professional, rather than Home.

But despite cramming the case with top-of-the range components, it's still quite tidy and there are three PCI slots available for expansion. There are no spare 5.25in bays, though, as two are taken up by a DVD-ROM drive and a Sony 8x multiformat DVD writer, and the third by the Audigy 2 ZS's expansion bay. You could squeeze a third hard disk in between the two already there, but we reckon it will take a very long time for you to fill up the massive 320GB of storage space they provide.