Fujitsu Siemens Celsius V830

When it comes to performance, the Celsius is no slouch, but it isn't in the same league as the HP. With the entry-level graphics, a smaller complement of RAM and less-capable hard disk subsystem, it managed 1.03 in our application benchmarks, and our specialist preview graphics test completed in 15 seconds - fast, but still getting on for twice as long as the HP. It's a quick PC in absolute terms, but not in comparison to its price. Of course, there are several easy ways to increase the V830's speed. The first - and free - method would simply be to configure the two drives into a RAID0 array. The second is to drop another Opteron into the spare processor slot, bringing the system up to quad-core levels of raw performance. And there's SLI potential too.

As it is, though, the V830 falls short of what heavyweight applications demand and is outclassed by many standard desktop systems we've tested. However, the basic chassis design could accommodate a machine exhibiting far more power, if you're prepared to spend what it would cost to achieve it.

Author: David Fearon