Rock Xtreme CTX Pro

We've never had a situation where two systems are identical: Evesham and Rock submitted the same Clevo M57U chassis with identical components inside.

Both cost £1,446 and sport the top-end Core 2 Duo T7600 and a 512MB GeForce Go 7950GTX. The only difference is that Evesham includes 2GB of memory, while Rock provides just 1GB. Yet both machines were propelled to the heady heights of 1.35 overall in our benchmarks.

Of course, a similarly specified PC will always cost less, but you can't play Call of Duty 2 at 1,680 x 1,050 (at 43fps) on many PCs and then pop them neatly away in a drawer out of sight. The 4.3kg weight makes them luggables, but for this you get a 17in widescreen. Viewing angles are wide, and the glossy coating makes colours vivid. It's just a shame neither Rock nor Evesham includes a remote control or TV tuner.

The good news is that there's an integrated webcam and microphone, a 100GB hard disk and a DVD writer. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet and infrared are also present, as are four USB ports, mini-FireWire and a DVI-I interface.

Build quality isn't up to Lenovo's standard, but the keyboard is sensibly laid out and includes a number pad. Battery life isn't particularly important for luggables; you can expect a little under two hours of light use and 1hr 16mins with heavy use. The only major gripe concerns noise. During our tests, the fans were noisy, but speed was constant, which makes it easier to tune out.

Rock provides three years of insurance-backed, collect-and-return warranty, while Evesham offers two years' on-site cover for the C720DC, with the final year being return-to-base.

With even the delivery charges being almost identical, it's tough choosing between the two. If you're after a desktop replacement, both are equally great, but only if you can live with the noise.

Author: Jim Martin