Systemax Reliance P2400CP review

Memory prices have rocketed up recently. Or have they? Two and a half years ago, you'd be lucky to find a 128Mb PC133 DIMM for under £200. But even after the recent price increases, you can still get a 512Mb PC2100 DIMM for a street price of £138, and it's telling that both Hi-Grade and Systemax have still included this configuration in their mid-range Pentium 4 machines this month. It looks like 512Mb is fast becoming the new standard needed to keep up with Windows XP, whatever the cost.

Systemax has aimed to squeeze every last drop of performance from the Reliance P2400CP, which is why it opted for a dual 60Gb hard disk setup, hooked up to the MSI 845 Ultra motherboard's onboard RAID controller. This is what gave it the edge over the Hi-Grade Ultis PV4 2400 (see opposite) in 2D performance, with an overall 2D benchmark score of 5.44 over the Hi-Grade's 5.11. This may not be as fast as the 6.08 knocked up by the Evesham Axis 2100+ Pro (see Reviews, issue 91, p111), but it's still incredibly fast by today's standards.

Unlike Hi-Grade, Systemax has chosen to compromise slightly on 3D performance. The Reliance P2400CP has a 64Mb Connect 3D ATi Radeon 8500-LE plugged into its AGP port, compared with the Hi-Grade's GeForce4 Ti 4400 setup. The results, however, weren't too far apart. Running 3DMark2001 at 1,024 x 768 in 32-bit colour produced a score of 8,591 compared to the Hi-Grade's 9,988. The Hi-Grade is certainly faster in 3D, but the Systemax's superb 2D performance more than makes up for this.

So does the huge 120Gb of hard disk space, which gives an enormous storage area for any task, from large graphic handling to video editing. What's more, DV connectivity is provided with the IEEE-1394 port on the Sound Blaster Audigy player sound card. The Audigy is linked up to a fine-looking set of VideoLogic ZXR-500 speakers, which offer 5.1 surround sound with a subwoofer - great for DVD movies. However, you may want to use the graphics card's TV-out for this, as the 17in CTX PR705F (see Labs, issue 78, p102) monitor is small for immersing visuals.

It is, however, a good-quality monitor and superior to the LG Flatron 775FT supplied with the Hi-Grade. Its FD Trinitron tube displays deep and vibrant colours with no problems, the power regulation is rock solid and it runs happily at 1,024 x 768 at 100Hz, as opposed to the LG's maximum of 85Hz. Its only downside is the geometry, which is slightly askew and impossible to correct to perfection with the controls.

The aforementioned memory is supplied on a single DIMM, so there are two sockets left free for future expansion, and three PCI slots are up for grabs provided you're willing to part with the Sound Blaster Audigy's joystick/MIDI backplate.

Drive expansion is limited, with just a short 5.25in front-opening bay and a single 3.5in external bay free, but there should be no need to expand immediately. You've already got two 60Gb hard disks, a 16-speed Samsung DVD-ROM and a Samsung CD-RW that writes CD-Rs at up to 24-speed. All you could want to add is a DVD-writer, but you could easily replace the DVD-ROM with that.

There's also a healthy provision of USB ports, with two USB 1 ports handily mounted on the front, as well as two on the back, plus a further four USB 2 ports on a motherboard riser. It will be a long time before all of these ports are used up, if ever.

As with the Hi-Grade, Systemax is throwing in a three-year, on-site warranty, although the software bundle of Lotus SmartSuite Millennium 9.7 (the first edition to officially support Windows XP) isn't as desirable or as standard as Microsoft Works Suite 2002, which comes supplied with the Hi-Grade.