Labs

Asus's P3-P5G33 is a similar shape and size to a large photo album. This compactness is attractive, but the cramped interior makes installing components fiddly. The removable side panel and a large metal brace covering the PCI slots are easily detachable, but there's not a lot of room inside the case to work.

Unlike the hard disk cage in MSI's Media Live, the cage in the P3-P5G33 isn't removable, so disks have to be wedged in at an angle, which is awkward. There's little space between the RAM slots and the optical drive bay, so it's easier to install your memory first, especially if you want to fill all four

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slots.

There's no cooler provided, but the mount takes any normal cooler. We fitted a stock Intel cooler, which was quiet when the PC was idle but incredibly loud during any intensive tasks.

Although there is a PCI Express x16 graphics card slot alongside two PCI and one PCI Express x4 slots, all the expansion card slots are half-height, which restricts your choice of graphics card. You can't install a high-end graphics card, but a low-profile model, such as an ATI HD 2400 Pro, could be installed for light games-playing and for watching HD movies.

You may want to do this, as the onboard graphics aren't good enough for games or HD movies. Fortunately, Windows performance was very good.

There's only a PS/2 port for the keyboard, so you'll have to use a USB mouse. However, as there are six USB2 ports - the highest number here - there's plenty more room for expansion and peripherals.

Asus's P3-P5G33 is compact and is one of the cheapest barebones kit in this group test. It's not very good value, though, as it's tricky to build and noisy when fitted with Intel's stock cooler. Asus's T3-P5945GC is a better buy if you want a space-saving barebones kit for the office.