As the Christmas period draws closer it’s inevitable that the price of computers will become increasingly competitive.

Never one to shirk a price-busting deal, Evesham is going headfirst down the slopes with its Vista capable Solar XK (Xmas Killer) PC.

On paper, the £800 price tag suggests it will be powerful enough to suit the general computer user. Inspecting its stuffing, we weren’t wrong.

Intel’s Core 2 Duo Processor E6300 , which runs at 1.86GHz and has a 2MB cache and nippy 1,066MHz FSB, is supplemented with 1GB of DDR2-533 Ram. This system partnership scored 248 in Sysmark 2004 SE and 4,614 in PCmark05; nowhere near the top of our labs performance table but adequate enough to take advantage of dual-core software applications.

Other notable inclusions are a Creative X-Fi sound card, a set of Creative Inspire T3100 speakers and a Hauppauge Dual DVB-T tuner, which all complement the Media Center Edition 2005 operating system.

Graphics-wise, the Solar XK is equipped with Nvidia’s 256MB 7600 LE graphics card , which achieved 2,570 in 3Dmark05 and almost 68 frames per second in our Far Cry benchmarks.

A 19in BTC TFT monitor is included. It’s an analogue-only model and won’t connect directly to the graphics card’s DVI – you have to make use of the supplied DVI-VGA convertor. A Logitech cordless keyboard and mouse are also present.

Bundled software runs to Microsoft Works 8.5, Bullguard Security Suite 7, Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 and Cyberlink PowerDVD MCE. Added to that is Evesham’s Bigfix support and a three-year on-site warranty.

In all, the Solar XK from Evesham is a decent family computer that will do most things asked of it, but power users and hardcore gamers will probably want to look elsewhere.

Also consider:
Advent DHE X22
You're always going to pay more for a small form factor PC, but the Advent DHE X22 functions well as a Media Center

Mesh Elite E6600 Express
The Vista upgrade is a bonus, but we’d have preferred a 20in TFT

Hi-Grade Ultis Tachyon QX6700
An expensive system for enthusiasts only and an insight of things to come for the rest of us