Advent E.go

We recently took a look at the first so-called 'Easy PC' - a computer that is smaller and more attractive than regular desktop PCs because many of its old and outdated components have been removed.

The processor that was fitted inside that machine was an Intel Celeron. Here we take a look at the second Easy PC to hit the UK market, the Advent E.go. This computer will be sold exclusively through PC World, but this time the processor is made by Intel's rival, AMD.

It has a like-it-or-loathe-it design, being entirely silver and grey, which to our eyes made it feel rather cheap. The front panel is dominated by a transparent purple cover for the CD-ROM drive. This cover rises smoothly upwards, exposing the innards of the drive, onto which you clip your CD. It has the potential to do some impressive work but the mechanism is decidedly cheap: knock it a touch too hard and it will break off.

Easy PCs such as this rely heavily on the Universal Serial Bus (USB). This is a high-speed connection through which the PC talks to add-ons such as printers, scanners and, in some cases, even the keyboard.

In this instance there are five such ports on the PC itself and a further four on the monitor, so you can connect plenty of bits and bobs before having to start thinking about daisychaining more equipment onto the back of what you have already installed.

The mouse, however, uses an old-style round plug, attached to the back of the keyboard. The advantage of this is that it is easy to replace your mouse if the one supplied doesn't suit, but then, the keyboard did nothing to grab us, either.

The E.go positively bristles with communications. There's an internal modem which has a pass-through port for plugging in a telephone. There's a network connection too, so if you want to use it in a front-of-house location such as an office reception, it can chat to every other computer in the building.

Other more traditional connectors on the back include the monitor and power sockets, and 3.5mm jack sockets for a microphone and speakers.

Storage comes in the form of an 8.1Gb Maxtor hard disk drive. In common with the hugely successful Apple iMac, no floppy disk drive is provided.

Should you want to increase the size of your hard drive, the internal workings of the E.go are extremely easy to access. Three screws hold the plastic case to the metal inner chassis. Once removed, the case slides away revealing four further screws that secure the insides.

Once you get inside you'll see that things are cramped, but it's easy to flip out the hard drive to see what's going on beneath. Once you do get inside you will find that there are no spare memory slots, so if you want to upgrade in this area you'll have to remove and discard what is already fitted.

Pressing a button on the top of the system case puts it into 'suspend' mode almost immediately. It's easy to do this by accident, so it's a good job your work is not lost. From this state you can turn it back on and have the computer in a fully-working state within 11 seconds - impressive.

The monitor is a 17in model from Sony, and shares the tacky silver styling of the rest of the machine and the very wide bezel running around the edge. This makes it look like a widescreen display, but it. We couldn't fault its pin-sharp image and easy-to-use controls, but when you have a PC as small as the E.go, a super-slim flatpanel display would make a better companion.

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