JAL Virgo Silentium

Whether you're using your PC to watch DVD movies, play music or to study, the last thing you want to hear is the machine whirring away in the background. While many of us pay no attention to noise levels, if you actually sit back and listen to a run-of-the-mill PC, you'll realise just how loud it is. The main culprits for all the noise are the fans inside the case, which stop components such as the processor and graphics card from getting too hot. Replacing these fans without getting heat problems is an expensive business but that is what JAL has done with the Silentium. From the exterior, it looks like an everyday PC case. Switch it on, however, and you'll wonder whether you've forgotten to attach the power cable, as this PC is quieter than a church mouse during a minute's silence.

Clamped onto the AMD Athlon XP 2500+ processor is a huge copper heatsink and a large fan. The size and design of the fan means it doesn't need to spin fast to create a sufficient airflow, thus reducing noise to an absolute minimum.

A PC's memory makes no noise so the 512Mb fitted here was standard but hard disks are notoriously noisy. JAL has kept the murmur of the 120Gb hard disk to a minimum by housing the drive in a soundproof box. However, the insulation casing has to be contained within a 5.25in drive bay, leaving only one other 5.25in bay for future upgrades.

The last component that benefits from 'silencing' is the 128Mb Radeon 9700 graphics card. The small, noisy graphics card fan has been replaced by a liquid-cooling device that wraps itself around the card and keeps it cool.

With all this silence, you might think that performance is compromised. However, while our system tests found the Silentium to score well in day-to-day office applications, it achieved an outstanding graphics score thanks to the Radeon graphics card. Other hardware includes an on-board 5.1 sound card with both optical and digital outputs, a DVD-ROM drive and Creative Inspire 5100 surround sound speakers, which combine to make a nice multimedia package.

The CD-RW drive can write at 52-speed, while two USB 2 ports on the front of the tower make connecting peripherals simple. There's another four on the back, accompanied by three FireWire ports and a network socket.

Inside the case you'll find one useable PCI slot, one free 5.25in bay, three 3.5in bays and three memory slots for expanding the memory up to 3Gb. There's also a connection occupying one PCI slot for attaching an external hard disk -a useful bit of future proofing, but we'd rather have the spare PCI slot.

The 15in NEC LCD monitor is nice but its maximum resolution of 1024 x 768 is wasted on the graphics card, which is capable of much higher resolutions.

Software includes Windows XP Home Edition, Norton Internet Security Software, fax and phone software, Nero Burning Rom and Cyberlink PowerDVD. A two-year on-site parts and lifetime labour and technical support warranty are also included.

Contact: JAL 01782 848100
www.jal.co.uk