Polar Proton 800

With all the talk of Pentium 4, it's easy to forget that Intel builds anything else. A quick shufty through Polar's product list reveals the Proton 800, built with an Intel Celeron at its heart.

Very much the little brother of both the Pentium III and 4, the Celeron fights it out in the lower reaches of the PC market up against the AMD Duron. It doesn't offer the prestige or power of its brethren, but not everyone can afford the hottest hardware.

Buying a less powerful PC doesn't have to mean missing out, though.

For many buyers, the Intel name conveys a certain snobby charm and people in the know claim that Intel systems offer greater stability, with fewer system crashes, problems and headaches than those of AMD.

Whether this is true or not, our tests have shown repeatedly that an 800Mhz Duron will still outperform an 800Mhz Celeron like the one in the Proton. In everyday use, however, you'd rarely notice the difference.

Breathing space

The Proton's 256Mb of memory is generous and gives your applications plenty of breathing space. The 40Gb hard drive is going to take some filling as well. With the advent of megabyte-hungry applications and the potential to download literally thousands of files from the internet, hard disk space like this is very welcome.

Finding a 32Mb GeForce2 MX graphics card in the Proton is no surprise, and is exactly what we would expect from a system of this class and price. If you want to leave your gaming options open but aren't worried about squeezing the last drops of performance out of your PC, this card represents the best solution. Better performance can be had with more expensive cards, but there's more than enough power to enjoy the Thrustmaster steering wheel that forms part of the bundle.

A further luxury on the Proton is a TV tuner card, which allows you to hook up a TV aerial or satellite decoder and watch your favourite programmes on the 17in monitor. A webcam is fitted to the screen surround so you can even watch yourself work.

If you like what you see, printing out a picture is no problem either as an Epson 480 SXU printer comes as part of the package.

DVD delight

As with most new PCs, a DVD-ROM drive is included not only for DVD-based multimedia packages but also to play DVD movies, which have exploded onto the market over the past year.

The DVD-ROM drive is a slot-loading one, which boosts the Proton 800's style rating tenfold. Rather than having a cumbersome tray chugging out to collect your disc, you simply post your disc into the slot.

Perched beneath the DVD drive is a CD-RW unit that will allow you to create your own audio or data CDs. The software to get burning under way is also included.

Sound in the Proton comes courtesy of the Creative SoundBlaster Live! audio card and a pair of stereo speakers. The subwoofer unit supplied is a godsend to gamers who want to crank up the volume, and should be adequate for DVD movie fans who aren't fussy about a surround-sound set-up.

Of course, the Proton 800 is internet ready, with a 56K modem and Net-It Now software which allows you to create web pages out of your original text, image or presentation documents. Lotus SmartSuite 9 is also part of the bundle, giving you word processing and spreadsheet capabilities.

Inside job

Opening up the case emphasises just how much work has gone into constructing the Proton. The case is held together with screws, which makes access a bit trickier than with comparative Mesh and Evesham machinery; but once inside, it is easy to get to everything.

All of the cables are tied back out of harm's way, making it easier to add extra hardware. Three PCI slots on the motherboard are empty, so adding expansion cards won't be a problem, and two free 3.5in external drive bays mean you can add other drives. With DVD and CD-RW already present, however, it's difficult to see what you'd put in.

The colour-coded connections at the rear of the machine make set-up easy, and two USB ports allow the hassle-free hook-up of peripherals.

Overall, the Proton 800 is a very well-balanced machine, bringing together everything that most home users will need to make use of the internet, email, office applications, multimedia games and software at a reasonable price.

Contact
Polar Technology: 0800 138 1238 www.polartechnology.com

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Reviewed in Computeractive, issue 86
www.computeractive.co.uk