Tiny Tornado

Tiny's Tornado gives you a lot of computer technology for your money. It's on sale for one week only (11 - 18 May) from the company's website. The AMD Athlon 3400+ processor is one of the fastest on the market and, combined with the enormous 1024Mb of memory, achieves very high performance in any task thrown its way, especially video and audio editing, where power is crucial.

Tiny has used two hard disks to provide a colossal 400Gb of storage space, which is the most we've ever seen in a desktop computer. It also comes with both standard and recordable DVD drives, which can be used to back up or archive data. The DVD-writer supports both plus and minus DVD formats.

It doesn't come with a monitor, but can use the S-Video port on the excellent 128Mb ATi Radeon SE 9800 graphics card to connect to your TV. This graphics card is good enough to support most 3D games at high resolutions. The card also comes with a built-in TV tuner, software for recording shows and a remote control. It only has a DVI port for connecting to digital flat-panel monitors but, thankfully, an adapter is included for using traditional monitors.

On the front panel is one free 5.25 drive bay, headphones, microphone, FireWire and USB 2 sockets, plus a 10-in-1 memory card reader for easy access to files from a digital camera or MP3 player. There are four USB 2 ports and another FireWire port on the back, so you won't be stuck for somewhere to plug in your camcorder or other peripherals and 5.1 sound is included.

It's very tidy inside the case, which makes it easy to upgrade or clean. The keyboard and optical mouse aren't great but perfectly useable.

All in all, the Tornado demonstrates excellent quality for the price, and the sturdy, roomy case means that it's even suitable for users looking to trade up later on. It comes with Windows XP, Microsoft Works, and a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office. A good set-up poster is also included.

It only comes with a one-year, return-to-base warranty, which might be a bit short for some, but otherwise it's hard to beat the Tornado for value. Just make sure you put in your order before the week is up.

Contact: Tiny 0870 830 3156
www.tiny.com