Evesham Axis AK47

The PC industry is not one to stand still for long, so one of the problems buyers face when investing in an expensive new computer is making sure that their purchase will not be regarded as old news within a few years.

At £1,300 you would be sorely disappointed to find yourself gazing wistfully at Evesham's Axis AK47 when Microsoft's successor to its Windows XP operating system hits the streets in 2006, but you can relax as this is a 64-bit computer.

This is one piece of jargon that is going to become very important for PC buyers, as it heralds a sea change in home computing. It means that the processor can handle bursts of 64-bit information, double the current 32-bit capacity, which sets up PCs to get the best out of the next version of Windows, recently revealed as Vista.

The Axis AK47 is also a PC for today, however. Its combination of an AMD Athlon 64 3700+ processor (running at 2.4GHz) and 1Gb of memory means there are few hurdles that this PC can't comfortably clear.

The AK47 also has a 250Gb hard disk designed to spin faster than most so it can save and retrieve data quickly. This is particularly useful for editing digital video, and the supplied Viewsonic 19in TFT monitor is an excellent display with good viewing angles. It's not widescreen, but the DVI link on the PC will give an excellent digital quality signal direct to the monitor's DVI port.

The name AK47 is rather macho, the styling is unmistakably aggressive and there's no question that it is aimed at committed games fans. They will have no problem running the most demanding games on this PC, as its pair of nVidia GeForce 6800 graphics cards are linked to boost performance. They fit into PCI Express slots, providing a further upgrade option for the long term, and there are two spare PCI and memory slots for beefing up the PC.

The Evesham also includes a multi-format dual-layer DVD drive (all disc formats bar DVD-Rom) with a second DVD-Rom, good quality wireless keyboard and mouse and integrated 5.1 sound.

Performance tests proved that the AK47's abilities are not in doubt, as it matched the Mesh Matrix Fireblade CAX. The differences are that Evesham provides a multi-format memory card reader and a FireWire socket, while the Mesh comes with 7.1 speakers in contrast with the AK47's Creative iTrigue 2.1 speakers. Both have USB 2 ports front and rear and a floppy drive, although the Mesh has a slightly bigger hard disk.

Not all home users need this sort of power but there are many similar options in the high street that fail to compete with the AK47 on price. Until they do, gamers and armchair movie editors alike will have no reason to recoil from the AK47.