Evesham Evolution RA2

Black is rapidly becoming the new beige among PCs. Evesham's new design, first seen in issue 142, is an acquired taste and to be honest, a taste we've struggled to acquire. The black sides are fine but the silver-and-black front is a little strong. A plainer front panel can be requested at the time of purchase and we'd recommend it.

The case colour won't affect your happiness with a computer system but the same cannot be said of the build quality. Our case didn't look like it fitted properly. When we pressed the errant edges flush with the floppy drive, it activated the power button, turning the system on. The supplied paperwork said that the 'case is built around a tool-less and screw-less design'. But the DVD recorder, DVD drive and hard disk in our system were screwed in place. This isn't a real problem but it is inconsistent with the paperwork.

However, with those gripes out of the way, things begin to look a lot better. An Intel Pentium 4 processor running at 3GHz is enough to gladden the heart, especially when combined with 512Mb of memory and a 160Gb hard disk. Our lab tests demonstrated that this is a very powerful system but as this PC costs £1,600, we expected nothing less.

The ATi Radeon 9800 graphics card, is an extremely hot performer. Ours was an All-in-Wonder version, which means it has a TV tuner, as well as video input and outputs. The software supplied with the card means this PC comes ready for you to play DVD movies, record television broadcasts or simply watch telly. The supplied remote control means that most PC functions can be operated without a keyboard and mouse. The downside is that it is pretty complex to set up and again, the paperwork was a let down.

Fortunately, for each niggle with this PC, there is something to smile about around the corner. In this case it's the magnificent Philips 170B4 17in TFT monitor. This connected to our PC using DVI and the screen image was sharp, bright and evenly lit.

With two usable PCI slots, three small drive bays and two large ones vacant, future expansion is not going to be an issue. The two spare memory slots mean a memory upgrade won't cause any problems. Connection options are excellent as well. There are six USB 2 ports available, of which two are front-mounted, as well as three FireWire ports.

Microsoft Works Suite 2003, Pinnacle Studio 8 and Instant CD+DVD are included.

This PC isn't the finest we've seen from Evesham. Although the specification is pretty peerless, the lack of appropriate paperwork and a couple of quirks of the case design prevented it getting top honours.

Contact: Evesham 0870 160 9500
www.evesham.com