Cyberpower Infinity i3 Apollo

Like the Palicomp Excalibur EXC6 computer, the Cyberpower Infinity i3 Apollo can largely be considered a gaming computer.

That is, while it's perfectly suitable for home and office tasks, the processor and graphics card it contains mean that, if you're not going to use it for more taxing applications such as video editing or playing recent games, you would be better off with a cheaper model and saving some money.

But if you're going to be playing games, this is an impressive computer. It's slightly more squat than the Palicomp model, and some will prefer its more conventional front panel design.

The processor in this computer is a new one – an Intel Core i3-530, which is at the low end of the processor maker's latest range. It's still quite powerful, though, and the 4GB of memory and ATI Radeon HD5750 graphics card (with 1GB of its own memory) mean that it's capable of dealing with all modern games at high detail levels, and tasks such as video editing won’t be too taxing either.

In our tests, the performance came out very slightly below that of the Palicomp computer, but that won’t be noticeable for most users.

Unlike the Palicomp computer, the Infinity i3 Apollo comes with a keyboard, mouse and 22in widescreen monitor, so it's a complete computer – you don't need to add any other components to get it working.

The 500GB hard disk is large enough for most collections of photos, music and videos, and there's a DVD rewriter (it can't read or create Blu-ray discs). The operating system loaded onto the computer is Windows 7 Home Premium.

The front panel contains, in addition to the DVD drive, two USB sockets and a Firewire port for connecting camcorders, along with headphone and microphone sockets. On the back are six more USB ports, an HDMI connector for attaching a flat-panel television, and a network socket, along with keyboard and mouse sockets and sound outputs (though sadly not digital ones, which can be used to more easily connect to some amplifiers and other devices).

Confusingly, there are two sets of monitor connections – one on the main case, and one slightly hidden, on the graphics card. We initially didn’t see the second set, which is the correct one to use, so we were confused when we connected to the first (main case) sockets and no picture appeared on our screen, but a thorough look at the case showed up the cause.

The Cyberpower Infinity i3 Apollo is a powerful computer that’s suitable for games, video editing and general home use, although if you’re not going to use it for games some of that power is going to waste. If you are, and you want a complete computer with screen, keyboard and mouse, this would be an excellent choice.