PC cases designed to sit on a desktop used to be the norm but they've long been usurped by more versatile mini-towers.

If you fancy plonking your monitor on top of your PC case for a bit of retro computing though, this NEC PowerMate offers a solution. While it may look slightly more stylish than the usual tower case, the feet on the right of the case mean it can be tipped on its side for desktop use.

Usefully, the CD-RW, DVD-Rom and floppy drives can then be slid out of the case, rotated 90 degrees and slid back in so that they're the right way up for desktop use. It's a nice touch.

The PowerMate has an Athlon XP 2000+ processor which, in case you don't know, is actually a 1.66GHz processor that AMD reckons is as powerful as a 2GHz Intel Pentium 4. This is a fact confirmed by our testing and, with its 512Mb of DDR memory, it won the highest score yet seen in our benchmark tests.

NEC has also been generous with the hard disk and the 120Gb model provides vast tracts of space. Some of that could be used for digital video editing since there's a couple of FireWire ports for plugging in a digital camcorder.

The presence of a superb GeForce4 Ti 4600 graphics card also means you can play the very latest games. Usefully, two of the four USB ports are at the front of the case, which saves fumbling around at the back of the PC when you want to plug something in.

Oddly, the SoundBlaster Live 5.1 sound card is coupled with a set of Labtec 4.1 speakers but it still gives great sound and surround sound with games. The 17in HR17 MultiSync monitor has a sharp, bright display and its case is quite shallow so it takes up less desk space than most.

If you want to watch your DVDs on a bigger screen, you can also hook the PC up to your TV through the TV-out socket on the graphics card.

It might seem a bit pointless to talk about upgrades to a PC with such a good specification but it is worth noting that, due to the small size of the nVidia nForce motherboard, there are no free PCI slots available.

Almost everything you'll need is already provided with the PowerMate, including a network port, but there is a free memory slot for future expansion.

Overall, this is a fantastically well equipped all-rounder, as it should be at this price. The performance is superb and it is not found wanting in any area. It comes equipped with Windows XP Home, a Wingman game pad, a selection of games to get you started and a three-year standard warranty.

Price: £1,409 (inc. VAT)

Contact: NEC 0870 010 6321
www.nec.co.uk

Also consider: Mesh Matrix 2000+ 25
A great PC for gaming with plenty of power. £1,526 *****.