Packard Bell Ixtreme Duo 6160

This is the second Ixtreme system we've seen in recent months. The 6160 is aimed at those looking for power now and room for expansion later. It's also the first to feature something Packard Bell calls the Duo, an additional external unit designed to make working with peripherals easier.

At first glance the specs seem impressive, but the PC's appearance is likely to be the cause of some debate. Packard Bell describes the look as having 'personality'. From the flimsy plastic drive bay cover flaps and their awkward buttons through to the shiny white finish, we're really not convinced about this one. The case is easy to get into but that's about it.

The accompanying FT500 15in TFT screen is crystal clear, although its curved edges are a little 1970s, while the keyboard and mouse are tidy wireless models. The matching speakers are wired but clever positioning of the cables can keep desktop mess to a minimum.

The Duo is also a neat idea. It offers three functions (6-in-1 card reader, two USB ports and an optical drive), and not having to dive around the back of the PC to plug in things, such as printers or removable drives, saves valuable time and effort. It would have perhaps been more sensible to put the Duo's optical unit into the tower's free drive bay but, all in all, it makes little difference. Our 6160 came with a DVD-RW and floppy drives, while the Duo was fitted with a DVD-Rom.

Other external connectors include USB2 and Firewire ports, some sensibly mounted at the front, plus Ethernet, modem and S/PDIF audio-out sockets, as well as the usual legacy ports.

Internally, the system has a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 with Hyper-threading and an 800MHz front-side bus (FSB), backed by an impressive 1GB of DDR-Ram. The Ram is supplied on two 512MB modules leaving two free slots for additional memory, up to a maximum of 2GB. Corners have been cut when it comes to storage, though. While the hard drive provides a whopping 200GB of space, it's a 5,400rpm model. Given the rest of the spec we'd expect a 7,200rpm or Serial ATA device.

Graphics come courtesy of a 128MB ATI Radeon 9600, but sadly this isn't the Pro version, while an onboard Soundmax chip provides audio facilities. Two empty PCI slots provide room for expansion.

In tests the 6160 was no slouch with a score of 287 under Sysmark, but we did expect a little more given the speed of the processor. The Radeon also surprised with a relatively poor score of 5,909 in 3Dmark 2001, lower than the result achieved by the budget Ixtreme with a Geforce MX we reviewed in November. Results in real-world tests were far more satisfactory, with about 50 frames per second in Unreal Tournament.

The software bundle is also good. Along with Windows XP Home you get the excellent Works Suite 2003, PowerDVD 4 XP, Photo Express 4 SE, Photo Explorer 7SE, Music and Video Maker G6, AOL 8 and Norton Internet Security among other applications. There are also a couple of decent games. Many of the packages aren't pre-installed, however.

The documentation could do with a rethink though. We were surprised to see no printed manual, although Packard Bell assures us one is included.

If you want a general office or home PC this is more than good enough, but it isn't cheap and we expected higher performance and better components. This, combined with the casing, left us disappointed.

Contact: Packard Bell 0870 046 4747
www.packardbell.co.uk

Specifications:

• 3.2GHz P4 HT
• 800MHz FSB
• 1GB DDR-Ram
• 200GB hard disk
• DVD-RW drive (12x DVD-Rom, 4x DVD-R, 2x DVD-RW, 16x CD-R, 10x CD-RW, 40 CD-Rom)
• 15in TFT
• 3 PCI slots (2 free)
• 128MB ATI Radeon 9600
• Storm stereo speakers
• Duo unit (6-in-1 memory card reader, 2 x USB2, DVD-Rom drive
• 16x DVD-Rom, 48x CD-Rom)
• Windows XP Home, Works Suite 2003