Packard Bell Imedia 3082

Housed in what could be described as an uninspiring case, the 3082 comes in at the higher end of Packard Bell's Imedia range.

The system is based around a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 processor and 512MB of Ram, but it's important to note that only 384MB is available as system memory since Packard Bell has opted for integrated graphics.

The Radeon 9100 IGP chipset takes control of 128MB from the system memory, while an AGP slot sits on the motherboard. If you want to run graphic-intensive applications or games, we'd recommend you upgrade.

Going some way to make up for this is the TV tuner card. It's only an analogue version, so you won't be able to pick up digital Freeview channels, but it does add extra functionality.

A versatile NEC ND-2500A DVD writer occupies one of two 5.25in drive bays and is capable of eight-speed writing to both DVD formats. Hard disk storage is taken care of by a Seagate Barracuda 7,200rpm drive with a 60GB capacity. If you're thinking of recording live TV, it won't be long before you need to purchase a second drive.

In terms of performance, our 3Dmark03 benchmark result of 805 proves that this PC is no games machine and, while the score of 127 in Sysmark 2004 is acceptable, it's not outstanding.

The Imedia 3082 houses some interesting features, but there are better deals to be had.

Contact: Packard Bell
www.packardbell.co.uk

Specifications:

• Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz
• 512MB of Ram (384MB available)
• 60GB hard disk
• NEC ND-2500A DVD-RW
• ATI Radeon 9100 IGP
• 17in TFT
• Windows XP Home
• Cyberlink Power Cinema
• Microsoft Works 7
• Norton Internet Security 2003