Review: Panrix Nitro 840D £899 dual-core PC

The Panrix Nitro 840D stands out in more ways than one. The most noticeable difference is the glistening perforated metallic chassis, which makes a change from the unimpressive plastic design of most PCs here.

It’s also one of the few PCs we’ve seen recently to include a good old-fashioned floppy disk drive – although we suspect that the media card reader, USB, Firewire and audio ports also mounted on the front panel will be rather more useful.

The bold design is matched by some very strong performance results. There was no single machine that emerged as the outright performance leader in this group, but the Panrix Nitro was one of the most consistent performers in our suite of Labs tests.

It stands out here by virtue of being one of just two Intel-based systems in this review.

Its 3.2GHz Pentium D processor provides a high level of raw processor power, complemented by an Nvidia Geforce GR76 graphics card – although it’s worth noting that both PC Nextday’s Zoostorm and the Evesham Axis GR76 both edged just slightly ahead of the Nitro in our Far Cry test.

However, the Nitro’s spare PCI Express x16 expansion slot and Nforce4 SLI-based motherboard give gamers the option of upgrading to twin Nvidia SLI graphics cards in the future.

Two additional PCI slots and two free drive bays provide plenty of room for further hardware upgrades, and we were pleased to see that the tidy cabling inside the chassis didn’t block access to any of these slots or bays.

The Creative SBS560 surround-sound speakers supplied with the Nitro are perhaps best described as ‘cheap and cheerful’, but that’s one of the few weaknesses.

With its eye-catching design and strong performance results the Panrix Nitro 840D is an attractive system that will appeal to any home user.

This article is part of a group test of £899 dual-core PCs. Other reviews include:

Dell Dimension 9150

Others can be read via our pdf downloads above

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