Hi-Grade 1.2GHz Tualatin Pentium III PC

The appearance of a new Pentium III desktop processor may seem odd, and rather late in the day, but it's a welcome upgrade to a proven architecture.

A 1.13GHz Pentium III appeared briefly last year, but was withdrawn owing to technical problems. These have been fixed, with this version clocked at 1.2GHz.

This modification to the Pentium III's P6 core is codenamed the Tualatin, and it's all down to Intel's new 0.13micron technology. The allows processors to run faster while using less power and, therefore, less heat.

The version we tested had 256Kb of Level 2 on-die cache. Server versions with 512Kb of cache are already available.

Every new processor inevitably needs a new motherboard, and this is no exception. It uses the Asus TUSL2-C, a modification on the very popular CUSL-2 motherboard, as reviewed in last month's PCW. Based on Intel's i815EP B chipset, it cuts out the integrated graphics, which lowers costs.

Nestled into one of the three DIMM slots is a 256Mb stick of PC133 SDRAM, leaving plenty of room for upgrade, although 256Mb should see you right for the foreseeable future.

Western Digital's 60Gb hard drive provides plenty of storage. It runs at 7200rpm, and it's impressive to see this popping up in a sub-£1000 system.

Read and write

Optical storage comes from the solid Teac CD-W58E CD-RW drive. This both writes and rewrites at eight-speed, and reads at 32-speed. It's by no means the best performer on the market, but it's a solid drive and, more importantly, it's good value - hence its inclusion here.

There's also a Hitachi GD-7500 16-speed DVD-ROM drive, giving high-speed reading and the ability to copy directly from drive to drive.

The 64Mb GeForce2 Pro has had a significant price cut in recent months, mainly owing to the arrival of the Kyro II chipset. This gave the GeForce2 MX-400 a serious kicking in the speed stakes. nVidia has responded in its customary aggressive style by reducing the price on the faster GeForce2 Pro part.

3DMark 2001 performance scores are impressive, with tests at 1280 x 1024 in 32bit colour scoring 2642, and 1698 at 1600 x 1200.

Game on

We also tested the system on Quake III: Arena, using the Team Arena add-on, as it puts greater demands on the system's graphics capability. Again, testing at both 1280 x 1024 and 1600 x 1200, and at 32bit colour depth, frame rates came in at 80.4 and 56.9, respectively. These are more than enough for Quake III and should set you in good stead for most games currently on the market.

The supplied LG Flatron 775FT is a well-performing 17in CRT monitor, giving a 16in viewable screen and a 1280 x 1024 max resolution. There has been some minor cost-saving here, as evesham.com has managed to put the more expensive 795FT in with its 1.1GHz Celeron system.

The TUSL2-C motherboard is one of the first we've seen to include onboard 5.1 sound, achieved through the integrated C-Media chip. There's no reason why integrated audio should be any worse than a dedicated sound card, a fact confirmed with this board.

Sounds good

Sound, using the bundled Creative DT2200 speakers, is good. Dolby Digital decoding is achieved through the bundled DVD software, which provides you with full surround sound capabilities for a fraction of the cost of a Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1.

The C-Media chip's MIDI features are nothing to write home about, but then, if that's what you're after, a dedicated sound card is always a better option anyway.

A 56K V.90 modem is included, filling up one of the six PCI slots. As well as the two USB slots on the motherboard, there are two extra coming from a card at the back.

Lotus SmartSuite is included, and there's a one-year, on-site warranty.

Hi-Grade's wheel mouse and keyboard are adequate, and the Logitech webcam is a welcome finishing touch.

Running under Windows Me, this system scored 135 overall on SYSmark 2001. For a 1.2GHz system this is quite impressive, but Pentium III processors are still more expensive than their AMD Athlon counterparts and therefore lose out at this £999 price point; a similarly specified 1.4GHz Athlon from Hi-Grade can be bought for the same money.

Contact
Hi-Grade: 020 8532 6111 www.higrade.com

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