Gladiator Centurion CSX1950P review

Gaming PCs are powerful beasts, ideal for playing the latest games and handling tough Windows tasks.

Unfortunately, the roar of their fans can be distracting. Gladiator's Centurion CSX1950P isn't the quietest PC we've seen, but it's less noisy than most gaming PCs.

The Centurion has 2GB of RAM and an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 processor. The computer's default settings overclock this from its standard 1.86GHz clock speed to 2.2GHz. It helped the PC power through our video-encoding benchmark, producing a score of 261, and made short work of our multitasking test.

This is the first PC we've seen to come with ATI's new Radeon X1950 Pro graphics card, which can play the latest games with ease. It sailed through our Doom 3 test at 66 frames per second (fps), and blitzed its way through our Call of Duty 2 test at 44.5fps. The Centurion's motherboard supports CrossFire, so you can add another X1950 Pro card for even quicker video performance. Unlike previous versions of the CrossFire technology, neither video adaptor needs to be a special master card, so it should be easier to choose and configure a second card. Another graphics card might infringe one of the three empty PCI slots or one of the two free PCI Express x1 slots, though.

The 320GB hard disk should provide enough room for plenty of games and documents, but if you find yourself running out of disk space, the computer's case has free drive bays for up to four additional hard disks. Adding and removing an internal hard disk is easy, since the disks are mounted inside a frame that can be completely removed from the rest of the PC. If you need even more storage, you can add an external disk using the eSATA, FireWire 400 or USB2 ports.

Gigabit Ethernet connections have become widespread on desktop PCs, but the Centurion also has an integrated wireless networking adaptor. Though you'll get the fastest, most reliable data transfers over a wired connection, this gives you the option of connecting wirelessly to a suitable router.

This PC includes a small remote for controlling Windows Media Player. Although this makes browsing your videos and music convenient, it would be easier still if it had Windows XP Media Center Edition, rather than standard XP Home.

The Centurion is quick, and its easily removable hard disk frame and built-in wireless networking are convenient. However, it doesn't come with a keyboard, mouse, monitor or speakers, so it isn't good value. Mesh's Elite E6600 Express costs ?00 more, but it comes with surround-sound speakers and a 19" LCD, and is an even quicker gaming computer.