RL Supplies Modula 5001MC review

RL Supplies' unassuming black and silver Modula 5001MC computer doesn't look particularly stylish, but underneath it's a generously specified Media Center PC.

You'll have to give it plenty of space in your living room, though, as it can become warm to the touch and noisy if its cooling vents are blocked.

The Modula's dual digital TV tuner means that you can record one channel while watching another. There's plenty of storage space thanks to the pair of 250GB hard disks. By default, one disk is used to store your music, photos and videos and the other is used for your Windows installation and applications. You can choose to configure it as a JBOD, RAID 0 or RAID 1 array if you prefer, though.

The front-mounted display shows useful information, such as your currently playing music track. Windows Vista Home Premium is pre-installed so you can browse your media files using Windows Media Center and the included remote or wireless keyboard. The keyboard has a built-in trackball, but it feels cheap and the tightly spaced keys lack resistance, making it quite uncomfortable for extended periods of typing.

You can use the Modula for more serious work, too, thanks to its powerful Core 2 Duo E6400 processor and plentiful 2GB of RAM. It did well in our video-editing and multiple-applications benchmarks.

The Radeon X1650 graphics card isn't ideal if you want to play the latest games with the highest detail settings enabled, as our Call of Duty 2 and Prey benchmarks show. You'll have to lower the resolution and detail settings to see a smooth frame rate, but older games should play without any problems. As this PC is probably destined to sit underneath a television, though, you probably won't play many games on it anyway.

An HD TV can be plugged into the graphics card's HDMI port using the included cable. There's also the standard TV out, so you can connect the Modula 5001MC to a standard definition TV, too. You can plug a surround-sound speaker set into the 7.1 line outputs or a surround-sound amplifier into the coaxial or optical S/PDIF outputs.

The chaotic-looking interior is strewn with cables, which rather deters upgrades. It is possible to replace the DVD writer or hard disks, although there aren't any empty drive bays. There's no room for adding a PCI card, such as a FireWire or wireless networking adaptor, unless you remove the riser for the TV-out port. Alternatively, you could add a USB wireless network adaptor at the back of the PC.

If you want a Media Center PC to records lots of TV programmes, the Modula is a good choice thanks to its plentiful hard disk space and dual digital TV tuners. It's not the most attractive Media Center PC, but you get a lot for your money.