PC Specialist Eclipse review

The Eclipse from PC Specialist expresses the kind of professional, functional philosophy that the company name suggests.

By focusing on maximum performance at minimum cost, the designers have managed to put together a very powerful system at a surprisingly affordable price.

What do we mean by very powerful? Well, it's built around Intel's Core 2 Duo E6750 processor, a beefy chip that delivers excellent performance, as can plainly be seen from the Eclipse's 193% score in our 2D benchmark. It's backed up with 2GB of RAM, giving Vista the headroom it needs to run at full speed, and a 320GB hard disk. Admittedly, none of these components is top-of-the-range - you can buy a system off the shelf with a faster processor, more RAM and a bigger hard disk - but we think it's an intelligently chosen combination, giving bags of oomph while keeping the price realistic. Go much higher and you can find yourself paying over the odds for marginal speed improvements.

To complement these main components, PC Specialist has fitted a graphics card from nVidia's high-end 8800 series. Again, the 320MB 8800 GTS isn't quite the most powerful you can buy, but it's a heavyweight performer, scoring 248% in our 3D gaming test. Coupled with a 22 inch monitor, and enclosed in an attractive case with gently glowing blue LEDs, it all adds up to a system that looks the part and should be able to stand proud for a few years to come - not bad at all for under £900.

There's not much space left in the budget for luxuries, though. The keyboard and mouse are the most basic wireless models offered by Logitech, and while the Creative T6100 5.1 speakers are perfectly adequate for playing games, they're far from a hi-fi experience. The weakest link is the monitor: in principal the inclusion of a large screen should be the icing on the cake, but when you put this V7 unit next to competing TFTs, it looks distinctly washed-out and suffers from a restrictive viewing angle.

Still, these external bits are at least easy to replace later. There are a few nice surprises too. The DVD writer is a well-equipped unit, offering LightScribe (so it can label your discs for you as you burn them) and SecurDisc, a hardware security system for CDs and DVDs that means you can back up your personal data without fear of it falling into the wrong hands. It can also automatically write multiple copies of your data to a disc, so you can still access your files even if the disc gets scratched or damaged.

Joined-up thinking

Connectivity is excellent as well, with a remarkable nine USB 2.0 sockets - four of them intelligently located on the side of the front panel, so you can swing the door open and get at the DVD drive and card reader without your USB cables interfering. There are two FireWire sockets, and eSATA, which enables external hard disks to achieve the same lightning-fast transfer speeds as internal models. If you ever want to add an internal hard disk, or carry out other internal upgrades, you'll appreciate the easy-opening case (the side just pops off) and the large number of free bays.

It's probably PC enthusiasts who'll most appreciate this system. Though it's great value for what you get, the average home user might be happy to trade some of its colossal power for a nicer monitor, and perhaps a friendlier keyboard and mouse. But if you feel the need for speed and aren't in a hurry to shell out for creature comforts, this could be your perfect PC.

Author: Darien Graham-Smith