PC Specialist Apollo Q8200 GTX+ review

You could be forgiven for feeling a sense of déj vu.

Only three months ago, our reviews section opened with a PC that looked very much like this one. But things move fast in computer hardware, and PC Specialist, a regular presence in the Computer Buyer lab thanks to its consistently impressive systems and low prices, has come up with another winner, with plenty of goodies thrown in, and now at a price that leaves a satisfying chink of change from a grand.

As usual, the model name gives a cryptic clue to the bits inside. For starters, the 'Q8200' indicates that the processor is an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200, which has four computing cores that each run at 2.33GHz. It's not the fastest in Intel's quad core range, but a powerful component nonetheless, and delivered a more than respectable result of 217% in our general (2D) tests. That's enough to handle even the most demanding of applications, and the four cores make light work of multitasking, so working away in your office suite while a video encodes in the background shouldn't slow everything to a crawl.

The second most important component, and the source of the 'GTX+' in the name, is an even more impressive graphics card. The nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ is a slightly improved version of the older 9800 GTX (introduced, ooh, months ago, so by now part of the dim and distant history of technology). It has several more stream processors, the individual cores that handle complex graphics. In our demanding Call of Duty 2 gaming benchmark, it provided suitably stratospheric performance, scoring 368% - proof that the revamped 9800 GTX+ can handle any of today's games with ease, and won't become obsolete until at least next Thursday.

The rest of the specification is pretty generous, too. 4GB of RAM is now the norm rather than a bonus, but still a sensible amount, and it's plugged into a decent Asus motherboard with the relatively modern Intel P35 chipset. Not one but two 500GB hard disks provide room for even the largest of media collections as well as all the applications and documents you can throw at them.

And to take advantage of all that media storage potential, the Apollo comes with a twin digital TV tuner built in and a media centre remote control in the box. So, with a TV feed from your aerial, you can watch any Freeview TV channel and record another at the same time. It's a feature we hardly ever see on ordinary desktop PCs, and is even relatively rare in media centre machines, which tend to include just a single tuner.

WiFi is also built in, also unusual for a desktop PC (it's more common in laptops), and the crowning glory is a Blu-ray reader drive, so you can wow your friends with the latest high definition movie discs as well as burning all the usual CD and DVD formats. Overall, this is one of the best specified PCs we've seen for a while, especially for under a grand. With a beefy processor and graphics card accompanied by all these thoughtful additions, the Apollo looks like an excellent all round system for personal, student or family use.

Space craft

All these parts come packaged in a sturdy and attractive chassis. Like other recent PC Specialist offerings, it's matt black with three silver circles on the front, each of which lights up with a blue neon ring when the machine is powered up. This might have looked gaudy, but in fact the effect is rather smart and stylish. The hefty door has the added benefit of deflecting some of the noise emitted from inside the chassis, although this isn't the loudest PC we've ever heard in any event, and will hardly be noticeable in the average office, lounge or bedroom.