Packard Bell iMedia 2426 review

The iMedia 2426's case is very similar to that of Advent's PDQ5002, with a slide-down panel at the front hiding USB and audio sockets.

It also has the same 2.2GHz quad-core AMD Phenom X4 9550 processor as the PDQ5002, although in this case the Packard Bell-branded motherboard lets it run at its maximum HyperTransport speed of 1,800MHz. This, combined with the 3GB of slightly faster PC-6400 RAM, allowed it to beat the PDQ5002 in our PCMark Vantage benchmark.

The integrated Nvidia GeForce 8200 graphics failed to run both our games tests. Even with detail and resolution turned down to the bare minimum, it managed only around 5fps in both Crysis and Call of Duty 4, which is totally unplayable. However, there is plenty of upgrade potential, with a free x16 PCI Express slot crying out for a graphics card. The 250W power supply is a weak point, though and, if you install a graphics card, you'll almost certainly need to upgrade this to a more powerful model.

In its favour, the iMedia 2426 is one of the quietest PCs on test this month and, aside from the processor fan, no extra cooling is fitted or required. The 320GB hard disk will keep you going for a while, but we'd prefer to see a 500GB model installed; the two free 3in drive bays mean you can always add a second disk at a later date. Thanks to the tool-free side panel, accessing the innards of this PC couldn't be easier.

Without money being spent on upgrading, Packard Bell's iMedia 2426 isn't a PC that you'd want to play games on - unless you're a fan of such classics as Solitaire or Minesweeper. It's reasonably strong performance in PCMark Vantage shows that it's more than capable of performing processor-intensive tasks such as video editing. That said, CyberPower's Gamer Infinity 620 produced better PCMark Vantage scores, is faster in games and is a better overall choice.