Medion Akoya P7316D review

Medion's latest Akoya system may have a budget price, but there are plenty of capable components inside its small, glossy tower.

The processor is an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 that runs at 2.23GHz. This returned an excellent result in our PCMark Vantage benchmark, and one not far off that of the fastest Core 2 Quad processors. Like most of the PCs we see now, it has 4GB of RAM. This is enough for even demanding creative applications such as high-definition video editing. The 1TB hard disk provides ample storage for this kind of data-intensive work.

For 3D graphics, the Akoya isn't quite as impressive. The Nvidia GT120 isn't a new card, but is simply the old 9500GT manufactured using a more cost-efficient 55nm process. In our Crysis and Call of Duty 4 tests it returned similar figures to its predecessor. The games were unplayable at our standard test settings and managed a decent frame rate only when we reduced the resolution to 1,024x768 and disabled anti-aliasing. It's clear that this machine isn't cut out for serious gaming. It does have HDMI, DVI and VGA outputs, though, so you won't have any problems connecting it to your monitor or an HD TV.

The glossy, Medion-branded chassis failed to impress us, too. There are a pair of USB ports and a handy memory card reader on the front, but the rear lacks any useful extras such as eSATA for external storage or S/PDIF for surround-sound output. The inside of the case is messy, too, and the large funnel attached to the processor heatsink makes working on the components rather awkward. There are also no free memory slots, making any RAM upgrades doubly expensive.

Both the keyboard and mouse are quite basic. The mouse uses a ball rather than an optical sensor - something we thought we'd seen the back of - and the keyboard has poor feedback. They're passable for web browsing, but you'll want to replace them if playing games or typing documents of any length.

The quad-core processor and large hard disk make the Akoya look good value for money. The downside is the lack of peripherals; add in a reasonably good screen - a 20in LCD for around £100 - and some speakers, and you'll quickly be approaching the price of this month's £650 Labs PCs. Our winner, the Mesh Matrix II 920 Nero, is quicker in both games and applications, though it does have a smaller hard disk.

The Akoya is a little basic, with poor input devices, few ports and a lack of upgrade options. If you have a monitor you're happy with but want a new tower with plenty of processing power, then it isn't a bad choice. However, we think that AMD's Phenom II X4 processors are currently a better choice for budget quad-core PCs.