Ginger 6 G6 ND450 Next Day PC review

If you look down the Ginger 6 G6 ND450 Next Day PC you'd be forgiven for thinking that it uses old technology thanks to the listing of an Intel Pentium G6950 processor. However, far from being old, this oddly-named chip is actually basically a new Core i3 (two cores with Hyper Threading).

Although this processor doesn't have Intel's Turbo Boost automatic overclocking software, Ginger 6 has overclocked it from 2.8GHz to 3.4GHz. This combined with the 4GB of RAM helped the ND450 score 110 overall, although it was the incredible score of 149 in our image-editing test that impressed us the most.

It's a little disappointing that only a 32-bit version of Windows is installed, as only around 3.5GB of the installed memory can be used. It also makes it pointless to upgrade the PC to its maximum of 8GB.

As we expect at this price there's no dedicated graphics card and only integrated Intel GMA HD graphics. It's not capable of playing games, but can cope with HD video. Thanks to the HDMI output, you can easily connect this computer to an LCD TV.

The ND450's case is reasonably attractive, with a plain, glossy black fascia and a large red power button. Inside, it's a different story, and although there's plenty of room for expansion, the wires aren't tied back or bundled neatly. Fitting a large graphics card would require moving the hard disk to a lower slot in the casing, as it's currently blocking the first PCI-E x16 slot (a second PCI-E x16 slot can be used to fit another graphics card for more video outputs).

There are two free SATA ports which should be fine for expanding storage past the included 500GB hard disk. A neat touch is that there are two eSATA/USB combination ports on the rear, giving you even more storage potential, and six other plain USB ports.

After all of these good things it's a shame that Ginger 6 has chosen to ship the ND450 with a tiny 19in LG monitor. It has a slightly strange resolution of 1,360x768, which is fine for 720p video, but feels a little cramped for everyday use compared to the displays shipped with most desktop computers. Having said that, it has decent image quality, with vibrant colours, good contrast and an even, bright backlight. If you choose not to include the monitor, you can save £82 and buy the computer for £418.

Ginger 6 has also included a set of Logitech stereo speakers. These are clear and loud, but lack bass, and they're only really useful for casual listening such as watching YouTube videos. For music or films, you'll want to invest in a proper set of 2.1 or 5.1 speakers with a subwoofer. You also get a basic Logitech mouse and keyboard set.

While the ND450 did well in our benchmarks, the system is let down by the very small display. Applications that can make good use of this performance, such as video editing, also benefit from having a large screen to work on. If this is the sort of work you want to do, then you're better off spending a bit extra to upgrade the monitor.