Carrera Power Pro 2-300 review

Carrera's case is tower-shaped and of respectable proprotions, with five drive bays accessible from outside, and seven in total.

The motherboard is equipped with three memory slots, one filled by the PC's 64Mb, and has the three ISA slots free, with the modem and sound card installed in two of its four PCI slots.

In common with many modern motherboards, one PCI slot and one ISA share the same opening in the back of the case. So it's either/or, not both.

The video card is bound by a plastic garter that pulls the inboard end down into the socket. AGP sockets have finer connectors than other expansion slots, so the card won't work if it's allowed to wobble about. Some of the earliest AGP cards were made to slightly the wrong size, and could slide around in the socket. And, if the case to which the card is screwed down isn't quite square, the connector won't sit right either. Both problems effectively stop the machine: hence the garter.

Happily, this machine arrived pretty much ready to roll, with Windows and application software already installed. It was also correctly regionalised - that is, set up for use in the UK with British keyboards under Greenwich Mean Time. This is all-important: in the UK we use different keyboards, currency, spelling and numeric punctuation from either the US or Europe. We also drive on the left. Any mistakes here can be corrected in Windows Control Panel, after the machine starts work, but it's simpler all round if things are set up correctly before the machine leaves the workshop.

The Carrera throws all kinds of stuff at you as Windows starts. First there's a Welcome panel, then the ATI video help screen, and on into the full Lotus SmartSuite toolbar. The Windows 98 Active Desktop is switched on, complete with the Channel Bar of shortcuts to selected Internet sites. Nine assorted icons sit on the desktop, while the Task Bar carries the Windows 98 Quicklaunch menu and the System Tray, the usual Volume, Time and Task Scheduler as well as yet more shortcuts to Lotus SmartSuite applications, plus another to the video card's Help screen. That's one hell of a lot of pointy clicky stuff for one screen. When Windows 95 was launched, Microsoft made a lot of the fact that everything could be accessed from one button, sensibly labelled 'Start'. Where's all that simplicity gone to now?

The 4Gb hard disk is by no means small, but all of Carrera's competitors saw fit to include at least 6Gb. Carrera makes up for this, though, as its CD drive, though not outstanding as a CD-ROM reader (it's 24-speed), reads DVD disks. As yet, there aren't a great deal of films or software packages available on DVD, but the drive certainly adds to the PC's future-proofing. Already, video shops all over the US offer DVD movies.

Carrera always supplies LG (formerly GoldStar) monitors, and they're pretty consistent. The 15in StudioWorks 57i does the business as required, and has a zoom feature so you can resize the screen quickly (a feature many monitors now have). The graphics card was ATI's excellent Xpert '98, the latest in a well-established line.

This PC speaks through a set of Altec Lansing ACS 90s, providing good punch and honestly rated at 4.5W per channel. They're driven by a Videologic SonicStorm, a PCI card based on an ESS chipset.

Nearly all PCs have 56K modems, and this one is no exception. This means it's ready for the Internet, e-mail, voice mail and faxing. Using the Net will certainly increase your phone bill, but a 56K connection should help to keep costs down. 56Kbps is the fastest modem speed around, which means data downloads at a higher speed and therefore lesser expense. It's becoming increasingly clear that a PC needs a modem nearly as much as it needs a video card.