Watford Aries Perfecta 5100 Pro 120 review

A computer's vital organs are its processor, RAM (working memory) and hard disk (for long-term file storage).

And there's nothing wrong with the core components of this machine. The 2.8GHz Pentium 4 processor offers plenty of power, but we were surprised that Watford chose an Intel processor - AMD's Athlon XP range offers better value.

512MB of RAM and a 120GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 hard disk complete a decent core spec, but the lack of a separate DVD drive disappointed us. The combined CD writer and DVD reader means you can't copy CD-ROMs disc-to-disc.

The budget AOC 7F monitor produces an acceptable picture, although our review sample suffered from poor focus at the very edges. Poor power regulation made the size of the image jump slightly when there was a sudden change in brightness. On the plus side, the monitor's clever dial control makes adjusting the picture a doddle.

We were disappointed to find a basic, no-name mouse with a fluff-collecting ball rather than a more modern optical sensor.

Watford's machine offers limited upgrade scope - you can't add more RAM without removing existing memory, there's no room for an extra 'optical' drive (such as CD or DVD), and there's no internal PCI slot spare to fit an upgrade card such as a TV tuner. It does, however, have a decent selection of ports to connect external devices.

Its Pentium 4 processor powers the system to a respectable 1201 in our everyday performance test. The system relies on an ATI Radeon 9100 graphics chip integrated into the motherboard, rather than a more powerful dedicated card (there is an AGP slot free for you to fit one). The Radeon won't be able to do justice to the latest graphical effects of modern games: a fact reflected in the system's unimpressive 3DMark score of 5078.

With performance like this, Watford's entry can't compete with the £499 PCs we reviewed months ago, let alone its rivals in this group.