CCL ID34-RS review

CCL has joined a host of manufacturers using attractive micro-sized cases with its snappily named ID34-RS.

Its compact and unobtrusive design ensures it looks as good in living areas as in the office. However, this compact design does make for a cramped, ill-ventilated interior, which provides limited space for internal additions. To keep the system cool, the case is fitted with powerful and noisy fans.

The ID34-RS certainly packs a punch. With an Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz processor and 1GB PC3200 RAM it clocked an impressive 4,941 in PCMark04. Although the 160GB hard disk is parallel ATA, overall performance was excellent with 107 in the Shopper application benchmarks, proving it will cope with common software with plenty in reserve.

Although the supplied motherboard has an onboard ATI graphics processor, CCL has opted to install a more substantial alternative in the Sapphire X800 Pro. Based on ATI's X800 Pro graphics processor, this is an incredibly powerful card. A score of 9,784 in 3DMark03, a mere eight per cent behind that of Dell's £3,120 XPS system (see page 14), confirms its premier gaming potential. Even in our Doom 3 benchmark the ID34 managed a smooth 30fps on high settings.

Situated at the bottom of the front fascia is a mouth-like mounting which has two USB, one FireWire, optical S/PDIF, microphone and headphone ports. In most cases, however, you'd do better to use those mounted on the rear, otherwise the system looks like it's spewing wires. A 5-in-1 card reader sits beneath the 8X DVD+/-RW drive, and both of these can be hidden behind a sliding panel. Unfortunately, there is no modem installed and no space to put one.

With no DVI input the Direction L-171 17" LCD supplied could be sharper, although its auto-adjust functions reasonably well. Image quality is satisfactory and, while the panel is a little dim, colours are vibrantly rendered and contrast is sufficient. CCL also supplies a good quality Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse.

VideoLogic's robust ZXR-550 5.1 surround-sound speaker system is an excellent inclusion and adds an extra dimension to movies and games, producing a rich, clear sound.

The ID34-RS's lack of internet connectivity is the only real oversight here. Otherwise it's an excellent and affordable PC.