Evesham Axis 64 V3P review

If you're looking for a PC and are not intending to upgrade, ensuring that you buy a well-balanced system is vital.

It is possible to build a PC with a slow processor and fast graphics card that will seemingly perform as well as one with equally matched components. Unfortunately, the imbalance often reveals itself further down the line, when new software highlights the weaknesses in the slower processor.

Evesham's Axis 64 V3P is powered by an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ with 1GB PC3200 memory. PCMark04 produces an overall score of 3,742 but the individual component scores highlight the processor as a slight bottleneck. Even so, the Shopper benchmarks score of 90 indicates that it is a capable performer in real-life applications.

Doom 3 tests are particularly hard on graphics processors, but the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro card managed to clock a perfectly playable 25.8fps in our benchmark. A 3DMark03 score of 6,059 confirms that the Axis 64 V3P is a reasonable games system. A 160GB hard disk provides plenty of storage for now, but as applications get larger, you may need to upgrade or archive your files more frequently. There is a 16X double-layer DVD writer as well as a 16X DVD-ROM drive. This means it is possible to archive 8.5GB in one go, while disc-to-disc copying is also possible.

We would expect a 17" display to have a fast response time, but the ViewSonic VX715 is relatively slow at 25ms. This means that fast-moving images may fall out of focus as the screen struggles to keep up with what the computer is trying to display. This should not be a problem when watching films but may affect the image quality in games with high frame rates. The panel does provide bright clean colour and good greyscale.

The supplied Inspire P580 5.1 surround-sound speakers, although now superseded by Creative's Inspire P5800, are more than adequate, adding extra bite to movies and games. Input is performed via a responsive Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse set. The mouse in particular is comfortable to use and has an innovative tilt wheel for easier navigation. Evesham also includes a good range of software to get you started, with Microsoft Works 8 and Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD.

The Axis 64 V3P is a reasonably well-balanced system although we would expect a punchier processor for the price. This month's Mesh Matrix64 3200+ CSX provides more processing power and similar peripherals for £150 less, leaving a question over the Evesham's value.