Evesham Axis Blaze X850 review

The Axis Blaze X850 is one of the first Evesham systems to support ATI's CrossFire dual-graphics card technology.

It comes with a single 256MB Radeon X850 Pro CrossFire Master graphics card, which delivers good 3D performance, as shown in our Doom 3 and 3DMark benchmark scores below.

You can gain a healthy boost in 3D performance by installing any PCI-E Radeon X800 series graphics card into the spare PCI-E x16 slot. This can be very handy if you happen to have an older graphics card lying around, and it isn't something nVidia's rival SLI technology can currently do as that requires two identical cards.

The dual-core Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor made short work of our application benchmarks, which means the Blaze X850 is a good choice for demanding tasks such as video editing, although games don't currently take advantage of the extra core. With such blistering performance, though, the noise from the cooling fans can be quite noticeable, especially if you are recording and editing music.

Most manufacturers choose to skimp on the peripherals when packing their PCs with powerful processors and graphic cards. While the Blaze X850 isn't overflowing with extras, Evesham has equipped it with a choice selection. The impressive Creative X-Fi sound card not only supports the latest 7.1 surround-sound standards but also features EAX processing, which improves sound quality in games such as Doom 3. The accompanying i-Trigue 3200 speakers are attractive and produce good sound for their size, but better speakers are needed to get the most out of the X-Fi card.

The 19" ViewSonic monitor is difficult to adjust but reproduces colours well and provides fast refresh rates - especially important for smooth, blur-free gameplay. The bundled wireless Logitech mouse and keyboard are comfy, but demanding gamers will want a wired set. The three-year warranty, with onsite cover for two years, rounds off the package nicely.

Evesham's Axis Blaze X850 is an impressive system that offers great value. Although the most demanding gamers with a couple of hundred more pounds to spend will find systems that trade the dual-core processors for more powerful graphics cards, gamers on a budget, who also need a powerful PC for other tasks, will find the Blaze 850 an attractive choice.