Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo E review

Fujitsu Siemens' Scaleo E comes without speakers or a monitor.

This is because it's designed to plug straight into your TV. Like the Asus laptop on page 46, the Scaleo runs Microsoft's Windows Media Center, so you can use it to watch, record and pause live TV, play music and view photos.

POWERFUL ENOUGH

The Scaleo scored very well on our 2D benchmarks. It ran all the tests at a good speed, even the demanding image manipulation test. Its overall score of 112.5 is about what we'd expect for a Media Center PC - any less it and it would find it difficult to cope with the demanding job of streaming and recording live TV.

Performance in our 3D benchmarks was, however, less impressive - the Scaleo just wouldn't run them. It's not designed as gaming system though, so we didn't hold that against it too much, but it's worth pointing out.

DOUBLE TROUBLE

The Scaleo E has a hybrid TV tuner - one that can tune in to both digital and analogue signals, though not at the same time. This means that Fujitsu Siemens can offer the same model to customers in both digital and analogue TV areas, great for Fujitsu Siemens but not that exciting for anyone else. Most users will either only want to use digital, or only be able to use analogue.

On the plus side - and it's a big plus - the Scaleo is one of the only Media Center PCs we've seen with SCART sockets - one for hooking up to your TV and another for connecting to some other kind of audio visual device.

You could even plug this PC into a Sky box. You'd have to program Media Center to be able to change the channel on Sky though, otherwise you wouldn't be able to set-up recordings using Media Center's electronic programme guide.

Unfortunately, because the Scaleo only has just one TV tuner, you won't be able to watch and record television at the same time, which will be a bit of a pain, to say the least.

As well as SCART connectors, the Scaleo has composite andS-Video-in ports, which are useful for connecting to older camcorders or VCRs, six USB 2 sockets and two Firewire ports, one full-size and one mini-FireWire. This means whatever audio-visual device you have, you'll be able to plug it into the Scaleo and import your recordings. If you want to get video off the Scaleo on to something else, you can use the system's composite or S-Video connectors, conveniently situated on the front of the case. The Scaleo also supports 7.1 surround sound, though you don't get any speakers.

The bundled wireless keyboard, mouse and remote are functional, but feel cheap and plasticky. The keys on the keyboard rattle and we didn't like the way all the keys were squashed together either. After all, when you spend this amount of money on a PC, you don't expect to a get a keyboard that feels like it's been pinched from a cheap laptop. On the bright side, both mouse and keyboard are wireless.

UPGRADE POTENTIAL

The Scaleo is fitted out with a 250GB hard disk - enough to record plenty of TV - and comes with a multi-format DVD writer for burning copies of your favourite recordings.

If you're not satisfied with the spec, you could do a bit of upgrading. There's space inside for another PCI card - handy if you want to add a Wi-Fi wireless adapter and use this PC with a wireless Media Centre extender, such as the Xbox 360 reviewed on page 58. There are also slots free for two half-height PCI cards but before you can install them, you'll have to clear lots of cables out the way first.

The system does have an AGP graphics slot, but you won't be able to replace the current graphics card with something good. For a start you'd need a half-height card and even if you found one, the 250W power supply can't supply enough current for a modern card.