Evesham ebox V review

Evesham's first shot at a Viiv PC is stylish - but limited performance and design compromises mean the technology's not yet ready to make it into your living room.

When a company as big as Intel announces something it reckons will change the way we use our PCs, you know there's going to be a big fuss. Well, Intel's Next Big Thing is Viiv - and the stylish ebox V is Evesham's first Viiv-based system.

So what is Viiv anyway?

Before we go on to look at the specifics of Evesham's system, we'll look at what Viiv is and what you can - and can't - expect from a Viiv PC.

Like Intel's Centrino technology for laptops, Viiv (pronounced to rhyme with 'five') isn't a product as such - or at least, it isn't a single product. It's really a branding exercise - a specification that guarantees that a PC will do certain things. To receive that Viiv sticker, a PC must use one of Intel's latest dual-core processors (including their new Duo laptop processors); a motherboard with Intel's new 945 or 955 chipset and Intel-based wired networking.

Viiv PCs also include a few improvements to help exploit these features too. Chief among these is technology that vastly simplifies the management of multiple hard disks. RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) isn't a new idea but it is one that home users have had to worry about. With digital video making ever greater demands on storage space, however, the option to drop in a new hard disk into a Viiv PC and have it work smoothly as an extension to the existing disk (rather than a separate one) will come in very handy.

This makes Viiv ideal for the video recorder functions of Windows Media Center PC and with a powerful processor, a Viiv PC should handle pretty much any kind of software you throw at it - and will be more than capable of doing all the legwork necessary to process video. Viiv PCs will also be up to running the new Microsoft Windows Vista when it's released.

With fast networking, Viiv PCs are also poised to take advantage of all-singing, all-dancing internet content that requires a fast broadband connection. Intel is dangling the prospect of services like MovieLink, which enable users to watch big-name cinema releases on demand over broadband.

So what are all these gadgets and gizmos for? In short, Intel wants to get into your living room. With its powerful processor, built-in networking and advanced storage options, Viiv is designed for use in multimedia PCs, specifically PCs that run Microsoft's Windows Media Center. In other words, Intel and Microsoft want you to chuck out your DVD, hi-fi and VCR - and replace them with a Viiv PC.

What Viiv can and can't do

As well as allowing PCs to replace set-top boxes, Viiv may also allow set-top boxes to replace the PC. Intel is currently in negotiations with set-top box makers in the US. Rumour has it they may even be looking at Viiv-based devices that run rival operating system Linux, to keep down the cost of these devices.

Curiously, one device that Viiv isn't aiming to replace is your games console. Although the GMA950 graphics chipset that's built into Viiv-certified motherboards is great at handling large-screen monitors and home cinema displays with custom resolutions, it's no good at gaming. It uses borrowed system memory rather than having any dedicated RAM on board and it simply hasn't got the processing power for most 3D games. In fact it wouldn't run our 3D graphics benchmarks at all!

Supporters claim that Viiv isn't really about games, though - powerful graphics cards run hot and need bulky fans and heatsinks, which rather spoils the idea of having a slim, quiet box under your TV. But given that Viiv's ambitious specifications push the price of a PC up to £1,000 or more, many consumers will expect them to be a proficient jack of all trades rather than a box that that only gets used for wathing TV and video.