Q Multimedia by LG Value system review

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Verdict:

A stunningly quick Intel dual-core processor gives this PC some serious oomph.

So much has been spent on the dual-core processor that it seriously lacks 3D power.

Review Date: 18 May 2006

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: Sasha Muller

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

Apart from Dell, Q Multimedia by LG is the only other company that has managed to squeeze an Intel dual-core processor into the £599 budget.

Not wishing to be outdone, it provided an Intel Pentium D 930 processor with two processor cores running at 3GHz. The Intel Pentium D 9-series processors are just a little quicker than the older 8-series models, but our benchmark scores didn't bear this out. Despite getting a massive 193% in our video encoding test, the overall score of 107% suggests that the processor is crippled by its 512MB of RAM.

Its 3D performance is compromised by the Intel onboard graphics and we couldn't load Call of Duty 2. If you want to play games, you'll need to fill the empty PCI-Express slot with a suitable graphics card. The LG monitor wasn't particularly great either and we found its image quality a touch dull. Images lacked vibrancy, suffered from graininess and had a very slight blue tinge.

Q Multimedia has made some sensible decisions, though. It's used one 512MB stick of RAM, so that if you add another in future, you'll be able to garner the speed benefits of dual-channel memory. It's also included a dial-up 56k modem, so you can get slow internet access on the cheap.

Q Multimedia has done well to include such a fast processor, but it's clear that it's had to make far too many compromises to fit it into the limited budget. If you add another 512MB of RAM, then this PC would be the quickest here and more than powerful enough to tackle some intensive video editing, but you can forget about playing games until a dedicated graphics card is installed. Dell's system just offers so much more for the money.

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