OP3 Europa review

The case is a decent size and has an interesting sliding front panel that hides the DVD re-writer, although it did feel flimsy. As well as two USB ports and front audio, there’s also a card reader fitted in the external 3 1/2in bay. A third USB port and support for most card formats is a useful addition. Inside the case, most of the loose cables have been bundled together, but they aren’t routed particularly well.

The motherboard is well designed for future upgrades. As well as two PCI slots and a single PCI-E x1 slot, there’s also a second PCI-Ex16 slot for dual graphics cards. The 550W power supply has enough extra connectors to install several extra disks or expansion cards. Around the back there are two USB3 ports for fast external storage, as well as four regular USB ports, an eSATA port and FireWire.

The bundled monitor is one of our favourites: BenQ’s G2222HDL. It’s one of the best budget monitors available, and image quality is excellent. The Logitech keyboard and mouse were also better than most budget peripherals; they were both comfortable to use and had quick response times. The included BullGuard Internet Security suite has a one-year subscription, which is a useful inclusion.

Even with a fantastic monitor and decent expansion options, the Europa’s performance is limited by the AMD processor and slow graphics card. CyberPower’s overclocked Intel machine is much faster, and can play games for the same price, making it the clear choice.