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Ginger 6’s G6 Nexus has the kind of specifications we’d expect at this price. It’s powered by an Intel Core i5 processor, has 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard disk, and comes with a 22in Full HD monitor. There’s plenty of room inside the case for expansion, and a decent set of external outputs.
Ginger 6 has opted for a Core i5-2300 processor which runs at 2.8GHz, or 3.1GHz when it detects an application needs extra oomph. Its overall score of 87 in our multimedia benchmarks isn’t the best, but the Nexus should be able to handle any application you care to run. With its four physical cores, it can run multiple applications simultaneously without becoming sluggish.
There’s no dedicated graphics card, and the Core i5’s integrated graphics processor isn’t up to much. It failed most of our games benchmarks, and in our low-detail Dirt 3 test it managed an unplayable 13fps.
There’s plenty of room for a dedicated graphics card, or even two, although you may have to re-house the hard disk to make room for some of the longer cards. The unbranded 500W power supply may or may not be able to handle the most powerful card, but mid-range AMD and Nvidia models shouldn’t cause any problems. You might also want to add some case fans to reduce heat build-up, as there aren’t any fitted.
It’s always good to see a couple of free RAM slots: this way, when you want to add more RAM, you don’t have to get rid of the existing memory. As well as two PCI-E x16 slots for graphics cards, there are two normal PCI slots, as well as spare SATA headers for hard disks or optical drives which can be fitted to the numerous free drive bays.
On the front panel are two USB ports, with another six on the rear, and two of these support USB3. You have a generous choice of multimedia outputs too: video can be handled by VGA, DVI or HDMI ports, while audio is catered for with six 3.5mm jacks and an optical S/PDIF output. The latter is only really useful if you have old AV equipment that doesn’t have an HDMI input.
The monitor is a 22in AOC model with a Full HD resolution and a USB pass-through socket. Interestingly, the USB port is placed on the top edge of the monitor which AOC seems to think is ideal for a webcam. However most webcams aren’t designed to take advantage of this – instead, they usually come with a clip and a long USB cable. Image quality isn’t bad though, and despite not having the brightest or most even backlight, colours were vibrant and contrast was good.
Viewed on its own, there’s little to fault in the G6 Nexus, and the two-year collect-and-return warranty is very good. However, if you prefer to get more hardware for your money, the Palicomp Phoenix i5 Laser is more powerful and, without its poor monitor, is great value at £485. If you want a complete package, the Dino PC Jurassic 2500 comes with twice the hard disk space, a Blu-ray drive and a 24in monitor.
