This is the kind of workstation that budding 3D artists have wet dreams over. It packs two Hyper-Threaded 3.06GHz Xeon processors – currently the best workstation processors on offer from Intel – a gigabyte of RAM and a 10,000rpm SCSI hard drive. In short, you'll be hard pressed to find a faster workstation without forking out the $15,000 or so for a blazing Silicon Graphics machine.

It also packs an ATI FIREGL X1 professional graphics card. The X1 is based on the RADEON 9700, and at the time of writing is the most powerful professional card in its class. Combined with dual Xeons, it eats up anything you throw at it.

This system includes Xenon's typically first-rate peripherals, with comfortable and accurate Microsoft keyboard and optical mouse.

This Xenon has only two real drawbacks: it lacks in terms of disk capacity, and it's loud. While its 37GB 10,000rpm SCSI disk certainly offers excellent performance, many designers will rapidly find themselves out of space; 37GB doesn't give you much room to hoard all the extras that are so necessary for creating original system designs.

The necessity of two powerful CPU fans combined with a very large exhaust fan makes this workstation significantly louder than your average desktop PC. We recommend that prospective buyers invest in some decent sound-dampening equipment.

If you're after a very capable 3D workstation, this system delivers in spades – and provides plenty of room to upgrade as well.

Might we also suggest some comfortable earmuffs?