The cheapest system to be submitted for review in our performance roundup, it just goes to show that even $4000 will get you a hell of a lot of PC for your money. PCQUEST has also opted to go with a CoolerMaster case, both for its attractive looks and functionality, this housing able to hold a massive five optical drives and four hard disk drives, erring on the side of more is better.

Taking advantage of Intel's i925X chipset, this is a very well featured motherboard, packing Dual-Channel DDR2 support, PCI-Express graphics, dual Gigabit Ethernet, Intel High Definition 7.1 audio and an 802.11G integrated wireless module. These features provide the functionality of add-in PCI cards without taking up the valuable three available slots. PCQUEST has built on these features by including not one, but two 200GB hard disk drives for users after large capacity storage and a dual layer DVD burner to back it all up to 8.5GB DVDs when you've finished creating another masterpiece with the supplied DV editing software. Although supplied with only a single somewhat recent game in Deus Ex: Invisible War, the rest of the software bundle includes DVD creation and playback software as well as well thought out anti-virus and spyware blocking software to keep internet nasties out.

For the adventurous users who want to take their lives and warranties into their own hands, ASUS includes DDR2 600 support on their P5AD2-Platinum motherboard, working outside 400 and 533 ratings and operating as DDR2 600 modules and eliminating CPU and memory limitations when overclocking the system. Given current DDR2 533 operates at roughly DDR PC3200 levels due to its higher CAS latency, this may well offer a little more performance for your buck.

Although holding back a little in DirectX 8 testing with PCMark01SE, PCQUEST rose through the ranks in the newer 3DMark05 to take second place convincingly care of its RADEON X800XT graphics card and showing the full potential of PCI-Express and its doubled bi-directional bandwidth over 8xAGP. Real world testing pushed this system back into fourth place where it stayed for the remainder of our tests although testament to its fight against some very stiff competition.

About on par with the average for both performance and features, PCQUEST gave the other much more expensive units a real run for their money, for gamers after a greyhound on a cross breed price, give this one a look in.