For $4000 a PC system should leave you wanting for nothing and that certainly was our first impression of TI’s Power Dual AMD 4000. What it lacks in nomenclatorial finesse it equals in power – being based around AMD’s best CPU – the dual-core Athlon 64 X2 4800+. Not surprisingly then, it stormed through our benchmarks, generating the highest score we’ve seen at 1.33. This was aided by the 1GB of PC3200 memory which was only standard grade – with such power elsewhere this system was crying out for high performance sticks.

As with the memory, the hard disks are the same two 200GB WD models that we see in TI’s mid-range system (again running in RAID 0).

However, we foresee few people complaining about the 372GB hard disk space. There’s space for another if things get too cramped. So far it’s a very similar story to TI’s $1500-cheaper system (see page 51) – a view that’s not changed when we see that the two optical drives which consist of a 16x DVD+R, 6x dual layer DVD+R9 and DVD-RAM LG drive and a useful separate DVD-ROM drive for disc-to-disc copying.

The case is larger but actually offers slightly less expandability in that there are only two extra 5.25in drive bays. There’s still an extra external 3.5in bay next to the floppy though. But the extra space benefits airflow. The hard disks are cooled by the intake fan and, with the 120mm exhaust fan, means that everything inside is cool and stable.

A potentially valuable choice is that the motherboard is an SLI edition. While there are only two PCI slots and two 1x PCI-Express slots going spare, there’s an extra 16x PCI-Express slot for in the future when the graphics card starts to feel slow. Not that that’s likely anytime soon. TI has included Gigabyte’s overclocked 7800GTX TurboForce graphics card. This managed a whopping 99fps in our Half-Life 2 test and 62fps in Far Cry. Quite simply, you’ll be able to play all current and a fair few future games at high frame rates with all details set to maximum for some time to come.

Sticking with the innards, it’s good to see that TI has made an effort with cabling. There are no dangling spare extremities here, everything has to be cable-tied together and looped where appropriate. However, while the case isn’t particularly noisy, the fans do provide a constant whoosh which, while not distracting, is more noticeable than the practically silent Scorptech system it’s competing against this month. Connectivity options include the usual two USB 2 ports, headphone and mic jacks at the front along with a FireWire connector. At the back are six USB 2 ports, two FireWire, coaxial S/PDIF in and out as well as serial and parallel connectors for legacy peripherals.

The monitor is BenQ’s FP91V which offers a 4ms grey-to-grey response time as well as stereo speakers. It’s certainly a bright and well-lit panel which offers decent colour reproduction, but it can’t quite match Scorptech’s excellent Samsung equivalent – in design, performance or warranty (five dead pixels allowable as opposed to zero).

The inbuilt speakers aren’t bad but you’ll be wanting to use the excellent Logitech X530 5.1 speakers instead. These offer decent performance at top end, mid-range and with some thumping bass which makes music, games and movies a treat. They look good too.

Also of note is the Logitech LX 700 cordless desktop and mouse set. This has long been a favourite of ours. The keyboard is responsive and comfortable to use and the mouse, which recharges in the wireless connector, works well. Both are responsive and accurate enough to play games with too.

Finally there’s TI’s standard 2yrs limited RTB warranty. This covers mainly the system box as the peripherals are covered by their own warranties. There’s no software but for Windows XP Home.

It all adds up to a very powerful and desirable system. It’s very much the big brother of TI’s other competitor this month – similar genetics in the form of hard disks, optical drives and cooling with some beefed up extras. The good news is that these represent good value upgrades.

However, while in several aspects it’s superior to Scorptech’s system, this month, the near silence of the latter, coupled with the superior peripherals and excellent warranty upgrade mean that it’s Scorptech’s machine that just edges it.

For people who want the most power and the better-cooled innards, the Power Dual AMD 4000 is a great choice though and we’re very happy to recommend it.