WHAT'S HOT: The ABS Conquest G4 is aptly named: Our evaluation system's 1.73-GHz Athlon XP 2100+ processor and 512MB of DDR memory helped it earn a very respectable PC WorldBench 4 score of 125.

Other high-end components inside the box also contributed to the speedy score, including its twin 60GB hard drives connected to an ATA/133 RAID controller, as well as its PNY Verto GeForce4 Ti 4600 graphics board with 128MB of DDR graphics memory. The system also comes with a 40X/12X/48X CD-RW drive--one of the fastest CD burners available.

Instead of designing (and charging you more for) a chassis with extra USB 1.1 and FireWire (IEEE 1394) ports mounted up front to let you easily connect digital cameras and other peripherals, ABS sticks four USB 1.1 ports and four FireWire ports in a floppy drive bay--a most effective use of that little-used area of a standard case.

WHAT'S NOT: The Conquest G4's case interior is more crowded than we've seen with other ABS systems, and the unit has only one open slot.

WHAT ELSE: Although the bundled 19-inch Hitachi CM715 monitor displayed our test photo with rich colors and natural-looking flesh tones, text sometimes appeared rather fuzzy in our test document.

The expansive interior of the white ABS midsize tower case features thoughtful design and organization. Tools are not required to add drives to either of the two open removable-media drive bays.

The Conquest G4 comes with a color setup poster and a binder to house the system manual and software. Though the manual is for multiple systems, it includes detailed chapters on how to upgrade and troubleshoot this system.

The system we tested came with Microsoft Office XP Small Business Edition, plus another nice touch: Microsoft's Internet Keyboard, which has ten Internet shortcut keys.

UPSHOT: The ABS Conquest G4 packs a lot of powerful components into a generally well-designed package that's under $2000.

SUMMARY

ABS Conquest G4 PC WorldBench 4 score of 125, 1.73-GHz Athlon XP 2100+ CPU, 512MB of SDRAM, Windows XP Professional, 120GB total space on two hard drives, 16X DVD-ROM drive, 40X/12X/48X CD-RW drive, PNY Verto GeForce4 Ti 4600 graphics card with 128MB of DDR SDRAM, 19-inch Hitachi CM715 monitor, Sound Blaster Audigy sound card, Logitech Z-340 speakers, network adapter, midsize tower case, Microsoft Office XP Small Business Edition. Three-year parts warranty, one-year labor warranty; free, unlimited tech support for 9 hours weekdays. $1921 800/876-8088 www.abspc.com