WHAT'S HOT: The 800-MHz Athlon inside helped this system to an impressive score of 193 on our PC WorldBench 2000 tests. The multimedia components perform well--the 19-inch ViewSonic PT795 monitor delivered rich colors and sharp text, even at the ridiculously high resolution of 2048 by 1536. For those who like flat panels, there is an LCD hookup on the Guillemot 3D Prophet DDR-DVI graphics card. A case lock will slow down component thieves.
WHAT'S NOT: At this price--$2999--you'd expect to see a DVD-ROM drive or at least a CD-RW drive; the Performance 800A has neither. Also, Sys includes only the components' manuals--you won't get a system manual or troubleshooting guide.
WHAT ELSE: Sys builds many systems with two hard drives connected to an IDE RAID card. This combination will speed up certain disk-intensive tasks, such as video editing, but it adds to the cost of the system. You must remove two screws to gain access to the interior of the generic steel midtower, but the side slides on and off smoothly. Its neat interior contains four open slots--two PCI and two ISA--and four open drive bays for expansion. The lightweight keyboard enables smooth, quiet typing, but the backspace key is too small.
BEST USE: Even without a DVD-ROM drive, the Performance 800A makes powerful system for demanding applications such as digital content creation.
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