Polywell Poly 900KLX

WHAT'S HOT: Using AMD's latest and fastest (900-MHz) Duron chip and Windows Millennium Edition, the Poly 900KLX earned a respectable (but unremarkable) score of 142 on our PC WorldBench 2000 tests. It also ships with a Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 MX graphics board with Digital Vibrance Control, which claims to deliver brighter colors in dim environments. This claim certainly held true with the 17-inch Optiquest Q71 monitor, which produced deep and rich colors in our image tests.

WHAT'S NOT: Unfortunately, text on the monitor that came with this system appeared blurry at 1024 by 768 resolution and difficult to read at the maximum resolution of 1280 by 1024. This Poly also sports the older, "spray-painted" midsize tower, which isn't as aesthetically pleasing as Polywell's newer, aluminum-encased models. In keeping with the old-school motif, the large, clunky, and clacky keyboard features an annoyingly small backspace key.

WHAT ELSE: Lotus SmartSuite Millennium Edition comes bundled with the system, and both a modem and network interface provide connectivity. Opening the system requires tugging off the entire case, although it does come off relatively easily without tools. The rather cramped interior holds four open bays and two open PCI slots, although adding a card to the slot next to the AGP board would prove a tight fit. The thick, spiral-bound system manual ships in a sturdy box, and thorough component documentation is included. Polywell's tech support earned an overall rating of only Fair in our recent calls.

BEST USE: For the small-office user on a tight budget, this Poly provides the basics for a basic price.

SUMMARY

Polywell Poly 900KLX PC WorldBench 2000 score of 142, Duron-900 CPU, 128MB of SDRAM, 64KB L2 cache, Windows Millennium Edition, 30GB hard drive, 12X DVD-ROM drive, Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 MX graphics card with 32MB of SDRAM, 17-inch monitor, integrated VIA AC'97 sound, Cambridge SoundWorks PCWorks speakers, network adapter, V.90 modem, midsize tower case. three-year parts warranty, five-year labor warranty, free unlimited 24-hour tech support $1150 800/999-1278 www.polywell.com