Premio Centella L133

WHAT'S HOT: The Premio Centella L133 minitower's color-coded ports are a bonus for first-time PC owners. The Altec Lansing ACS33W speakers that we tested with the system produced nice bass and treble vocal tones.

WHAT'S NOT: This system lacks more than it offers. Relying on Via's integrated graphics, the Centella L133 earned some of the worst graphics scores we've seen on a Windows Me system. We couldn't complete our Quake 3 tests with the graphics adapter at its default settings or with 4MB of RAM allotted to graphics. When we bumped the graphics memory up to 8MB through system BIOS, we managed to run Quake 3 at 800 by 600 in 32-bit color, but it ran exceedingly slowly. Likewise, at its default settings, the Centella L133 failed our other 3D game tests or produced painfully low frame rates. Its performance on business applications was substandard as well: It scored 21 points below the average for comparably configured Pentium III-933 PCs, and 18 points lower than the next-slowest system.

The Centella has no modem--something almost all value home PCs do have--and it includes no productivity software or games. The parts and labor warranties run for one year each, far less than the three years covered by many PC makers' warranties.

WHAT ELSE: The Premio 701 monitor did a mediocre job of displaying our vividly colored test photographs. Likewise, the clarity of text and icons was merely satisfactory, probably due in part to the monitor's relatively coarse dot pitch of .28mm.

BEST USE: Other budget PCs offer more for the same money.

SUMMARY

Premio Centella L133 PC WorldBench 2000 score of 131, Pentium III-933 CPU, 128MB of SDRAM, 256KB L2 cache, Windows Millennium Edition, 30GB hard drive, 24X-48X CD-ROM drive, integrated Via graphics with 4MB SDRAM, 17-inch Premio 701 monitor, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audio PCI sound card, Altec Lansing ACS33W speakers, minitower case. One-year parts and labor warranty; unlimited 11-hour weekday toll-free tech support. $1075 800/677-6477 www.premiopc.com