WHAT'S HOT: Priced at $1899, the Poly 815TS-1260 is based around a 1.26-GHz Pentium III that is designed for use in servers and high-end workstations. In this version of the Pentium III, the Level 2 cache has been increased from 256KB to 512KB, which can enhance performance as more instructions become accessible in the cache.

The system sped to a score of 122 on our PC WorldBench 4 tests. Its score is particularly impressive considering that it uses PC133 memory instead of the faster RDRAM that Pentium 4 PCs use. The system's two hard drives provide a combined 80GB of storage, thanks to the system's Ultra DMA/100 RAID controller. The RAID setup likely added some extra oomph to our test system's sparkling performance.

WHAT'S NOT: The Poly 815TS-1260 ships with a poor monitor. The 19-inch Top Victory Electronics 1995S produced fairly bright colors in our test images, but text looked fuzzy even at 1024 by 768 resolution and was difficult to read at the maximum resolution of 1600 by 1200.

WHAT ELSE: The large, aluminum-hued midsize tower houses three open PCI slots and five open drive bays (four externally accessible and one internal) for expansion. You can smoothly remove and replace the metal side of the case after you loosen two thumbscrews; a thumbscrew in each of the PCI slots allows for easy, tool-less card installation. Some of the loosely hanging interior cables could be annoying when you're adding or removing expansion cards and drives, however. The 12X/8X/32X CD-RW drive should be sufficiently quick for most uses, though it's far from the fastest drive available today. The system's funky-looking, gray-and-black keyboard (with translucent edging) allows quiet typing, but the keys on our test model felt slightly loose.

UPSHOT: For users in small to medium-size businesses looking for high-powered performance without heavy power consumption, the Poly 815TS-1260 should fit the bill. However, we recommend an upgrade to another monitor, such as the ViewSonic GS790 or the ViewSonic PF790 (Polywell carries both).

SUMMARY

Polywell Poly 815TS-1260 PC WorldBench 4 score of 122, 1.26-GHz Pentium III CPU, 256MB of PC133 SDRAM, 512KB L2 cache, Windows 2000, two 40GB hard drives in a RAID configuration, 16X DVD-ROM drive, 12X/8X/32X CD-RW drive, Leadtek WinFast GeForce3 graphics card with 64MB of DDR SDRAM, 19-inch Top Victory Electronics 1995S monitor, integrated sound, Cambridge SoundWorks 100 speakers, V.90 modem, network adapter, midsize tower case; Lotus SmartSuite Millennium Edition. Three-year parts warranty, five-year labor warranty; free 24-hour daily tech support. $1899 800/999-1278 www.polywell.com