WHAT'S HOT: It's always a pleasure to hear rich, thrilling sound, and that's what we got from the five-speaker Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater 5.1 system that shipped with our Poly P4-1500 review unit.

This PC also features plenty of options for moving your data. A built-in, seven-port USB hub provides a slew of connections for external drives or other peripherals. The P4-1500 also includes both a 16X/10X/40X CD-RW drive and a Zip 100 drive. Finally, a hot-swappable 40GB hard drive lets you shuttle your machine's smarts to another system (if it is equipped with a similar drive). Lifting a lever releases the drive, which then slides out the front of the case.

WHAT'S NOT: While not the lowest performance number we've seen for a home system, this Poly's PC WorldBench 4 score of 87 is weak compared with those of the other Pentium 4-1500 PCs we saw (94 was the next slowest P4-1500 score).

This system is eye-catching, but that's not a compliment. The generic beige monitor and keyboard don't match the silver-and-gray mouse and cheap-looking, spray-coated aluminum case.

We would expect better performance and a sleeker package for $1699.

WHAT ELSE: The 19-inch monitor displayed reasonably sharp text and vibrant colors. Nice extras include a Lexmark Z53 printer and a Webcam.

UPSHOT: Although Polywell has included some good components and peripherals with this system, the unit's sluggish performance detracts from the overall package.

SUMMARY

Polywell Poly P4-1500 PC WorldBench 4 score of 87, Pentium 4-1500 CPU, 256MB of PC-800 RDRAM, Windows XP Home, 40GB hard drive, 16X DVD-ROM drive, 16X/10X/40X CD-RW drive, Zip 100 drive, Matrox G450 graphics board with 32MB of DDR SDRAM, 19-inch AOC 1995 monitor, Creative Sound Blaster Live X-Gamer 5.1 sound card, Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater 5.1 speakers, network adapter, V.90 modem, midsize tower case; Lexmark Z53 printer, Logitech Web cam. Three-year parts warranty, five-year labor warranty; free, unlimited 24-hour daily toll-free tech support. $1699 800/789-8027 www.polywell.com