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For a budget system, the PowerSpec 4988 has a few impressive components, including a DVD±RW drive. Our test unit's bundled peripherals weren't bad, either. The Altec Lansing VS2121 speaker system (with a compact, powerful subwoofer) delivered a full range of rich sound and deep bass. The 17-inch Daewoo C729BBK CRT monitor had a nice flat-faced tube; text was reasonably legible, but we found colors a bit washed out. The Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Pro keyboard and mouse were also solid. But the 4988 comes up woefully short on performance.

Its score of 59 on WorldBench 5 is one of the lowest we have recorded to date. The meager 256MB of RAM contributed to its disappointing showing (we recommend at least 512MB of RAM for systems running Windows XP). To put this poor benchmark score in perspective, the PowerSpec 4988 was agonizingly slow in rotating a picture in Adobe Photoshop Elements--an issue we didn't see on any other budget PCs in our recent roundup.

The system also had some of the lowest scores we've seen in our graphics tests, managing only 7 frames per second in Unreal Tournament 2003 at 32-bit color and 1024 by 768 resolution. This poor performance is largely due to the integrated VIA KM400A graphics processor and its reliance on main memory. Installing a dedicated AGP graphics card would likely improve graphics performance.

Upshot: Although the PowerSpec 4988 comes with some impressive peripherals, its terribly sluggish performance doesn't make it a worthwhile investment.

Seán Captain