Polywell Poly 880NF-1900+

WHAT'S HOT: An upgrader's dream, Poly's 880NF-1900 ships in a large aluminum tower, complete with a flip-down panel that hides two front USB 1.1 ports as well as headphone and microphone ports. In this configuration, the tower has lots of room to grow, with four open PCI slots and three open removable-media drive bays. And you can upgrade either without tools, thanks to individual thumbscrews for each slot.

For a value system, the Polywell's 100GB hard drive is huge--suitable for extensive libraries of digital audio or video.

WHAT'S NOT: Text appeared blurry, although still readable, in our test document on the 19-inch AOC 9GLR monitor. Subtle colors, such as those in flesh tones, looked fine in our test photo, but details such as the lines in a shirt were lost. In our Quake III and Unreal Tournament gaming tests, images appeared a bit washed out.

WHAT ELSE: Powered by a 1.67-GHz Athlon XP 1900+ CPU and 256MB of DDR memory, this Poly system earned a respectable score of 117, a point lower than the average for Athlon XP 1900+ systems running Windows XP Home.

This Poly's software bundle includes the multimedia software Magix MP3 Maker and MGI's VideoWave SE. Multimedia hardware is less impressive, with the basic Cambridge SoundWorks SW310 three-speaker set pumping out adequate sound, although a lot of pops emanated from the subwoofer during bass-heavy tracks. The included 24X/10X/40X CD-RW drive, while not the fastest on the market, is a fine way to back up data to CD-R or CD-RW media.

Microsoft's Internet Keyboard offers smooth and accurate typing with 10 shortcut keys for quick Net access. A spiral-bound system manual comes packed inside a sturdy black box and includes a detailed glossary and a thick troubleshooting chapter.

UPSHOT: An interesting system if you are looking for speed on the cheap.

SUMMARY

Polywell Poly 880NF-1900 PC WorldBench 4 score of 117, 1.67-GHz Athlon XP 1900+ CPU, 256MB of DDR-266 SDRAM, Windows XP Home, 100GB hard drive, 16X DVD-ROM drive, 24X/10X/40X CD-RW drive, NVidia NForce integrated graphics with 32MB of DDR SDRAM, 19-inch AOC 9Glr monitor, integrated sound, Creative Labs Cambridge SoundWorks SW310 speakers, network adapter, V.90 modem, midsize tower case; Norton AntiVirus. Three-year parts warranty, five-year labor warranty; free, unlimited, 24-hour toll-free tech support. $1350 800/789-8027 www.polywell.com