ABS Ultimate M5

Serious gamers will appreciate the bundled Logitech Z-680 speakers, which earned one of our World Class awards in July. This 5.1 THX-certified set consists of five satellites and a full-featured control hub; the hub has an LCD display and an auxiliary jack for connecting external sound sources such as MP3 or CD players. We also found separate inputs for rear and center speakers, making them easier to set up than other 5.1 speakers we've evaluated. When hooked up to the system's NVidia NForce2 integrated sound, the speakers and subwoofer produced thrilling rumbles during DVD movie playback and crystal-clear trebles when playing vocal music.

WHAT'S NOT: We found several minor annoyances with this system. For instance, its memory card reader slots aren't labeled, leaving you to guess which slot you should use. And inside the case, the two free PCI slots are hard to access. When upgrading add-on cards, you'll need to gingerly push aside some small wire connections. Other cables are bundled together in protective tubing, but they're stuffed inside a few of the free drive bay cages.

Unfortunately, ABS didn't include any applications with the Ultimate M5, so you'll have to spring for an office suite, games, and video editing or DVD authoring titles so you can use the recordable DVD drive.

And unlike many gaming systems, the M5's USB, FireWire, and audio ports are all located on the back of the system. Having these ports on the front makes connecting peripherals much easier, and we see front-mounted ports on most desktops these days.

WHAT ELSE: The 19-inch NEC MultiSync FE991SB CRT monitor handled our tests for text quality better than our tests for graphics. We saw crisp text at all font sizes, especially black text on white screens. Colors, however, appeared somewhat muted compared to the output of better-performing monitors.

The wireless keyboard offers eight hot-keys for launching Internet-related applications, plus separate volume-adjustment buttons. Typing on it didn't feel mushy or springy and was comfortable overall.

We were disappointed with some of ABS's documentation. The generic user manual lacks instructions for the DVD drive and memory card reader. And we found its troubleshooting and upgrading information to be somewhat sparse. Still, what's here is housed in a large yellow binder, along with recovery and driver CDs, so you'll probably be able to find them easily when you need them.

UPSHOT: In the Ultimate M5, ABS has put together a sterling set of components and coaxed record-breaking performance from them. If you're thirsting for speed, you won't go wrong with this box, but we'd still like to see better fit and finish from ABS.