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Artwork: Rick Rizner, John Goddard
Polywell Poly900VF
| PC WorldBench 4: Performance word scores reflect comparisons of PCs in the same category (e.g., value) running the same operating system. See Your Guide to the Top 100 for more details. | Very good: 136 (Windows XP Home) |
| Base configuration | Good |
| CPU | 2-GHz Athlon 64 3200+ |
| System memory | 512MB of DDR400 SDRAM |
| Hard drive (GB): Total capacity. May represent multiple hard drives. | 80GB hard drive |
| Monitor size and model | 17-inch AOC 7ELR CRT |
| Graphics: Most integrated graphics systems use the PC's main RAM. | 128MB NVidia GeForce FX 5200 |
| Case type: Vertical cases are towers (over 20 inches), midsize towers (15.5 to 20 inches), or minitowers (under 15.5 inches). Horizontal cases are desktops (5 inches or taller) or compacts (under 5 inches). | Midsize tower |
| Open bays, slots | 4 internal and 3 externally accessible bays, 3 slots |
| Extra features | Fair |
| Removable-media drives: Flash media reader includes support for some combination of CompactFlash I/II, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital, SmartMedia, and XD-Picture Card. | 16X DVD-ROM and 52X CD-RW drives |
| Sound card | Integrated Realtek 5.1-channel audio |
| Speakers | Logitech X-220 speakers |
| Communications | Network adapter, 6 USB 2.0 ports, 3 FireWire ports |
| Software | Microsoft Works Suite 2004 |
| Other | N/A |
| Graphics quality | Good |
| Setup and ease of use | Good |
| Vendor's reliability/service: A vendor's score is based on surveys of PC World readers. Vendors receiving insufficient data scores did not generate enough responses to our most recent survey for us to make a determination. | Insufficient data, insufficient data |
| Warranty: Lifetime refers to the lifetime of the product. | Three-year parts, five-year labor warranty; lifetime 24-hour weekday, 4-hour Saturday, toll-free support. (Limited support hours after first year.) |
Polywell Poly 900VF
Poly900VF Review, by Mick Lockey January 31, 2004
Outfitted with a 2-GHz Athlon 64 3200+ and 512MB of DDR400 memory, the Poly 900VF netted a 136 score on our PC WorldBench 4 tests, only a few points below the marks of the top performers equipped with this 64-bit processor.
Housed in a full-tower chassis, the 900VF has plenty of room for upgrades: Seven drive bays (four internal and three externally accessible) provide more room than most users will ever need. In our review system, three of the bays were occupied by the 900VF's roomy 80GB hard drive and two optical drives (a 16X DVD-ROM drive and a 52X/24X/52X CD-RW drive).
Our review unit's NVidia GeForce FX 5200 graphics card with 128MB of memory performed well in our graphics tests. The frame rates it produced in our test games weren't among the top scorers we've seen recently, but the card will do fine for most gamers. We did see some image glitches--lighting and texture problems, and an absence of colors on buildings--in Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The latter is a driver-related problem we've encountered with the version of the GeForce FX 5200 drivers shipped with many systems: It can be corrected by updating the drivers to the latest ones from NVidia.
The bundled 17-inch CRT display, AOC's 7ELR, was middling in our tests, though it fared better with graphics than with text. Skin tones on a photo looked realistic; and a DVD movie and games sported bright (though not eye-popping) hues. The quality of the rendered text screens in our test was very disappointing: Letters looked fuzzy at all sizes, making this monitor an especially bad choice for people who engage in marathon word-processing or number-crunching sessions. The controls for adjusting lack an on-screen display menu, relying instead on several unlabeled icons that span the right bezel.
Polywell bundled our review unit with the three-piece (two satellites and subwoofer) Labtec Pulse 350 speaker set. It delivered muddied bass notes in a DVD movie and thin trebles on vocal tracks. The integrated sound system supports up to 6 channels, so you might consider upgrading to a full surround-sound system; Polywell offers the Creative SBS 5.1 560 for $60 more.
Polywell's documentation consists of a user's manual that explains general PC concepts but doesn't delve into the specifics of this model. Polywell doesn't offer manuals for the system components, either. The software includes a handful of gaming titles (among them, the now-ancient Duke Nukem Manhattan Project).
Upshot: The Poly 900VF's is a fast, attractively priced Athlon 64 system, but its disappointing monitor could put off some potential buyers.
Mick Lockey
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