ABS ABS Awesome 5500 Extreme

Whether you play games or watch movies, images should look great on the bundled 17-inch NEC MultiSync 1760V LCD. Text on typical business documents looked crisp, too, but graphics were a little too bright and lost some subtle shading details.

You also get a dual-format DVD rewritable drive, a six-in-one memory card reader, and a 160GB Serial ATA hard drive, which should give you plenty of room to work with digital video or other media. ABS conveniently throws in the requisite cables for installing extra hard drives, including IDE and SATA cables. Besides its six USB 2.0 and three FireWire ports, the 5500 has optical and digital SPDIF outputs for connecting audio devices.

Most high-end machines aimed at power users include a surround-sound speaker set, and the integrated Realtek sound chip supports up to 6 channel sound. Nevertheless, our review model came with Klipsch's ProMedia GMX A-2.1--a three-channel set that delivered excellent sound quality but couldn't take full advantage of the sound system. The globe-shaped satellites can pivot on their base, allowing you to adjust their position to aim sound in different directions. For $158 more, ABS offers the excellent Logitech Z-680 5.1 speaker set to handle the full surround-sound experience.

The Awesome 5500's documentation includes a set-up poster and basic user's guide with troubleshooting and upgrade information, as well as individual component manuals. Our software bundle had Microsoft Works 2003 (ABS now includes the 2004 version) and McAfee VirusScan 2004. ABS organizes everything in a large, convenient yellow binder, which is indexed and color-coded.

Upshot: The ABS Awesome 5500 is a strong choice for serious users looking for a good-looking system with plenty of room for expansion.

Mick Lockey