With a name like Solar Creation, you might expect a machine that looks more exciting than this black-and-grey tower. But what it lacks in style, it more than makes up for in the sheer efficiency of its design.

Its 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor performed well in all our tests, lagging only fractionally behind the overclocked 2.56GHz processor in Chillblast’s Tundra system.

It has the same Geforce 7900GS graphics card as the Tundra and, although not the fastest graphics card in this group, it’s more than adequate for anyone apart from hardcore gaming enthusiasts. It should provide pretty good performance for 3D games.

The Solar Creation also has a healthy 2GB of Ram and a 320GB hard disk, so there’s lots of space to store video and digital music, as well as plenty of Ram for tasks such as video editing.

There’s ample room to upgrade, with several free drive bays and two PCI slots that aren’t obstructed by the graphics card. However, there’s no spare x16 PCI Express slot, which would enable you to upgrade to a twin graphics card, so dedicated gamers might prefer to look at the rival PCs from Mesh or PC Nextday.

We were also a little disappointed to see that the 19in widescreen display only had an analogue VGA connector, rather than a digital DVI connector. This connection doesn’t support the HDCP content protection scheme that’s used for high-definition (HD) content, so HD video fans may want to look elsewhere or specify a better monitor.

Even so, these are minor blemishes on an otherwise well-built system. It may not have any obviously outstanding features, but the Solar Creation is a good all-round performer that will allow you to get the best out of Windows Vista.

This article is part of a group test of £999 PCs
See also:
Introduction
Ambros Shuttle SD32G2
Chillblast Fusion Tundra 6300
Mesh Elite E6600
PC Nextday Zoostorm 4-6403 Advanced PC
Graphs and table of features can be read via our Pdf downloads above.