Evesham Solar Storm Windows Vista PC

The Solar Storm is based on a reasonable set of specifications so it's no surprise that the Evesham achieved a PCMark05 score of 5,718 marks. To put that in context, a high spec Core 2 Duo PC typically achieves a PCMark05 score of 6,500-7,000 marks while a GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card scores 11,000 marks in the graphics part of the test. In short, the Solar Storm is a strong performer without being exceptional.

Turning to the peripherals, we were unimpressed by the Creative I-Trigue 3220 2.1 speakers as the satellites stand on a tiny base that causes them to wobble alarmingly. However, they sound fine and dandy. We found the widescreen 20in Viewsonic VG2030WM was a pleasure to use at its native resolution of 1,680 x 1,050, and the combination of height adjustment and tilt makes it simple to set up.

The screen has both VGA and DVI inputs, and as the Winfast 7900GS has dual-DVI outputs the choice of connection wasn't a difficult decision. In one respect we were a trifle bemused by the choice of TFT as the large lower bezel houses integrated speakers on this model which is obviously an irrelevance when you have the Creative speakers.

As for the wireless Logitech mouse and keyboard, they work well enough but they're very basic models and bring nothing to the Vista party. We can't help but feel that a high-end Logitech VX mouse might have been a better choice to show off the Aero flip interface, but of course that would raise the price past the critical £999 point.

Ah yes, Windows Vista.

This is the first Vista PC we've seen up close and personal, although we've given various Beta builds of Vista a run for their money. Windows Vista Home Premium uses the Aero interface so it's loaded with various slick cosmetic bits and pieces and it was a pleasure to use a new version of Windows that didn't hammer the hardware to within an inch of its life. Unfortunately we couldn't help noticing the odd glitch here and there.

For instance, at start-up Windows Defender blocked a number of programs - including the control panel for the Realtek HD audio and Evesham's preferred anti-virus software, BullGuard. You can train Windows Defender like any other firewall and malware filter, but in this case the Allow button was greyed out. We also found that Internet Explorer 7 caused the PC to thrash away for a couple of seconds when we opened the browser, but the worst annoyance is that the hard drive is active almost all of the time.

This is especially clear with the Evesham as it has one bright blue light on the front for power and a second blue light for hard drive activity and the wretched thing was flickering a great deal of the time. Perhaps it's a cunning ploy to persuade Vista users to put their PC to sleep when they have an idle moment as it awakens quite speedily.

Verdict

Our initial impressions of Windows Vista are unfavourable and that unnecessarily colours our judgement of the Solar Storm. This is unfortunate, as it's a highly capable PC that is suitable for the entire family.