Cube247 Pulsar

Rumour has it a young Bill Gates once said "No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer." And while that statement may have been true when first uttered back in 1981 nowadays it is doubtful if you could even get a PC to start with such a meager amount of memory on board. Recently my old Packard Bell computer was starting to struggle, and although it had rather more than 637 kb of memory to its name, ...
...had loaded and was ready to use, while regular freeze ups and blue screens meant the time had come to trade up to a better, faster and more user friendly model. Much studying and perusing of websites, magazines and electrical media followed as I sought out the very best computer for the very best deal. Throughout my exhaustive searches one brand name came up more than once with every review, blog or test exalting the virtues of a relatively new computer ... more

Rumour has it a young Bill Gates once said "No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer." And while that statement may have been true when first uttered back in 1981 nowadays it is doubtful if you could even get a PC to start with such a meager amount of memory on board. Recently my old Packard Bell computer was starting to struggle, and although it had rather more than 637 kb of memory to its name, switching it on meant a five minute wait before everything had loaded and was ready to use, while regular freeze ups and blue screens meant the time had come to trade up to a better, faster and more user friendly model. Much studying and perusing of websites, magazines and electrical media followed as I sought out the very best computer for the very best deal. Throughout my exhaustive searches one brand name came up more than once with every review, blog or test exalting the virtues of a relatively new computer producer called Cube Enterprises Ltd. My mind was finally made up though when the Cube 'Pulsar' computer package received one of the highest ratings in PC Advisor magazines benchmark tests; I visited the Cube computers website - www.computerelectronics.co.uk - and within five minutes had ordered the system for £999 including VAT and delivery. Five days later and after some very competent contact from the company about delivery times I received four boxes containing the computer tower, the TFT monitor, the speaker system and the keyboard - now to set it up!

• Setup •

As with most computers the Pulsar was fairly simple to setup despite there being no instructions on how to do it. Most of the sockets to the rear of the tower were colour coded making connection of the various components easy. The Creative P5800 5.1 speaker system was perhaps the most complex to position and connect purely because there were so many wires leading to the various speakers. None the less the whole setup process took me about twenty minutes which I was happy enough with. Some minor adjustments to the speaker positions and the monitors colour and contrast took another five minutes where upon I was satisfied with the whole look and feel of the system. The Hard Disk comes ready formatted and has Windows XP Home installed so once setup was complete the computer was ready to use.

• The key constituents of the PC tower •

Computers are only ever going to be as good as there inner workings; it's no good having a good looking system that takes an age to do anything. Luckily Cube pride themselves on using the very best components on the market. The Pulsar comes equipped with 1024 MB DDR400 Corsair Memory; the best memory money can buy. Add to that a 250 GB Seagate Hard Disk running at 7200 rpm and an Abit Ultra Motherboard and the class is already beginning to show. In my old Packard Bell PC I had an Intel Celeron processor which was awful; it was slow and sluggish and used to overheat regularly. Luckily the Pulsar uses my preferred manufacturer of processors, AMD. And not just any AMD, an Athlon 64 4000+ no less which in layman's terms equates to an extremely fast system! In a recent benchmark test (albeit setup by AMD themselves) the Athlon 64 4000+ beat the equivalent Intel Pentium 4 - 3.4 GHz by some thirteen and a half percent when tested on Gaming, Digital Media and Office Productivity tasks, simple put it is the best processor in its class.

Of course all this raw power and speed has to have an output which is where the graphics and sound cards come in. An ATI Radeon X800 256MB Graphics Card delivers super fast and smooth image quality and game play, while the eight channel 7.1 surround sound card means any such games or films played on the Pulsar will be an audible as well as visual treat. Other components within the Pulsars tower include fourteen USB 2.0 ports, a firewire socket and a 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN adaptor which I use to connect to my router. A dial up modem is not included but those that are looking to buy a Pulsar should almost certainly have a broadband connection, failing that a 56k modem can be added for £9. Drive wise there is a 16 x DVD Rom drive and an NEC DVD Duel layer Re-Writer as well as the traditional (but rarely used) 3.5" floppy drive. Should the need arise for expansion the Pulsar has four spare PCI slots and two spare 5.25" drive bays.

• Monitor, Keyboard, Speakers and Mouse •

A super fast and well equipped computer needs a suitably fitting monitor to show off its power, and the GNR TS900 19" TFT monitor does this with relish. Modeled in silver and black it leaves a tiny footprint on the desktop and produces an amazingly crisp display. Colours are true and sharp while ghosting (when the refresh rate of the pixels cannot keep up with the speed of the action on the display) is non existent. Colour, tracking, positioning and language can be altered with the touch of a button while the inclusion of an audio socket to the rear means the monitors two inbuilt speakers can be utilised in the absence of any other sound system. The 19" screen size is impressive and means that even at a resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels all text and pictures are clear and easily read without having to lean into the screen.

Next up is the speaker system, and what a speaker system it is! The Creative Inspire P5800 setup consists of a rather large subwoofer, encompassing twenty-two watts of sound power. Four small satellite speakers each boasting eight watts of power are next while the one central satellite speaker is laid on its side and offers a more powerful eighteen watts of sound. All Speaker components are good looking and convey magnificent sound feedback; the subwoofer delivers good strong bass without booming. Turning the solid feeling volume dial on the wired remote up high while music is playing produces a clear, and very loud, result with no adverse effects to the sound. My only minor niggle is that the remote control is wired rather than free moving, but I guess this way there is little danger of losing it!

Cube have elected to go for Logitech's workhorse Internet pro keyboard, and although it is not wireless it is still a capable and good looking PS2 connected keyboard in keeping with the rest of the 'Pulsar' components. Seven hotkeys make navigation of email, web pages and media players easy while solid and responsive keys make typing a joy. Windows XP native hotkeys can also be utilised without the need for additional software drivers. The Mouse is again of the wired variety although it is optical rather than ball controlled - no more digging fluff from around the little rubber ball for me!

• My Opinion •

You hear so many horror stories about computer manufacturers not delivering on promises made or cutting corners to minimize costs while maximizing profits that I was dreading searching for a new PC. Luckily I did some homework and studied printed media, review sites and forums exhaustively before making a decision. When I initially heard about Cube Enterprises I was skeptical about the companies various boasts about using only the best components and having the end users needs at the forefront of their minds. However, as I delved deeper and did a little research on the company I found universal praise and support for their business ethic and products offered. From the moment you visit the website the whole organization has a professional and caring feel about it. Ordering the computer was a simple matter of visiting the website and adding the system to an online shopping cart. Once paid for with credit or debit card the company sends emails informing you of the process of the order which culminate in a tracking number for when the package is enroute. I received my Pulsar five days after ordering it which I was happy with, I was happier still that Delivery and VAT are already included in the price.

Once setup I was staggered by the speed with which the computer started up, a mere fifteen seconds from cold to fully loaded - even now with over 20 GB of data on the drive it still takes little more than twenty seconds. The hard disk is extremely quiet when accessing data as are the cooling fans resulting in a whisper quiet operating scenario. The first test I performed was to play the PC game Half-life 2 - a notoriously graphic intensive game which struggled and stuttered on my old Packard Bell. But no such worries here, the game ran smoothly with no ghosting or stalling visible. Other tasks I wanted the Pulsar to perform included video editing and again the AMD processor really kicked in and reduced a four hour task to a little over ninety minutes. On more general programs the computer performed well too; Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Word (the two programs I use most frequently) loaded instantaneously, while having several applications open at once did little to diminish performance. Video playback is sublime with the graphics card, Speaker system and 19" TFT monitor combining perfectly to deliver a captivating performance. Although the tower is a little on the large size the design and look of it oozes quality with sleek lines, black and silver livery and mesh sections - much better than the turgid beige computers used to be! And Cube has obviously taken care to match each external component so that they look like they belong together - a far cry from the hotchpotch some producers offer!

A smattering of programs and applications are also supplied, apart from Windows XP which not only comes on a partition on the hard disk but also on a CD! Nero DVD/CD suite, Uleads Video Studio and an interesting game called Pacific Fighters allow you to test the various facets of the Pulsars abilities. Above all else though this feels like a reliable, sturdy and hardworking computer built with the user in mind and backed up by a one year return to base warranty - how many other PC producers can honestly say that?

www.cube247.co.uk
www.computerelectronics.co.uk

 

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