The Ultra MX proved to be a very able piece of kit which should satisfy most people's needs, especially those with a need to have a bash on the latest and greatest games in the evenings.

First Impressions

When two rather large and bulky boxes turn up on your doorstep you like to know where they're from don't you? Luckily in this case one of them had a nice pretty picture of a monitor on the outside so they weren't turned away. We may have been a special case but the system unit arrived in a plain brown box with absolutely no paperwork on it at all. When things like that happen you start to mentally list all the people who you've upset in life and may be out to get you by sending unmarked boxes through the post.... - no points so far for first impressions then.

Luckily in this case nothing went bang when the boxes were actually opened although the standard of presentation didn't approve. In Protek's favour there was a nice user manual although there was nothing in the way of a quick start guide or anything like that. All the drivers and component manuals were present and correct but Protek kicked themselves in the teeth again by not labelling any of the ports. The case had its faint markings on for what went where, but you would have thought that the number of supports calls alone that labelling the ports would save would make it worthwhile. Oh well, luckily we had a vague idea about what plugged in where so it wasn't too bad........

Features

At the heart of the Ultra MX beats a hefty AMD K7 Athlon 550 Processor backed up by a Quantum 17gb Hard drive and a 3DFX Voodoo III 3000 Video card. The drive is only running at 5400rpm and isn't the fastest Drive in existence but 17Gb should take anyone quite a while to fill. This is backed up on the sound from by a Creative labs SoundBlaster Live 1024 Player which is just about as good as you can expect it to get in this sort of PC. The only disappointing thing in the whole equation are the speakers which are a pair of Taiwanese clones that although threaten to blast the place down with their 350 Watts of pure power, actually barely manage a rumble as that 350W turns out to be a PMPO rating which equates to about 1/2 a WATT in the real world.

Ergonomics

The case itself is quite presentable, although it is difficult to point to a PC case that is actually attractive. That said, there is scope for upgrades in the future, with the only downside being that the CPU is obscured by the Power Supply. The CPU itself had a twin fan heatsink which kept it totally cool, no doubt the argument will be that this was aided by the power supply fan over the top of it..... The mouse is a Microsoft clone effort that to all extents and purposes is exactly the same as an MS Defender. The keyboard isn't the best quality you will find but is still usable. Inside the case the cables are neatly tied out of the way to allow access to everything so nothing else is obscured. There is a lot of room inside for extra components as and when you want to put them in so the Ultra MX is about as future proof as you can expect from any PC these days.

Performance

Where the Ultra MX really shines and puts itself head and shoulders above the other machines in the test is through its performance. The machine really shows the opposition a clear pair of heels and it is difficult to see why the MX soars away so much - it is an almost identical machine to the Avanti but gives and extra 15-20% performance. There is no way anyone can claim that is down purely to the Athlon CPU so it really does put to a well put together machine. The machine isn't being pushed at all in terms of optimisation so perhaps with some fast PC133 memory in it the performance increase would be even greater.

The machine doesn't compromise when it comes to its 3D performance - its 20% performance increase over the Avanti carries on under 3D mark 2000. When you think that they are both based around exactly the same Voodoo III 3000, it really does point to the machine as a whole performing considerably better.

Final Analysis

The Protek machine was a very nice machine to use, both generally and under the latest games. Whilst not based around anything that is state of the art, the Ultra MX definitely gives you an awful lot of power for your money and will find a happy place in many a household. Once you take into account the mountain of software that is supplied as standard, ranging from office applications to games, the Ultra MX is capable of performing practically any task a 'normal' household (if there is such a thing) could want. The only thing that lets the side down is the overall presentation, but if you are an experienced user who isn't going to struggle putting it all together, the Ultra MX looks to be a very sound investment indeed.

Congratulations to Protek on winning one of the first ever One2surf awards !!

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