The Loch Ness D80G addresses some readers' concerns with the Dell's 200-watt power supply and limited PCI expansion capabilities, while offering similar performance. Despite certain similarities, these machines differ significantly. Think of the Aberdeen as the Dell's evil twin.

Dell's machine uses an Intel 820-based motherboard and expensive Direct RDRAM, or Rambus, memory. The Aberdeen uses a Tyan Trinity 400 mainboard with support for VC133 and PC133 memory. Argue all you like about which is faster, but keep in mind that RDRAM costs mucho dinero, and Aberdeen was able to pack 256MB of memory into its box, thanks to the cheaper price of PC133 SDRAM. And Aberdeen's Tyan board allows you to use both Socket 370 and Slot 1 CPUs.

Although both boxes sport Coppermine 800MHz Pentium IIIs, the Dell displayed a clear advantage in several benchmarks. It beat the Aberdeen like a red-headed stepchild in bootMark, posting a score of 423 to the Aberdeen's 348. The Dell also slapped the Aberdeen around in 3DMark 2000 with a score of 4,782; the Aberdeen managed a score of 4,552.

Of course, these are just synthetic benchmarks. In real-world tests, the Aberdeen's scores were just a tick away from the Dell's in the tests that really matter: SYSMark 2000, Quake III, and the Direct3D test in 3DMark 2000. Remember the RAM amount advantage we mentioned? It paid off in Photoshop, where the Aberdeen eclipsed the Dell's already impressive score. That "would not run" you see in the MP3 ripping/encoding benchmark box is the result of the Aberdeen's refusal to run MusicMatch Jukebox; opening the program resulted in constant error messages.

If you want drive bays and expandability, the Aberdeen has more to spare than most PCs have altogether. In the same Addtronics case we chose for our Dream Machine 98, the Loch Ness is taller than the average third-grader. Even with the 10x AOpen DVD-ROM, Plextor 8/4/32 IDE CD-RW, and Sound Blaster Live! drives installed, the Loch Ness can take four additional full-size drives.

Interestingly, Aberdeen chose to configure the Loch Ness with an LS-120 drive. It's a nice alternative to a plain-Jane floppy drive, but we wonder if anyone still uses these dinosaurs. Aberdeen also compromised in the sound and multimedia departments; the mediocre Cambridge Soundworks DTT2500 speakers and the XingSoft DVD offer average image and sound quality, at best.

If the Loch Ness had hit our benches last December, we would have been bowled over like a gnat in a twister, but in the days of 866MHz Pentium IIIs, 1GHz Athlons, and 64MB GeForce cards, Nessie's configuration is just about average. Still, for the money, the Aberdeen is a solid rig for not-too-much scratch.

--Gordon Mah Ung

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