So how do we render a judgment on the quality of one computer system versus another? We just have to look a bit harder at the subtle things that set these systems apart. What sort of case is the system housed in? How much does it cost? Is it a split-second faster than the competition in most of our benchmarked tests? Is it easily upgradeable if you decide you want to change hardware? With these questions in mind, we gave Aberdeen's 450MHz system a thorough test-drive and discovered that it offers a good deal of power and reliability at a very good price.

Right off the bat, we were taken with the case Aberdeen used for our review unit. It's an easy thing to overlook, but all PC cases aren't created equally. With today's fast processors and 3D accelerator cards, heat can be a real problem. If your PC's case doesn't create the necessary airflow, you can experience lookups and even complete failure of some components. As reviewed, the Aberdeen's case came with one fan in addition to the one built into its 250watt power supply. The extra fan was mounted at the base of the tower-style case, in front, so airflow across the CPU, video cards, and other components is even and constant. The case has spaces for three more fans: another one in front, and one on either side of the top two 5.25" drive bays (handy for cooling some of the larger, faster hard drives, which can get pretty warm themselves) - but the review unit kept plenty cool with its two fans. The case also makes it miraculously easy to get into the guts of your PC when it's time to upgrade: you just pull off the front panel, turn a couple of screws, and either the right or left sides of the case can be swung completely open. There's no need to manhandle the case onto its side or remove a whole slew of screws.

Another often overlooked component is the motherboard, and again Aberdeen shows it's in tune with gamers' needs. ABIT's popular BH5 main board means compatibility is of little concern when purchasing new hardware -and if you decide you want to upgrade to a Pentium III somewhere down the read, all you should need to do is "flash" your BIOS (i.e. upgrade it via software).

We've said for a while that gamers with a 2D/3D card based on the RIVA TNT don't really need to add a Voodoo2-based 3D card unless they've got some Glido-only games they just have to play. But Aberdeen is one of the first companies to send us a gaming-oriented PC that was actually configured that way, and we have to admit we were taken aback at first. We gave it some thought, though, and played some games, and gave it a little more thought-and finally concluded that this system really can stand on its own without a Voodoo2. Of course, it would've been nice to play Tribes or Unreal or Jane's F-15 in accelerated mode on the beautiful 19" V95 Optiquest monitor that came with the review system, but since Aberdeen does custom configurations, Voodoo2 is an option.

On the sound front, this system has one of the best PCI sound cards in existence: Creative's Sound Blaster Live!, which sounds amazing through the review system's Cambridge SoundWorks Four Point Surround speaker system. Being the Value Edition, the SBLive! Doesn't come with the optional digital I/D card that makes recording digital music or plugging into a Dolby Digital sound system possible, but most gamers will do just fine without that $100 option.

An interesting choice for a removable storage is the 3.5" LS-120 drive that comes standard on this system instead of a standard 1.44MB floppy drive and 100MB 10MEGA Zip drive, the LS-120 does the job of both for less money, but finding the 120MB Superdisk floppies for the drive can sometimes be difficult. We really do like this new drive, but the standard has yet to pick up the momentum it deserves. If you don't think you'll be able to track down the disks, but still want a similar device, you might want to consider the Zip drive simply because of its wider acceptance-but it'll take an extra 3.5" drive bay.

The system lacked one device we think should be standard with any system that includes a DVD-ROM drive: hardware DVD/MPEG-2 decoder card. It's not game-related, exactly, but it's certainly entertainment-related since it directly impacts the quality of DVD movie playback. If you're going to have a DVD-ROM drive in your computer, you might as well take proper advantage of it. While the RIVA TNT-based video card does pretty well with software DVD decoding, it's no substitute for a hardware decoder from a company like RealMagic-and you need a hardware decoder's video output if you're going to watch DVD movies on your TV.

As for price, we found that Aberdeen system to be less expensive than most comparable systems available from web-based companies that offer custom-configured PCs. You'll still want to do the appropriate shopping around, but this system serves up a good portion of bang for a reasonable number of bucks.

PC GAMER FINAL VERDICT

HIGHS: Good hardware choices all around;
decent price; built with gamers in mind.

LOWS: No DVD hardware decoder;
no 3Dfx card (only a problem if you want to play Glide-only games).

BOTTOM LINE: It's the little things that make this system stand out from the crowd;
Aberdeen's computer is definitely worth a look.