Total Peripherals Group TPG Hercules
The TPG machine was yet another Intel P4 1.7GHz-based machine. However, TPG decided to go against the trend and use an MSI motherboard (most of the Intel machines were built on Intel motherboards). The MSI can hold up to five PCI slots, and we were quite surprised to see all these PCI slots empty on what is supposed to be a high-end PC. There were four memory slots, two of which were used up by 128MB RD-RAM modules. The other two banks had RIMM terminators installed.
The system case is large and everything inside had heaps of breathing space. However we found it a little difficult getting to the memory banks. The board's power connector was located right above them, which means there were lots of cables and wires hanging in the way. There were also some loose data cables, which could have been folded instead of left hanging about.
An area where this PC is let down is video and sound. The TPG machine only used a nVidia Geforce 2 MX-based card. Its not a bad card and it actually did quite well in 2D but it is definitely not a high-end graphics card. It recorded well below average scores in all the 3D tests.
Sound was found on-board the motherboard and the speakers that we received with this machine were a pair of Yamaha YST-M15 speakers (these, again, don't really fit the high end PC specifications). TPG used a fair few Mitsubishi products to build this machine. The DVD-ROM drive was by Mitsubishi and so was the CD-RW drive. The CD-RW was capable of burning standard CDs at a speedy 12x (average time to burn a 74 min audio CD is about seven minutes). The monitor was also from Mitsubishi--a Diamond View DV17NF--and we found it did very well at 1600 x 1200. This monitor ranked quite highly in last month's 17in flatscreen monitor review and it was definitely one of the better monitors that were submitted to us this month. The TPG machine even shipped with a Mitsubishi keyboard--quite nifty in that it lets you control your CD player from the keyboard.
The TPG machine was no speed demon--it was one of the slower machines in this review and its overall scores in Content Creation Winstone and Business Winstone could have been improved slightly if it shipped with at least a Geforce 2 Ultra card. In 3D it would have also scored substantially higher.
We encountered a few problems in the CD-R/DVD Playback test but none that were too serious. There was a short pause in sound and video as soon as we started to burn the CD. After a few seconds everything returned to normal. The movie was quite smooth throughout the burn process but the burner seems to have slowed right down. Just as the session was closing the visual blurred all over the screen and no sound came from the speakers. A few seconds later the CD ejected and the player returned to normal.
Total Peripherals Group TPG Hercules
Company: Total Peripherals Group
Ph: 02 9850 0800
Price: AU$3,995
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