Australian-Based Altech Computers' NRG range of gaming computers has been garnering attention In New Zealand.

The NRG Monsoon X603 is advertised for $1,999 on their website, so in terms of dedicated gaming computers it's what I would call entry-level.

With the X603, Altech has chosen to use a powerful six-core AMD processor. This makes a nice change from all the Intel processor-based machines that we've tested   lately, however if gaming performance is the most important factor, I believe it would have been better for this machine to include a quad-core CPU instead and put the dollars saved into a better graphics card.

Even modern gamers are very rarely designed to use more than 3 or 4 processor cores.

Altech has overclocked the CPU - adjusted the original settings so that the processor runs faster - from 3.2GHz  to 4.0GHz. Thus, coupled with the AMD Radeon HD 6870, which is a great midrange video card, should make the X603 no slouch in the graphics processing department. The 8GB of reasonably high- speed DDR3-1600 RAM is more than enough to handle any modern game, and even memory-hungry software applications - such as image-rendering- will work happily with this amount.

Completing the system is a fast 60GB Mach Extreme SSD boot drive with a 1TB mechanical hard disk drive for storage, a Zalman tower CPU cooler to avoid overheating and a Blu-ray reader/DVD writer. This is all tucked into an Antec Nine Hundred Two Ultimate gaming case powered by a high quality Antec 620W PSU.

The cables inside the case are tucked away satisfactorily - better than the last NRG system I reviewed, but nothing special - and the green LED fans give it an awesome glow, if you're into that sort of thing. If not, be prepared to be visually assaulted - even the CPU cooler has two green LEDs.

When it came to putting the X603 through the game tests, it appeared to struggle a little bit, particularly in Crysis 2 where it could only manage an average of 35.4 frames per second. In my view the ideal situation would be to average 60 frames per second or more, which for this machine would mean turning down some of the graphics options in-game to increase the frame rate. Our test settings are quite demanding, so that sort of adjustment shouldn't reduce your gaming eye candy. One minor grumble I have with the X603 is that the NRG branding stickers they stick on the case are cheap and flimsy, and start peeling off with only the slightest provocation. This might sound like nitpicking, but I wish NRG would opt for a more attractive solution.

Overall, given the reasonable level of value and quality; I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the NRG Monsoon X603 to budget-conscious gamers.

Harley Ogier

PC World NZ - May 2011