Eclipse Matrix A255R487 review

Eclipse’s Matrix A255R487 has a good specification for its price.

Its dual-core Phenom II X2 550 is a fairly powerful processor, as each of its cores runs at a heady 3.1GHz. This made it particularly quick in our image-editing test, plus it performed well in our other benchmarks.

Unfortunately, the A255R487’s appeal is tarnished by a cheap, flimsy case that does nothing to dampen the constant whining hum coming from inside it. The case became very warm to the touch when the PC had been on for less than an hour, despite remaining largely idle. This can partly be explained by the absence of a rear fan to help remove the hot air from the internals. Oddly, the Matrix is very power-hungry, drawing 162W when idle – more than twice the power we’d expect.

We were more impressed by what we found inside the case. The 512MB ATI Radeon 4870 graphics card performed brilliantly in Crysis and Call of Duty 4. The MSI K9A2 Neo-F motherboard has a gap beneath the PCI-E x16 slot, so the double-height graphics card didn’t block any other expansion slots. The board has two PCI slots, one PCI-E x1 slot and a PCI-E x4 slot, none of which is used, so there’s plenty of upgrade potential. There are only four SATA ports, but two of these are free. There are lots of spare 3?in and 5?in drive bays, although they’re very basic metal frames with no rails, caddies or vibration damping. Disappointingly, the Matrix comes with a measly 250GB disk.

The 19in widescreen Hyundai BlueH H95W monitor isn’t great, either. Its maximum brightness makes whites look dull and greyish, and viewing angles are tight. The Microsoft Basic keyboard and mouse set are adequate, despite slightly spongy keys.

The A255R487 may be fairly well specified, but the bargain-basement monitor limits its appeal. The biggest problem is the noisy and poorly cooled case, which feels flimsy: an LED light bar in the front panel came loose during our testing. CCL’s CCL-CS1009 performed better in most of our tests, has a larger hard disk and a much better case.