Mick Lockey

Micro Express MicroFlex 27A

Powered by AMD's 2.17-GHz Athlon XP 2700+ processor and 512MB of DDR400 SDRAM, the MicroFlex 27A earned a blistering score of 130 on PC WorldBench 4 tests. Aside from speedy WorldBench scores, other goodies include a 120GB hard drive and a DVD-RW/-R a drive and a CD-RW drive. The system has three FireWire ports, all of which are located on back.
We noticed a few glitches in game play with Unreal Tournament 2003. Textures weren't evenly rendered in some places, and floor tiles shook and broke up when shooting. The teal-blue Juster SP-3D105 speakers, which include two tall, thin satellites and a subwoofer, had flat-sounding bass and thin treble tones in tests. They lack the convenience of a headphone jack.
The ivory-toned 19-inch CTX SV900MD LCD panel performed well in tests for image quality. Colors looked especially bright in pictures, and text fonts were legible even at small sizes. However, it's bulkier than most LCDs--it has a thick profile and weighs a hefty 24 lbs. The controls for on-screen adjustments require too much button pressing. Beige, with a brown-trimmed front panel, the 27A looks identical to other cases we've seen from Micro Express--it's moderately attractive, but just a notch above some of the systems we've seen from other PC makers. Accessing the interior requires you remove one small screw, but the system's insides are fairly neat, with cables tied out of the way. Our test unit was limited to three open external drive bays for optical or removable media plus one spot to add a hard drive. Though it had three available PCI slots, only two were fully accessible, because a combination USB and FireWire adapter card blocks the mounting bracket for one of the PCI slots. Micro Express's documentation includes a generic manual with illustrations and a section for troubleshooting components, but some other sections (including one that discusses the benefits of Windows 98) are out of date. A large manual dedicated to Windows XP Professional and Home editions partly makes up for this oversight, though. The software bundle, geared toward working with digital media, includes software for creating CD-R discs, watching DVD movies, and a selection of titles from Pioneer to record DVD discs.
System offers brisk performance and a few good entertainment-related components.

Buying Information

Micro Express MicroFlex 27A $ http://