Mick Lockey

ABS Conquest SP

The Conquest SP combines a 2.53-GHz Pentium 4 CPU with 512MB of 266-MHz DDR SDRAM to earn it a 121 score on PC WorldBench 4--a touch better than the average of systems with similar configurations. The 15-inch Samsung 151s LCD monitor handled our image quality tests well, helped in part by the Evga E-GeForce4 Ti 4400 graphics card. Text looked razor sharp on a newsletter and on a test screen with multiple font sizes. Rich colors on our test photo stood out too. Another nice touch: On-screen controls span the right-side bezel for conveniently fine-tuning the display's images. ABS was the only national PC vendor to earn a rating of Good for service in our latest reader survey.
Our minor gripe is one of aesthetics: The beige midsize tower's only design frill is a front grille. Otherwise, it looks bland compared to the high styling of other systems we tested at the same time.
Two USB 2.0 ports and a FireWire port reside conveniently behind a flip cover on the front of the system. Four more USB 2.0 ports and another FireWire port are located on the back of the case. Overall, the JBL Sonnet speakers and subwoofer delivered strong sound despite their diminutive size. Audio tracks sounded warm and balanced. However, demanding bass notes tended to break up at high volumes. The featherweight right satellite is easy to tip over when adjusting the push-button volume controls mounted on top. With two large thumb screws, the side panel is easy to remove, so accessing the interior is a snap. Inside, we found a clean interior with neatly bound cables. All expansion option are in duplicate, with two PCI slots, two memory sockets, two hard drive bays and two removable media drive bays available. ABS bundles a useful set of software titles. They include Microsoft Office XP Small Business Edition for office work; and CyberLink PowerDirector 2.0 for editing video. The sturdy Microsoft Internet keyboard provides ten hot-keys for launching applications.
The ABS Conquest SP offers a fine selection of mostly high-end components at a fairly reasonable price.