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Ginger6’s G6 Studio 9600GTi is the only PC here capable of playing games, thanks to its Nvidia GeForce 9600GT graphics card. It managed a decent 35fps in our Call of Duty 4 test and 16fps in Crysis. However, turning down detail settings and lowering the resolution can improve responsiveness in Crysis, while older games and more sedate titles, such as Civilization and The Sims, will play smoothly. We were surprised to see fuzzy Windows text at the monitor’s native 1,680×1,050 resolution. After a little research on the web, we found that this is a known issue with this Hanns.G model: the fix is to press the ‘M’ and ‘>’ buttons on the monitor simultaneously. Once we’d done that, the monitor displayed a crisp Windows desktop. Colours were vibrant, although the backlight isn’t completely even and not particularly bright. It’s adequate for Windows use, and the high resolution of 1,680×1,050 will suit gamers. An Intel E5200 dual-core processor and 4GB of RAM resulted in a respectable performance that matched RL Supplies’ similarly specified Modula 9040IHD. The 9600GTi is a decent PC, but it doesn’t lend itself to upgrades. Both RAM slots are full; most motherboards have four memory slots. There is, however, room for more hard disks if you fill up the existing 500GB. There are no eSATA or FireWire ports, and only three 3.5mm mini-jack outputs. Their purpose can be changed using the bundled software, so you can either have 5.1 audio outputs or stereo sound and microphone and line-in inputs. The graphics card has an HDMI port, but this won’t output sound as there’s no onboard sound controller.
The G6 Studio 9600GTi is a ready-made, entry-level gaming PC that compares well with the more upgradable machines from Mesh and Eclipse, and it shows how powerful a PC you can get for the same money as a nettop. However, if you’re into gaming and have a few more pounds to spend, it’s worth buying Mesh’s better-performing Nero 9950HD and a more powerful graphics card.
