RL Supplies Modula Enduro review

The Modula Enduro seems well specified for its price. It has an Intel Core i5 750 processor and a 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 graphics card. This is connected to an excellent 24in widescreen BenQ G2420HD monitor, which has accurate colours, sharp detail and DVI, VGA and HDMI inputs. The Enduro is also the only PC here costing over £1,000 that comes with a Blu-ray drive. Together with the large monitor, this makes this PC ideal for home entertainment as well as gaming and more mundane tasks. The Logitech cordless keyboard and optical mouse are handy if you want to control movie and video playback from a distance, although a Media Center remote would have been nice. A card reader adds a much-needed front USB port, but we’d prefer a couple more. There are eight USB ports on the back, two of which can also function as eSATA ports. The internal layout isn’t especially neat, but the trailing power cables are long enough to reach drive bays without obstructing any of the expansion ports. The Asrock motherboard is spacious, and none of the two PCI and two PCI-E x1 slots is blocked. There’s also a spare PCI-E x16 slot, but you’ll have to switch to ATI cards if you want dual graphics cards, as the board supports CrossFire but not SLI. The fans emit a low hum, but it’s not distracting and the solid case insulates most of the sound. The Enduro comes with a 32-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate, which is another bonus. However, if you want to make the most of the installed 4GB of RAM or any future memory upgrades, we recommend requesting a 64-bit version instead, which won’t cost any extra.

The Modula performed well in all our benchmarks, but you can buy a faster PC for similar money. We can’t help but compare the Enduro to Mesh’s Ice 5 750 CS, which costs £280 less and has a similar specification and performance. It may lack a Blu-ray drive and have a smaller 22in monitor (although it has the same 1,920×1,080 resolution), but you can upgrade to a Blu-ray drive for under £80. RL Supplies may provide a two-year warranty, but the Enduro still isn’t worth the extra money.