QuietPC Moneual 701: Bondesque

With Bond weighing on our minds of late, we couldn't ignore this: a media centre PC that wouldn't look out of place on Blofeld's sideboard. It's got a seven-inch touchscreen, lots of nice knobs to twiddle and a futuristic wireless keyboard, plus HDMI to hook up to an HDTV at full-HD 1080p resolution. Running Windows Vista (complete with its decent Media Center), the touchscreen interface sits on top and works well, albeit with some quirky bits. As an object, it's a bit too industrial for us to be entirely smitten, but the real disappointment at this price is what's missing: there's no Blu-ray drive (just DVD) or TV tuner, and the only way to add the latter is via USB - not exactly sleek. We'll be investing in excavating our volcano-lair instead, but those after a distinctive look from their PC should think on. ·