Polywell MiniBox 430AM2 review

The software bundle is limited to an OEM version of Nero's CD and DVD burning suite, and the default operating system is Windows XP Home. Students will need to spring for an office suite or perhaps try out Google's free office-productivity apps, such as Writely and Google Spreadsheets.

Polywell goes above the industry-average one-year warranty by offering three years of parts coverage and five years for labor. There's a 24-hour toll-free tech-support phone line for in-warranty customers, and after that, the company actually offers lifetime phone support on a more limited basis (Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. PT). Polywell's Web site has a basic page for downloading drivers and manuals, and it offers live chat during Pacific-time business hours.

Photoshop CS2 image-processing test
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

(in seconds)

Polywell Poly 430AM2 (2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz)

259 

Cyberpower Back to School Super Value (2.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM, 800MHz)

317 

eMachines T6536 (2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz)

382 

iTunes encoding test
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

(in seconds)

Polywell Poly 430AM2 (2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz)

186 

Cyberpower Back to School Super Value (2.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM, 800MHz)

209 

eMachines T6536 (2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz)

215 

Multitasking test
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

(in seconds)

Polywell Poly 430AM2 (2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz)

209 

Cyberpower Back to School Super Value (2.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM, 800MHz)

258 

eMachines T6536 (2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz)

377 

Half-Life 2 custom demo (in fps)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Half-Life 2 1,024x768 4xAA 8xAF

Polywell Poly 430AM2 (Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS PCIe)

85.7 

Cyberpower Back to School Super Value (Nvidia GeForce 7300 GS PCIe )

20.2 

eMachines T6536 (integrated Nvidia 6100)

9.8 

Find out more about how we test desktop systems.

System configurations:
Cyberpower Back to School Super Value
Windows XP Home SP2; 2.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ AM2 socket; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce 7300 GS (PCIe); WDC WD2500JS-00NCB1 250GB SATA 7,200rpm

eMachines T6536
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2; 2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 939 socket; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; integrated Nvidia 6100 graphics chip using 256MB shared memory; WDC WD2500BB-22RDA0 250GB SATA 7,200rpm

Polywell Poly 430AM2
Windows XP Home SP2; 2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ AM2 socket; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS (PCIe); (2) Seagate ST3160812AS 160GB SATA 7,200rpm; Nvidia Nforce RAID class controller (RAID 0)