How much longer can you recommend this PC?

A couple of years ago I started to look for a new desktop PC. I bought Computeractive and saw that you recommended Palicomp’s Intel Mercury as your Buy It PC. This was back in March 2020, in Issue 576. I’ve just bought Issue 609 and I notice that the Mercury is still your recommended choice.

I’m amazed. I thought that the world of computing changed faster than, well, the

fastest-changing thing you can think of! The time it took you to produce all those issues in between must have been a lifetime for the hardware made by manufacturers – motherboards, processors, storage etc. But this PC is still the same inside. What’s its secret? David Wilkins

CA SAYS Turn to page 30 and you’ll see that Palicomp’s Intel Mercury is still our top choice. Technology seems to move so fast that we understand where David is coming from, but it’s not uncommon for certain devices to remain our favourite for over a year.

One of our principles when reviewing products is to not assume that new is automatically better. Manufacturers would like you to think otherwise, and will try to dazzle you with the latest components and features, many of which you’ll never need.

We’ve reviewed many good desktop PCS since Issue 576, including PC Specialist’s Aurora-r (Issue 610, page 22) and Dell’s Inspiron 3881 (Issue 611, page 22). However, we awarded both machines four stars, one short of the maximum needed for us to consider it a replacement for the Intel Mercury, which has a better balance of speed, RAM, storage and potential for expansion. There haven’t been sufficient technological advances in the past year to weaken our recommendation, though Windows 11 is bound to change that soon.