The $1399 Max 3000+'s low-profile case--clad in sleek black and silver, and resembling a CD changer or other similar stereo component--easily fits on or under a desktop by either lying flat or standing vertically on its side.
The slimness, however, exacts a price: The 3000+ has very little capacity for adding extra cards or drives: Only one 3.5-inch, externally accessible bay remains open. So there's no possibility of adding a graphics card, extra memory, or other internal components.
Limited expansion isn't so much of a problem--as long as a system comes loaded with plenty of components to begin with. But the Max 3000+ doesn't have features we see in many current machines--it lacks a dedicated graphics card (relying instead on Integrated NVidia GeForce4 MX graphics), a rewritable DVD drive, and FireWire ports. The system does include a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, a 120GB hard drive, and, oddly, a floppy drive, a feature we've seen less and less lately.
The Max 3000+ performed reasonably well on WorldBench 5, earning a score of 81--average among value systems we've tested recently. It also scored 10 points higher than the other system we've tested with the same CPU and RAM.
While the attractive, black-bezeled ADI MicroScan A708 17-inch LCD matches the system nicely, it turned in just an average showing on text and photo-quality tests. Its text proved readable but not very sharp; at small sizes and in photos, colors lacked vitality. As for DVD playback, colors looked decent but slightly grainy.
The ADI monitor had built-in speakers, the only ones we received with this system. While they're sufficient for system sounds and the like, they're not up to snuff for multimedia tasks. You can buy separate speakers from Amax, such as Creative's Inspire T2900 2.1 system, for $44.21 (more expensive options are also available).
The $1399 price includes a Powercom uninterruptible power supply device for emergency power protection. Like the hardware configuration, the software with this machine is a little low-budget: It includes Microsoft Works Suite 2004, Power DVD, and NTI CD-Maker Gold v.6.5.
Its case is handsome and its performance is pretty good, but if you expect to do any internal upgrades, this is the wrong system to choose.
Scott Plamondon
