Future Power - Power Series P3-500

We've all heard people talk about how quickly things move on the Internet, and how the Internet provided for opportunities that would have never been given to us had it not been a catalyst. Yet another case in point is the company, Future Power, Inc., a manufacturer that has come from being virtually unknown when they were founded in October 1998 to producing a nice array of pre-built systems.

The company is a partner of Daewoo Telecom, which in turn is a subsidiary of the Daewoo Group in Korea. For those of you that aren't familiar with Daewoo Telecom or its parent company, Daewoo Group, the company makes everything from TVs and VCRs to cars and with Future Power as a partner, it seems like they have their hands in a bit of PC manufacturing as well.

What the industry is seeing is a decline in the more conventional proprietary path for pre-built systems and a trend towards more cost effective solutions that do offer the opportunity of customizing system components and upgrading at a later time. The consumers are quite aware of the rate of change in the computer hardware industry and in a market saturated with 6 month graphics card cycles, and 1 year product life cycles before everything is deemed "obsolete." Sometimes, it seems as if there is no end to the madness.

Future Power is looking to tailor to the needs of the users that aren't looking to invest the time in building their own system for whatever reason, yet want all of the benefits they would normally get if they were to go out and build the computer themselves. The company is looking to bridge the gap between your standard pre-built retail system and a true hardware enthusiast's computer, and with their latest addition to the Power Series line it seems like they are headed in the right direction.

Based on a Pentium III 500 and the ever-so-popular ABIT BH6, the Power Series is capable of competing with some of our beloved custom built and home tweaked systems, but in order to maintain a $1499 pricetag the video card, of all the possible peripherals, became the sacrifice. Does it still pack a powerful punch for the price? In the age of sub $1000 PCs that are consistently outperforming the more expensive solutions, the Power Series from Future Power does hold its own.