Sapphire EDGE HD2 Pro Reviews

The main problem is price. The original Sapphire Edge-HD was never the cheapest nettop around, but the HD2 is over £100 more. Considering Windows 7 Ultimate is £170, the PC and OS combination seems relatively good value, but Windows 7 Ultimate is overkill for most people.

In releasing the HD2 so quickly after the HD, Sapphire has managed to tweak a number of issues which affected its predecessor and create a top notch and wonderfully compact media centre PC. There is plenty of connectivity and enough graphical prowess to overcome the limitations of its upgraded-but-still-pedestrian Atom CPU. Build quality is also excellent and even under stress it is quiet enough not to be a distraction. On the flip side the value of the HD2 depends on whether you're comfortable buying the basic version without Windows pre-installed. We have opted to score based on this entry price for the HD2, but beware this £80 saving is the difference between a TrustedReviews recommendation and us telling you to buy an ION-equipped netbook instead.