The Pegasus is intended as a general-purpose family PC for home use. With this in mind, Braebo’s decision to include a high-end Intel Core i7-3770 chip is a surprising one.
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Usually the preserve of enthusiast PCs and workstations, this 3.4GHz quad-core chip uses Hyperthreading to offer twice as many processing threads as the Intel Core i5-3570 we’re used to seeing at this level. But it also commands a much higher price.
Unfortunately, the advantages to the user of this Hyperthreading processor in the Braebo Pegasus are less than could be gained through the use of a solid-state drive, a better display or perhaps a graphics card, depending on how you want to use the system.
Family PCs are seldom about pure number-crunching ability and although the Braebo Pegasus’ WorldBench score of 164 points makes it perfectly adequate for home use; it’s bettered by systems using less expensive CPUs.
A 1TB hard disk is included, along with 8GB of DDR3 memory. These are hooked up to an MSI H61M-P31 motherboard, which sadly doesn’t provide USB 3.0 support. You can buy a plug-in USB 3.0 card for around £20, but we’d expect to see the feature included as standard.
Not being designed primarily for gaming, the Braebo Pegasus wisely omits an expensive graphics card. One real benefit of the Core i7-3770 is that it incorporates Intel’s fastest integrated graphics processor, HD Graphics 4000.
This built-in GPU is generally adequate for a family PC and noticeably faster than the integrated graphics of the cheaper Core i5-3570. This PC manages to achieve playable frame rates, even on a tough game like Crysis, as long as quality levels aren’t pushed too high.
BenQ’s G2255 LCD monitor is included with the package. It’s noticeably better than the ultra low-end stuff we often see bundled by UK systems builders, both in terms of build quality and image quality, but at 21.5in it’s a little small for entertainment. A 24in monitor would also be a little easier to read and is quite typically included with a family system at this price.
Furthermore, Braebo hasn’t included a Blu-ray drive in this system, so you’ll have to make do with DVDs or other video content if you want to make use of the full-HD 1920 x 1080 resolution.
The system comes with an underwhelming Microsoft wired keyboard and mouse set, but elsewhere the Braebo Pegasus redeems itself with a handy built-in memory-card reader and Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 webcam. This supports HD capture at 720p resolution and is great for Skype.
Also included is a copy of Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student Edition and 500GB of online storage from livedrive.com which will last for the life of the PC.
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