Verdict: Looks smart and has a USB input, but the sound quality is mediocre.

Altec Lansing's most expensive surround speakers cost much less than Creative and Logitech's flagship systems, but their size and power rating are more in keeping with the competition's mid-range products. The styling is great for the price, with a design that won't mess up the minimalist chic of modern living rooms - it may even bring a touch of class to computer-infested bedrooms. Both wired and wireless remote controls are included, with the former housing a headphone socket and auxiliary input for easy access.

The FX5051 is the only surround speaker system we know that includes a USB input. This makes it an appealing prospect for laptop owners, who would otherwise have to shell out for a USB audio interface to hear games and DVDs in surround sound. For most PC users, it isn't much hassle to plug the triple-mini-jack cable into the back of their PCs, especially as this is something they'll only need to do once.

We appreciate the use of colour-coded sockets and cables for the speaker connections, although the captive speaker cables are relatively short. However, the speakers' limited power means that they aren't ideal for large rooms in which you might need longer cables. There's no on-board digital decoding, so you'll need six-channel DVD-playback software for surround sound in DVDs.

At moderate volume levels, the FX5051 produced clear, detailed sounds, and we appreciate the inclusion of treble and bass controls to help match the speakers' output to our room acoustics. However, while the subwoofer managed to produce impressively deep bass for its relatively petite dimensions, it failed to fill the room at louder levels. We also noticed some undesirable mechanical vibrations in the sub when playing low-frequency tones. These weren't especially noticeable in normal use, but could explain the slightly confused tone at louder volumes. The speakers handled game and DVD action sequences well, with a good sense of surround sound. However, the Logitech G51 set provided considerably more oomph in sound effects and more class in the more critical music tests.

• PSUs - 14th July 2008
• Multi-GPU graphics - 20th June 2008
• CPU water cooling - 17th June 2008
• Hard disks - 20th March 2008
• Audio hardware - 29th February 2008
• Graphics cards - 24th January 2008
• CPUs - 21st December 2007

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