Verdict: The low price isn't enough to offset the poor performance and limited features

The benefits of the slightly larger format are immediately apparent when you try to build the Terminator 2. The interior is more spacious than that of other SFFs. You have to take the PSU out to get to the internals, but this requires the removal of just one screw. The Thermaltake CPU heatsink is also relatively easy to install and even the AGP slot is in the right place, should you feel the need for a dual-slot graphics card.

But then you get to the two 5.25in drive bays. Asus has chosen to fill one with its own QuieTrack 52x max CD-ROM - a bit of a waste of money if you want a DVD drive. In order to fit a second drive, the front panel has to be removed. It's hard to get off, and the flimsy plastic is easy to break if you're not careful. There's a floppy drive pre-installed, too, whereas a memory card reader would have been more forward-looking.

The Terminator 2 lacks future proofing, too, with no S-ATA or FireWire ports. The sense of the lacklustre carries through to performance, with poor 2D and even worse 3D results. There's no chance of improvement via overclocking, either - just the ability to change the RAM timings from 'Slow' to 'Fast', which had virtually no effect on performance.

Although the Terminator 2 is very cheap, it's let down by weak features and dire performance. Unlike the movie series, we recommend waiting for the sequel.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - Hard disks / storage
• Asus EAH4870 TOP - Graphics cards
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Sound cards
• Multiwinia - Games
• Zotac GeForce GTX 260² - Graphics cards
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 - Graphics cards
• Scan 3XS X58 Core i7 - Desktop PCs