Medion Erazer Recon E40

A modest system in terms of price, spec and expansion options, so only buy it if it's exactly what you want

- TIM DANTON

PRICE £708 (£849 inc VAT) from currys.co.uk

When PC Pro reviewed the GeForce RTX 5050 last month (see issue 375, p60), we didn’t smother it with praise. It’s great for 1080p gaming, we explained, delivering 60fps and above in almost every game, but if you want guaranteed smooth frame rates at 1440p then you need to step up to the RTX 5060. Still, we added, if you “end up with one in a prebuilt system, and that’s reflected in the price, there are reasons to be cheerful”.

So we come to the Erazer Recon E40, a budget-friendly system made by German manufacturer Medion. And there are several reasons to be cheerful aside from the price.

The first is that this is a compact computer with a conservative power draw (65W idle, 259W at its peak), and provided you don’t mind a continual low hum you should never find its fan noise irritating. In particular, there’s no ramp up in volume when you’re playing games. I would place it under a desk rather than on it, just to dampen the sound of the fans, but I’m easily irritated by such things. Should you follow my lead, you’ll still benefit from the two USB-A ports, 3.5mm headphone jack and USB-C port sitting conveniently on the front.