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By Cynthia Morgan
Think of an original Macintosh on steroids and you have a good picture of the Magitronic All-in-One. Stuffing display and CPU into a single case isn't new-Compaq, IBM, Tandy and others have taken integrated flings-but Liuski juices its conglomeration with an MPEG playback card, 6X CD-ROM drive, built-in speakers and microphone.
My test machine arrived with a 100MHz Pentium processor, 16MB of RAM, a 545MB hard drive (a 630MB hard drive, by the time you read this) and S3 video. The well-marked controls, from volume to display to power, are at the machine's front and the microphone, which is set into the top of the display, is a cinch to use.
The back is a different story: There are few case markings to identify where to plug in cables, and the case partially obscures the keyboard and mouse DINs. I identified the ports by opening the case and peeking at legends on the motherboard. Although a Liuski spokesperson assured me that cable setup is described in the documentation, my system arrived without manuals and I was on my own.
Fortunately, opening the case is easy. You undo two screws, pull gently on the handle in back, and the chassis slides out like a drawer. Inside, the system's three ISA slots are filled with a 16-bit sound card, 14.4Kbps fax modem and Sigma Design's REALmagic Maxima MPEG card. The Maxima, which connects externally to the All-in-One's sound and video systems, improves video playback performance.
Two of the machine's four SIMM slots are empty, but other expansion options are limited. Two PCI slots are free, though component crowding will make one difficult to use. All visible power leads were used by the CD, floppy and hard drives, making it difficult to add devices to the single free drive bay. That could be a problem in a multimedia machine, given the smallish hard drive-at 545MB or 630MB-and the size of video files.
The All-in-One performed well, matching the benchmarks of top 100MHz machines with a CPU score of 185MIPS on our Wintune benchmarks. In the video test, it bested most of its class, scoring about 12Mpixels per second.
The video display is sharp, but at a bit more than 13 inches diagonally it's small for multimedia and flares slightly at the corners. Users with musculoskeletal problems may find the integrated-and therefore immovable-display a real pain in the neck.
The All-in-One is intended for a minimal tech support, high-demand multimedia environment. A little more design effort and the Magitronic could fit that niche.
This integrated system is juiced up with MPEG, video, a 6X CD-ROM drive and other goodies.
-- Info File --
Liuski Magitronic
All-in-One
Price: $1,699
Pros: Sound; MPEG video; convenience; up-front controls
Cons: Expandability; nontilting display; hard drive size
Liuski International
800-977-6267, 770-447-8344
WinMag Box Score 3
By James E. Powell
The value-priced PC market is a fun place to shop. You can scoop up a punchy 133MHz Pentium system like the ACMA sPower P133 and your wallet won't take a licking.
ACMA fills the system's full-tower case with 16MB of EDO RAM, 256KB of second level cache, a Sound Blaster 16 sound card, a 28.8/14.4Kbps data/fax modem and a Diamond Stealth 64 Video 2001 card with 2MB of DRAM.
The tower offers plenty of bays: Of the seven external bays, five are full-height (one holds the Toshiba 4X CD-ROM drive) and two are half-height. There's also an open full-height internal bay and an internal half-height occupied by the Conner 850MB hard disk. Two of the sPower's three PCI expansion slots are free, as are two of the four ISA slots.
The rest of the sPower bundle includes a 101-key keyboard, a Microsoft mouse and a pair of Altec Lansing ACS5 powered speakers.
The sPower performed very well, completing WINDOWS Magazine's Word macro in an average of 19.3 seconds and averaging 18.33 seconds for the Excel macro. On our Wintune benchmarks, its CPU scored just under 240MIPS, its graphics subsystem clocked in at 9.9Mpixels per second and the system transferred data at a rate of 2.70MB per second on the uncached-drive test.
The 15-inch Impression flat screen monitor has a 0.28 millimeter dot pitch and supports power management features.
The notebook-bound documentation is sufficient, although explanations of how to add new peripherals are too generic.
The sPower's stylish cabinet, very good performance and solid basic features set make this system an excellent combination of power and economy.
-- Info File --
ACMA sPower P133
Price: $2,599
Pros: Construction; expandability
Cons: Documentation
ACMA Computers
800-786-6888, 510-623-1212
WinMag Box Score 4.5
By James E. Powell
Cliché after cliché came to mind as I checked out the AST Bravo MS-T P/133. It's a classic example of the phrases "don't judge a book by its cover" and "looks can be deceiving." The squat mini-tower might appear like it's cramped inside, but the well-constructed unit has plenty of room for expansion.
The Bravo MS-T has five ISA and two PCI slots, all empty. The unit is designed with the card slots facing down-cards sit vertically, not horizontally-so you have to remove the bottom panel to install any cards. That's not a problem, since the panel comes off with a twist of a thumbscrew, as does the system's case. A 3.5-inch floppy disk drive occupies the single half-height external drive bay, but there are four free full-height bays: two internal and two external.
My test system's performance was uninspiring. Although it came configured with 16MB of RAM, 256KB of level 2 cache and a Western Digital 1.6-gigabyte hard drive, the on-board ATI Mach 64 video subsystem had only 1MB of VRAM installed (expandable to 2MB), which explains the lackluster video scores.
The Bravo slogged through our macro tests, taking 25.33 seconds to complete the Word test and 19.33 seconds for the Excel. Our Wintune benchmarks verified that it was slow, averaging just over 239MIPS for the CPU, 2.0 MB per second in our uncached disk test and a dismal 7.7Mpixels per second in the video test.
The system also comes with a quad-speed Torisan CD-ROM drive and built-in 16-bit Sound Blaster-compatible sound, with a microphone, headphone and speaker jack on the unit's back. A set of Labtec headphones with a built-in mike is included, as are a Microsoft mouse and a 104-key keyboard with double-sized backspace key and Win95 keys. The front panel has a power switch but, oddly, no reset key.
My review unit came bundled with Windows 95, AST VoiceCommand (utilities for voice recognition and text-to-speech conversion) and AudioWorks, a rack system for working with sound files. Also provided is AssetPak, a program with desktop management interface monitoring tools, though there was no documentation for it. McAfee's Anti-Virus was preloaded-a nice touch.
The Bravo's excellent user guide gave explicit instructions for adding additional cards or storage devices. The new Bravo line features a three-year warranty, including one year on-site.
The Bravo MS-T is solidly built, but you should upgrade the video to 2MB of RAM.
-- Info File --
AST Bravo MS-T P/133
Price: $3,170 without monitor
Pros: Documentation; expandability
Cons: Performance
AST Computer
800-876-4278, 714-727-4141
WinMag Box Score 3
By Lori L. Bloomer
Reviewing the MidWest Micro P5-75 Office PC was like getting a sweater for Christmas when I was a kid. It's good, functional and worth the money, but hard to get excited about. Still, this unassuming workhorse offers the substance, if not the sizzle, of its high-powered cousins.
With a few minor adjustments to the P5-75, I could easily recommend it to anyone seeking a budget-priced system. For a few bucks over $2,000, you get a solid 75MHz Pentium machine with 16MB of 60ns EDO RAM, a 1GB hard drive,a 4X CD-ROM drive and a floppy drive. Toss in a Microsoft mouse, an ordinary yet serviceable keyboard and a 15-inch Energy Star-compliant digital monitor, and you have a system configured with quality brand-name components.
The system also includes a good software bundle: Office 95 Professional, Bookshelf and Encarta. This software grouping will satisfy your basic work needs.
Setting up the MidWest Micro P5-75 is simple. All the rear ports are color coded with stickers, and a corresponding key tells you which serial port is the mouse's domain, and so forth. The compact mini-tower case is roomy enough to install new peripherals.
The machine's performance is what you'd expect with this configuration. The graphics are of good quality, and screen refreshes are clear. Our Wintune benchmarks rated the CPU speed at 135MIPS, the video speed at 4.6Mpixels per second and the uncached disk speed at 2.6MB per second.
Not intended for power users, this system is perfect for a small or home office, or a student. If you're on a shoestring budget, the well-rounded MidWest Micro P5-75 Office PC is worth a look.
-- Info File --
MidWest Micro P5-75 Office PC
Price: $2,051
Pros: Bundled software; components
Cons: Lacks sound card andfax modem
MidWest Micro
800-235-9148, 513-368-2309
WinMag Box Score 3.5
By James E. Powell
Power, speed and budget. If you think the third word doesn't go along with the first two, take a look at the ACMA zPower P133. It's loaded, it's fast and it's affordable.
I tested a tower system (a mini-tower is also available) with the standard configuration that included 16MB of EDO RAM on an Intel motherboard with a Triton chip set, 256KB of level 2 pipeline burst cache, a 1.2GB Quantum Fireball 1280 hard disk, and the Diamond Stealth 64 video card based on the S3 Vision 968 chip with 4MB of VRAM. But it doesn't stop there. Add a Creative Labs 6X CD-ROM drive, a Sound Blaster 16-bit card, a pair of Altec Lansing ACS5 speakers, a Boca Research 28.8Kbps fax modem, a Microsoft Natural keyboard and mouse, and a 250-watt power supply. You'll use one of the two serial ports for the mouse and its parallel port for a printer or other peripheral. The system's 17-inch flat screen Impression monitor has a 0.28-millimeter dot pitch and is Energy Star compliant.
The zPower is further distinguished by an adapter card that supplies two PCMCIA slots (two Type II or one Type III). Notebook users will enjoy this convenience and can skip the hassle of using file-transfer programs to move files between the notebook and the zPower if they have a PC Card hard drive.
The zPower performed superbly, with Wintune scores of 244.33MIPS for CPU performance, an uncached disk transfer rate of 3.33MB per second and a video clocking of 11.67Mpixels per second. It completed our Excel macro test in 13.33 seconds and the Word macro in 15.67 seconds.
The system's unique case opens on each side. Under the top panel are the floppy drive and hard disk drive. You remove the side panels to access the slots or empty bays. Four of the system's six external full-height bays are free, as are two additional internal half-height bays.
The zPower has four PCI slots, one of which the video card uses. One of the three ISA slots is available and a half-length slot is occupied by the Sound Blaster card. The position of the CPU and its fan partially blocks an ISA slot so you can't use it for a full-length ISA card. On the outside, the power button is a little too close to the diskette drive, but it's dark gray and textured so it's hard to miss.
You get a 1-year labor, 3-year parts warranty with the zPower.
At this price point, you'd be hard pressed to match the zPower's quality, construction and performance.
Quality, construction and performance give the ACMA zPower some top ratings.
-- Info File --
ACMA zPower P133
Price: $3,399
Pros: Speed; construction; attention to detail
Cons: No bundled software
ACMA Computers
800-786-6888, 510-623-1212
WinMag Box Score 4.5
By James Alan Miller
Once upon a time, there was a buzzword called multimedia. It jazzed up presentations and was great fun, but only the rich and famous could afford it. Well, those days are over. CompuTrend is bringing multimedia to the masses with its new Premio P100.
At $1,999, this 100MHz Pentium system has components you'll find in higher-end systems, like a Mitsumi quad-speed CD-ROM drive and a Quantum Fireball 1.2-gigabyte hard drive.
The Premio's performance wasn't great, but for a bargain-basement machine, it was adequate. On our Wintune benchmark tests, the Premio's CPU score was 182MIPS, while the uncached disk score was 2.6MB per second. The video subsystem scored only 6.47Mpixels per second, but considering that the STB Horizon graphics card has only 1MB of VRAM, the result wasn't surprising. The Premio's Word and Excel macro scores were acceptable, at 25 and 20.67 seconds, respectively.
Two empty PCI slots, along with two empty ISA slots and a free ISA/PCI slot, leave room for several additional boards. Nevertheless, expandability is curtailed by the small number of free drive bays. There is one 3.5-inch internal and two 5.25inch external bays, but the latter are difficult to get to. Though you can expand the 16MB of RAM to 128MB, you'll have a hard time getting to the SIMM sockets without unplugging a bunch of cables.
Magic's 16-bit Sound Blaster-compatible audio card sits in an ISA slot, while the STB graphics board fills a PCI slot.
Though the price point is eye-catching, you get what you pay for. Premio offers adequate multimedia performance at a low price.
-- Info File --
CompuTrend Premio P100
Price: $1,999
Pros: Price; components
Cons: Drive bay expandability
CompuTrend Systems
800-677-6477, 818-333-5121
WinMag Box Score 3
By Serdar Yegulalp
Speed's the name of the game that MidWest Micro's P5-133 Office PC plays. This system has the power to handle heads-down applications development and industrial-strength operating systems like Windows NT. But if you intend to use this machine for multimedia or net surfing diversions, you'll likely be disappointed by its lack of a sound card and modem.
The P5-133 complements its 133MHz Pentium CPU with 16MB of RAM, a 1-gigabyte hard disk and a caddy-less 6X ATAPI CD-ROM drive. The quick CD unit will make short shrift of video playback or installation of monster apps.
The PC's graphics subsystem has a Num-ber Nine 9FX Motion 771 PCI card with 2MB of VRAM, which in WINDOWS Magazine's Wintune tests cranked out images at an average rate of 14 Mpixels per second. The 17-inch monitor, with its 0.28mm dot pitch, works well with the Number Nine card and delivers great-looking visuals. This card-monitor combo makes the P5-133 a good candidate for graphics applications. Though the monitor's controls are somewhat rudimentary and overly sensitive, on-screen prompts enhance their usefulness. The keyboard is also a winner; it has a wonderful feel, especially during extended typing sessions. Its only significant drawback is a smallish backspace key.
Opening the system to add hardware or perform maintenance is a snap, thanks to the use of thumb screws that don't require any tools. On the inside, things are a bit crowded, with a tangle of cables right over the memory sockets and PCI-bus slots. The system's Award Modular BIOS allows a great range of control over all system functions, from power management to PCI assignments, and is flash-upgradable as well.
Unfortunately, the P5-133 doesn't include a sound card, modem or speakers. Given the quality and performance of the rest of the hardware components, adding these items isn't such a big deal.
Still, considering this machine's speedy CD-ROM drive, packaging the P5-133 with a top-shelf sound card and speakers would've made it a multimedia monster right out of the box.
-- Info File --
MidWest Micro P5-133 Office PC
Price: $2,799
Pros: Performance; fast CD-ROM drive
Cons: Stripped to the bone: no sound card or modem
MidWest Micro
800-423-8215, 513-368-2309
WinMag Box Score 3
By Marc Spiwak
Back in computing's halcyon days, Compaq was the PC trendsetter. Times have changed, and now plenty of vendors offer computers that are better values and better performers. Nevertheless, Compaq still offers quality and reliability, with PCs like the solid, no-frills ProLinea 575e.
The ProLinea 575e that I tested had a 75MHz Pentium processor, a 632MB hard drive and 8MB of RAM permanently installed on the motherboard. There are also four empty SIMM sockets for upgrading. Secondary cache is not installed, but it's available from Compaq as an option.
Cirrus Logic PCI video with 1MB of memory is also built into the motherboard. You can upgrade video memory to 2MB with an optional part from Compaq. The 15-inch Compaq 150 monitor has a 0.28mm dot pitch. Like the unit included with the ProLinea 5120e (also reviewed in this issue), a Win95 driver problem prevented the monitor from providing 1024x768-pixel resolution.
With so much on the motherboard, all expansion slots are open. But there are just four, and only one will accept a PCI card. Two of the others are ISA slots, and one is a proprietary Compaq Option slot.
When the case is opened, the drive bay assembly tilts up and out to allow easy access to the back of the drives. The hard drive occupies the only internal bay. You can't add a second hard drive unless you jury-rig your own installation or fit it in the only free external bay. The bare-boned ProLinea 575e lacks multimedia hardware-it doesn't even have a sound card or CD-ROM drive. You'll no doubt want to add at least a CD-ROM drive to this computer.
Performance was comparable to that of similarly configured 75MHz Pentiums, averaging 135MIPS on Wintune 95's CPU test, 4.1Mpixels per second on video and 1.02MB per second on the uncached disk test.
The ProLinea's clear documentation ensures that it's a cinch to set up. The system comes preloaded with both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. You select the OS when you first turn on the computer.
While the ProLinea 575e has no multimedia, it's a solidly built, quality system.
-- Info File --
Compaq ProLinea 575e
Price: $1,788
Pros: Construction; documentation
Cons: Expandability
Compaq Computer Corp.
800-345-1518, fax 713-518-1442
WinMag Box Score 3.5
By James Alan Miller
Competition is tight in the multimedia PC race, so little extras can take what might've been an also-ran system and speed it to the finish line. The AST Advantage 818 P133 comes with unexpected goodies like online tech support and other bundled utilities and applets.
The system's configured with 16MB of RAM (expandable to 128MB) and a 256KB cache (512KB maximum). It has a 1.6GB hard disk and a Sanyo quad-speed CD-ROM drive. Sound and graphics are board-mounted with 16-bit Crystal integrated audio and an ATI Mach 64 with 1MB of DRAM. The monitor is adequate, with an acceptable display and a satisfactory set of basic controls. A microphone, a pair of low-end speakers, a 28.8Kbps modem, and a generic keyboard and mouse fill out the 818's configuration.
The Advantage 818 has two 3.5-inch internal and two 5.25-inch external bays. Its single PCI and four ISA slots are open. The modem is in a shared PCI/ISA slot, which you can free up by moving the modem to one of the ISA slots. The system has two serial, a parallel and a game port, along with connections for the keyboard and mouse.
The system's performance on the Windows Magazine Wintune tests ranged from average, 241MIPS for the CPU, to good, 3.47MB per second for uncached disk data transfers. Graphics scores, at 7.47Mpixels per second, were under the norm for its class. The 818 did poorly on our Microsoft Word and Excel macro tests, averaging 27 and 19 seconds, respectively.
The 818 offers an extensive software bundle. The system's preinstalled programs include Novell's PerfectWorks, America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy starter kits, and AST LifeLine (support software that lets AST technicians access your system via modem). Also preinstalled are Syncro's Multimedia Connect and the ImagiNation Network. The 818's package includes financial software like Quicken, Wall Street Journal's Dow Jones Personal Journal and Reuters Money Network. Not all of the software is so serious. For fun, there's Ditek's Photoworks and Rand McNally's TripMaker, along with Blockbuster Video's Movies & Video Guide, Grolier's 1995 Encyclopedia and the Mayo Clinic's Family Health Book. AST Extras consists of applets like Home Inventory, Household Maintenance, Investment Calculations, Loan Calculation, Math, Savings Calculations and Vehicle Maintenance. Finally, AST Works II includes the AST Library, an online system manual, among other utilities.
Although the extras that come with the system are excellent, the Advantage 818 isn't a first-place finisher. For this system to be competitive in the multimedia horserace, it needs EDO RAM with asynchronous cache and more video RAM, which other similarly configured and priced systems offer.
-- Info File --
AST Advantage 818 P133
Price: $3,339
Pros: Software bundle; support options
Cons: Performance
AST Computer
800-876-4278, 714-727-4141
WinMag Box Score 3
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