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December 1996 Reviews This Month
By Jonathan Blackwood
From deep in the heart of Texas comes a quartet of machines sure to find their way to thousands upon thousands of corporate, government and educational desktops. The Deskpro line from Houston's Compaq Computer, and the OptiPlex line from Austin's Dell Computer, are two of the biggest players in the corporate market. I recently took a look at two new Deskpros-a 4000 and a 6000-and two new OptiPlexes-a Gs+ and a GXi-and found a lot to warm the hearts of MIS managers everywhere.
If you're confused about the wide array of desktop computers available from some manufacturers today, you're not alone. A computer can be intended for the corporate market, for small business, for the home office or family use, or even for use as a server. These four new systems are targeted specifically to the corporate market and are designed from the ground up to be reliable, easily serviced and remotely managed. All have networking built in, so setup is almost as easy as unpacking the system and plugging it in.
All are DMI (desktop management interface) compliant-with the right software, an administrator can check on the status of machines throughout his domain without ever leaving his desk. Compaq has gone a bit further with its Intelligent Manageability software and a sensor inside the PC that alerts the administrator if the system case has been opened. Don't even think about borrowing RAM or a sound card from a Deskpro without your administrator knowing about it. Microsoft is now working on software to help manage DMI-compliant machines.
In addition, each machine allows no-tool access to its innards. You can completely disassemble the Dell machines inside of five minutes with no tools whatsoever-except for a Phillips head screw holding the system board in place. The Deskpros require Phillips head screws only to anchor the drives installed in the bays. Compaq thoughtfully provides extra screws in sockets in case you should need them to install a new drive. Don't worry about drive rails with either a Deskpro or an OptiPlex: They aren't needed on the Deskpro line, and the OptiPlex drives slide in and out of position on provided drive trays that are released by tabs.
These Deskpros come in identical 5-by-18-by-15.7-inch cases, which are also found with the Deskpro 2000 line. There's no model designation on the front, just a discreet sticker with model information on the front right side of the case, and an Intel Inside sticker on the lower-right front that indicates if the system is powered by a Pentium or a Pentium Pro. This may help alleviate system envy among employees since, at a glance, everyone's system looks the same. The front is the same bezel used for all Deskpros, with a rakish curve that hides an air intake. The thermal design is so good that neither system-not even the 6200 with the Pentium Pro-requires more than the single fan on the power supply for cooling. The Compaq system boards use vertical risers to hold expansion cards. Although the Deskpro slimline desktop cases (a mini-tower case is also available) seem filled to capacity at first glance, they actually offer a good amount of expansion room.
The 4000 line offers two PCI, two ISA and one shared PCI/ISA slot, all of which were available in the tested configuration. The Deskpro 4000 Model 5133 came with a 133MHz Pentium, 256KB of secondary cache and a Compaq chipset. It has a one-third height internal drive bay; a one-third height and two half-height external drive bays; and one half-height external bay available. One external bay held an 8X EIDE CD-ROM drive; another contained the floppy drive. A NetFlex-3 10BaseT Ethernet controller and connector is integrated onto the motherboard, as is a 64-bit Cirrus Logic 5446 PCI graphics controller with 2MB of EDO RAM. The hard drive is a 1GB EIDE model. The system comes with Windows 95.
Available with Pentium Pro processors, the 6000 line comes standard with Windows NT (3.51 in the test system). It has three PCI, one ISA and one shared PCI/ISA slot, and has three half-height external (one is available) and one internal half-height bay. The ISA slot was filled with a 16-bit Compaq FM synthesis sound card, and one PCI slot contained a Matrox Millennium graphics accelerator with 2MB of WRAM. There are eight SIMM slots, two of which were filled with a total of 32MB of EDO RAM. The hard disk is a 2.15GB UltraSCSI unit. Both Deskpros offer a fault prediction feature and prefailure warranty for the hard drives. If an impending failure warning occurs within the first three years of ownership, Compaq replaces the drive free of charge, whether or not the failure takes place.
Both Deskpros provide a Compaq mouse, plus an enhanced keyboard with the new Windows 95 keys and a split spacebar that puts an extra backspace key under your thumb. LS-120 drives are available as an option. This drive is the new format of bootable floppy disk that holds 120MB of data and is backward-compatible with existing 3.5-inch 720KB and 1.44MB diskettes. A monitor is optional with either machine, which allows organizations to standardize on the monitor of their choice.
Dell completely rethought the layout of the case's components in the OptiPlex line. The redesign is not a radical departure-that would be anathema to its intended corporate audience. Dell uses the same basic system board on both the OptiPlex Gs+ and the OptiPlex GXi. Both machines are available in either the low-profile (4.3 by 16.1 by 17.5 inches) or midsize (6.5 by 16.5 by 17.5 inches) case. The low-profile version offers only three slots: one PCI, one ISA and one shared PCI/ISA. The midsize case affords one extra PCI and one extra ISA slot. Air enters through a vent on the case's front-left side and exits through the back by the CPU near the power supply. Again, the airflow is so efficient that only the power supply fan is used for cooling, though a large, copper-colored heat sink over the CPU is one of the most prominent features when you remove the case. The rigid plastic case is well shielded, and covers a steel cage that allows the unit to support even the largest monitor. The Gs+ comes with Dell's 15-inch Trinitron monitor. The GXi has a 17-inch Trinitron.
Both OptiPlexes sported one serial, two PS/2, one parallel and one video port. The GXi had two USB (universal serial bus) ports as well. Both use Intel's 430HX chipset. They also have 3Com integrated networking with 10BaseT connectors on the Dell-built motherboards, and 8X NEC CD-ROM drives.
The OptiPlex Gs+ I evaluated was a 200MHz Pentium in a slimline desktop case. Like the other machines in this review, its case is designed for recycling. It comes standard with 16MB of EDO RAM (expandable to 128MB) and has 256KB of pipeline-burst secondary cache and an Intel 430FX chipset. The hard drive is a 2.1GB Quantum Bus Master EIDE unit, and the CD-ROM was an 8X NEC-built model. The shared PCI/ISA slot was occupied by a 16-bit Sound Blaster-compatible sound card, leaving only one PCI and one ISA slot available. Video is integrated on the motherboard and consists of an S3 Trio 64V+ chip with 2MB of memory.
The GXi was likewise a 200MHz Pentium, but in a midsize case. It came loaded with 32MB of EDO DIMM RAM (expandable to 512MB), 512KB of secondary cache, a 2.1GB EIDE Quantum hard drive and a Number Nine Imagine 128 Series 2 video card with 4MB of RAM.
Of course, all four machines come with three-year warranties and 24/7 technical support. Dell's direct business model enables the company to build machines to order, including the factory installation of proprietary buyer software. To be fair, Compaq's more traditional business model means these customization tasks are normally handled by value-added reselllers.
All four machines perform well, though not blazingly fast. Reliability and stability are more important in the corporate/government/educational market than raw performance. The 133MHz Deskpro 4000 racked up average scores of 246MIPS for the CPU, 3.20MB per second of uncached disk throughput and 11Mpixels per second of video throughput. Its average times to execute our Word and Excel macros were 15.0 and 11.67 seconds, respectively, which compared favorably with the 200MHz Pentiums.
The OptiPlex Gs+ scored an average of 360MIPS, 3.30MB-per-second uncached disk throughput and 17.33Mpixels-per-second video throughput. Average time to complete our Word macro was 13 seconds, while the Excel macro averaged 11 seconds.
The OptiPlex GXi was slightly faster at 361.33MIPS, 4.1MB-per-second uncached disk throughput and 19.67Mpixels-per-second video. It edged out the Gs+ on our application macros, finishing in slightly faster average times of 11.33 seconds for Word, 9.33 seconds for Excel.
Not surprisingly, the Pentium Pro-powered Deskpro 6200 model 2150-designed for CAD and financial modeling applications-was fastest of all: 416MIPS, 0.54MB-per-second uncached disk throughput (SCSI drives score deceptively low on this benchmark) and 48Mpixels-per-second video throughput. It aced our application tests, completing the Word macro in an average of 7.67 seconds, and the Excel macro in an average 4.33 seconds.
These machines are the latest corporate designs available, and as such each merits a place on our WINDOWS Magazine Recommended List. The Deskpro 6200 and the OptiPlex GXi take their places alongside the Dell Dimension XPS P166s reviewed in May, while the OptiPlex Gs+ and Deskpro 4000 replace the Gateway 2000 P5-150 machine reviewed in March.
Though Texas is known for its fiery Tex-Mex cuisine, you won't find a lot of spice here. Instead you'll find set-up-and-forget-'em bedrock machines that are easy to support. MIS professionals need look no further for well-constructed, easily maintained machines with a low total cost of ownership. Compaq's Deskpro 4000 and 6000 series look identical from the outside, which should reduce squabbling in corporate settings.
-- Info File --
Compaq Deskpro 4000 Model 5133
Price: $1,428 (without monitor)
Pros: Performance; manageability; serviceability; reliability
Cons: Tools required for drive replacement
Platforms: 3X, 95, NT
WinMag Box Score: 4
Compaq Deskpro 6000 Model 6200
Price: $3,275 (without monitor)
Pros: Performance; manageability; serviceability; reliability
Cons: Tools required for drive replacement
Platforms: 3X, 95, NT
Compaq Computer Corp.
800-345-1518, 713-370-0670
WinMag Box Score: 4
Dell OptiPlex Gs+
Price: $2,749
Pros: Serviceability; reliability; performance
Cons: Limited expandability
Platforms: 3X, 95, NT
WinMag Box Score: 4.5
Dell OptiPlex Gxi
Price: $3,799
Pros: Serviceability; reliability; performance
Cons: Recessed power switch difficult to manipulate
Platforms: 3X, 95, NT
Dell Computer Corp.
800-338-8542, 512-338-4400
WinMag Box Score: 4.5
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