PACKING THE ULTIMATE PENTIUM PUNCH
Eight New Systems Leverage the Power Of Intel's 233MHz MMX Pentium
by Stephen W. Plain Originally published in the October 1997 issue ofComputer Shopper
©1997 Ziff Davis Publications All rights reserved

Competitive Benchmarks

The Aberdeen Power P5-MMX assembled for this story offers good performance and solid components, but its $3,162 direct price makes it the second-most-expensive system we tested.

The Power P5-MMX uses the SuperMicro P5MMA motherboard, which provides two DIMM slots and four SIMM slots. Aberdeen puts the system's 32MB of SDRAM in one DIMM, leaving the second DIMM slot free. The SuperMicro provides two integrated USB connectors, but the system we tested arrived without OSR 2.1--the Windows 95 update that supports USB.

To access the machine's interior, you pop off the front panel and remove three screws that secure the left side panel. The chassis makes room for as many as three accessible 3.5-inch, two accessible 5.25-inch, and two internal 3.5-inch devices. Four fans vigorously ventilate the interior, making the P5-MMX the most aggressively cooled system in this roundup.

The Power P5-MMX tied for top honors with four other systems on our Business Winstone 97 test. A speedy 5GB Maxtor DiamondMax hard drive helped give the system the highest Business Disk WinMark 97 of this roundup--1,250. In our test system, the drive was formatted as one 4,871MB FAT32 volume.

The Power P5-MMX's impressive hard drive speed helped offset its below-average Business Graphics WinMark 97 results. For graphics, the system depends on a 4MB Diamond Multimedia Stealth 3D 2000 card. This card provides modest 3-D acceleration in addition to handling 2-D chores. Aberdeen's 17-inch monitor--a ViewSonic GT770--displays a good but unspectacular image.

The Aberdeen's audio subsystem features Creative Labs' top-of-the-line Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold sound card. The system's MidiLand MLi-130A speakers lack a bass unit. Unlike most speaker systems we saw during this roundup, however, both speakers provide two drivers--a 4-inch woofer and a 2-inch tweeter.

The Power P5-MMX also comes with 3Com Corp.'s U.S. Robotics Sportster 56K modem, which supports 3Com/U.S. Robotics' x2 technology, though it lacks voice, speakerphone, and Caller-ID features.

The system's software bundle features Microsoft Office 97 Professional Edition, two games, and communications software. Impressively, Aberdeen includes four years of onsite service in this package, though the company offers technical support only on weekdays and only during certain hours.

The Power P5-MMX delivers strong performance and laudable features, holding its own overall. Its considerable price ranks as its biggest drawback.

©1997 Ziff Davis Publications All rights reserved