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| IBM NetVista All-In-One X40i (Desktops) |
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Hardware Reviews January 2001 • Vol.9 Issue 1 Page(s) 30 in print issue |
IBM NetVista All-In-One X40i (Desktops) | ||
 PC manufacturers have gone to great lengths in recent months to sculpt and craft desktop computers with designs that appeal to the changing tastes of users and for environments where appearance is important. In some cases, these sleeker designs have been attractive but omitted some components we prefer in a system. However, IBM's NetVista All-In-One X40i does a good job of providing style without sacrificing too much substance. The X40i's streamlined, all-in-one design is visually appealing upon first sight, but IBM also used some clever touches to keep the design practical. One example is the descending tray that lowers from the bottom of the system's 15-inch LCD monitor with a push of a button. The tray harbors a 3.5-inch diskette drive and DVD-ROM drive and easily retracts when not in use to save space. The design means having to periodically push the keyboard aside to slip a disc or diskette into a drive, but it's a small inconvenience for the valuable space you ultimately gain. IBM saves you even more desktop real estate by squeezing down the size of the motherboard and stuffing it into a small space on the monitor's backside. The tradeoff for saving space is the severe limitation of upgrading components down the road. Accessing the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slots is extremely difficult, and when you do get to them, you'll find there are only two slots, one of which is already occupied by a combined 56Kbps modem and 10/100Base-T Ethernet card. In addition, reaching the system's two RAM slots is difficult, there are no open bays, video and sound is integrated, and the included speakers are integrated and tiny. On the more positive side, however, is the 128MB of SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM) that is already onboard, and you have the ability to upgrade that to 512MB via one open DIMM (dual in-line memory module) slot. There also are seven USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports, including two on the keyboard, two on the right side of the monitor, and three at the back. Also on the right side are microphone, speaker, and audio jacks, which give the system good connectivity but the potential for an unsightly mass of cables protruding from the monitor. Inside the monitor lies a 600MHz Intel Pentium III processor with 133MHz bus speed and 256KB of L2 (Level 2) cache and 32KB of L1 (Level 1) cache. The processor is powerful enough for office productivity and Internet tasks, but it probably isn't suitable for those with demanding multimedia, gaming, and overall processing needs. IBM does offer the X40i with Pentium III or Celeron processors that range in speed from 533MHz to 800MHz. In addition, gamers are likely to notice a definite lag from the integrated video, which shares 16MB of memory with the system's overall SDRAM. The X40i does offer some positive features that offset its limited processing power and expandability. For starters, there is a 15GB Quantum Fireball hard drive that provides good storage space; a Toshiba 6X DVD-ROM player; and the IBM NetVista 15-inch LCD monitor, which output exceptionally sharp, clear, and accurate colors in our testing and DVD playing using the movie "Armageddon." Although we noticed some very slight jaggies along the display's edges, the monitor's overall quality is definitely among the best we've seen in a 15-inch model. And despite the system's integrated audio, the speakers' performance wasn't nearly as bad as we expected it to be. However, we would suggest considering adding your own speakers and subwoofer if audio is an important factor to you. To test the X40i, we ran BAPCo's SYSmark2000, which is a suite of 12 application workloads divided into two categories, Office Productivity and Internet Content Creation. We also ran MadOnion.com's Video2000 and 3Dmark2000 tests. Video2000 measures a system's video ability by assigning scores based in part on the processor, graphics card, memory, and motherboard. 3Dmark2000 evaluates a system's 3-D capabilities by using various tests for polygon counts, bump mapping, texture rendering speed, and image quality. In addition, we installed and played the 3-D game Quake III Arena and played several audio CDs. As expected with a system using integrated video, the X40i's overall 3Dmark2000 score of 864 is on the low side, but the Video2000 marks were surprisingly good (1,736 overall) and compare favorably to 600MHz and 700MHz systems we've seen. The system's overall SYSmark2000 rating of 104 (based on an Office Productivity mark of 92 and Internet Content Creation score of 123) is about average for 600MHz systems we've reviewed. Overall, the X40i's design and appearance are what stand out. The machine is a definite eye-grabber, and it saves space to boot. Much of its cost is associated with the LCD monitor, but its display quality is excellent. The system uses the Windows 98 operating system and ships with Lotus SmartSuite Millennium and Quicken 2000. If you can live with the limited expandability and graphical ability, the X40i makes for an attractive addition to high-trafficked work areas where there is a premium put on appearance. by Blaine Flamig
$2,099 IBM (800) 426-4968 (914) 765-1900 http://www.ibm.com
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