May27

NetVista A series

Posted by liyue on May 27, 2009 13:44

With its compact shape and attractive black case, the IBM NetVista A series looks right at home in both small businesses and home offices. But Big Blue realizes that even the most dedicated workers occasionally unbutton their collars, so the latest incarnation of the line includes decidedly nonstuffy options, such as 3D graphics cards and three-piece speaker systems. Preconfigured models range from a basic Celeron system to a loaded Pentium 4 setup, but you can configure your own NetVista A system to meet a wide variety of needs. Hard-core gamers and serious video editors will still be better off with a more traditional system, but the NetVista A is well equipped for typical office and entertainment use.The NetVista A's jet-black, compact tower case is a great fit for tight quarters: it measures only 16.3x7.5x16.0 inches (HWD). It comes with ipod screen protectors and fits an iPhone/iPhone 3G or iPod touch. There's also a desktop box that is 2 inches thinner, which you can place horizontally under your monitor or, using its stand, vertically underneath your desk. The tower has five bays, whereas the desktop version has four. Either chassis affords you easy entry with no screws to remove.



Power supply gets in the way.
Getting into the case is simple, but once inside, your hands will have to maneuver in cramped quarters. The wii cables from MadCatz are 9.8 ft long and are gold-plated. The unusual positioning of the power supply against the left side of the case makes for tight access to the NetVista A's single AGP and three PCI slots, and it blocks access to much of the motherboard. It does swing out of the way, but you still might get tangled in the power cords that run from it to the hard drive and the optical drives.

However, the case's front panel sports a pair of convenient USB 2.0 ports, and you'll find another four USB 2.0 connectors on the rear. There was neither a FireWire port nor a modem on our NetVista A30 test system, but the motherboard comes broadband-ready with its built-in 10/100 Ethernet connector. You'll find a broad selection of wii accesories, best wii accessories. Dial-up users can add a 56K V.90 modem card for $30, and for $59, owners of FireWire peripherals can opt for a two-port FireWire card.



The NetVista A puts two USB ports in front.

And includes four more in back.


The NetVista A offers two basic chassis--both of which you can upgrade or strip down almost to the hilt. The five-bay tower version that we tested ships with processors ranging from a 1.7GHz Celeron to a blazing 2.8GHz Pentium 4. There's also a compact, four-bay desktop, available only with 1.7GHz or 1.8GHz Celeron processors. The motherboard is the same in either chassis and offers integrated Intel 845G graphics, along with an AGP slot for those seeking more graphics oomph. IBM offers the ATI Radeon 7000 LP, Nvidia GeForce4 MX 420, and GeForce4 Ti 4200; we recommend the latter option for the biggest boost over standard graphics. Gamers, digital video enthusiasts, and anyone wanting to stay on the multimedia cutting edge will be disappointed with IBM's decision not to include the current king of Nvidia cards, the GeForce4 Ti 4600. For most of us, though, the Ti 4200, which was included in our test system, packs more than enough pixel-pushing power without the premium price.

IBM's preconfigured NetVista A models cover a wide range, and there's also a build-it-yourself, online option that gives you lots of flexibility. The preconfigured model we tested, the NetVista A30 831047U (we have to assume that IBM's marketing department doesn't name the systems), includes DVD-ROM and CD-RW drives, the aforementioned GeForce4 Ti 4200, 512MB of DDR SDRAM, and a 120GB hard drive. This $2,249 system is nicely equipped for business, gaming, and multimedia, though desktop video editors will want to add the optional PCI FireWire card.



DVD-ROM, CD-RW, and floppy drives.

Monsoon PlanarMedia 9 speakers.


Our NetVista A series test system also came equipped with two Monsoon PlanarMedia 9 flat-panel speakers, backed by a midsize subwoofer--decent sounding speakers at medium volumes, but distortion is noticeable when you crank the volume to 11. You can scale back to a two-piece IBM speaker system or, for the same price as the Monsoons, choose the five-piece Altec Lansing 4100 speaker set.

Our system also included IBM's 19-inch P97 Trinitron monitor--a stunning display that's among the brightest and sharpest CRT that we've seen--housed in an ominous black case to match the system tower. It adds $429 to the price of your system, but unless desk space is at a premium, we'd still opt for this CRT over the 15-inch flat panels available at around the same price. There are 21 monitors to choose from in all, so no matter what your budget or space constraints may be, you should have little trouble finding a display to suit your needs.


Big, bright, and beautiful.
The only truly disappointing NetVista A series component was the mouse, a two-button, ball-equipped throwback to the preergonomic early '90s. We'd suggest a third-party optical replacement with a scroll wheel. The IBM keyboard is boringly average, a disappointment from the company that used to offer keyboards with unmatched tactile feedback.

With so many of today's PCs shipping with trial applications and marketing offers, the NetVista's minimal but useful software bundle is refreshing. Along with your choice of Windows 2000, XP Home, or XP Pro, the system includes WinDVD, a 90-day Norton AntiVirus subscription, and PC Doctor. Office XP Small Business and Professional are available as extracost options.

Application performance
Industry wonks predict that DDR SDRAM will eventually replace RDRAM as the memory architecture of choice for high-end performance systems, which begs the question: is IBM way ahead of its time or is it just on the leading edge of a trend? We were surprised to find that the IBM NetVista A30 sports a superfast 2.8GHz P4 processor but uses DDR SDRAM instead of RDRAM for system memory. The system's application performance is still wicked fast, but it's not as speedy as 2.8GHz P4-based systems using faster RDRAM. The bottom line: The NetVista A30 is a solid performance workhorse, but it's not the speediest 2.8GHz P4-based desktop out there. Still, it is burly enough for major number-crunching and most multimedia apps--almost anything but the most demanding games and video production work.