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| IBM PC 350 | ||||||||||||
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The IBM PC 350 provides a high degree of manageability, a clean design, and competitive performance. But it's also the most expensive PC in this roundup, list-priced at $4,581 ($5,037 with 64MB of RAM). The PC 350 is part of IBM's high-performance corporate line. Also available are the Aptiva line of home PCs (which will incorporate the MMX Pentium early this year) and the 700 series of corporate PCs.
A modular internal design allows easy access to key components. The motherboard has two USB ports and a connector for an external infrared device. The unit came with a 2.5GB IBM hard disk, a Matrox Millennium graphics board, an 8X Hitachi CD-ROM drive, a 17-inch IBM G70 monitor, a Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE32 sound card, and a set of Cambridge SoundWorks speakers with a subwoofer.
The PC 350 logged average scores on our Business Winstone 97 and Business Disk WinMark 97 tests but was slightly behind most of the pack on our Business Graphics WinMark 97 tests. Its CD-ROM WinMark 97 score was by far lowest here. On our applications tests, the PC 350 mostly kept pace with its peers.
IBM includes some network-oriented software: Intel ProShare data-collaboration software and a set of IBM utilities, including NetFinity for managing connected clients over a network. Despite its high price, the PC 350 has much to offer.
- Robert S.Anthony
IBM PC 350. List price: $4,581. IBM PC Co., Armonk, NY; 800-426-4968; faxback, 800-426-4329; www.pc.ibm.com.
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