IBM 300 GL

This PC has an impressive configuration that could be used 

for graphics-intensive work. It’s the first PC we’ve tested that has a front side bus speed of 133 MHz. It houses a 533 MHz PIII processor on a motherboard with the VIA VT8259 chipset.

This is accompanied by 64 MB of 133 MHz SDRAM. The two DIMM slots can take a maximum of 1 GB RAM. 

The PC comes with an attractive and roomy cabinet. A special channel links the processor’s heat sink with the SMPS fan, allowing effective cooling. The motherboard is designed well with all the ports onboard. These include two PS/2, USB, and serial ports, and one parallel port. Sound is integrated onboard with jacks for microphone, speakers, and line-in. The ports are well labeled behind the cabinet, making it easy to hook the external peripherals. However, the CD-ROM drive button is slightly difficult to reach because of the cabinet’s design. 

The 300GL has a 13.5 GB UltraATA/66 hard drive with a spindle speed of 7,200 rpm. The remaining configuration includes a 3Com network card and an AGP card called Number Nine with 8 MB of VRAM. This leaves two free PCI slots for future expansion. The PC ships with Win NT workstation. It also has a restoration CD that automatically installs the operating system and the necessary drivers. 

We ran a number of benchmarks to check its performance, like Business Winstone 99 and high-end Winstone 99. The former is used for testing the PC’s capability in running common business applications like office suites and Web browsers, while the latter tests its capabilities in running graphics applications.

It scored 30 in Business Winstone 99 and 29.7 in high-end Business Winstone 99.
We also ran the same tests on a PIII/500 MHz based on an Intel 440BX chipset motherboard with 100 MHz FSB, to see the difference in performance. The same graphics card and hard drive were used. The IBM 300GL showed a 5 percent difference in Business Winstone, and gave a whopping 18 percent jump in high-end Winstone. 

Overall, the PC’s a good choice for high-end work, like graphics and multi- media development. It also comes with lots of software, such as Norton AntiVirus 5, Lotus SmartSuite97, Adobe Acrobat Reader 3, etc.