The IBM Aptiva 765 Review
By James R. Jeffries
© 1999 Ask-James, Inc.
All
rights reserved.
Overview
The
IBM Aptiva 765 (2174765) system is clearly another winner from the IBM
PCG (Personal Systems Group). This system uses the new AMD Athlon Processor
running at 650 MHz, which would be more than enough power to run the serious
gamer's applications and yet is fully compatible with Microsoft Office
2000 Suite or other Microsoft compatible applications.
The system ships from IBM
with Microsoft Windows 98SE is preloaded on a 20.4 G.B. EIDE hard drive
as a single Fat32x partition. A DVD-Rom and CD-RW (supporting 24x read,
4x write speeds) are also included to support the large hard drive. Only
IDE drive devices are installed when shipped from the factory. Other components
included in this system are: PC-100 128 MB SD-RAM and ESS Solo-1 Sound
PCI card, a Erazor III 32 MB AGP 2X graphics card from ELSA, and a Conexant
V.90 56K Data Fax Modem. An Internet Ready, programmable keyboard with
and an IBM 3 button mouse with scroll toggle switch.
Software programs included
with the system from IBM are impressive for the home office. They include
Lotus Millennium Suite, both IE5 and Netscape Communicator, a DVDExpress
from Mediamatics, Config Safe, RingCentral 4.40.130, PC Doctor for Windows,
EZ CD Creator from Adaptec, to name the predominate applications.
The Aptiva 765 uses a Slot
A motherboard with a slot configuration of 5 PCI slots plus an AGP Slot,
and implements AMD's "AMD-750" chipset. Currently the AMD-751 chip supports
a maximum of 768 MB non-buffered PC100 version 1.0 SDRAM although, IBM
states that only 384 MB are supported on this system.
The AMD-751 is a PCI Bus Controller, compliant with PCI Local Bus Specifications, Rev 2.2, which supports 6 PCI masters. Coincidentally, that would equal 1 AGP and 5 PCI slots found on the Aptiva 765's motherboard. Also incorporated in this chipset is a 132 Mbyte per second PCI-to-DRAM data stream, and supports both ACPI and Microsoft PC 98 power management. All of these functions are supported in Microsoft Windows 98SE.
I omitted the mention of
any ISA slots, because unlike other AMD approved motherboards, IBM took
this opportunity to get away for the architecture of old. This is excellent
because the ISA bus has been one of the bottle necks to motherboards and
better performance for several years. This system is built as a home performer,
to matches the prospective customer base for the Aptiva line of products.
I believe that this computer system would be an exceptional addition to
any IT Department's recommended and supportable product line. I can hardly
wait to see where IBM and AMD take this product in the Corporate Desktop
Market.
I
opened the box!
The
system booted correctly and allowed the registration of Microsoft Windows
98SE and then the Aptiva with IBM. This happened with out incident, and
took only a few minutes and several reboots to complete. My first impression
of the system was one of mixed joy and surprise as the system is fast.
This happened again after
I installed Netscape Navigator 4.7 w/128 bit encryption (a 18,524 KB Application
like Netscape 4.7, install time took 1 Min 1.22 secs from "Start Coping
Files" to "Readme" screen, with the standard install option selected) on
this system. Installation of Windows NT 4.0 SP5 gained even better performance
due to the inherent design of Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
The only quirkiness I have found with the system is when running Microsoft Windows NT. This I was able to replicate using the following steps: Select a body of text, then Copy and Paste, the result is that the curser is still in select mode. The explanation I believe is that the Web Enabled (programmable) Keyboard causes some difficulties. If you hold the shift key and press the left mouse button the problem disappears until next time. This only happens in Windows NT and I was unable to find a problem with Windows 98SE.
My opinion is: IBM has a winner with the Aptiva 765 (Athlon Line of products). I have seen three (3) of these systems so far. One I evaluated for a friend, the second because I was so impressed by the first I purchased one, the third because I found a need another system and I was unable to find a better value after 7 days. The disappointment appeared when IBM announced a 10 percent reduction if the PCG (Personal Computer Group) which built and distributed this system. I believe the announcement to be a major mistake, and we have seen this happen before.
James Jeffries, CEO, Ask-James Inc.
1299 Riesling Terrace, Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Trademarks mentioned here: IBM for Aptiva, Lotus Suite; Microsoft Corporation for: Windows, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98SE and variations thereof.; Mediamatics for DVDExpress; Netscape Communications for Netscape Communicator; Watergate Software for PC Doctor; Artisoft for ConfigSafe; Adaptec for EZ CD Creator; Ring Zero Systems for RingCentral.