|
Let's take a look at the specification as shipped, before a look at the box in the flesh.
• MSI nForce2 Ultra 400 Socket A AMD Motherboard
• AMD Athlon XP3200+ Socket A Processor (11 x 200MHz, 2.2GHz)
• NVIDIA GeForceFX 5900 128MB AGP8X
• 512MB (2 x 256MB) Corsair XMS3200 DDR400
• Western Digital WD2500JB HDD
• In-Win 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader
• Panasonic SW-9581 DVD-RW
• 16x DVD-ROM
• 19" Flatscreen CRT Monitor (LG Flatron F900P)
• Videologic ZXR-500 5.1 Speakers
• Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
• 56k Internal PCI Modem
• Windows XP Professional w/SP1
• Cyberlink PowerDVD
• Pinnacle Instant DVD
• DriveImage 7.0
As confirmation of the hardware shipped, it was prudent to take a look in Device Manager and make sure.
As you can see, a fully specced, top of the range, machine. 250GB of hard drive storage, 512MB of Corsair, NVIDIA's FX5900, all backed up by nForce2 Ultra 400 and Athlon XP3200+. As well as the base hardware specification, which also includes full NVIDIA SoundStorm 5.1 audio with Dolby processing (from the MCP-T bridge on the motherboard), a set of 5.1 speakers and a fully flat CRT monitor round off the package.
Not the greatest software bundle in the world, but enough to get you going for sure. Windows XP Professional is the operating system of choice on the target hardware, moreso than the oft specced Home version, and it arrived fully up to date with Service Pack 1 fully slipstreamed with the base XP image, and all current post-SP1 hotfixes from Windows Update were also present, a nice touch.
The Pinnacle software lets you get straight to work with the DVD-RW drive, and 250GB of storage from Western Digital's current IDE range topper gives you plenty of room for 4.7GB disk images before you write to disk.
So we know the hardware bundle is massively capable as a personal computer, but what was it like in the flesh?
|
