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BUSINESS PC: IBM ThinkCentre M50 8187-A6A

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

This model is a part of the M50 series from IBM, having an Intel 865G chipset motherboard and a P4 2.4 GHz processor with hyperthreading. It has excellent manageability features such as tool-free access for easy maintenance and upgrade. Just push the two buttons on its sides to remove the cover. Inside, the 3.5” and 5.25” drives (FDD, HDD and CDD) are fitted in separate bay areas, which can be removed without any tools. Similarly, the PCI and AGP cards can also be fitted/removed without any screws. It has a feature called Rapid Restore Ultra, which helps restore the PC in case it crashes. The remaining configuration of the machine is suitable for running all common office applications. These include 256 MB 400 MHz DDR memory, 40 GB 7200 RPM HDD and onboard Intel Extreme Graphics 2 with 64 MB video RAM. There's an AGP slot for adding a better graphics card. The machine has a 17” LCD monitor. It has a regular 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port, and eight USB ports, two of which are on the front for connecting devices such as USB drives. The ThinkCentre's performance is average, if we compare it with the results of the PCs we reviewed in our last month's shootout. We ran Business Winstone for testing regular office productivity applications, Content Creation Winstone for checking multimedia applications performance, and PCMark 2004, for testing the PC's various components. The scores were 26.7, 37.3 and 2904, respectively. 

The bottom line: The machine is a good buy at this price given the manageability features such as tool-free access, rapid restore and 17” LCD monitor. 

CyberMedia Labs

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