P4 Graphics Workstation

This mean machine from Appolo contains some of the latest components and is aimed at those into design and heavy graphics. It has an Intel 845PT motherboard with the latest Northwood P4 2.0 GHz processor and 512KB cache. It also has 256 MB DDR memory, which is sufficient for most types of applications. However, this occupies both the RAM slots of the machine, so you’ll have to pull out one module if you want to increase the RAM. Another impressive component is the graphics card, which has an nVidia GeForce 3 Ti-200 chip with 64 MB DDR VRAM. The final touch to its configuration is a fast 7,200-rpm Maxtor 40 GB hard drive. It comes with a 15” monitor.

Expandability isn’t an issue with the machine. It has three vacant PCI slots for adding cards like a TV tuner, sound or network card. There are also four onboard USB ports for adding external peripherals like printers, scanners and webcams. It’s cabinet is spacious with three vacant bays for adding a hard drive, DVD or CD-Writer. The choice of OS to put on the system is up to you. 

When we tested the machine, performance wise there were no issues. Our first round of testing focused on high-end gaming and graphics. The first benchmark we ran was 3D Winbench2000 (to test its 3D capabilities). Here, the system got a frame rate of 198 fps, which is excellent. In 3DMark2001, another similar benchmark, it got a score of 6587, again excellent. To put things in better perspective, a P4 2.0 GHz with 256 RDRAM and a Geforce2GTS display card running Win 98SE got a score of 3745. This huge difference indicates the capability of the display card to handle graphics and gaming. In Quake III the machine kept up its good performance with outstanding frame rates at all the resoluions. Even at a very high resolution of 1280x1024 with 32-bit color depth it churned out 134 fps, meaning fabulous graphics performance.

The machine didn’t give any trouble with productivity applications either. We used Business and Content Creation Winstone 2001 to check this. The first benchmark tests a system for day-to-day productivity apps like MS Office, Netscape Navigator and Norton Antivirus. Here, the system gave a high score of 56.7. In the second one, which tests the system for high-end apps like Photoshop, DreamWeaver, Director and SoundForge, it surprised us with a huge score of 75.5–the highest we’ve recorded till now. 

The Bottom Line Performance and features come at a price, and this machine is no different with a price of Rs 84,000. But if you’re into heavy graphics, design and animation, then it’s definitely worth its price. 

Sachin Makhija at PCQ Labs