Product Review by Colin J. O'Keefe mrsl msa mbcs |
| If you are looking for a computer that will provide you with value, security, performance and ease of use then the new IBM NetVista M41 will match these requirements. The M41 was the system tested by your author and is replacing the A60 due to be discontinued at the end of 2001 and which is one of a range of new NetVista Series machines that IBM have just released. |
| The NetVista M41 is a desktop that comes with an Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 processor and supports clock speeds up to 2 GHz. It uses the Intel 845 chipset with 133 MHz bus speed support and will take up to 1.5 Gigabytes of SDRAM system memory. Although a monitor isn't provided they do include a powerful 16 MB SDRAM NVIDIA video adapter using an AGP 4X graphics bus. |
| Also included are a 40GB 7200rpm S.M.A.R.T. lll Ultra ATA/100 hard disk as well as a proverbial bog-standard floppy disk drive - something many manufacturers (including IBM) feel isn't always worth the effort to build into their systems. A train of thought which I still find baffling to the point of lunacy. Everybody still uses floppies, so why try to force us into giving them up? |
| IBM has endeavoured to make the M41 a comfortable machine to work with. The machine has internal bays that flip up and components that slide on rails. To gain access to the innards of the device the cover can be taken off without the need for removing any screws and once you are inside the PCI card slots are also accessible without the need for any tools. It comes with four USB ports, two of which are handily positioned on the front of the system. This is certainly a blessing if like me you are continually plugging attachments in and out of the system. |
| The Operating System for the M41 is either Windows 98 Second Edition or Windows 2000 although rumours were, and still are, around that XP could possibly be another option. It comes in a choice of three footprints. The Small Desktop comes with 4 slots and 3 bays, the Desktop with 4 slots and 4 bays, and the Tower that has 4 slots and 5 bays. They all come with integrated audio with line in/line out; microphone and headphone expansion ports; integrated Intel 10/100 Ethernet with Wake on LAN support 56K modem; 48X IDE CD-ROM drive; standard (lightweight) keyboard and IBM standard mouse. |
| Apart from the Operating System there is quite a variety of software provided. Among the more relevant is Lotus Notes Client and Lotus SmartSuite Millennium. You don't need to be a name at Lloyds (or Nasdaq) to guess who IBM own a large share of! I can only assume the extra software works perfectly on the M41 as the unit arrived missing the CD containing the additional applications. |
| The system specifics are as
follows: Price: variable as Christmas looms upon us but around 800 UK pounds without a monitor. Level 1 CPU cache: 32KB. Level 2 onboard external CPU cache: 256KB Bios Type: Flash ROM Memory: 128MB standard, 1536MB maximum Graphics chipset: NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta Maximum resolution: 1600 x 1200 16777216 colours Network card: Integrated Intel Pro/100 Ethernet Communications features: Plug and Play, DMI v2.0 Compliant Warranty: 3 years onsite parts and labour Summary The IBM M41 proved itself to be a very reliable machine. Although it physically appears to be ten years old it gave good response times and more than adequately offers good value for money for the price.For these reasons we rate it as :
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