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On finally having the time and opportunity to conduct a hardware review, I hoped I would get access to a system that was interesting. I did. From what I've seen with this system, the Compaq Professional Workstation AP500 offers all those 14-hour-a-day MicroStation users some real power to do some heavyweight 3D solids and visualizations without the system grinding to a halt after the first rendering. The AP 500 is hot off the production line and therefore features the best in Intel processors, some pretty nifty buses, 'better' memory and comes complete with an ELSA Gloria Synergy graphics accelerator card that is perfect for MicroStation.
On the inside
According to the Compaq white paper, the AP500 is equipped as follows:
CPU. 450 MHz Pentium II processor with a 100 MHz front-side bus and 512 KB integrated L2 cache.
Memory. The review system came with 128 megabytes of SDRAM, expandable to 1 gigabyte.
Video graphics card. ELSA Gloria Synergy+ (AGP), perfect for 3D work. Also available as an option on the 3D Compaq PowerStorm 300 (AGP) if preferred.
Mass storage. The buyer has a choice of hard drives including: 6.4 gigabyte Ultra ATA-IDE, 5400 rpm, a 4.3 gigabyte Wide-Ultra SCSI, 7200 rpm, or a 4.3 gigabyte Wide-Ultra SCSI, 10,000 rpm. The review system has the 7200 RPM model. Extra optional drives go up to 18.2 gigabytes.
Network adapter. The AP500 uses a Compaq Fast Ethernet Embedded NIC (Network Interface Controller), model NC3121, with a throughput of from one to 100 megabytes per second. The card features WAKE on LAN support.
Other hardware features. The AP500 has six expansion slots (3 PCI, 1 ISA 1 PCI/ISA and 1 AGP); up to seven drive bays with an internal storage capacity as high as 72.8 gigabytes; SCSO device support which allows daisy-chaining of up to 7 SCSI devices; a Compaq-brand 19 inch TCO '95 approved monitor (the V900); an internal 32X CD ROM; multimedia support on the motherboard. There is no standard monitor for the AP500; customers may choose from a variety of models at sizes ranging from 17" to 24".
Preinstalled Software. Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0, Service Pack 3;...