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May 10, 1999

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New Chip, Similar Speed

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The Gateway case is solid and easy to open, with two thumbscrews on the back providing access. The interior is clean, well-organized, and offers unobstructed access to additional drive bays, memory slots, and expansion slots.

The monitor's size seems more like a 17-inch but has a measured 18.1 inches of usable diagonal area, with easy-to-use digital controls, and very sharp text and graphics. It has excellent contrast and tight focus from corner to corner. The display adapter and monitor support 1,600-by-1,200-pixel resolution with 16 million colors, at a stable and flicker-free 100-Hz scan rate.

This system is solid: With Gateway's reputation, technical support, and three-year warranty behind it, it's a good choice for a business platform. To see how well Gateway's tech-support staff performed, I called on a weekday about 11 a.m. I was quickly connected to a technician, and she quickly resolved the issue I described.

Sys Technology AX-500P3
The Sys Technology AX-500P3 is a Pentium III 500-MHz system with 128 Mbytes of RAM, 10.1 Gbytes of hard disk, and a Diamond Viper 550 video adapter with 16 Mbytes of video RAM. It includes a Creative Labs DVD Encore 5x DVD-ROM, Diamond Monster MX300 sound card, keyboard, mouse, and KDS 19-inch monitor (18 inches viewable). It shipped with Windows 98 and Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition. The case wasn't quite as easy to open as the Gateway but was otherwise solid and well laid out, with drive bays, memory, and peripheral slots accessible.

This system is oriented to deliver multimedia, with a three-piece Altec Lansing speaker system, DVD-ROM, and the very presentable monitor. Playback of DVDs was very sharp, and the included games (bundled with the DVD kit and sound card) showed off the capabilities of the video board and sound system. The display adapter and monitor support 1,600-by-1,200-pixel resolution with 16 million colors. The refresh rate was optimal; I couldn't determine the actual rate, but it worked equally well when set at 75 Hz, enough to prevent flicker.

Sys Technology isn't as well-known as Gateway, but its system is backed with a warranty that covers CPU and memory for six years, labor for five years, and parts for three years, with one year of free 24-hour technical support and on-site service. The real question is whether the warranty will be needed, and how well Sys Technology can deliver if necessary.

The system is well-made with high-quality parts--I wouldn't expect breakage to be a problem. To get some idea of the quality of the company's tech support, I called the number twice, once at 10 a.m. on a weekday, and once at 7 p.m. on a Saturday. Both times, the call was routed to a tech-support engineer within a few minutes, and my theoretical problem was correctly fixed in short order.

I was impressed with the quality of the system, the technical support, and the value for the price.

A direct performance comparison of these two systems isn't simple because their configurations differ in several areas: 450 MHz vs. 500 MHz, CD-ROM vs. DVD, 16-Gbyte hard drive vs. 10-Gbyte drive, and Windows NT vs. Windows 98. Nevertheless, the two are representative of their places in the PC spectrum. The Gateway is priced about the same as the Sys Technology system, despite a slower CPU and CD rather than DVD, offset somewhat by the larger hard drive and Windows NT rather than Win98.

On the other hand, Gateway is well-known, with a solid reputation for quality and good tech support, while Sys Technology is unknown. Both systems provide good value, emphasizing quality construction, good service and warranties, and high performance rather than rock-bottom pricing.

Gateway may have more appeal to larger companies that are willing to pay a premium for the name and reputation, while Sys Technology should appeal to smaller companies looking for good value in a well-made system.