Kingdom PC with a Creative DVD decoder card.......................
techweb.com
November 01, 1998, Issue: 911
Section: Reviews
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Pinnacle Sports SuperDisk, DVD
Jonathan Blackwood
With plenty of Pentium II processors and BX chipsets to go around, smaller vendors are joining the big guys in offering systems that include 100MHz bus technology and 100MHz SDRAM. One side effect of this trend: You'll be seeing systems with lots of flashy features built in as vendors try to stand out from the crowd.
Kingdom's enticements include a 2X DVD-ROM drive and an LS-120 SuperDisk, both built into its new Pinnacle 400 DVD, a Windows 98 system. In addition to a 400MHz Pentium II, you'll also get 96MB of SDRAM and an 11.5GB Ultra DMA hard drive. The LS-120 SuperDisk drive, which uses special 120MB disks, can also read from and write to conventional floppy disks.
The Pinnacle's video comes courtesy of a 17-inch monitor mated to an ATI RAGE PRO 3D graphics card with 8MB of RAM. Also included are NMB's space-saving keyboard, a Logitech mouse and Lotus's SmartSuite.
I had to remove four screws to get into the somewhat old-fashioned case. The wraparound hood comes off in one piece. Inside you'll find plenty of access room, with all the cables tied neatly out of the way. The same can't be said for the rear of the case, however: A thick, black cable connects the Creative Labs Encore DVD/MPEG decoder to the video card, for all to see.
Performance was about average for a 400MHz Pentium II-the Pinnacle 400 DVD achieved a WinScore 2.0 rating of 118. Its best performances were on our Photoshop/DeBabelizer Pro and AutoCAD tests. Its lowest score was on raw video, but even that was acceptable.
Priced right at $2,197, the Pinnacle 400 DVD would be a good choice for SOHO use. But it doesn't quite have the speed or polish of the identically priced Gateway G6-400 on our WinList, which also features DVD and a 17-inch monitor.
--Quick View--
Kingdom Pinnacle 400 DVD
Bottom Line: Average performance, but some appealing extras for the SOHO user
Price: $2,197
Platforms: 98
Pros: DVD; SuperDisk
Cons: Performance; awkward cable on back of case
Kingdom Computers, 800-385-3436, 717-662-7515. Winfo #756
Copyright ® 1998 CMP Media Inc.
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