Mainstreaming Pentium Pro

With a new Intel chip, AST's Bravo MS-T 6200 is a high-end PC with a low-end price.

Selinda Chiquoine

You can buy a 200-MHz Pentium Pro NT workstation now for $3000 less than you could six months ago. Take the AST Bravo MS-T 6200 we review here; it starts at $3335 with 32 MB of RAM, a 2.5-GB hard drive, and an 8x CD-ROM drive. Some of that lower cost is due to Intel's new 440FX PCI three-chip set, which effectively replaces Intel's eight-chip 450KX and GX Orion PCIsets in new single- and dual-CPU systems.

The 440FX PCIset supports up to 1 GB of extended data out (EDO) DRAM, burst EDO DRAM, or fast page-mode DRAM, and it allows concurrent PCI. It also complements the Pentium Pro's split-transaction bus, enabling more e fficient use of bus cycles. The 440FX is PCI 2 .1-compliant and also supports the Universal Serial Bus (USB).

Although the Bravo MS-T 6200 supports ECC and parity memory, it comes standard with nonparity memory (64 MB of 60-ns EDO RAM in the system that we tested), which could be a reliability concern with some large-memory applications. Maximum capacity is 128 MB divided across four memory banks, in 16-MB SIMMS. A 5200-rpm 2.5-GB EIDE hard drive , 8x IDE CD-ROM drive, 2-MB Matrox MGA Millennium graphics card, and 16-bit audio with microphone are standard. Our test system came with 4 MB of Window RAM (WRAM) on the graphics card and a 17-inch AST monitor. Although there are plenty of available slots, SCSI and networking are not integrated into this system.

Software installed on the Bravo MS-T 6200 includes Windows NT; AST-CommandCenter, a group of utilities; as well as a disk-making utility, NetCom's NetCruiser, Netscape Navigator, Internet Factory's Communications Builder, and SoftQuad's HoTMetaL Light 2.0 (an HTML editor).

AST claims to distinguish itself with high-quality components and construction, aptly chosen software, excellent documentation, and a reasonable price. With some exceptions like nonparity memory and lack of built-in networking, we agree that this system is well suited for corporate computing.

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Where to Find

Bravo MS-T 6200......................$4754

(as tested with 200-MHz Pentium Pro, 64 MB of RAM, 2.5-GB hard drive,
8x CD-ROM drive, 4 MB of WRAM graphics, and 17-inch monitor)
AST Research
Irvine, CA
(800) 876-4278
(714) 727-4141

http://www.ast.com

Circle 1080 on Inquiry Card.

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Ratings

Technology        ****
Implementation    ***
Performance       ***


Key

***** Outstanding
 **** Very Good
  *** Good
   ** Fair
    * Poor

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NT Performance

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AST's Bravo is much faster than the 200-MHz Dell we tested six months ago, thanks to improved NT grahics card drivers. HP's Orion-based Vectra (shown for comparison) is faster due to its 7200-rpm SCSI drive.

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Buy MS-T for Me

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AST's 200-MHx Bravo, ordered with parity or ECC memory, is well suited for corporate computing.

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Selinda Chiquoine is a former BYTE technical editor. You can reach her at selinda@bix.com .