Record speeds from new names

Home Office Computing, Nov, 1998 by David Haskin

The Dells, Gateways, and Compqs of the world get the lion's share of attention, but there are great bargains for high-quality PCs if you look beyond those high-visibility vendors. The Unicent Avanta B450 and Axis Orion 100M are proof.

Initially, these mail order PCs seem more similar than different. Both have 450MHz Intel Pentium II processors that are, at this time, the fastest desktop CPUs available. Both ship with 64MB of RAM, 32x CD-ROM drives, AGP video adapters with 8MB of onboard memory, and 17-inch monitors. They both come with 56Kbps modems, wavetable sound cards, and decent but not spectacular speakers.

On balance, though, we were more impressed with the Unicent Avanta B450, which turned in the fastest scores on our stopwatch tests. For instance, it rotated a 20MB image in Adobe Photoshop in 3.7 seconds, almost a full second faster than the Axis. That time also was 2.5 seconds faster than a similarly equipped Dell Dimension and marginally faster than a Gateway G6-450 that we tested last month.

The Avanta's 10GB hard disk turned in the best scores we've seen in Symantec's Norton Utilities disk benchmarks, more than offsetting its slightly lower system benchmark or overall processing score. Unicent uses a Quantum Fireball Ultra ATA hard disk, a line of drives that consistently has scored near the top of the hard disk performance heap.

We also appreciated Unicent's intelligent case design. To get inside the case, you simply turn a thumbscrew, pull a tab on the left panel, and push hack. The interior is well engineered with easy access to slots both for adding more memory and add-in cards. Although it has two fans to cool the Pentium II processor, the Avanta makes relatively little noise, which can be a plus in the close confines of a home office.

On the software front, the Avanta comes bundled with Lotus SmartSuite 97 and McAfee VirusScan. Although Microsoft Office Small Business Edition is a more common bundle with PCs, SmartSuite is an excellent collection of applications that, unlike Office SBE, includes a database program--Lotus Approach

The Axis Orion 100M has a more generous bundle. Instead of the full version of SmartSuite, it ships with Lotus Word Pro and 1-2-3, plus Intuit's Quicken SE, Broderbund's Print Shop, and Rand McNally's TripMaker. In terms of performance, the Axis's system benchmark and disk read scores were a tad higher than the Unicent's, although its disk write scores and stopwatch tests were lower.

On the downside, the Axis's design is less home office friendly. The minitower is roughly the same height as Unicent's, but about two inches wider. In addition, you must undo four screws before you can take off the case, and once inside, the Axis's RAM sockets are more difficult to reach, although slots for add-in cards are quite accessible. And despite having only one cooling fan, the Orion was noisier than the dual-fan Avanta.

In the end, we prefer the Unicent over the Axis, thanks to its slightly faster performance and more accessible case. However, both systems are solid choices--and each costs about $200 less than a similarly configured 450MHz system from Dell.

Axis Orion 100M

Configuration    WIN 98 450MHz Pentium II, 64MB of RAM,
                 11.5GB hard disk, 17-inch monitor, 56Kbps modem

List Price       $1,999 READER SERVICE 112

Manufacturer     Axis Systems, 800-378-9014, www.axissys.com
Unicent Avanta B450

Configuration   WIN 98 450MHz Pentium II, 64MB of RAM,
                10GB hard disk, 17-inch monitor. 56Kbps modem

List Prize      $1,999 READER SERVICE 113

Manufacturer    Unicent Technologies, 800-628-4888, www.unicent.com