See anything incorrect? Let Jeff know and it'll be fixed ASAP!

Processor: PowerPC 604e on upgradable daughtercard
Speeds: 180, 210, and 240 MHz
Bus Speed: 60MHz (which is why it flies!)
Memory: 32Mb standard; non-interleaved; Expandable to 512Mb; Uses 168-pin DIMMs; 4 slots;
Level-2 Cache: 1Mb (upgradable?)
Graphics: ATI-based built-in video with 3d acceleration (RAGE-3D architecture); 2Mb VRAM on board, upgradable to 4Mb; Supports up to 1280x1024 resolution;
Hard Drive: 2Gb 5400 RPM hard drive (IBM mechanism)
SCSI Architecture: Dual SCSI buses; Internal and external standard (5Mb/sec). Also, Adaptec Fast/Narrow UltraSCSI card currently bundled, up to 20Mb/sec. (Note: The 180 core does NOT come with this card!)
CD-ROM drive: TEAC 16x CD-ROM drive
Networking: Built in AAUI and 10BaseT ethernet
Expansion: 3 12" PCI slots
Cases: Low profile (no room for more hard disks) or minitower (room for at least 2 more disks)

Benchmarks for the pre-production system.. if these don't match your 7.6.1 NO SpeedDoubler or MathLibMoto configuration, tell me!

MacBench 4.0 scores:

MacBench Test	PowerCenter Pro 180	PowerCenter Pro 210	PowerCenter Pro 240
CPU	527	572	631
Floating Point	365	422	480
Disk	364	429
Graphics		435
CD-ROM		519

MacOS 8, FWB Hard Disk Toolkit 2.0, FWB CD-ROM Toolkit 2.0, Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0, ClarisWorks 4.0, Corel Gallery Clip Art, Fractal Dabbler 2.0, Asante Net Doubler, Now Up-to-Date/Contact, Blockbuster Guide to Movies and Videos (CD-ROM), 250 Bitstream fonts; Trial versions of AOL, Compuserver, Nisus software; 

Note: I used a pre-production version of the PowerCenter Pro 210; Things may change between this version and the shipping version. If so, it ain't my fault!

The PowerCenter Pro I tested was a 210MHz model, with 32mb of RAM, plus a Zip and Jaz drive (both internal). The hard drive was a 2Gb IBM mechanism.

The first question many people always ask: How was the fan noise? Well, it seemed about as noisy as my PowerTower 200e.. maybe a litttle quieter. One thing I noticed that may have something to do with this, is that it's a different power supply, lacking a convenience power plug.

Once I got the machine all setup, I got just what I expected: blazing speed. The thing is very snappy and responsive, especially in the finder (7.6). It was perhaps a little faster than my PowerTower 200e (clocked up to 220MHz), at least noticably. Definitely the fastest Mac I've used and I've been playing with them for a long time.

The next two things I wanted to do: Checkout the 3d acceleration, and the CD-ROM drive. Since I had Weekend Warrior available, I popped in the CD. The CD-ROM drive proved to be quite amazing-- the door seems to have some kind of turbocharger--it really means business when it opens and closes. The access speed is great, too.. although it's hard to tell, it was definitely responsive. And problem free, which should be reassuring to those who had Phillips CD-ROM troubles.

While Weekend Warrior isn't the best game I've ever played, it was certainly pretty cool to see ATI's impressive 3d RAGE engine at work.. the gameplay was very smooth! I also tried out Descent II, with the Quickdraw 3d RAVE.. unfortunately, it didn't work until I updated to QD3d 1.5.1. It was amazingly smooth-- as fast as it normally is without the QD acceleration, and the graphics are much sharper.

Okay, time to try something more productive: firing up Word 6.0.1 was like the old days using 5.1.. maybe faster.... Excel 5.0 was much the same.... Director 5, of which I haven't any clue about how to use it, also loaded and ran very quickly. Surfing the Internet through the cable modem was satisfyingly fast as well. All in all, it was just what I expected-- a rocket!

PowerCenter Pro 210 Rating (out of 5 hats):
Pros: So fast its scary; Cool 3D video accleration; Amazing 16x CD-ROM
Cons: No convenience power plug;
Important Note: This test was on a pre-production model! If I get a real one, I'll be sure to update my review!

-- Jeff Keller 4/18/97

John Davis has some scientific/mathematical benchmarks... (6/22/97)

I received my PowerCenter Pro 210 about 2 weeks ago. I didn't want to fire off a review until I was able to put this baby through the paces and see how it performs day-to-day.

I am PhD student in mathematics at Auburn University so (a lot of but not ALL) my focus is how the PCP 210 performs is mathematics a computer-simulations applicatations. Before giving you the lowdown there, let me give the specs and performance stats everyone else always gives.

The Setup

PCP 210 setup as Jeff has listed above. Note 1 MB L2 cache and 32 MB RAM, and I got the built in Zip, 16X CD, 4 GB IBM hard drive along with the 17" monitor. They threw the monitor in for free so I got it ALL for $2800! Thanks to PowerWatch--I got this great deal by calling in and asking for the MacFair LA special. The guy asked if I attended and I told him no but asked if he could squeeze me in anyway. He said since I was a grad student, sure. I was braced for a longer delay due to the MacFair LA demand. They told me it would arrive in 14 days. Not too bad. But it came after just 9 days. Do you know of a better surprise than your awesome new system arriving 5 days early? I don't. Two thumbs up after all the nightmare stories I had heard.

Here are the stats...

MacBench 4.0 (sorry--I don't have the CD)

• ALL Extensions OFF
  • Processor: 569
  • FPU: 421
    
• ONLY LibMotoSh ON
  • Processor: 569
  • FPU: 672 (what a difference!)

Overall I was impressed. A friend of mine who got his a week earlier warned that I might experience whiplash after getting this system. My old system was a Performa 575 (68LC040 chip). Man, was he right! The monitor is nice (big!) but the controls I found awkward and the image kind of bubbly. Not as nice as the Sony's I've seen but hey it was free. I was most disappointed with the built in speaker. Anyone purchasing one of these systems MUST budget for a good set of speakers. I wish I'd have heard about that before I ordered--I would have thrown in some speakers. But the LabTecs Power offers aren't the best anyway...

The fan noise has been an issue in recent PW news [...] Overall, yes, the fans are noisy but I think you get used to it once you're at the keyboard for 2 minutes. (Jeff agrees...)

Mathematica Performance

I quickly went to install Mathematica 3.0 (Mma for short) from the 16X CD drive. I love this thing--it really flies and does sound like a jet taking off (literally!). It feels kind of flimsy so don't bend it too much. The speed makes up for that though. Well, Wolfram (makers of Mma) make you apply to transfer your license from one computer to another which takes a day or so. So I couldn't install Mma 3.0 on the HD. I AM able run it for 30 days from the CD so I said, what the heck, I'll run these benchmarks (available at http://fampm201.tu-graz.ac.at/karl/mma.html) from the CD and see what kinds of times I get. Here they are:

Note: The current reference is a machine with a 120MHz 604 processor.

Mathematica 3.0 (PCP 210, System 7.6, 32 MB RAM, 1 MB L2 cache) FROM THE CD DRIVE:

• Benchmark = 1.79

Pretty good, don't you think? It should be pointed out that LibMotoSh does not affect Mma since it uses its own set of math libraries.

After getting my mew password, I installed Mma 3.0 on the PCP 210. Installation of the 120+ MB app took about a minute another testament to the speed of the CD drive. I ran the same notebook with extensions off and all the RAM allocated to Mma and here's how it performed. The calculations took a total of about 30 seconds.

Mathematica 3.0 (PCP 210, System 7.6, 32 MB RAM, 1 MB L2 cache) FROM THE CD DRIVE:

• Benchmark = 2.09

Without going into details, those interested should look at the 15 calculations the notebook requires. These are very hefty indeed and to give you an idea, here are the scores from the Performa 575. The calculations took a total of about 10 hours (I lost count?)!

Mathematica 3.0 (Performa 575, 33 Mhz 68LC040, 20 M RAM + RamDoubler = 40 M RAM, System 7.6)

• Benchmark := 0.0259

What I wanted to know most of all was how these scores stacked up against not only MacOS machines, but wintel boxes using Windows 3.x, Win 95, Win NT, Linux, you name it--even Sun SparcStations. That's what Karl's Mathematica Page is running a contest for. What is the best hardware + OS combination for Mathematica 3.0 (and to some degree, hence mathematics)? The results are being tallied at http://fampm201.tu-graz.ac.at/karl/timings30.html.

The performances are listed in descending order by benchmark scores. You have to scroll a little ways to the table where they're listed. Wouldn't you know it--who is in a tie for 5th place? MY machine. Most impressive is this--take a look at who is in places 1 through 4. Each of those machines are about $2000 more than the PCP 210. And the one tied with me is a PowerTower! Note also note that all the machines scoring faster than mine have AT LEAST twice as much RAM as I do.

Isn't is fair to conclude that the PowerCenter Pro 210 is the most mathematical bang for your buck--on any hardware or OS? I think so... :)

Short Version: This is the BEST MacOS system for a mid-range price and big league POWER.

Longer Version: I love the speed. No Apple Systems comes close to this performance for the price. Name the system the tops the MacBench chats for $2,000 to $2,500?

What I love. Everything. 16x CD works great. Hard disk is fast. The extra bonus of the 2940UW (which I think is shipping with a lesser card now). Also, I have no digital audio problems (as I originally emailed Jeff) with Macromedia's SoundEdit16 version 2 no matter what settings in the PowerDomain Control Panel. In fact, I have no compatibility problems with anything. Except the Apple System Profiler thinks I have a 195 MHz PowerMac 7200. Clockometer clocks my machine correctly.

However, I need to run VM right now. This takes quite a bit of speed out of my machine. For example, Photoshop 3.0.4, opens in 12.7 seconds with VM,AppleTalk on, and 9.5 seconds with VM off and AppleTalk on (average, three time). However 7.6.1's VM works good overall. (VM, set a 48, is on a 256 meg partition on the internal drive, erased with Finder when needed. Netscape Cache, Photoshop scratch, etc also kept here). I will be adding 32 megs more soon.

My problems with the system.

First, the Power 17". It is good, however has a slight horizontal "striping" in the white areas at 1078 x 768 and notable also at 640 x 480, however I run at 1152 x 870, which is the highest resolution 4 meg VRAM will drive at millions, and I am happy. However, if you have extra money, nothing beats a Trinitron. However, I can go up to 1280 x 1024 (8 bit color).

The internal speaker is probably one of the worst I have heard. External pair of speakers is a must. I am running mine though my Sony stereo and sounds great.

The biggest gripe I have about the PowerCenter Pro, Jeff pointed out early on. The lack of a convenience plug on the power supply. I have an external hard disk and the monitor which could have benefited from this. Also I have a shortage of outlets in my room. However, I can live with this.

My tests (I have LibMotSh Installed)

• MacBench 4.0
  • CPU: 569
  • Floating Point: 688
  • Disk: 223
• (firmware 2.5/ PowerDomain 2.5 installed for the 2940UW)
•  
• AT - off, VM - off
• Extensions - on
• System 7.6.1

Final Note: I am a happy Speed Freakin' Geek (Jeff adds: aren't we all)

I captured some video with the Miro card, which worked well, but you can't watch the video while you capture it, yet the quality was better than I expected. The PCPro210 replaced my PowerMac7200. The 7200 has a history of problems with digital audio programs (like SoundEdit16) and when I found out the 210 uses the same logic board as the 7200 I was troubled, but happily it worked just fine with SoundEdit16, no skips or crashes! However I was really cheesed off that both Netscape and Explorer are still plauged by Type 11 errors. So much for System 7.6 and it's "virtual elimination" of them.

I was very pleased with the Power Computing 17" monitor. It was crisp and colorful. As you might expect, making the jump from a 7200 with a 13" monitor, I was astounded by the speed of my new box and the size of my new monitor. True, the 210 is a bit noisy and the CDRom drive sounds like an SST, but it's a good trade-off. I played Dark Forces at high resolution (which sputtered on my 7200) and was amazed at what I'd been missing. After some four days straight (taking time out for the occasional meal and a few winks) I had only one crash (well, four if you count those accursed Type 11 errors). And by Monday I had forgiven Power Computing for not stocking up on L2 Cache cards (which is why my box was so late) and am quite pleased with my now box.

Since I don't have MacBench, I can't supply any numbers for you, but it sure beats my olde 7200 by a mile or two. I was somewhat disappointed by the software bundle, especially since some of the products are just demos. But happily, my MiroMotion card bundled both Adobe PremierLE AND PhotoshopLE (I was only expecting Premier). However I did notice one quirk. I transfered some jpeg and gif files from my 7200 and found that they had swelled in size by as much as 50% after the transition. Is this a side effect of System7.6, or a Power Computing issue? If anyone can offer a guess, I'd appreciate it.

I am sure the 210's speedy moment in the sun will pass quickly, but I know it will be my main axe for some time to come!

I know this is going to come as a surprise to many, but I'm disappointed in the (real-world) performance of my PowerCenterPro 210! Before I got the PCP210, I rendered out a scene in Bryce 2 on a number of machines:

• PowerCenter 120 (48MB) 25:14
• Pentium 100 (32MB) 30:01
• Quadra 630 (80MHz, 20MB) 4:0?:??
• PM 6500/275 (16MB) 13:00
• PM 7300/200 (16MB) 9:24
• PM 8600/200 (32MB) 8:42

And the time of my much anticipated PCP?

• PowerCenterPro 210 (48MB) 12:23!

All tests were performed using onboard video @640X480, "thousands" of colors and default memory settings, except for the Pentium.

After I ran the render on my PCP, I worked on optimizing it further, installed 32MB more RAM (increased memory allocation), Virtual on and off, I tried everything. I don't understand how the Apples can blow the PCP away like that.

I called Power's tech support, they told me to verify the bus and CPU speeds and the presence of the cache with Guage Series, which I did. I called back to tell them that Guage Series said eveything's OK, and they were quite unsympathetic at best. They even tried to blame it on the non-powercc RAM, or maybe that I didn't turn off extensions to install Bryce (How would I mount the install CD if I did that?)

I realize that a Bryce rendering is only one task, and judging a machine's merit solely on that is somewhat unfair, but a render is the longest operation I do, and easiest to quantify. I should mention that it runs Marathon Infinity very well, but so does my 120.

I received my PowerCenter Pro 210 on Friday (I was supposed to receive it on Wednesday), but I figure that it's not bad considering Power's reputation).

My configuration was the basic mini-tower 210, except that I had 4 MB of video memory instead of 2 MB.

I set up the sucker with no problems whatsoever. I first installed a 64 MB DIMM (easiest RAM installation for me ever - open, clip, close). I attached it, via LocalTalk, to my PowerMac 7100/80AV and I was off and running. (I'll be using my 7100 as a print server whilst I work on my 210).

I ran MacBench 4.0 with the following results:
Processor: 550
Floating Point: 672 (I have LibMotoSh installed)
Disk: 183
Publishing Disk: 155

My disk scores are lower than in the reviews previous to mine, so I'll take any advice I can get on how to improve those scores.

An interesting note regarding the benchmarks:
My PowerMac 7100/80AV performed better (1.5 times better) than the 210 on the following tests:

• CopyBits - addOver
• CopyBits - addPin
• CopyBits - subOver
• CopyBits - subPin
• CopyBits - adMax
• CopyBits - adMin
• CopyBits - blend
• CopyBits - transparent

Anyone have an idea why this would happen? The 210 bested the 7100 by a margin of 3:1 or 4:1 on the other tests. Both systems are running in 832x624 (millions) mode.

Another interesting note. The software came with a 7200 Graphics Accelerator extension installed and active. I turned it off and re-ran the graphics benchmarks and found that MacBench performed slightly better with it off. I'm going to ask Power CC why it comes installed on the 210.

After running several other real-world benchmarks, I found that the 210 is roughly 4x faster than the 7100/80AV. A real improvement animators (like me) and graphic artists (like my wife).

The system is fairly noisy compared to the 7100, but it has a steady hum, so it doesn't keep me awake at night.

The CD-ROM drive is amazing. It really does sound a like a jet engine starting up when it runs, and it blazes through data like there's no tomorrow. Quite impressive.

The 3D acceleration seems to be great too, although it's hard to say how much is 3D acceleration and how much is just blazing 604e speed. I haven't done any benchmarking.

With 7.6.1 (which I installed soon after set-up), a 210 MHz 604e, and a 60MHz bus, this machine is a definite winner. It's definitely worth the wait.

One bitchy complaint:

After ordering my machine on 4/15/97, my order was, according to Power, incomplete. However, I was told that they would call me back if there were any problems and they never did. When I called them several weeks later, we fixed the holdup, but they told me that they couldn't modify my order to reflect that it was really complete on 4/15. Therefore, my order was fully complete on 4/28 (or close to that date). Had my rep not been diligent about making sure that my order got out (mostly) on time, I would have lost my place in line by several weeks.

I give a lot of credit to my rep for seeing this error through and getting my machine to me, but I'm going to write Power a letter telling them that their order system needs a modification or two. If my rep could have just forced my order to be complete on 4/15, then neither my rep nor myself would have had to worry and keep track of the order. Instead, I had to keep calling my rep to see when my order would ship and he had to keep track of which machines went out every day. A real hassle with a simple solution.

I took delivery on a PowerCenter Pro 210 Bundle on May 5th.

Except for the fact that PowerComputing didn't upgrade the HD from 2 to 4Gb as I ordered, everything worked right out of the box. A PC customer service person quickly agreed to send out the 4GB and an airbill with which to return the 2GB; I received the new disk two days later! The upgrade was $170, well worth it for a multimedia (read "big files") producer such as myself. By the way, the 2GB disk initially installed was a quarter-height Seagate ST52160N; the new 4GB is a half-height IBM UltraStar DCAS-34330.

I was surprised to see one of the PCI slots filled with an Adaptec SCSI board. I thought all SCSI was going to be internal. I'm dismayed that one of the three slots is already claimed, despite the fact that the board should make for very speedy SCSI transfers.

I installed a 64MB DIMM (60ns, 8x64, 2k) I got from Memory Technologies Texas (At $325, a lot cheaper than PowerComputing) to take the system up to 96Mb. I love lots of RAM!

I immediately ran the System 7.6.1 updater, then started loading up with an array of favorite inits and cdevs.

I downloaded then ran MacBench 4.0 and got these results:

• 564 on Processor
• 683 on FPU with LibMotoSh 1.0 (the Motorola Math library) extension installed
• 420 on FPU without LibMotoSh
• 289 on Disk (w/ the 2GB)
• 255 on Publishing Disk mix (w/ the 2GB)

I don't know why these disk scores seem a bit lower than expected and the 4GB drive is to even lower. I've called PowerComputing Tech Support about it. I didn't do any graphics or CD-ROM tests because I discovered you have to send off for a CD-ROM in order to run them. (If someone wants to send me the McBench CD-ROM, I'll happily test away.)

I do Macromedia Director work and have made a little graphics intensive benchmark application to test performance on various systems. My PowerMac 6100/60 runs it in about 16.5 seconds. A high-end Pentium Pro 200MHz ran it in 19.5 seconds. My buddy's Supermac 200MHz 604e 900s with the IMS Twin Turbo board did it in 5.5 seconds with the latest and fastest, but buggy 4.0 driver. I turned in a best of 4.75 seconds on the Pro 210 with the standard built-in ATI graphics!

A Director multimedia application I've had to modify to get decent performance out of on an Intergraph dual 200MHz Pentuim Pro system runs TOO FAST on the 210, directly off a CD-R disk!

Other notes:

While I still long for the quietude I enjoyed when my mini-docked-Powerbook served as a fanless desktop computer, the PowerCenter Pro 210 noise is no more noticeable than any other typical fan blown computer these days. When installing RAM I noticed that there're three fans- one directed on the CPU, one exhausting the power supply, and one mounted on the back of the case. The noise I'm most aware of is when the really quick Teac 16X CD-ROM drive spins up and down. It sounds like an airliner screaming down a distant runway.

The 17" PowerComputing monitor is fine, although I'm still getting used to the slight bulging of the image which doesn't occur on my Trinitron tube. It has excellent on screen controls, but looks a little grainy at 1024 x 768. The Global Village Teleport 33.6 Fax/Modem worked immediately.

The software bundle is nothing to write home about. You get the OEM versions of the FWB HD and CD-ROM apps which aren't as current as the retail versions. I'm trying out Claris Works since I've been using TexEdit in protest against piggy Microsoft products. It's no surprise that I can't get the most current version of Microsoft Works to run reliably on either my PowerMac 6100/60 or the new Pro 210 since MS hasn't updated it since the first PPC version in 1994!

So far, I'm a happy geek!