IBM PC 300GL Review

Good Points
Very reliable

Bad Points
No AGP, built in display adapter, only 2 memory slots

General Comments
I bought this computer used few years ago.

The reason why I purchased this computer is because I wanted to have the original IBM.



My computer is in desktop case (there is also version available in tower case).

PC300GL came with Celeron, Pentium II and Pentium III CPUs, my computer has Intel Pentium II 350MHZ.

There are a lot of variations of this computer with different motherboard configurations, some of these features may be optional: 2-3 memory slots, AGP slot, NIC, built in sound card and etc.

My computer has no AGP slot, only 2 memory slots, not built sound card or NIC, it has built in S3 display adapter with only 2MB or RAM.

However this computer has one very strong point: it is very reliable, in years of service it did not fail even once.

I use it for software development, it runs smoothly Windows 2000 and Visual C++ .NET standart edition.

It is a nice computer, that has good response if you use it as stand alone or networked in LAN, but not Internet, where you need Firewall and antivirus software that are "eating" all the performance of such computer.

My computer has 384MB SDRAM and 20G 7.2K RPM hard drive.

I like the internal configuration of this computer, motherboard has only CPU and memory (in some configurations external display adapter on AGP slot which I don't have), and all connections to external devices, expansion slots are placed on a riser card. It is good, because processor can have the best ventilation.

Such computer still can run a lot of office applications, it can be used with Windows/UNIX/LINUX, as client station or print, file sharing server for a small network.

Motherboard has Intel 440BX chipset, that lets to enjoy all advantages of Pentium II (especially if it has AGP).

Lack of AGP slot is not critical today in such computer, because it is not suitable for modern computer games, however if you want to play on it games from that time, you can put PCI display adapter, like 3dfx Voodoo Rush.



I can recommend this computer more to collectors than to users, and I think it is a really nice IBM.