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When it comes to cool, Amax's Kloss i915B gets it. This stylish and compact PC packs a 2.8-GHz Pentium 4 520 processor, a 120GB hard disk, and a single optical drive into a case the size of a tall shoe box. The shiny white front panel, silver case, and matching wireless keyboard and mouse look very impressive. Two folding front doors integrate well into the unit's overall design. The first door hides the DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, while the other door covers one FireWire and two USB ports.
Amax bundled an AG Neovo F-417 flat-panel display with the Kloss. This 17-inch monitor earned average image-quality scores: Text looked fairly sharp, and graphics were generally pleasing. The included 20-watt, 2.1-channel AOpen SoundSphere speakers are just as cool-looking as the computer, with see-through, egg-shaped cases. Their sound quality is just so-so, however, lacking in both richness and depth.
Priced at $1649, and with a WorldBench 5 score of 83, the Kloss falls into the middle of the price/performance range for PCs we've tested recently. It's quick enough for most business applications, and with the bundled GeForce PCX 5750 graphics card, it has enough horsepower for gaming at lower screen resolutions. At 1024-by-768 resolution and 32-bit color, the Kloss averaged 104 frames per second in our Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Unreal Tournament tests. Pushing the screen resolution up to 1280 by 1024 dropped frame rates to an average of 70 fps--relatively good performance for a value box.
The downside of the Kloss's compact design is limited expandability. Configuring the system with a hard drive, PCI Express video board, and optical drive leaves one open PCI Express slot and an unused 3.5-inch externally accessible drive--best used for an optional media reader.
What interior space the Kloss has is efficiently used: After removing thumbscrews, lifting the lid reveals a neat and well-organized motherboard. Slots for items you're likely to upgrade, such as memory and the PCI card, are easily accessible from the top. Reaching the drives is a bit trickier because they reside under the motherboard in the lower half of the case. Still, getting the drive out was just a matter of sliding a lever and pulling on the drive housing.
The Kloss drivers, software, and documentation are all packed nicely into an organizer.
Upshot: You'll have to live without a second optical drive, but the Amax Kloss i915B is good-looking, offers midrange performance, and fits nicely on your desk or on a shelf.
Andre Kvitka
