First Impressions

The Board

The Front

As we didn't have a retail version of the All-in-Wonder 128, the first thing we saw was the board itself wrapped in a shiny silver 3M anti-static bag. The board isn't very big even though the TV tuner is fully integrated on the card.

The RAM

Our board used Samsung G7 SDRAM chips which are rated for 143 MHz something we found surprising considering the slow clockspeed of the AIW128, and the Rage 128 chip only has a rather small heatsink which is probably more cosmetic than functional.

Rage Theater

The Rage Theater looks rather mundane and doesn't have any interesting logos etched on. The lack of effective heatsinks on the All-in-Wonder 128 is a double-edged sword. Although heat is not a problem with these products, the underlying consequence is that the card is not clocked as fast as it possibly could be.

Input and Output

Unlike 3dfx and Matrox, ATI does not offer a full-fledged connector box for the All-in-Wonder 128 and instead only offers a purple input block with SVHS, composite, and stereo RCA connectors. The audio and video outputs are a part of a separate breakout cable which unfortunately does not include S/PDIF out for the DVD as originally planned. The TV antenna is attached to the rear of the computer.