AST Premiums undercut rivals

AST is gearing up to release a refreshed range of Premium servers, with prices designed to undercut tier one and fellow tier two vendors.

In an internal document sent to AST dealers in the UK, and seen by PC Dealer, the manufacturer promised that the machines will be built to order.

The Premium GS 6233 will cost #3,499 in the UK and comes with 2Mb of PCI graphics, six internal 3.5in drive bays and three external 5.25in drive bays. Peripherals include an Adaptec Wide SCSI controller and a 24-speed CD drive.

The 266MHz Pentium II model costs #1,679. The standard retail model has a similar set of peripherals and add-ons, while the manufacturer is understood to be readying a 300MHz model.

But AST was also claiming a first with the introduction of Intel's integrated I2O Ethernet, built onto the board itself. The network card removes the need for an external card - a blow to 3Com, the leading supplier in the interface card area.

AST was unavailable for comment.