Ten O'Clock Tech: IBM's Sleek PC

Not so long ago a company like IBM would have scoffed at the idea of a personal computer that looks like anything other than a computer. When Apple computers hit the market, colors and appearance were thought to be a fad that wouldn't stick.

Now appearance is front and center for IBM and other PC companies. That's evident from its NetVista PC line, which the company upgraded this week.

Sleek and black like a Stealth Fighter, the NetVista X40 and X40i models incorporate an IBM flat-panel monitor with all the components--such as hard drive, CD-ROM drive and network connections--built around it.

The X40i starts at $1,800 with an Intel Celeron processor running at 600 MHz. Options like a 20 GB hard drive and rewritable CD-ROM drive or faster 800 MHz Pentium III processor can easily bump the price to $2,300. It also includes Intel's Anypoint wireless home networking product.

Geared toward home consumers with devices such as digital cameras and color printers to connect to the PC, it has seven universal serial bus (USB) ports and two peripheral component interconnect (PCI) ports mounted behind the monitor. (USB ports, a relatively new and faster connection technology with fewer electronics than PCI ports, connect keyboards, mice and other peripheral components to the PC.) Its keyboard is also programmable for quick access to favorite places on the Internet, through the touch of one of several buttons on the keyboard.

The higher-end X40 model is aimed at business customers. Starting at $2,200, the X40 can reach $2,500 depending on options, which include 30 GB drives. This machine has only five USB ports in addition to the two PCI slots. Both come with Microsoft 's Windows Millennium Edition pre-installed.

Having first released the new NetVista line in May, IBM brought back Richard Sapper, the minimalist designer of the original IBM ThinkPad laptop PCs. One early version of that machine contained a pop-out keyboard that won it a place in New York's Museum of Modern Art. No word yet if the NetVista machines are destined to join it there.