Multimedia-Center: The Lan-Plus Integra

The Integra, Continued

I pulled off the metal cover and turned it down towards the front. You can clearly see the motherboard, including I/O connectors, the processor cooler and the add-on cards.

When I first opened the case I was impressed by the great design of this computer. Thanks to the use of standard components, the MicroATX motherboard in particular, it is absolutely easy to exchange every piece of hardware. The ATI Rage 128 Pro is no real 3D-gaming card, but it can be replaced by a fast 3D-card. I would have preferred to find at least something like a GeForce2 MX in the Integra. You can use any other MicroATX motherboard (for example an Athlon model) plus a faster CPU as long as it fits inside the case. Of course you should keep an eye on power consumption, since the power supply will not be able to run an Athlon 1333.

This picture shows the connectors at the back of the INTEGRA. As you can see the motherboard features on-board LAN, graphics and sound. Fortunately, Lan-Plus decided against the onboard 3D-decelerator and used at least an AGP graphics card from ATI (Rage 128 Pro w/ 32 MB).