Advice from The Tech.

Rule #1: Don't buy a Packard Bell

The following are opinions only, and do not represent anything.

I'm back again, with yet more meddling advice, and a strong message: Do NOT pay for the cutting edge unless you KNOW you need it.

I'm completely serious. Intel is sweating bullets; for the first time, another CPU manufacturer is ABLE TO COMPETE with or possibly, even exceed, the abilities of their chips. They are dropping the prices of high end Pentium chips like rocks, and the low end MMX chips are LOW.

General Suggestions for Upgrades

Motherboards: This is probably the main tough decision in a current upgrade. However, unless you have a specialty NEED for a Pentium II, I would have a hard time justifying spending extra to support Proprietory chips now; what exactly is it that you do where you will notice a bog down in a K6 266 system as opposed to a faster one? If you spend all your time rendering virtual reality, or performing billion step math calcs, I can see it (barely). If you are not, WHY? Award and AMI Bios allow the most flexibility. others may be just as good, but...... If you are looking at ANY board avoid built-in components (modems, audio cards, etc.) aside from IDE, COM, LPT and/or SCSI controllers; They break, at times, and YOU HAVE TO REPLACE YOUR MOTHERBOARD. There are about a hundred (I exagerate) differing formats for cache; beware of going down a dead end. There is a rumour that Windows'98 does not like Cyrix 686 CPU's; I have had problems with my 686-133+ & NT 4.0, so I can see it. After long thought on the subject, I can no longer endorse Cyrix chips whatsoever; if cost is your reason for wanting one, AMD's of equal or better capabilities cost less; no matter what ANYONE says, they are not faster in the majority of situations; I have tested. A final note: make sure you get USB capability; ITS COMING......

RAM While the Minimum these days is 16MB, GET MORE! even 24MB will give a noticeable performance edge. 32MB+ is ideal (48MB is my personal favorite), and with prices being what they are today, its a good investment; while the CPU, Motherboard, and Harddrive may need to be replaced every year or two, the RAM can stay with you forever...... If you have 30-pin SIMMS, get 72-pin RAM trees; you will be able to continue using the memory, but I cannot help but think that something about them is unstable....

Hard Drives: Who knows? but it seems that to get the most bang for the buck, get a drive in the $225.00 to $265.00 range; this will most likely get you a 6+GB fast IDE drive. You can get drives upto...what is it today...10GB?...but PLEASE ask yourself: Why Am I wasting this money? As to brands, Western Digital is considered the most reliable; I have returned about 7 or 8 for repair. I have sold 1000’s of Samsung drives (usually the cheapest). I have had 3 returned. You figure out the rest.

CD-ROM drives

A standard, low priced computer system reads from its IDE Hard Drive at around 1.5-2.5MB per sec; thats the equivalent of a 10x-16x CD-ROM; do you really need to get a CD that reads faster than your hard drive? Unless you are a SCSI fan, get a 12X or a 16X CD-ROM. anything faster and you are paying premium prices for a KNOWN TO BE Departing technology; plus, there is not usually a noticeable difference. A 12X will be good enough until the DVD drives get here, and get cheap. Get a CD with cache if you can manage it. Another point to consider: you can get the latest, fastest CD for about the price of 2 16x drives; Drives last about a year. Why not get a $100 16x this year, a $100 16x-32x NEXT year, and a $200 CD-Read/write or DVD the year after that?

Video Cards This is a tough one. if you really need(?) a high-end Video card go with a Imagine-128 or a Matrox; if you just want to watch full screen MPG’s get a OEM Trident or S3 with a MPG chip and 1 or 2MB of (?)RAM. it’ll work.

Monitors Low Radiation. if you set in front of your system for over a hour a day, you NEED this. 17”+ is nice, but not neccesary. Think carefully when budgeting for your monitor; this component, like your RAM, could be with you while other components come and go. My 6 hour-a-day plus Monitor is a GVC(which also makes maxtech) low rad 15"; after 3 years of use my vision is still 20-20, and I have not developed skin cancer, so it must work.

Modems Right now, its not a good idea to buy a premium Modem. there are toooooo many technologies either on the horizon, or HERE! to make this a good idea. If you want a High-end Modem, get an offbrand 56k with voice; you’ll thank me later. a few notes on individual modems: Supra makes (in my experience) the Very Best Modem in the world; if you want to pay for a name-brand, get a Supra. GVC and Acer make great Modems. The ONLY Plug-N-Play Modems I have never had problems with are Diamonds (which, by the way, has bought Supra). Cardinal Modems are usually software upgradeable, and are extremely reliable. about the 57.6/2x modems: they are 57.6 on DOWNLOAD only, 33.6 on upload, and thats only if you are connecting to another 57.6 modem (you might want to check to see if your local sysop/ISP supports 'em before you buy one). Even if your ISP supports 2x, you will not see a appreciable difference in speed.

Cable Modems: Nice. Wish there was a place outside the east or west coasts you could use them...But with billy boy spending a cool billion on cabletron, i'd say this is the wave of the future.

Speed Mongers: ISDN. if you are a Tennessee Resident, this is a do-able option! <$33/month, your only problem is getting a ISDN connect to the 'net, which BellSouth supplies at no additional charge in select cities. Pant. The only ISDN adaptors I mess with are GVC & Supra. And, I hesitate to say this, but I really think you should avoid modems with sierra voice chips.

Audio Cards While Win’95 is making this less of an issue, Creative Labs Sound Blaster cards are the only cards that are 110%, completely, totally guaranteed to be Sound Blaster compatible. Think about it.

Other Stuff: OK, I'm sure now. The 3M LS-120 media drive WILL BE THE replacement for the 1.44MB floppy; Not only can you pack 120mb of data on them, but it reads at 500+kps, and is back compatable with your old floppies. The only thing I can see preventing this from happening is if Iomega prices ZIP drives at less than $150MSRP, which I don't see happening soon.(darn it, they did it; you can now get a ZIP for just under $100; and more manufacturers are buillding them into systems; the LS-120 is a better drive, but the ZIP might make "standard" by default) Wait awhile if you can manage it, before buying one; at $150 per drive, the price will have to drop.Do not get a Tape Backup, if you have never had one before; there are better options.

Misc.

SCSI is cool.
SCSI devices from 4 years ago will still work with SCSI components made next year.
SCSI costs more, and is more difficult to configure than IDE.
Don’t get a hand scanner; get a flatbed.$99.00 bucks is not much.
I personaly like Advanced Gravis Joysticks & Controllers.
FAST makes a really good video capture board, but in 2 years of trying, I still do not have a users manual.

And in Closing....... A lot of this is just My Opinion. But, I have been fixing, repairing, upgrading and building IBM compatible computer systems since 1989.

Want more info, about buying a computer in Clarksville, TN?

Questions? Comments? Direct your mail to ...The Druid Return to info