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How to Buy a Computer

1996 Update

Toronto Star, Fast Forward, Section Front for Nov 28/96

Copyright © Myles White, 1996

Plug

Shopping Strategies

Reading the Ads

Top 10 Shopping Tips

The Market

What I Bought and Why (web site extra!)

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Aside from being a section front for Fast Forward (and I should reiterate that this is the unedited version of what appeared in the November 28 Star, so it may not be laid out in precisely the same manner), these articles are also a substantial update to my book, How to Buy a Computer or Upgrade What You Have. Those who have purchased the book should print this and add it to your copy, while those of you who are contemplating getting it, but are worried that it may be dated (after all it was written a year ago), should come back to this page for the update once you've read the original text.

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Shopping Strategies

Before you can sit down and start comparing individual computer deals to each other, there are a few basic questions you'll want to ponder.

In the first edition of my book, I went out on a limb and speculated that if Apple was still a company producing computer hardware by the year 2000, I'd be both surprised and embarrassed. I still think it's an open question, but I'm quite prepared to have that blushing guy standing in the corner look an awful lot like me. It's been a struggle for the company to turn itself around, but although it still faces some hurdles to solve delivery problems, it is slowly--ever so slowly-- changing its mindset to allow competition to spur the market for PowerPC-based systems. The result is that this season, you have more choices than simply between Intel-based PCs and Apple Power Macintoshes.

There are several companies producing PowerPC-based systems, both with the Mac operating system (the Mac OS) and with a special version of Windows NT. Most of them, such as Umax) are still focussed at the high end of the PowerMac market, but one notable exception is Motorola, the actual manufacturer of the PowerPC chip and the third member of the Apple/IBM/Motorola triumvirate that developed it. Motorola's StarMax series not only runs the Mac OS, but at the top end, the StarMax 3000/240 sports the fastest PowerPC 603e processor in today's market at 240 MHz. While the line is still not priced to compete directly with PC systems, it is deliberately set under Apple's prices for comparable systems.

This said, there are still some general factors at work that will affect your buying decision. They have less to do with what the computers will do than who you're planning to be working and playing with when you use them. There is nothing you'll want to do with a computer that a PC or Power-PC based system won't do. Each will run office productivity software, graphics software, music software and telecommunications (i.e., Internet) software--but the reason you'll want to make your decision carefully is that they won't run the same software at the same speed. PCs don't run software written for Macs or other PowerPC products. PowerPC systems will run both, but the PC software is run under emulation (either through software, hardware or both). Getting this emulation ability always costs extra and performance is slow compared to a comparably priced PC running the same product.

For several years now, my advice has been to get what your friends have if there's no other compelling reason to make you choose one platform over another (such as a need to use a specific program that only one of the systems is able to run), and I see no reason to change the advice today. Your friends will help you learn how to use your system, share advice on where and where not to shop, help you understand what the system can and can't do, and be there for you when something goes 'clunk' in the night (at least to offer sympathy if not to bail you out). Although this may change over time (we'll see), current sales figures in Canada show that close to 90 percent of new computers purchased are PCs. By the way, you'll find an expanded definition of "friends" in the Top Ten Tips on buying a computer, below.

Whether you buy a system supplied by a nationally advertised name (such as IBM, Compaq, NEC, Dell, AST, Acer, Hewlett Packard and so on) or built locally by your neighbourhood retailer, depends a lot on the type of person you are and the amount of experience you have with computers. Before I explain, however, we need to talk about the quality of the systems from these two sources.

The most important things to understand about desktop computers (as opposed to portable "notebook" systems) is that they are not a single device. They are assemblies of discreet components all designed to work together. A quick list of today's main individual components includes outer case and power supply, main system board (or motherboard), processor, main system memory, external cache memory, basic in/out (BIOS) system, graphics controller, drive controller, monitor, keyboard, mouse (or other pointing device), sound controller, hard and floppy drives, CD-ROM drive, and modem. Other, less standard but increasingly common components include super-high density floppy drive replacements (examples: 120 MB floppy--LS-120-- Zip drive, EZ-135), tape backup drive, network interface controller, or SCSI (small computer systems interface) controller. If this is your first system, you can add a printer to the list.

Many companies make these components and sell them to anyone who asks--and everyone uses them--not just the local assembler, but also the nationals. Virtually every company making components you can buy separately also supplies OEM (original equipment manufacturer) versions to systems manufacturers. These components also have a quality and performance range and all don't work as well or as efficiently as others. Nevertheless, your chances of getting or specifying the top of the line parts are equally good (and bad) from either source. In short, the source of the system has nothing to do with how well it will perform.

Again, based on both experience and reports from other sources, it appears that whether you buy a nationally advertised system or a locally assembled one has nothing to do with whether it will arrive dead, break down soon after installation (known as "electronic crib-death"), or whether an individual component will let go prematurely. I've been told by spokespersons for national suppliers that the average for this sort of thing is about 10 percent, while other sources have claimed ranges from as low as five percent to as high as 30 percent.

Cost differentials have often been cited as a reason to buy a locally assembled system, but this is changing. Margins in the computer business are brutally small and in the past few years, the nationals have taken dead-level aim at the home/small business market by producing multimedia extravaganzas with a high degree of styling at increasingly attractive prices.

However, the equivalent here is the difference between buying clothes off the rack and having them custom-made. Nationally advertised systems, while there may be a small range of choices within a particular line, are mass produced with little room for customization. You're offered a package with few substitution alternatives and only a narrow range of options. As a spokesperson for Compaq told me a few months ago, "We run a volume business and have to crank them off the line."

Local systems, on the other hand, while retailers do advertise set packages, usually have a wider range of custom options available. If you've done the sort of detailed homework to discover which is the fastest graphics card on the market, for example, and if you can pay the premium, they'll install it (and the same goes for the other components as well).

There is still a distinction, however, when it comes to warranties and customer service. It's possible to convince some local retailers to sell you an on-site warranty and a few of the larger distributors may offer 24-hour, 7 day technical support. But this gap is narrowing. For example, it may be harder to find someone available late at night, even from the nationals, or you may have to wait on the phone until your arm drops off if there's a long queue and a shortage of technicians. Also, an increasing number of large companies will give limited free support for hardware problems, but are beginning to charge extra for solving software queries. Nevertheless, handholding is more likely to be available from a large, nationally advertised company than it is from the corner retailer.

The bottom line? If this is your first system and you lack the experience to tell whether the thing that doesn't appear right is a problem with hardware, software, or something silly you've done, then a supplier offering free support for both hardware and software is worth seeking. If the health of your computer is essential to your small or home-based business, then an on-site warranty may be worth paying a premium to get.

On the other hand, if you have the experience to make preliminary diagnosis of problems, if you're good at dealing with people who may be reluctant (not always, but often enough) to fix a problem, or if customization is more important than on-site service, a system produced locally may be just up your alley.

We can discuss the advantages of portability 'til we're both blue in the face, but this one has a simpler answer. If you have a compelling reason to buy a notebook computer (you work on the road), there is no debate; you merely seek the model that has the most features you want in your price range.

If a notebook is merely an interesting option that seems attractive, you may want to think again. Sure, notebook computers are easy to move around (and to steal), and they don't take up much space, but:

Notebooks cost more than comparably performing desktop systems. All that miniaturization costs money and there's a premium for convenience.

Notebooks aren't intended to be upgraded. Two years from now, your top-of-the-line notebook will be dead slow compared to newer models and you'll be tired of waiting for it to perform. Don't expect to be able to upgrade video speed or processor--and if you do decide to put in more memory, hope the company who made it is still producing the special chips it will almost inevitably need and that you won't have to take out a second mortgage to afford them.

Notebooks hurt. Unless you also buy a separate monitor, keyboard and mouse (in which case, you've now spent a lot more than you would have for a bigger system), you can expect chronic neck, shoulder and back problems because you can have the notebook's monitor at the right height to reduce these strains, or the keyboard, but not both.

You may also want to have a look at the Computer Wares column for December 5th.

I don't have a pat answer for this one. If I have kids at home and I'm looking for this system to be everything to all family members, then I'd go for all the bells, buttons and whistles I could afford. Otherwise, my bottom line will dictate my choice.

However, given what's going on in today's market, there are a few minimums I'd look for regardless of the system configuration I chose (see below).

Whether you buy a home entertainment or basic business computer, today's new system will come with a graphical operating system that can benefit from all the processing speed and memory you can feed it. It doesn't matter whether your choice ends up being a PC (most likely to come with Windows 95 unless you push) or a PowerPC (either the Mac OS or Windows NT).

There's a long, involved explanation for why the following is true and perhaps we can expand on it another day, but the end result is this: there is no such thing as a computer that is too powerful, has too much memory, too large a hard drive, too fast a graphics subsystem and so on.

Nevertheless, here are some practical minimums, given today's software demands and the trends I see coming.

Get the fastest processor you can afford for the platform you're choosing. This is the first place the money goes.

Demand a minimum of 16 MB of random access memory. 32 MB is better and at today's prices is not out of reach. If you plan to get into heavy graphics work or multimedia authoring, the sky and the maximum amount of memory the system can use are the limits.

Hold out for a minimum of 256 KB of external (level 2) cache memory. If for a Pentium-based PC, try to look for systems offering "synchronous" cache memory. It's faster and you'll appreciate it. Go for more than 256 KB if you can.

Buy as large a hard drive as you can afford. Data always expands to fill the container. 1.6 GB (gigabytes) is standard at today's low end, 2+ GB is about average, while 3.2 GB is standard at the high end.

Find the best monitor your remaining money can buy. Even if you skimp on the memory or speed for the graphics controller now, you can always upgrade it easily in the future. Getting the best picture the controller can produce, however, will make even a low-end controller easier to take. Look for a monitor with a high refresh rate (75 Hz at all resolutions, minimum), large screen (15-inch is standard at the low end, 17-inch is about right) and low dot-pitch (the distance between phosphor dots of the same colour on the screen--.26 mm or less produces a sharp picture, .28 mm isn't quite as sharp and anything over .31 mm gives me a headache because it's so grainy).

You'll want a CD-ROM drive. Although you may want to wait until next year for the Digital Video Disc drives to appear, some type of drive able to handle Compact Discs is becoming a must--not necessarily so you can listen to music or play games, but because an ever-increasing number of software titles are shipping on CD instead of diskettes. It takes less time to install from CD and there is often a price premium to be paid for the diskette version.

Include a modem with as fast a data transfer rate as you can get. The anticipated increase in fax transfer speeds above 14.4 kilobits per second (kbps) hasn't materialized, but data rates have gone up to 33.6 kbps (with 56 kbps modems expected to start arriving next summer or earlier). Even if you skimp on processing speed, don't skimp here if you plan (and you will) to get connected to the Internet. Telephony (i.e., answering machines, speaker phone, simultaneous voice/data transfer) is a disposable option.

A printer is also a must. Only you know whether you need or would like colour. In the colour market, ink jets from Hewlett Packard, Epson, Canon and others are the number one sellers because their initial cost is relatively low and output quality is relatively high. However, the cost for consumables (ink cartridges, print heads) is VERY high, so if you're sure you won't need colour, consider laser instead. Companies such as Panasonic, Epson, Okidata and others produce good quality laser printers at prices not that much higher than good ink jet systems--and at a cost per page roughly one-eighth of even the most miserly liquid ink models.

Everything you buy will come with an operating system, usually either Windows 95 or the Mac OS, but aside from some extremely basic tools, you can't do much with the operating system by itself.

In a general sense, you can expect to find systems bundled with a range of titles. There will usually be some productivity software (an office suite, for example, or a more basic "works" package with file formats not easily utilized by other products). You may be offered some home products such as a chequebook manager, personal information manager, and/or combination poster/banner/greeting card maker. Often, the company will throw in some CD-based multimedia games, interactive encyclopaedia(s), desktop reference set (atlas, thesaurus, dictionary, quotations, etc.) and so on.

The mix in the bundle is often based on whether the particular model in a line is aimed at the entertainment or small business market.

I'm being a little vague about all this, because the marketing information about the software bundle is often just as vague. However, there are some queries you can make, just to be a little clearer about what you're being offered. For example, the brochures often won't mention whether the titles in the bundle are the full version of the program, a 'special edition' lacking several features, or a limited use demonstration version.

You may also discover, particularly in the PC world, that the operating system on your computer is what is known as the "OEM" version. In the case of Windows 95, for example, when you call Microsoft for technical support on this version, you'll be dismayed to learn that the company considers it the responsibility of the vendor to support it, not Microsoft. Gotcha.

While we're discussing versions, it also pays to try to find out what the most recent edition of the software you're seeking is called. If the marketing material says you get such and such a program without mentioning whether it's version 1, 2, 3, 95, 96, or 97, you may be getting what appears to be real good deal, only to discover that what you receive is a couple of generations out of date.

Last, but not least, you should expect to receive both the instruction manuals and registration cards for the software you receive, just to prove that it hasn't been illegally pirated. This of course, is a vile practice that no one reputable engages in any more. Right?

Do you do your shopping at the corner computer store, a factory outlet, the local appliance superstore, the neighbourhood department store or through mail order? Let's see if I can give some advice without getting into trouble....ah, forget it; there is no way.

Let's look at it from another direction. When I shop for anything, particularly if I'm unsure about what I want (or especially if I know exactly what I want), I get hostile when salespeople try to make me feel stupid in order to push whatever the boss told them had to be moved that morning. I get truly uncomfortable in the presence of someone who makes me feel as though I need to keep one hand on my wallet while we're talking and if a deal sounds too good to be true, I begin to smell a rat.

I suspect you're a good judge of character, that you know how much you can afford to spend, that you'll have talked to friends who bought similar things to what you're seeking and that you may have even checked out some of the Internet newsgroups specializing in computer hardware to get a sense of what's good and what's flaky. You may have even taken the next step and paid a visit to one of dozens of computer user groups to ask around about retailers' reputations for reliability, honesty and customer service.

If you come away from the transaction feeling you've been heard, with a clear idea of what you've been offered and enough information to know how the deal stacks up against the competition, trust your judgement.

Mail order, however, deserves special mention, particularly in that we're inundated with glossy US magazines full of ads for these companies. Before you jump on what appear to be very attractive prices, ask a few questions. If the product is a name brand and there is a Canadian branch of the company, will it honour the warranty? You may not like the answer. If the product is the mail order house's own brand, does it have a Canadian office? What will you have to do if the system breaks? If you do return it because it doesn't work (and it might not), what exactly does "full refund" mean? Will there be a charge assessed for shipping, for open software packages, for "restocking?" Here's a really simple one--does the company's toll free support number actually work from Canada? Not all US "800" numbers work from outside that country.

One exception to these cautions is Dell, which does have Canadian offices (see the story on the system I just bought, below).

Now that small computers have been with us for some time, there are a lot of old ones available second-hand, and if you search (see the December edition of Toronto Computes!), you'll find several stores selling used computers. Classified ads are also full of them.

Above, I said I didn't think there was any such thing as a computer too powerful for you, but I do recognize that many may be too expensive. In a general sense, I have no particular issue with doing what you have to do to join the computer revolution and a used starter system may at least let you find out what it's possible to do with a computer without breaking the bank.

That said, however, keep in mind that buying a used computer isn't a whole lot different than buying a used car. You'll want to ask the vendor what "refurbished" really means, look for some type of warranty (at least 30 days or longer if you can get it), and take some care to be sure the system you get isn't so far out of date that you can't use any of today's software in it.

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How to read computer ads

If you're new to this, reading computer ads can give you a headache. It's hard enough to sort through the jargon without figuring out what the ad shorthand means, so we've prepared a tutorial. Stripped of identification, because in this case the retailer's name doesn't matter, here are the specifications taken from a computer ad in the November 14 High Tech section of Fast Forward.

PCI Bus Motherboard Intel Triton VX Chipset

256K Pipeline Burst Cache Memory

16 Mb 60ns EDO Memory Exp. to 128 Mb

Mini Tower Case with 230W Power Supply

Panasonic 1.44 MB Floppy Drive

Samsung 1.6 GB, 64K Cache HD

On-Board Enhanced Parallel Port

On-Board 2 x 16550 Fast Serial Ports

S3 64V+ PCI Bus 2 MB w/MPEG

Mega Image 15" SuperVGA .28dp Color Monitor 1280x1024 Non-interlaced Digital Control Energy Saving & MPR-II Low Radiation

A4Tech MS Compatible Serial Mouse

Enhanced 104 Keys Keyboard

33.6KBps Voice Fax/Modem

8X Speed CD-ROM Drive

Bravo 16-bit Sound Card

25+25 Watts Pair of Speaker

Grolier Encyclopedia 96

Windows 95 with Manual and CD

2 Years Parts and Labour Carry-in Warranty.

The system was advertised with a range of Pentium processors from 100 to 200 MHz and prices from $1,788 to $2,398, depending on the processor chosen. The same retailer had another ad below the one above, with prices from $2,088 to $2,698, again depending on the version of Pentium taken, and it's the differences in the two ads that leads us to what may be the most important point I make here.

Where the two ads varied was that the second ad had far more brand names and model distinctions than the first. For example, the brand name of the motherboard was given as were the names and model designations of the graphics controllers, CD-ROM drive and modem. In addition, higher quality models of hard drive, sound card, mouse, keyboard and slightly more powerful speakers were included.

How could I tell the quality was different? Primarily, it was because this particular supplier had any brand names in the two ads at all--something that is increasingly rare in today's market whether the ad is from a local retailer or a nationally advertised name brand manufacturer. Here's the simple rule of thumb: unless you find out the brand name and model of each component noted in an offer, you don't have enough information upon which to base a valid price comparision.

Now let's look at the individual lines in the ad as well as the terms used in each one.

PCI Bus Motherboard Intel Triton VX Chipset

The computer's main system board or motherboard is the unit to which all other internal peripherals are attached, including processor, memory, and various subsystems and their controllers. This one uses the high performance Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, but then so do all Pentium-based PCs being sold today. What would be more useful to know is how many of the expansion slots in the unit used PCI, how many didn't and how many there were.

It's also nice to be told that the board uses the "Intel Triton VX chipset," except that there is no such thing. Intel dropped the "Triton" name several months ago. There are four Pentium chipsets, the 430FX, 430HX, 430VX and 430MX. The 430VX is aimed primarily at the home market and supports both EDO (extended data out -- see below) and SDRAM (yep, see below), but on low end systems, can be set to work with certain graphics controllers that use main system memory to augment their own. Sounds like a good solution until you find out this slows the system down. By the way, a motherboard's chipset is the support structure that determines compatibility with other hardware and software, whether the system will support a range of Pentium processor speeds (or non-Intel processors), what kind of memory the system will support and how much as well as several other factors.

256K Pipeline Burst Cache Memory

Good. These days, 256 kilobytes of external cache memory is considered a minimum for good performance. Without making you crazy with a long technical description of what it does, external cache memory makes the processor more efficient and a system without it is equivalent to dropping the processor one level. If it could be expanded to 512 KB, it should be mentioned in the ad and if it were also "synchronous" it would be even better.

16 Mb 60ns EDO Memory Exp. to 128 Mb

This system comes with 16 megabytes (MB) of main system memory. It's fast at 60 nanoseconds (the rate at which the memory is refreshed) compared to slower memory of 70 or 80 ns. It's Extended Data Out (EDO) memory, which means it's four to 10 percent faster than standard dynamic random access memory (DRAM) that these days is also called fast page mode (FPM) DRAM.

EDO memory is about 10 percent slower than SDRAM (synchronous DRAM), but both memory types must be explicitly supported by the chipset on the motherboard before you can use them.

"Exp. To 128 Mb" means that the total amount of memory the system can use is 128 MB, but you'll only care if you're working with extremely intensive graphics or desktop publishing programs. On the other hand, you'll be happier with 32 MB, and it would be nice if somewhere in the ad, the cost of that upgrade was mentioned.

Mini Tower Case with 230W Power Supply

Case sizes are in the eye of the beholder. There is no standard that determines whether it's a tower, mini-tower, mid-range tower or so on. You don't know until you see it. What would be more informative would be some indication of how many drive bays of what size (5.25" or 3.5") it supplied, how many were free and how many open to the outside.

For today's Pentium-based systems, 230 Watts for the power supply is about right.

Panasonic 1.44 MB Floppy Drive

It's nice to see the brand name, but today's 3.5-inch floppy drives don't have that much to compare. One is pretty much the same as another. This is a standard inclusion on PC systems and adequate for most people's needs. Where you start to get excited is if the supplier is offering floppy drive replacements, such as the LS-120. Although this drive's future is by no means assured, it is a backward-compatible enhancement.

Samsung 1.6 GB, 64K Cache HD

This line describes the brand (although not the model) and capacity of the system's hard drive. It also notes that this drive has additional cache memory on board to increase performance. Other brand names to look for include (in no particular order) Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital, and Quantum.

This is a fairly standard size at the low end of the market. Average these days is 2.5 gigabytes (GB), while there are an increasing number of 3.2 GB drives available for more money.

Missing from the specifications are any indication of how well the drive performs. You're looking for average access speed (in milliseconds--lower is faster) and throughput (in kilobytes--KB--or megabytes--MB, per second--higher is better).

Also missing is a description of the drive's type. Because it doesn't explicitly say it's a SCSI (small computer systems interface) device, we have to assume it uses enhanced IDE (integrated drive electronics). It would be good if it indicated which flavour of enhanced IDE, ATA-2 or ATA-3 it supported.

Because there is no specific mention of a drive controller, we once again have to make an assumption. It is very common these days for the drive controller to be integrated into the motherboard. In fact, it's common for there to be two of them--one for up to two hard drives and one for two other devices (such as IDE-type CD-ROM and tape drives).

One other little point to check is whether the integrated drive controllers are in fact connected to the PCI bus (see above). Just because they're on the motherboard, doesn't guarantee this will be the case--and if they aren't they'll be slow (i.e., have lower throughput) by comparison to those that are.

On-Board Enhanced Parallel Port

Okay, on-board means it's wired directly to the motherboard. Enhanced parallel port means it will be both bidirectional and fast. The parallel port is where you'll be attaching your printer. One is a standard number to have.

On-Board 2 x 16550 Fast Serial Ports

Serial ports are where you may attach a mouse (see below), or an external modem. Once upon a time, they were an an alternate printer port, but you seldom see them used for this today. Two is again a fairly standard number, but an increasing number of systems are only shipping with one if they use a "PS/2 port" instead (see mouse, below for more on the implications of this).

"16550 Fast" refers to the universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART), a special component of the port that determines how quickly it can receive and send data without tripping over itself. Without getting more technical than this, here's the simpler explanation. Without a 16550, using a modem at speeds higher than 9.6 kilobits per second (kbps) won't be a pleasant experience. I don't know of any systems that still ship with the older type of UARTs, but if it isn't mentioned, it's worth asking.

S3 64V+ PCI Bus 2 MB w/MPEG

This line describes the system's video controller. "S3" is a brand name, but the company also makes accelerator chips used by other companies. It's unclear whether this is an S3 controller or simply a cheaper clone using the S3 chipset. What 64 V+ means is anyone's guess, although it could mean that this particular video card uses a 64-bit <italic>internal<italic> data pathway for moving large numbers around. Top of the line models are, these days, using 128-bit internal operations.

This particular controller uses at least one of the uncounted PCI expansion slots on the motherboard--and that's good. PCI-based video controllers are faster than any alternatives.

It has 2 MB of memory on board, which will allow it to produce "high colour"-- 65,000 plus colours-- at a resolution of 1024 by 768 and "true colour"--16.7 million colours-- at lower resolutions, but we're not told what kind of memory it is. Standard DRAM is slower compared to VRAM (video random access memory) or WRAM (Window RAM), both of which are memory types that can receive information from the processor while simultaneously sending information to the monitor (i.e., dual-port memory). WRAM is less expensive.

"w/MPEG" implies that the graphics card can decode Motion Picture Experts Group video that is all over the Internet and some high-end games, but it doesn't specifically say it will do so with hardware, nor does it say whether it supports MPEG-1 or the more modern MPEG-2. More likely at this price range, there will be a software emulator that ships with the system. If that's the case, you won't be happy with the quality of the results unless the system is packing at least a 133 MHz processor or you like watching paint dry in small, jerky windows.

Mega Image 15" SuperVGA .28dp Color Monitor 1280x1024 Non-interlaced Digital Control Energy Saving & MPR-II Low Radiation

I've never heard of this brand, but the advertiser should at least get credit for including the name--many ads don't even do this much. See the points below:

15" means the diagonal viewing area, but unlike television, an industry that's regulated to advertise the actual viewing area, computer monitor ads have no such restrictions. The actual viewing area will be smaller and could be much smaller.

SuperVGA is a meaningless phrase. While this was once a name of a video standard that described precisely the resolution range (the number of horizontal picture elements or pixels by the number of lines of them) a video card would produce and a monitor would support, today's products far exceed the old standard. "SuperVGA" simply means it will display at least 800 by 600, non-interlaced. Period.

.28dp refers to the phosphor dots on the inside of the monitor screen that light up when hit by the electrons coming from its cathode ray tube(s). This number is an indication of the distance between two dots of the same colour. Lower is sharper. Higher is grainier. .28 mm is about average. .26 or less is wonderful. .31 or higher begins to be annoying.

Color monitor. What, today, isn't?

1280x1024 is an indication of the monitor's top resolution. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean the graphics controller can supply it. Also, if you really did run a 15" monitor at this rate, objects on screen will be so small (albeit there will be more of them), that you'll need a magnifying glass to see them.

Non-interlaced means the monitor redraws its screen quickly enough so it can do so in one pass (instead of being interlaced, which means it needs two). Once upon a time, this used to imply that it would be fast enough so that it wouldn't flicker. Not any more. I find any monitor will flicker if it doesn't refresh itself at least 75 times per second (i.e., 75 Hz) at all resolutions I want to use. At this price range, I highly doubt this one will at its top end.

Digital control. Nice feature, depending on what these controls will actually change. The more things you can fiddle with, the more it will cost.

Energy saving & MPR-II low radiation. These are pretty much standard today.

A4Tech MS Compatible Serial Mouse, Enhanced 104 Keys Keyboard

Another brand I've never heard of, but you're not paying a lot for it, so that's good. "MS compatible" merely means it has two buttons and will work in Windows. It doesn't mean it will have comparable software drivers or that you'll be able to get new ones to handle the <italic>next<italic> version of the operating system.

"Serial Mouse" means it uses one of the two external serial ports noted above and that the system probably doesn't have the small, round "PS/2" ports for keyboard and mouse. In a way, this is good, because it also means it won't use up an extra interrupt request (IRQ) channel to operate.

"Enhanced 104 keys keyboard" would be more notable if they'd drop the word "enhanced." At a rough guess, it's been 10 or 12 years since full sized systems didn't come with 104-key keyboards. Missing from here is the key phrase, "Windows keyboard" which doesn't mean you get the Microsoft Natural Keyboard, but does mean you get one with two extra keys which will call up the Win95 task manager.

33.6KBps Voice Fax/Modem

Whose? All modems are not created equal. You're better off with a recognizable name brand. The amount and quality of documentation and software drivers as well as who you call for technical support are all questions to ask. Expect to pay more for top of the line products, but expect it to be worth the effort. In this case, fast (33.6 kbps) is good, particularly if you're getting on the Internet, but keep in mind that whether it says so or not, the fastest speed the fax component will hit will be 14.4 kbps and that unless you ask it could be as low as 9.6 kbps. Oh, just 'cause it says "voice" doesn't mean it comes with a microphone, answering machine software, speakerphone capability or simultaneous voice/data transmission.

8X Speed CD-ROM Drive

A description this vague allows the supplier to toss in the least expensive model available on the street that day.

Bravo 16-bit Sound Card

Gee, more obscure brands, no indication whether it uses FM or Wavetable (better) synthesis or what other options come with it.

25+25 Watts Pair of Speaker

No brand name, no indication of whether they're powered or not. At this price range, I wouldn't expect much.

Grolier Encyclopedia 96

The current version is 97

Windows 95 with Manual and CD

Ask whether the CD version is what's pre-installed on the system (see the story about the computer I bought to find out why), whether it's the OEM version the retailer must support (because Microsoft won't), and if so, which version.

2 Years Parts and Labour Carry-in Warranty

This particular retailer has been around for a while, but the average length of time for an independent computer retailer to be in business in Metro is less than two years according to the Canadian Computer Retailers Association. Ask how long the company has been in business.

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Top 10 Tips for Buying a New Computer

1. The platform doesn't matter.

Both PC and Mac systems will get you where you want to go, allowing you to do word processing, number crunching, desktop publishing, multimedia authoring, music and accessing the Internet. At the low end, price distinctions are less apparent than they used to be and alternatives to Apple, notably by Motorola and others such as Umax are even less out of line. At the high end, however, there is still a wide disparity.

2. Get what your friends have.

"Friends" in this context is defined as acquaintances, family members, business colleagues or employer, clients, suppliers, government agencies to whom you may have to report and service bureaus likely to further process your output. Friends will give advice on where and where not to shop, what and what not to get. They'll help you learn how to use your system and (albeit illegally) will probably offer to share software with you, at least long enough to evaluate it, before you do the right thing and buy your own. Business contacts, particularly clients and suppliers of inventory or services, as well as other agencies, may use software that allows you to communicate data with them electronically which will require you to have a specific type of computer. All of this goes double if you're buying a system for your kids or grandchildren. Failure to ask them what their friends are using will land you in deep soup.

3. Vague advertisements are good for the companies who run them, but not so good for you.

All components are not equal. Graphics cards, hard drives, CD-ROM drives, sound cards, modems, monitors, printers and other system peripherals all have brand names and model numbers as well as performance characteristics you can check and compare. A fuzzy ad that promises a 6X CD-ROM drive, for example, could be referring to any one of a dozen different models, but most likely refers to whatever was the least expensive on the spot market that month or that day. The same applies to vaguely described graphics cards and so on. Unless you ask the vendor to be specific and to write the specification on the sales agreement, you have no idea what you're being offered and cannot make a valid price comparison. Local retailers used to be the main culprits here, but the practice is now widely employed by name brand suppliers as well.

4. Sometimes mere compatibility is not enough.

If everything you think you know about the performance, stability and compatibility of computer processor is based on what you've read and heard about Intel's version of the component, keep in mind that by paying less for someone else's that's what you may get. Although the disparity in performance compared to hype in the Pentium era isn't as drastic as it was when the 486 was king, some of the so-called "586-class" alternatives--while offering lower prices--may also offer unpleasant surprises. Let's start with the "P" rating employed by Cyrix and IBM for their 6x86 processors and include the "PR" rating employed by AMD. These "speeds" are based on evaluations of the CPUs performance compared to Intel Pentiums, not the actual internal clock speed of the processor. Cyrix (although not IBM or AMD) 6x86 parts such as the P150+, P166+ and P200+ have been reported to fail from overheating unless stringent cooling measures are employed in systems with them. Their math component (i.e., the floating point unit) has also underwhelmed industry analysts. Nevertheless, the overall performance compared to the price has been impressive. How do you tell what you're being offered? If it's an Intel processor, it will say "Pentium" in the ad; otherwise you're more likely to see only a speed mentioned or the word "586" without Intel's name anywhere near it.

5. If you're still afraid of being ripped off, you haven't done enough homework.

If you try to have your cake and to eat it, too, someone will be standing very close to you offering to let you pay for the privilege. Deals that appear to be too good to be true usually are too good to be true (see item 3., above). Some name brand companies have admitted to shipping components from used, returned computers in new systems. Ask where the returned systems go. Remember, there aren't any more unscrupulous people in the computer business than there are in any other, but there aren't any fewer, either. You have a right to ask questions. You have a right to expect truthful and complete answers. You also have a right to have any verbal assurances written into the sales agreement and honoured to the letter.

6. Everyone else always knows better.

It doesn't matter how much homework you do or how long you take to do it; soon after you make your purchase you'll either pick up an ad for the same system at a lower price or your smart-aleck 12 year-old niece will tell you where you could have acquired more power for less money. Grin and bear it; it's just part of the game. The trick is to hunker down and enjoy the devil out of your new computer, snapping and snarling at those who would rain on your parade, until it's time to go out and buy another one.

7. You can't get the fastest computer there is...

...because it isn't here yet; it's on a truck somewhere between the factory and the store. As noted in the main article, the 233 MHz Pentium MMX is due to arrive in January. The P7, currently code-named Merced, is due to ship next fall. Cyrix has already demonstrated the M2, a Pentium Pro workalike with MMX extensions, and AMD is showing engineering samples of the K6, a similar product. Motorola is already shipping systems with a faster (240 MHz) PowerPC processor than Apple currently offers (their top is 200 MHz) and a California start-up company, Exponential Technologies, has announced a 566 MHz version of the same thing.

8. The time to buy a computer is when you need one.

Waiting for the next fastest system to arrive is an endless game. The trick is to get what you can, use the heck out of it for three to five years, then plan to upgrade it or get another one as the price of leading edge technology falls and newer, faster components become available.

9. There is no such thing as a computer too powerful for you

There is no such thing as a computer that is too fast for you, has too much memory, too fast a graphics adaptor or too big a hard drive. There may be one that is too expensive for you today, but the answer to that is below.

10. You're going to want another one.

In three to five years, advances in hardware, software and/or your familiarity with the speed of your system will drive you out the door to start this all over again. However, you can stave that day off farther into the future if you plan to upgrade your system before you buy it. It's the only way to make sure it won't be obsolete 10 seconds after you take it out of the box. This means asking pointed questions about what you can change later, how you'll do it and whether you can do it using readily available, industry standard parts. Proprietary, dead-end schemes or those that force you to buy all future upgrades from the original supplier aren't designed to do you any favours.

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What I bought and Why

Several months ago, in my Computer Wares column, I said I was evaluating systems on my own behalf. I was actually shopping for two platforms, one I would build myself to act as a hardware test bed and the other to come from a name brand supplier to act as a software test bed--the theory being that software suppliers would have fewer nits to pick if flaky products didn't perform well on a mainstream unit.

I also promised faithful CW readers that I'd report on my final choices--and I can do half of that now. I'm going to wait for the Pentium MMX processors to ship (January) before building my hardware bed, but I bit the bullet and bought my software system about two months ago, waiting until now to report on it, so I could have some time to see if there were any flaws in it.

Drum roll, please . . .

I wanted a business-class system, as opposed to one with the newest home multimedia/telephony options because even though its primary purpose is to check software, I knew I'd want to add some hardware components to it along the road. My experience with 'everything-but-the-kitchen-sink' systems is that when you do finally decide to add the sink anyway, there's usually very little room to expand. For example, I've examined a number of systems fitting this category and found they either didn't have enough room inside to add another hard drive or tape backup drive, didn't have enough of the right kind of slots to add a SCSI (small computer systems interface) adapter or network interface card (a requirement in my office) and, even those with the physical room often didn't have enough interrupt request (IRQ) channels available to bring the components online.

So, while my system does have sound card (SoundBlaster AWE32 with wavetable synthesis), fax/modem (US Robotics 28.8 kbps internal) and CD-ROM (Sony 8X), it doesn't have a phone answering machine, speaker phone or infrared port.

I hate waiting for my computer to be ready to do the next thing I want to do, so I went for the gusto. It sports a 200 MHz Pentium processor, 32 MB of synchronous DRAM (SDRAM--about 10 percent faster than EDO or extended data out RAM--see White's Bytes "RAM Tutorial"), and 512 kb of external cache memory. I chose a Pentium optimized for 16-bit software instead of a Pentium Pro processor optimized for 32-bit applications because for the time being I'm still running Windows 95 and a mixture of Windows 3.1 and Win95 software. Had I planned to run Windows NT or a predominance of 32-bit Win95 apps, I would have opted for the Pentium Pro (and not paid a whole lot more).

I spend more hours than is healthy in front of my computer and engage in a fair amount of graphics work, so the video subsystem is important to me. The system came with a Number Nine Corp., FX Reality 332--a peripheral component interconnect (PCI)-based graphics adapter which uses the S3 ViRGE accelerator chip and comes with 2 MB of graphics memory on board (able to produce 65,000+ colours at a resolution of 1024 by 768, which is the environment in which I prefer to work). The FX Reality was accompanied by a 17-inch, Sony Trinitron monitor (although it bears the computer company's brand name instead of Sony's) with an equivalent dot pitch of .25 mm.

I was in a hurry to get the new system, so I couldn't wait for the 3.2 GB (gigabyte) hard drive the model ships with today. Instead, I opted for a 2.5 GB hard drive which uses the motherboard's integrated enhanced IDE controller. I'll be adding another IDE drive soon because the first one is starting to strain at the seams already. By the way, the motherboard, manufactured by Intel to the company's specifications, sports the 430VX chipset, although it does not utilize this chipset's ability to share system memory with the graphics adapter (considered a low-end solution and not one that adds performance--in fact it's known for decreasing system speed).

Other bits included a Microsoft port mouse, standard "Win95" keyboard (with the extra key designed to bring up the task manager), 1.44 MB, 3.5-inch floppy drive, one each external serial, parallel (printer) and game port, plus a set of Altec Lansing 2C52 Multimedia speakers with sub-woofer. Software included Windows 95, Microsoft Office 95 (Pro edition with Access) and a smattering of minor titles. Total price, including PST and GST was $5,200 and change.

Okay, you've been very patient. Could we lift the curtain, please? Under it we find a Dell Dimension XPS P200s. I chose Dell for two primary reasons. For several years, it has scored consistently high marks every time one of the US glossy magazines has rated customer satisfaction. Most recently, the company did it again in surveys conducted by both PC Magazine and PC World. Secondly, Dell's Dimension XPS 166 had, earlier in the year, walked off with top performance honours from several publications. Last week, the latest PC Mag arrived at my door and I have to confess I grinned a bit when I discovered the Dimension XPS P200s had picked up the Editor's Choice Award for personal/small business systems (as did the IBM PC 350 for corporate systems).

Since the system arrived, I've had reason to test Dell's customer service. Although the company rates "significantly better than average" (PC World) for delivering systems that arrive intact with all components working (as opposed to arriving dead or with flaky parts), no one is perfect (see main story). In my case, the Altec Lansing speakers were duds (something that's happened more than once to AL speakers I've tested over the years). New ones that appear so far to work properly arrived within 36 hours of my phone call. I've also been advised by a Dell tech support guy that some mysterious lockup problems I've encountered may be the result of a bad COAST module--a special daughter board plugged into the main system board which holds the cache memory. I'm monitoring it and it may be due for replacement.

My third call to Dell had nothing to do with the hardware, but although many companies are now starting to charge extra for software support, there was no fee for helping me expunge the flaky Direct-X drivers Microsoft insists on putting in its game software and appeared to have disabled not only features on my video adapter, but the external controls on the monitor as well.

I've since replaced the Number Nine FX Reality graphics board. Although its performance is probably acceptable for most users, I'm a bit of a speed demon, so the system now has a Matrox Millenium board with 4 MB of WRAM (Window RAM). Graphics speed benchmark tests I conducted before and after show about a 15 percent performance improvement. Although a Dell spokesperson told me they weren't supplying Matrox boards when I ordered the system, the company will have changed this policy by the time you read this.

There is one other little matter worth reporting. In the box with the new computer was a stern warning to use only the version of Windows 95 contained on the CD ROM disc that accompanied the computer. "Do not use the original commercial release of Windows 95," advised the warning, "or your system may stop working properly."

This set me off on a two-month search for an explanation and to boil it down succinctly, it goes like this. Since the commercial release of Windows 95 in August of last year, there have been two updated versions of the operating system that have not been released to the public. Known as OEM (original equipment manufacturer) Service Release 1 (OSR1) and OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), they correct various bugs in the original release as well as adding some enhancements. So far, these have only been released fully to computer manufacturers pre-installing Win95 on new systems. Portions of OSR1, under the name Service Pack 1, are available at Microsoft's World Wide Web site (http://www.microsoft.com), but not all of the changes are included in it. So far, my queries to Microsoft about when parts of OSR2 will be released to the public, including its new FAT32 file system designed to save literally hundreds of megs of disk space on large hard drives, have produced only vague answers.

According to Dell's product manager for Dimension Pxxxs systems, the significance is that the original commercial version of Windows 95 is incompatible with the version of the Pentium processor (PIIX) and the 430VX chipset the company uses on its new Dimension systems. If you do mistakenly load the original Windows 95, the second IDE channel in the computer, the one to which the CD ROM drive is attached, goes away--unless you get a software patch from Dell.

I've made some people at Intel crazy trying to get confirmation on this one, but all the company will say is that it's an issue between Dell and Microsoft and has nothing to do with Intel.

The bottom line here? Despite some tiny glitches which have been fixed smartly and despite not being able to get through to Dell technical support at 11:30 pm one night, I'm happy with the system and expect to be torturing it for some time to come.

One last ethical note: I don't own shares in Dell (or in any other computer company for that matter); they didn't pay me to give them a nice review (I would have written a nasty one and tossed the thing back if it hadn't worked properly), but; after I'd firmly decided on the purchase in any event, the company did supply a discount that amounted to about eight percent of the total price, which I accepted. Ironically, prices have fallen since my original purchase and you'll find that a similar system is now available for even less than I paid for it.

You can get more information in the Toronto area at 310-DELL (3355) or http://www.dell.com.

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Pre-Christmas market balanced on the edge

The heavy breathing you hear is coming collectively from Metro's computer retailers as they gear up for the hottest buying time of the year--the pre-Christmas rush--and whether it will be a boom or bust season this year is anyone's guess.

Leading off the positive indicators for a good year? Memory prices haven't risen dramatically since their plunge in the spring, although the drop has flattened out. This means you'll still be able to afford a system with enough resources to make your choice of software fly.

The incentives to buy now are also considerable. As reported here a few weeks ago, the number and the quality of the toys available for home multimedia computers will make you dizzy (see the accompanying chart for a quick model-by-model precis). They're sporting all the bells and whistles with telephony options (i.e., answering machines, speaker phones, dual voice/data transmission) high on the list of standard features. CD-ROM drive speeds are up (several companies are now producing 12X drives, whereas even four weeks ago there was only one source), 3-D graphics acceleration for games is in and you no longer have to pay through the nose to get good quality sound controllers (with wave table synthesis) or acceptable speakers.

Although two of the top-rated systems available in the US (Sony VAIO and Toshiba Infinia) won't be introduced into Canada until next spring, others emphasizing style (IBM Aptiva Stealth and Acer Aspire lines) are widely available for this season's home market.

Small business and corporate systems haven't gone for style. While these business systems once set the standard for computer performance, the market for leading edge components, speed and fluffery is now clearly dominated by the home lines of the various companies (they've realized that home users will pay extra for the highest of the high tech while corporate/business clients are more interested in the bottom line). Instead, the focus for business systems is stability and reliability with a side focus on the cost of ownership.

The business market has been divided into two segments, small business and corporate. Today's small business machine, for example, may have an accelerated graphics card, but only if its use is intended for heavy graphics work will it have more than 1 MB of memory. It may have a CD-ROM drive, but it will be slow (4X or 6X) compared to today's top of the line and intended primarily to install software instead of playing back game videos. You may also find a sound card, but for most business presentation applications, a 16-bit FM synthesis board that is merely SoundBlaster Pro or Windows Audio System compatible will fit the bill.

For a small or home-based business, one system may come with telephony options, but will definitely have a fax/modem with 14.4 kbps fax and 28.8 kbps data speeds for accessing the Internet (today, a business without at least an e-mail address isn't really serious and having a Web site should be an indispensable part of its promotional budget). The initial hard drive will be as large as the buyer can afford and anyone who leaves the store without a tape backup drive to preserve vital company data in case of disaster is just asking for one to befall them.

Systems for corporate use will have a slightly different emphasis. Built-in or added-in networking is a must, while multimedia options are just that--highly optional. With most data kept on corporate servers, hard drive size is less of a concern, while accelerated video will still optimize systems working in a Windows (or any other graphical) environment. Today's corporate workstation (as opposed to next year's, when the so-called "thin client" or "network computers" finally arrive in quantity), will probably be based on a Pentium Pro processor--optimized for Windows NT and other 32-bit operating systems--with built-in sensors to allow for a range of remote support options designed to drive down the cost of ownership of each individual unit.

One big incentive to opt for Pentium Pro systems is that unlike is sister chip, the Pentium, Pro prices were reduced slightly for the fourth quarter, exacting less of a premium at the high end.

And that brings us to the down side of this year's market. While the price of most other components and non-PC systems followed the normal pattern downwards, the price for Pentium processors didn't follow the trend. Although Intel has traditionally announced price reductions for its CPUs each quarter, and did drop Pentium prices slightly in the third quarter, the company was quite clear that it didn't plan to do the same for the last three months of the year. According to Intel, this was a reaction to ire expressed by retailers faced with stiffer competition during the pre-Christmas season and a deep desire on the retailers' part not to have to lower prices in the midst of the rush. Sure.

The other disincentive for buying now is the promise of a new version of the Pentium that Intel has held off the market until January--and has tried everything to keep quiet about, including holding embargoed press conferences with information reporters were asked not to disclose until next year (I declined to attend). The Pentium P55C, also known as the Pentium MMX, will be a 233 MHz processor with new multimedia instruction set extensions designed to enhance what Intel calls "natural data types." These include 3-D graphics acceleration, sound (including Dolby), telecommunications, animation, and MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group--a video compression scheme) and Digital Video Disc (DVD) decoding.

While the promise of these toys may not make you want to wait (most of the enhancements' functionality will require software that hasn't been seen yet), the effect the release of the P55C will have on the price of existing Pentium processors just might. Expect 'em to go down.

These documents are protected by international copyright. If you want to use them for your own amusement and information, that's okay (and so is showing them to your sister). If you want to make a bunch of copies, quote them in public or use all or part of any of them in any mass medium, for any reason, you have to ask me first. Fair enough?

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