| COMMENTS - RECOMMENDATIONS - LINKS |
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CD-ROM:
Plextor 40 Max
Yamaha, Teac, Creative CD-ROM are good too, but I'd go with the Plextor.
One thing to
bear in mind with CD-ROMS is that the faster they spin, the more likely a badly pressed CD-ROM
is going to be unreadable or unbearably noise. I have a copy of the game Baldurs Gate on
5 disks - on a 32x Plextor it sounds like I'll trying to vacuum clean the room, the same disks
on a 20x (DVD) are fine.
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CD-WRITER:
Plextor 8/20
A good alternative is the newer 12/32...
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DVD-ROM:
Creative Labs DVD
Hitachi&Panasonic are good alternatives
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SPEAKERS:
Yamaha YST-M100 speakers with the
Yamaha YST-MSW10 sub-woofer
The
Yamaha YST-M20DSP speakers are less expensive, but good sound quality.
Altec Lansing retain their reputation for high quality speakers
Another company I can thoroughly recommend is Labtec.
Due to a system problem (CD-ROM related) at a trade show I was unable to fully appreciate
their updated range, but what I saw and heard was rather impressive.
As my favourite speakers are the Labtec LCS-3210, which are crystal clear even at the lowest
settings and remain distortion free well into the high volume range, I'd say to check out their
replacement - the APX-4620 with subwoofer.
Utilizing something called Variable Spatializer ® 3-D Imaging ™ technology their speakers can create a 360° sound field giving the impression of surround sound akin the the SBLive! with four speakers.
For a stereo headset and boom microphone look no further than the
Labtec LVA8550
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TOWER CASE:
Supermicro SC750 tower case
Alternatives: If there's a better tower case in the price range, I've yet to see it.
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VIDEO CARD:
This has changed all out of proportional since last year. My money is firmly and wholly on the GeoForce2, with the ATI Radian (September 2000) and 3Dfx Voodoo 5500 (shipping) takes the rest of the market.
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SOUNDCARD:
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live!
Good alternatives are: None I can name - these really rock!
Also since I first wrote this, the Live! 1024 has been released - offering more voices for a third the price.
There can be no other!
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MONITORS:
Mitsubishi Diamondtron Pro 2020u NF
The link above is to the 1010, which I'll update, but the 2040u NF is out since then and far cheaper too, with the equally tasty Plus 200 retailing around £550 ex vat. Why look elsewhere...
What most people don't realise, or think about, is that the monitor is actually the most important
element of the computer. You are staring at it for several hours a day, from a distance
of around 30". Any weakness in the monitor will, I guarantee, reflect over time in your
failing eyesight and more frequent headaches.
This isn't the place to go into the health and safety aspects (Eiza used to like doing scare stories on monitor
concerns) but suffice to say that getting anything less than a 17" monitor is silly and you truly should get the best
model you can.
Remember, it's about the only part of the computer that retains it's value and that a good monitor will
last up to ten years - and you only get one set of eyes!
Sony and Iiyama are very good too, but I personally recommend Mitsubishi
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MPEG2 CARDS:
Realmagic are the grandfathers of the biz, but I suggest going for video cards with built in MPEG2 hardware
like the ATI Rage 128. Saves an expansion slot! The Voodoo3 (for release on
May 15th '99) and no doubt other release this year, will have hardware mpeg2 built in.
(See Video, above). The front runners are:
Creative Labs DxR2 MPEG2
This is very good value when bought with their 5x DVD-ROM
RealMagic Hollywood Plus card
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3D ACCELERATORS
Part and parcel of the current range of video cards. This section is relegated to history !
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MOTHERBOARDS:
Everything below still stands, plus the facter of AMDs Athlon. Tyan have a gorgeous motherboard out now too, based on the Via chipset. More to follow shortly...
ABIT -
ASUS -
GIGABYTE -
QDI -
TYAN
All the above are high quality, with my preference being towards ABIT. I've left
Supermicro out on purpose! After the monitor this is absolutely most important
part of the system; it's what glues everything together, it determines how far you can
upgrade or push your PC and how reliable it is. Not withstanding component failure
(I've known batches with up to 90% failure rates!) the quality and design of a board
can make a genuine difference of as much as 15% overall speed given any one set of
parts (processor, memory, video card).
HOWEVER, I personally am waiting for the upcoming Camino (Intel 820) chipset motherboards.
These support Rambus memory (to 1Gb), 4x AGP, Ultra DMA 66 and will have a 100/133 FSB.
These are expected 2nd quarter '99 and should also take the Coppermine PIII processors.
CARMEL is the server version, supporting 8Gb of ram, quad processors
and will have a 66Mhz 64bit PCI bus.
Be aware that these are likely to use a new board layout to improve the cooling, which in turn
means a new system case - it's an ehanced ATX design.
The ATX format is to be superceded by the
[ www.wtx.org ] WTX
design to account
for necessary changes to thermal management (better cooler for hotter chips...).
So far Acer, Asustek, Supermicro and Tyan will be bringing out new board, while chasis and
power supplies will be built by Supermicro, Chenbro, Enlight Liteon and Loyalty Founder.
As yet I've seen no announcement on the above, but FIC's have just released a new
board that supports Ultra DMA 66 and PIII up to 700Mhz. Full marks to them.
I shall try and get one for a full review.
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PROCESSORS&CHIPSETS:
September 99 update
Doesn't it go fast! The Pentium III 550 is now bottom of the range, with the 733Mhz as standard, with Intel swanning around showing off it's next gen 1.6Ghz samples and Merced.
Selling around £45 (ex vat) the Celeron 400Mhz makes a mockery of the prices of years gone by. Ah, competition and volume, what a mix.
The Merced, incidentally, I'm consigning to the trash can of innovation and I won't be touching with a proverbial barge pole. My feeling is that it will be another Pentium 60. Remember those? Higher end 486's where actually better but it was the "new generation." It was thingy waving, a case of "Hey look at this" and muttering out the side of the mouth "Quick, roll out the Pentium 90 and HX boards before they do look!"
On a cooler level - cpu fan to be precise - make sure you get the IPI boxed chip for the kosher
Intel fan. If you must get a bulk or grey import processor, then at least make sure you get the best brand of fan
you can - reputable companies like CoolerMaster.
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MEMORY:
128Mb SDRAM as entry level. Micron if you can afford it. Panasonic is nice. Samsung's good for the price.
The PC100 memory is to be replaced by PC133 prior to Rambus memory becoming mainstream - a point to bear in mind...
Not much to back this up today, but 64Mb DDR modules will overtake and replace boths the RAMBUS and the PC133 SDRAMS by the middle of next year - Summer 2001
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STORAGE:
TO BE ADDED IN
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UPS:
I can't believed I forgot to add this section! It's one of those things I take for granted - like breathing - and I tend
to forget. Amazingly most computer dealers and VAR's don't sell or advice about these.
I've seen data lost, motherboards fried, SDRAM chips that had actually caught fire, even Fortronics (credit card machines)
with the flash bios erased, all due to power surges etc. It's not just the big stuff like outages at the power station and
lightning storms - turning photocopies on and off cause massive voltage fluctuations.
This story is true. At one site, every time a laser printer or photocopier was turned on the File Server went down! When I asked about it, I was told, "Oh, we do do daily backups, just in case." (They'd been using the same 3 tapes for as many years!). Anyway, I strongly advised they consider hiring a network manager and installed a UPS - which run it's start-up diagnostics - and shut down - the input voltage was so low it refused to run. In the end, an electrician had to have the building rewired to upgrade and distribute the power supply.
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HARDDRIVE:
Has to be Ultra2Wide SCSI for ultimate performance...
IBM Ultrastar 9ZX - 9Gb Ultra 2 - 7,200rpm 6.3ms access
IBM Ultrastar 18XP - 18Gb Ultra 2 - 7,200rpm 7.5ms access
Yes, I could recommend the faster Cheetahs etc with 10,200+ rpm, then go on to recommend
adequate cooling, then...
IBM...
Quantum...
Seagate...
I can't believe that since I wrote that in the Autumn EIDE's are up to 75Gb.
75,000Mb. A decade or so ago even mainframes could only dream of such! Scary.
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SCSI CONTROLLER:
Adaptec Ultra2Wide.
Or at the high end is the recently ratified Ultra160 (Ultra3) or see what Firewire brings...
Adaptec Ultra3
Press release - Sept 14th 1998 (link to story dead)
Quantum supports Ultra3
Press release - Sept 14 1998 (link to article dead)
TechWeb on Ultra3
News release 14.9.98
Geek News on Ultra3
Newsbyte 21.9.98
I've never known a problem with Advansys cards and Mylex are tasty, but I prefer to stick with Adaptec if for no other reason than the level industry support they have.
There are, of course, a number of motherboards with Ultra2 on-board (and sound and 10/100...)
which brings the relative cost down, but I prefer separate cards for portability.
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MODEMS:
A year has passed since I wrote the bit below - and the bloody telephone companies are still beings Mules about it!!!
ADSL is promised and cable-modems available in various areas, but the whole mess has left a bad taste in my mouth for this countrry...
SCREAM BLUE BLOODY MURDER AT YOUR TELEPHONE CARRIER FOR ADSL...
In the meantime -
Buying today? - Hayes, ah no, gone to the wall. Pace? ditto, which is a crying shame, to it's either - Diamond or 3Com, or any unbranded thing and wait for adsl / cable modems...
Buying today and want 2+ lines (for UK residents) - get BT Highway.
Conversion costs just £99. You keep the existing analogue and get 2 ISDN for an a quarterly line rental of £133.75* a quarter - and a call allowance of £57.50. Effectively that's just £25.42 a month for three phonelines. (Prices are ex vat)
The 128kb connection is nice but remember you are in effect making two phonecalls and pay BT accordingly. It also requires support from your ISP. You need you check that ISDN is supported, if so are 128kb connections are supported and if they are, if there is any addition charges for this.
BT offer an ISDN terminal for £42.50 but I'd look at the Pace...
Willing to wait for ADSL? I believe Diamond are planning a major release for September, but given that BT sales staff are clueless about ADSL and out of the running for cable modems it should be interesting. As this site is largely dedicated to getting faster cheaper Internet access, you may want to visit my
ADSL pages
Hey guys, wake up and smell the coffee - protecting the lucrative leased lines is, long term, a loser.
Hello, Worldcom, yes you, over here please... :-0
Me? I'm just want to go back to Canada - before fall preferably! Cable and ADSL is already live in many provinces. Holland has cable modems already, and Germany in getting well into ADSL too.
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Network Card:
On the budget front I really like Pine, but for quality it has to be 3Com.
Far too many variables to go into details here -
number of users - server or peer to peer - NOS - protocols - etc etc.
If you need to ask, you need a consultant!
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KEYBOARD:
Keytronic KT2001
Keyboards really are a personal thing. The old IBM's from the XT and early AT's were
truly awesome and I've never seen there like since. Many folk swear by Cherry and Fujitsu,
I used to like Chicony and I had a gorgeous keyboard once - some unbranded thing from Taiwan that
gave me years of touch typing, until the wife trashed it playing the old classic
Llamatron. She ripped through the levels and burned out the board. C'est la vie.
Other keyboards from Keytronic include Infra Red, trackball, lifetime guarantees on selected products (now that's confidence, eh), card readers
and even biometrics like fingerprint readers.
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MOUSE:
It's got to be a MS Intellimouse
for my money.
IBM,
Genius and
Logitech
are good too.
Like keyboards, another touch me, feel me thing. Try 'em&see.
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JOYSTICK / JOYPAD:
Bit of a sore point this, me being left handed!
Logitech
used to sell a nice one, but that was a long time ago.
From a 'returns' point of view I personally would only
recommend
MS joysticks
and pads but I know Logitech and
CH Products
are very good too.
As I'm not into Flight Sims I've managed nearly 15 years without one and am frankly past
caring anymore. Let's face it (are you listening MS...) joysticks are for faster reaction
times which is wasted trying a moulded grip in the wrong hand.
Fellow Southpaws may like to take a look at: The Left Hand
for a Left handed joystick
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SCANNER:
Epson GT9500 or
HP Scanjet 6200c
Mustek and Black Widow are good if you're on a
budget (or just need the odd scan - in which case
you would be as well using a friends and saving valuable desk space!).
As a point of interest I've seen (trade) prices of under £30 for A4 flatbeds and under £100 for A3 - my first scanner cost me nearly £800!
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PRINTERS:
Epson Stylus e740 or the HP1120 (which supports up to A3) for colour, and the
HP4000 laser for mono
Good alternatives are:
If you need a better alternative then you already know what you have or you need to speak
to a specialist. I can offer subjective advice if you need it - drop it on an email.
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DIGITAL CAMERAS:
Epson PC700
Seen it, tried it, want one!!!
If you have the money - and the need - look into
Nikon
Nikon E3 series or Canon,
but hey, you knew that already, right.
On a budget? Just toying with digital photography? Try
Muskek
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THE REST
I'll built these up at a later date as none of it mainstream...
 Plotters (CAD)
HP
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 Plotters (Cutting, for Signwriters)
Roland
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 Digitizers - professional
Cherry... It's been 10 years since I did any serious CAD - can anyone offer up to date advice?
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Digitizers - budget range and tablets
Waicom or Genius are good value
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Midi
Haven't the faintest idea, but the musicians I've talked to, not surprisingly, say Roland or Yamaha.
I'll put links in for the budget end of things though...
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 Digital video recorders
Haven't the faintest idea - anyone offer more expert advice?
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MPEG encoders
Another field out of my league, but from what I've read and seen the Miro DC10 and DC30
are (were?) about the best in the price ranges - can anyone offer more expert advice?
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SC-750 Case
