Thousand Oaks Personal Computer Club

Here's how I'd equip a PC if I were planning to buy one in 1996.

First, I'd look at Pentium CPUs from 120 MHz to 166 MHz. With the recent arrival of the 150-/166-MHz Pentium twins and simultaneous price cuts on all lesser CPUs, the price of 120-/133-MHz CPUs makes them exceptionally attractive. Unless I planned to set up a network, I'd stick with the Pentium rather than the Pentium Pro. Get the P/166 if you have an extra $500 to spend. Buy the P/133 for the best balance of price and performance.

In general, I'd look for a CPU that runs off a 66-MHz system bus (the 166-, 133-, or 100-MHz Pentiums) rather than systems that use 60-MHz buses (the 150-, 120-, or 90-MHz Pentiums). Designers are no longer challenged by the faster bus speed, and more important, the design twins (for example, 150-/166-MHz) now arrive simultaneously. For memory, you'll want a minimum of 16MB of RAM. For extra insurance, consider 24MB or 32MB. I'll assume the system comes with a secondary cache (L2 cache), and 256K is fine. Beware of the few systems, mostly home-oriented, that forego L2 cache. One scheme I'd pass on until we know more about it is UMA, or unified memory architecture, where one pool of RAM serves as both system memory and video memory. Systems with unified memory are cheaper, but UMA doesn't run very well on 8MB systems; and even with 16MB PCs, there may be a performance hit.

For mass storage, I'd buy the biggest EIDE hard disk available, at least 1.6GB to 2.0GB. If you go for high-performance SCSI, think about getting a 3GB or 4GB drive. Seriously. Tape backup has never been cheaper, but standalone users still resist. I think you should consider one of the cartridge-based devices, such as Panasonic's POl CD-ROM (combo 4X CD-ROM drive and read/write 650MB optical drive), an Iomega Zip or Jaz drive, or one of the Syquest products.

CD-ROM drives are evolving from 4X to 6X to 8X drives. The faster drives are more insurance against obsolescence.

Here's one recommendation that's going to raise eyebrows:

Get the largest monitor you can afford, 21-inch if possible. A generous monitor is essential if you're an active PC user, or old enough to wear bifocals. Yes, they cost $1,500 plus and they overwhelm your desk, but 20 or 21 inches is the only size where you can really have multiple useful windows open simultaneously (or a full-screen, 15-column, 44-row spreadsheet). For everyone else, get a 17-inch monitor. I'd pair it with a first-rate graphics adapter with 2MB to 4MB of video memory.

Finally, I'd add a V.34 (28.8-Kbps) data/fax/voice modem. What should it cost? For a Pentium/133 with 256K cache, 16MB of RAM, 2GB IDE hard disk, 6X CD-ROM drive, 2MB graphics adapter, 17-inch monitor and fax modem, wavetable sound card, and decent speakers, you'll pay about $3,000 to $3,500. Step up to a 166-MHz system with 32MB of RAM, a 4GB Fast SCSI-2 drive, a second CD drive or a removable read/write device with at least a 100MB capacity, a 21-inch monitor, and a 10/100 network card, and you're looking at $5,500 to $6,000. These are list prices and if you are not looking for a name brand you should be able to do better.

Articles - Table of Contents