Return To Autumn 1996 Index
Return To Autumn 1996 Index
You've scoured the magazine racks, read all the in depth reports and still find yourself as confused as when you started. With Windows 95 now a year old, and a new operating system just around the corner, in the guise on Windows NT, version 4 - it's no wonder the poor old punter is a bit confused.
With the recent dramatic drop in the price of memory, and given that today's software has become increasingly memory-hungry, many power users are upgrading existing 486 based machines to 32 MB RAM. At the same time hard drives are being upgraded to at least 1.2GB, preferably 1.7 GB IDE hard drives.
If you're buying machines from new, these should be at least 120MHz Pentium with 32MB RAM, 1.2GB or 1.7GB hard drive. If you are buying for a small network I would suggest one of these new machines should also have a SCSI card and a PD (Floptical) drive - see Backup specification below. The SCSI machine should have a SCSI hard drive, whereas the other could have the cheaper IDE type.
If you are running a larger network with say five users or more, you will need to consider purchasing a big file server. This needs to be a heavy beast, and I would suggest 64MB RAM and at least 2.2GB hard drive - preferably a 4 GB. This machine should have a fast Pentium chip, and specify fast hard drives and mother board.
It should be fitted with a system known as SCSI - small computer system interface, and the SCSI board should be an Adaptec board - since these are supported by most network operating systems, whereas some other SCSI boards are not. SCSI enables you to add further disk drives, tape streamers etc. with ease. You can also add scanners, CD writers and all sorts of other peripheral devices. I suggested that you also specify SCSI in one of the new Pentium machines for the same reason. The file server should also have a CD ROM drive, since a great deal of software, now ships on CD.
A decent monitor is a must. I would suggest at least 37cm (15") FST monitors. If you intend spending many hours at your machine it is worth considering a 43cm (17") screen. The FST type screen is much more pleasant to use than the conventional rounded type, particularly if you are using it for prolonged periods.
You will also need to consider keyboards and mice. Opt for decent quality. Personally I like the Microsoft mice. Years of use, and abuse has shown the Microsoft mouse to be one of the most robust products on the market. It is more expensive than many other mice, but it lasts longer, and is much more pleasant to use. There are other quality devices available. check them out before you buy.
If you are planning to run a number of PC's networked together, it might be wise to install two types of backup system. On the file server, consider DAT backup. The tapes are small cheap and reliable. The Hewlett Packard DAT drive is a SCSI device, and depending on the one you choose, it will backup either 2GB or 4GB. Backups can then be programmed and timed automatically.
The other backup system is magneto optical disc - or Floptical. Panasonic make a device called a PD drive. This reads and writes to Floptical and reads standard CD ROM's too. These are SCSI devices, and this device should live in one of the new client machines along with the second SCSI board.
The beauty of Floptical disc is that your PC sees it as just another disk drive. So you can use the standard Windows File Manager, or NT Explorer to move files to, and from the drive. The discs cost £40 each and hold a staggering 630 MB - same as a CD ROM. (If the spelling discrepancy seems puzzling, the computing industry has decided that CD and Flopticals are discs whereas floppies and hard drives are disks.)
Windows NT has become one of the world's major networking systems. It is very stable and relatively easy to administer. The current version is Windows NT 3.52. However version 4.0 is due to hit the streets in September, with an interface similar to Windows 95. It is thought this will replace Windows 95.
You will need to order sufficient copies of a suitable suite of office type programs. One of the most popular packages is Microsoft Office Professional. Each machine should have a licensed copy of software - otherwise you could be breaking the law.
Office Professional contains Word - word processor, Powerpoint - presentations software, Excel - Microsoft's legendary spreadsheet, and Access, a popular, sophisticated, programmable, but rather slow database. You have the choice of using the old 16 bit Office, version 4.3 or using the new 32 bit Window 95/NT version. Whilst the 32 bit version of Access appears slower than the 16 bit, the loss in speed will be compensated for by running it on much faster machines.
Windows NT Server will provide the software support for a network, but you will also need six network cards. We have found the NE2000 compatible cards and thin ethernet type cabling very satisfactory for small to medium sized local area networks (LANs). New machines should be specified to be provided with network cards. It will be necessary to run network cabling.
If you are networking machines together, I strongly recommend the use of the auto-disconnect type network sockets. Network cabling is very sensitive to changes in impedance. Standard network cabling which allows users to disconnect their machines from the net, without putting a matching impedance on the line, can bring the whole network down if a machine is accidentally disconnected.
Always shop around for a bargain. The PC business is fiercely competitive. Bear in mind that whatever you buy to day, will be out of date very rapidly. You don't want to buy a load of gear which sits in its box for months before it is used. Also, make sure that what you buy can be upgraded. Some proprietary brands of PC will only use proprietary parts - which make upgrading very costly.
Also, you will need a CD ROM drive to MPC 2 Specification and you need a SoundBlaster compatible sound card if you want to hear anything!
If you want to connect to peripheral devices such as CD Cutter, Scanners, External tape drives etc., you might consider an Adaptec SCSI Card and SCSI hard disk rather than the conventional IDE type. SCSI = Small Computer System Interface - originally developed for Apple Macintosh systems, but now used on the better PC systems. For easy backup, you might also consider the Plasmon Magneto Optical drive that also reads CD ROM. This will provide you with a good backup facility capable of storing 650MB data on a single disc.
If you go for Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 then you will probably want to consider Microsoft Office Professional for Windows 95.
This contains 32 bit versions of:
