ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 15, 1996 TAG: 9608150031
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Computer Bits
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
If you have no more than $4,000 to spend and want a computer system that is fast, has large capacity, a fast modem, a fax, a CD-ROM driver, a new monitor with good clarity, and a quality scanner, where do you find the ideal system?
That was the scenario J.B., a Daleville woman interested in genealogy, posed in the Aug. 1 Computer Bits column. She told us she needed to replace her IBM 486SX and two 210 hard discs with something that would catapult her into cyberspace. Here, for J.B. and anyone else with similar ambitions, are suggestions delivered by e-mail from five readers:
* Contact Gateway 2000 at www.gw2k.com or call the company at (800) 846-2042, wrote a reader who identified himself simply as Grampa. He said the manufacturer will build a system to J.B.'s specs, price each component, ship it to her for $50 and sell a three-year, on-site warranty for $90. And all for ``about $3K.''
``She also can do better selling her old system rather than trading it in,'' Grampa concluded.
* From Keith Hubbard of PC Advisors Inc. of Goode: ``The computers we sell are not a `box shop,' like department stores and computer chains. We have the ability to purchase, set up and teach you, long after the other guys have left you to fend for yourself.''
He recommended a 100Mhz Pentium, with 16 Mb, 2.5 gigabyte hard drive, 28.8 or 33.6 external fax modem, 15-inch monitor with .28 dots per inch, and a whole lot more that perhaps J.B. should discuss with him directly.
* ``A great solution to J.B.'s computer needs would be our Pionex Elite Pentium 133,'' wrote Matt Spencer of Laser Renewal Inc. of Roanoke. Standard on this is a Pentium 133 MHz processor, 256k of ``pipeline burst cache,'' and 16MB of RAM, a 1.6GB hard drive that includes Corel PerfectOffice software with WordPerfect 7 for Windows 95, and a 33.6 fax modem from US Robotics.
Spencer echoed Hubbard in saying that J.B. doesn't need to replace her Hewlett Packard LaserJet IIP ``because it's a great printer.'' He also suggested she can reduce her printing costs by using remanufactured toner cartridges, which his company can supply, of course.
Spencer and Hubbard both also recommended the HPScanJet 4P scanner.
* Richard Beason, an authorized reseller for CyberStar Computer Systems, recommends the Alliance Pro 7000, a Pentium 100, 16MB, 2.1GB hard disk drive, 256k, 28.8 modem, 15-inch monitor, a floppy drive, a CD Multimedia kit and much more, for $2,298 and ``sales and service locally.'' He also says J.B. should upgrade from WordPerfect to Microsoft Office for Windows 95.
* And from Chuck Chandler, who identified himself as ``not in the business of selling or even advising on computer sales.''
Chandler's advice: ``Buy as much monitor as you can afford. I've got a 20-inch. A digitizing tablet instead of a mouse also makes a lot of sense; a tablet never gets clitchy and is incredibly smooth compared to a mouse or a trackball.''
Here, in addition to Chandler's, are several other overall suggestions:
From Hubbard: ``I recommend an external modem because all computers have serial port for Com2; internal modems usually have conflicts.''
Consider a tape backup and an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), says Spencer. The tape drive is a ``quick and easy way to make reliable backups of her data.''
The power supply, Spencer said, ``is an almost necessary piece of equipment that is too often overlooked by computer users.'' It goes ``far beyond'' the basically useless surge suppressor and provides true power protection for a computer, he said.
A UPS costs about $300.
Readers who want to know more about what these guys had to say about computer buying can start their own e-mail with them; their addresses are listed in the adjacent graphic on Page B8.
Handwriting
The slants and curlicues we use when we write reveal something about us. Now, you can check out the handwriting of celebrities such as Dan Rather and Bill Clinton, George Harrison, the late Nicole Brown Simpson and the soap-opera cast of ``As The World Turns.''
It's fun, too, to test your own knowledge of handwriting, which you can do when you first call up the web page, hy.com. Three samples of handwriting accompany this question: ``Which baby sitter would you hire?'' When you select a sample, you learn if it's a good or bad choice and why.
We got the right one on a first try, but we're not giving away the answer.
Folks in Oregon
The Northwest has had its woes with power outages lately, but it doesn't seem to have done much to one of the more interesting Web pages we've seen in a while - that of Teleport Internet Services in Portland, Ore. It has had more than 2 million hits.
Obviously, it's hunting subscribers, but there's a fair amount of free stuff to look at also. One of the sponsors posted is the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
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