Hardware Upgrade Tip of the Day #34


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Hardware Upgrade Tip of the Day

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*1. NET APPLIANCE PRICE DROP          
  
Netpliance's I-Opener Internet appliance has dropped in price from 
$199 to $99. However, you still must separately purchase a mouse 
($19.95), a warranty ($49-$79), and the monthly service ($21.95 per 
month). The I-Opener is a new Internet-for-dummies device that lets 
you browse the Web; send and receive e-mail; and receive news, 
weather, and sports updates. 

http://www.i-opener.com


*2. MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS--PART 1 OF 4          
  
A lot of hardware upgraders remain confused by the minimum system 
requirements listed on their product boxes. Upgraders often wonder 
what the requirements really mean and how their own PCs match up. 
These product requirements become important when you're considering 
adding a new videoconferencing kit, CD-recording drive, or some other 
product to your existing system. Over the next few days I'll pass 
along some important info about minimum system requirements. 

First, be warned. There is no standard for assigning minimum system 
requirements to any computer product; it's completely up to the 
manufacturer. Unfortunately, product makers often fudge the numbers so 
their products appear to be capable of running on a greater variety of 
PCs than is really possible. You might find your product runs 
intolerably slow if your system matches just the MINIMUM system 
requirements listed on the box.  

Your best bet is to look for and follow the RECOMMENDED system 
requirements; ask a salesperson if you don't find them listed on the 
outside of the product box. When listing recommended system 
requirements, product makers usually provide the true facts--they want 
to make sure you know how their product would perform on a properly 
equipped PC.


*3. MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS--PART 2 OF 4          
  
When you're looking at the panel of a computer product box, the label 
may make misleading claims about which operating systems the new 
product can run on. Don't assume that when a product box states 
"Windows NT" in big letters, it will run on all Windows NT systems. 
The numbers and names of Microsoft's Windows operating systems make 
sense to no one. Windows 95 had three separate releases: A, B, and C. 
Windows 98 had two: Windows 98 (original) and Windows 98 SE (Second 
Edition). Finally, Windows NT had six service pack releases (read "bug 
fixes"), called SP1 through SP6.  

Look carefully for details about the operating system your new 
products require. The minimum system requirement list (perhaps in 
small print) should include the operating system version.


*4. MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS--PART 3 OF 4          
  
Never confuse a product's minimum system requirements list with its 
performance specifications. Sometimes upgraders believe they can 
improve a new product's performance by tweaking one item from the 
minimum system requirements list--say, by adding more RAM than the 
requirements call for. This approach to better performance may not 
work. Keep in mind that overall system performance changes (such as 
adding RAM) apply to your whole PC, not to a particular device on your 
system. To improve the performance of a particular component, read its 
documentation or contact the manufacturer for performance improvement 
tips. You may find out that some unexpected modifications (perhaps 
more free disk space or an OS setting) will make the product perform 
better.


*5. MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS--PART 4 OF 4          
  
When you inventory your PC to see if it meets a new product's minimum 
system requirements, make sure you also check the product 
manufacturer's list of compatible or certified hardware, if one 
exists. You can usually find this list on the company's Web site. 
Think of a compatible hardware list as an extension of the minimum 
system requirements list.


*6. PROTECTING AGAINST VIRUSES THROUGH HARDWARE--PART 1 OF 4          
  
The recent I Love You computer virus proved once again that our 
computers are vulnerable to attack. You're probably already aware of 
the traditional antivirus protections offered by regular software 
backups and up-to-date antivirus software. However, with the 
ever-changing technology landscape, you should know of some 
hardware-related options that can protect your computer assets. 

First, removable storage drives now offer more storage than ever. Even 
the popular Iomega Zip drive available at  

http://www.iomega.com 

now comes in a 250MB-per-disk USB version. Consider a removable 
storage drive if you want easy, fast, portable backups.


*7. PROTECTING AGAINST VIRUSES THROUGH HARDWARE--PART 2 OF 4
  
As CD-RW optical storage drives continue to drop in price, they become 
a real alternative to traditional backup hardware (like tape or 
removable storage drives). Low-end CD-RW drives cost between $160 and 
$200. CD-R discs (which record one time only) cost about $1 each, 
while CD-RW discs (which record many times) cost about $3 each. With 
either style, you can store up to 650MB of data. And, of course, you 
get an added bonus with a CD-RW drive--the ability to create your own 
music CDs.


*8. PROTECTING AGAINST VIRUSES THROUGH HARDWARE--PART 3 OF 4
  
When a virus wreaks havoc on your computer, it is really messing 
around with the software and structure of your hard drive. In fact, 
your hard drive is the only place where a virus can reside when you 
power off your system.  

The latest fast and large hard drives open a new avenue for recovering 
from a virus infection. You can use a separate disk partition and disk 
imaging software, like PowerQuest's Drive Image, available at  

http://www.powerquest.com 

to store an image of your entire hard drive, updated daily. This means 
if a virus does infect your system, you can boot from an emergency 
disk, then copy back your hard drive data from the latest disk image 
in mere seconds. 

This method is not foolproof, however. Some particularly nasty viruses 
infect all of the partitions on your hard drive and could therefore 
destroy the disk image you've stored on a separate disk partition. 
However, for those who need to recover the system in a hurry, this 
approach is the fastest way.


*9. PROTECTING AGAINST VIRUSES THROUGH HARDWARE--PART 4 OF 4          
  
The high-speed FireWire bus (aka IEEE 1394) offers some PCs the 
ability to use plug-and-play external hard drives such as LaCie's 18GB 
portable PocketDrive, available at 

http://www.lacie.com 

as antivirus backup protection. With such a device, you can save a 
full disk backup or a disk image to a separate external drive on a 
daily basis. If you remove the connection between your PC and the 
external drive, the backup remains safe from a virus attack.


*10. THE GIGAHERTZ PC ARRIVES          
  
The 1GHz (or 1000MHz, if you prefer to call them that) PCs have 
finally arrived. Currently, Dell at 

http://www.dell.com 

sells home systems featuring Intel's new 1GHz Pentium III processor, 
and Gateway at 

http://www.gateway.com 

and Compaq at  

http://www.compaq.com 

offer home desktops featuring AMD's Athlon 1GHz processor. Any of 
these 1GHz models start at around $3000, so don't expect a bargain. 
However, if you are willing to drop down to 800MHz clock speeds, you 
will find discounted prices.
