In message <961110074411_1383694581@emout11.mail.aol.com> CPattinson@aol.com
writes:
> Sorry if it has taken so long to respond to this one but yes, I have just
> purchased a computer supposedly for home use. It is a Highscreen 120mhz
> Pentium from Tandys.
Ouch. I avoid Tandy like the plague. I haven't ever seen consumer electronics
sold by them that can't be beaten on price and performance by looking around
a bit. On the other hand, all the other high street stores are as bad. Read
magazine reviews first to get a good machine v machine comparison, go to
Staples or PC World to look at the machine and get a feel, then buy it from
one of the suppliers in the PC mags. Direct suppliers are usually much
cheaper than high street retailers and know more about their stuff.
> I had seen 486's advertised for about #450 in Computer Shopper but I see no
> point in buying yesterdays technology. I guess it depends what you want to do
> with it.
Exactly, horses for courses. A P166 would be overkill for most of the
applications people use. Sufficient memory is usually more of a bottleneck
than processor power. Buying a 486 just means that you have a 486
processor and motherboard. The whole point of the PC is that they are
upgradable. So long as you have 72pin memory modules and a PCI bus (and the
manufacturer doesn't go it's own way like Amstrad) then you just upgrade the
motherboard and keep the case, power supply, monitor, memory, video card,
sound card, cd-rom, blah blah blah.
This is getting to be a computer advocacy discussion so I'll shut up now and
think of something relevant to say.
Mike.
(Hardware Engineer for Team17 Software)
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