Source: PC World – July 1985
- Tag Archives PC World
-
-
PC World (September 1997)
Source: PC World – September 1997
As can be seen by the page count at nearly 400 pages, the late 1990s were probably near the height of popularity for PC World. This is probably true of most computer related magazines (PC ones anyway). The September 1997 issue of PC World includes:
Cover Story
- Windows 98: A Convenience You Can Live With…Or Without – A first look at Windows 98. At the time, it wasn’t seen as a major upgrade over Windows 95.
Features
- Inside Office 97 – Tips for the new Office 97 including how to mix and matchi Office 97 and Office 95 files, removing unneeded components, and much more.
- Bigger Is Better – At the time, you basically had a choice between 15-inch, 17-inch and 21-inch CRT monitors. 15-inch monitors were for bargain hunters while 21-inch monitors were extremely expensive. 17-inch was the sweet spot and this round-up includes a variety of 17-inch monitors including the IBM P70, Liyama VisonMaster Pro 17, Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 87TXM, ViewSonic PT775, Samsung SyncMaster 700b, Princeton Graphics Systems E075, Dell UltraScan 1000HS, Compaq V70, Hansol Multitech 17PX and Sony CPD-220VS. Prices ranged from $638 to $899.
- What a Pain! The First Six Months of Owning a PC – An article that follows the adventures (and misadventures) of 25 new PC buyers.
- Invasion of the Webcasters – Webcasters here basically refers to push notifications. This article looks at various services that deliver news and other info via this method.
Special Report
- Servers With Room To Grow – A look at low cost workgroup servers. At the top of the list is the Digital Prioris MX 6200 SMP. It includes a Pentium Pro-200 (expandable to dual processors), up to 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage with up to 36 GB (4 x 9 GB) for $5300. Others looked at here include the Compaq ProLiant 800, HP NetServer LD Pro 6/180, HP NetServer LH Pro 6/200, and HP NetServer E 40 6/200.
- Eight Ways to Work Across The Web – A look at various software that helps you to collaborate with others over the web.
Top of the News
- 56-kbps Illusions: High Speed Access Not as Advertised – At this point in time, there were two competing 56K modem standards, one from U.S. Robotics and one from Rockwell/Lucent, and not all ISPs supported both…or either.
- The NetPC Arrives: Back to the Future for User Control – The NetPC concept was for typically lower end PCs in a small form factor with limited upgrade potential and sometimes missing floppy and optical drives or missing local storage altogether…but were easier for businesses to manage.
- USB Gives You a Rough Ride – The early days of USB on Windows 95 was not a great experience. Hot swapping frequently caused problems as did driver support.
- Browser: Manage Your Money – Virtually everyone does online banking today. In 1997 it was still a novelty.
New Products
- Digital 6166K AMD K6 system, USA Flex 6x86MX-PR200 Cyrix 6x86MX system – A look at two machines with non-Intel Pentium MMX class processors. While these systems tended to be cheaper than their Pentium counterparts and even sometimes faster for certain tasks, they tended to be slower (sometimes much slower) for FPU intensive tasks including multimedia and games.
- CSA-6700 USB add-in card – A $59 add-in card that provides your system with two USB ports.
- Gateway 2000 G6-266XL PC – Featuring a Pentium II-266 CPU, 64MB of RAM, 9 GB SCSI hard drive, 21-inch monitor, 64-bit 3-D graphics card, and a 56K modem for $5128 this was a very high end but expensive PC. A couple of months later I would get a Gateway machine with a 300 MHz Pentium II and 32 GB of RAM for less than $3000.
- Toshiba PDR-2 digital camera – A 640×480 digital camera designed to work with a PC Card slot for $499.
- Reunion online BBS/chat rooms – Software that allows you to host chats and browsable bulletin boards on your PC.
- DVD471T11 DVD-ROM kit – An early DVD-ROM drive that includes Toshiba SD-M002 DVD-ROM drive and CineMaster DVD playback card (because CPUs weren’t fast enough at the time to decode DVD video) for $579. However, this drive could not read CD-R disks.
- Kai’s Photo Soap – A once popular image editor and photo retouching tool.
- Uninstaller 4.5 – Windows 95 (and even Windows today) wasn’t that great at uninstalling software, often leaving behind files and especially registry entries. This was one utility available that helped clean things up.
Top 100
- Power Desktops – At the top of the list this month is the Dell Dimension XPS H266. My favorite on the list is in 3rd place, the Gateway 2000 G6-233. It features a Pentium II 233 MHz processor, 3.2 GB hard drive, 64 MB RAM, STB Virge 4MB 3D PCI video card, 16x CD-ROM drive and more for $2899. I would own a slightly later revision with a 333 MHz CPU.
- Budget Desktops – At the top of this list is the Dell Dimension XPS M166s featuring a Pentium 166MMX processor, 32 MB RAM, Matrox Millennium II video card and 12x CD-ROM drive for $2199.
- Notebooks – At the top of the power list is the WinBook FX featuring a Pentium 166MMX CPU for $3999. At the top of the budget list is the Compaq Armada 15200M featuring a Pentium 133 CPU for $2199.
- 17-inch Monitors – The top monitor this month is the liyama VisionMaster Pro 17 for $698.
- Graphics Boards – The top graphics board this month is the STB Nitro 3D with 4MB of EDO DRAM for $149.
- Internal Modems – The top 33.6 modem this month is the U.S. Robotics Courier V.Everything. I always wanted one of these (preferably an external version) but they were pricy. Though here the internal 33.6 Courier is only about $15 less than the 56K Sportster (these are internal models though).
Here’s How
- Answer Line – How to reinstall Windows 95, upgrade telnet, and piggyback modems for faster speeds.
- Windows Tips – Speed up Windows 95 load time, ‘send to folder” functionality for Windows 3.1, Windows 95 safe mode, and more.
- Internet Tips – Using web auction sites, protecting passwords and privacy, and more.
- Multimedia Tips – Tips for adjusting PC sound, cataloging your multimedia files, and more.
- Upgrade Guide – A guide to adding a video camera to your system.
At Home
- Home Products – A look at the Panasonic EggCam, Corel Family Tree Suite genealogy software, and more.
- Top 5 Home PCs – At the top of this list is the Dell Dimension XPS M233s featuring a Pentium MMX-233, 32MB of SDRAM, and more for $2379.
Departments
- Up Front – Advice on whether or not to upgrade to Windows 98.
- Letters – Letters from readers on 56K modems, AOL, the PC98 initiative, Adobe Illustrator, and more.
…and much more!
-
PC World (May 2001)
Source: PC World – May 2001
PC World was one of the main PC magazines throughout much of the 1980s, all of the 1990s, and into the 2000s. Like most magazines, especially computer related ones, this one died off as the Internet matured. The May 2001 issue includes:
Top of the News
- Notebooks Reach 1 Gigahertz – A look at some of the first laptops on the market to feature a 1 GHz processor. Thse include the Toshiba Tecra 8200, Dell Inspiron 8000, Gateway Solo 9500, and Hewlett Packard OmniBook 6000. They all feature 128MB of RAM and hard drives in the 32GB range. Prices range from around $3000 to around $4500. I wouldn’t buy a laptop until prices came down significantly in the Pentium M era, however, I was a fan of Gateway so the Solo may have been my choice here. However, the Dell would have tempted me as it offers a little more bang for the buck.
- Record More, Pay Less – Less is relative here. Recordable DVD drives were still relatively new. The newly released and “cheap” Pioneer DVR-A03 would only set you back $1000 and discs were $10 each.
- Great Xpectations: Next Windows – A preview of Windows XP. The version examined here is Beta version 2. While Windows 2000 and Windows ME were being put on new computers, most people were using Windows 98SE at this time.
- A Lovelier Linux – A look at Linux kernel 2.4 and new distributions using it including SuSE Linux 7.1.
- Palms Gain Expansion Options – Palm releases the new Palm M500 which includes an expansion slot for SD/MMC cards.
- Rambus Lawsuits – Rambus sues SDRAM and DDR makers for patent infringement. This was the beginning of a very litigious time period for RAMBUS lasting more than a decade.
- Quickbooks Opens Up – New QuickBooks add-ons for specific industries.
New Products
- New Products – New products previewed here include the Dell OptiPlex GX1505SD which is a small form factor business oriented PC with a Pentium III-933, Easy CD cReator 5, the Digital Relay CRX10U-A2 portable CD burner, GoToMyPC, PCAnywhere 10, Photoshop Elements, Kodak MC3 digital camera and mp3 player, the Apple PowerBook G4 featuring a 500 MHz G4 processor and 256MB of SDRAM for $3499, DriveWorks (hard drive utility), and more.
Here’s How
- Windows Tips – Customizing system properties plus viewing your desktop files in a folder.
- Answer Line – Transferring old drivers to a new computer, removing uninstalled app information from the registry, networking two PCs without a hub, getting a list of file associations and more.
- Internet Tips – Finding the source of attacks reported by Zone Alarm, synchronizing bookmarks, disabling Encompass, branding Internet Explorer, and more.
- Hardware Tips – Creating your own emergency boot disk (sounds like a software tip to me).
- Upgrade Guide – A guide to upgrading your PC’s sound system.
Top 100
- Top 10 Power PCs – Coming in at the top spot this month is the Gateway Professional S 1500 featuring a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4, 128MB of RDRAM, a 40GB hard drive, and an ATI Radeon SDR graphics card. I still want a Gateway machine with this case to add to my collection. It was the last one by them I liked.
- Top 10 Value PCs – At the top of this list is the Dell Dimension 4100 featuring a Pentium III-1000, 128MB of SDRAM and a 20GB hard drive, and an ATI Radeon card with 32MB. Second placye features a Gateway E-3400XL Deluxe with a Pentium III-933, 128MB of SDRAM, a 40 GB hard drive, and an ATI Rage Fury Pro graphics card with 16MB. There are also machines with Athlon and Duron processors in this list. This was probably not long after I built my first PC which was Duron based.
- Top 15 Notebook PCs – In this list, the IBM Thinkpad A21p gets the top spot for power notebook, the Gateway Solo 5300 gets the top spot for midrange notebook, and the Dell Inspiron 3800 gets the top spot for budget notebook.
- Top 15 Home PCs – Top Power System = Dell Dimension 8100, Top Midrange System = Dell Dimension 4100/1GHz, Top Budget System = Dell Dimension L866r. Gateway gets the second and third spots in the Power System category with the Gateway Select 1200 and Gateway Performance 1500.
- Top 10 Color Laser Printers – Coming in at the top spot is the Minolta-QMS Magicolor 2200 GN for a mere $1895.
- Top 10 19-inch Monitors – Back in the day, if you had a budget system you were probably rocking a 15-inch monitor (or maybe even 14-inch a little earlier on). The average decent system had a 17-inch monitor. If you could afford the latest and greatest then you had a 19-inch monitor…maybe even a 21-inch if you could afford it and you could somehow transport it without killing yourself. The Samsung SyncMaster 950p comes in at the top of this list for $309.
- Top 10 Graphics Boards – The best you could get was the ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon for $299. If you wanted nVidia then the CardExpert GeForce2 MX comes in at second place.
- Top 10 Scanners – At the top of the SOHO list is the Epson Perfection 1240U Photo for $299. The best corporate scanner was the Microtek ScanMaker 8700 for $1000.
- Top 10 Digital Cameras – Digital cameras were really still in their infancy at this time. At the top of the list is the Epson PhotoPC 3000Z featuring a 3.3 megapixel resolution and including a 16MB compact flash card.
Departments
- Up Front – An editorial on the dangers of the Internet.
- Letters – Letters from readers about wireless services for PDAs, video downloads, tax software, price matching, and more.
- Consumer Watch – Some ISPs are getting too aggressive with their spam filtering.
- Web Savvy – Tips for searching the web and when using search engines other than Google is useful.
- Home Office – Using Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum and Diamond Cut Audio Restoration Tool 32 to transfer music from records to CD.
- Bugs and Fixes – Tons of bugs in Windows ME, Netscape 6.01 is released, and more.
- Full Disclosure – How searching for the best deals online might lead you to grey market items.
…and more!
