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!