Rich's Ramblings
By Rich Schinnell
Well, here goes another one..:)
I have a lot of friends who still swear by (sometimes at!) MS Windows 98SE (That's Second Edition) which still works fine for what they do and runs fairly reliably on their present hardware. They keep asking me if they should go out and buy the upgrade to Windows XP. I say NO!, Unless you have one of the more up to date computers. As a minimum, a Pentium III with 256 Megabytes of Memory and at least a 40 Gigabyte hard disk. XP is great, but I know from experience that it does require more processor, memory and hard disk space than Windows 98/SE. There is an old saying "If it works, don't mess with it", this is true for computers, unless there is some bell or whistle that you really need which the upgrade can provide. Not just because it is there. Unless of course you own MS stock.
With the price of computer hardware getting cheaper all the time. If you want to use Windows XP, it's best to go out and get a new computer. Some people who are a bit techi can go out and buy a new computer case, motherboard, CPU, memory and hard disk. Your monitor, keyboard, mouse, CD-ROM and floppy drive probably will work with the new case. Otherwise, just spring for a cheap Dell, CompUSA, gateway or even better yet. The Computer Place in Gaithersburg builds "box's" that are pretty good computers (and very reasonable) for home use. They are located in the shopping center across from NIST in Gaithersburg, they also have a store in VA. Visit their site at TCPONLINE.COM to see what they have. PS: they give a discount on most everything to CPCUG members. Ask for it. (I have no financial interest in their business, they give me the same discount that you can receive.)
Trials and Tribulations:
I have a friend who has a accounting business and I set-up a new Windows 2000 computer for her and she wanted to give her old computer to a friends son who is a college student. She of course had lots of personal data on her hard disk so I had to clean the system up. I added a 128Meg memory chip and reformatted the hard disk. It was a 8Gigabyte hard disk so it was big enough. It had a sound card and good video graphics card but it was a slower Pentium II 300. I decided to re install the Windows 98SE that she legally could give with the redone computer so away I went. It sure was a good thing that I have a cable modem access for my home network as the Windows Update files that were required to get it up to speed would have worn out a dial up modem. The first one was 18 Megabytes of updates, then another 14 megabytes and finally a 1.1 megabyte update. For a total of over 33 megabytes of updates to the windows 98SE files. Of course this is necessary to make sure the computer has the latest security and operating system enhancements to Windows 98SE.
Next I went to the Computer Place and bought a copy of Symantec's Anti-Virus 2003. ($20 OEM version 1 year) This required over 3 Megabytes of updates to the virus definitions and such. She wanted to make sure that the student had a word processing program, so while I was at The Computer Place, I picked up a copy of Corel's Word perfect office 2002. ($20) Which is a pretty powerful word processor and the price is right. Well, another 35 megs of Service Release updates. It sure is nice to have the cable modem access.
My new toys:
I sprung for a new motherboard from Intel that had the Serial ATA hard disk controller on the motherboard. I moved my Pentium 4 3.06 to this board and installed 1 Gigabyte of RAM on the board. Western Digital has 120 Gigabyte Serial ATA drives for around $150, so I went for a pair. Serial ATA 150 is faster than the Parallel ATA 100 or ATA 133. The Serial ATA, when the controller is on the Motherboard runs at 150, so it is an improvement. There aren't any jumpers to worry about as the drives are connected to the motherboard controller by a real thin cable, no more wide flat connector cables and Primary/Secondary jumpers to worry about. The slowest parts of most peoples computer are the Hard disk and the Video adapter and Monitor. This Serial ATA or SATA is in competition with Adaptec's SCSI hard disks which are up to 320. Serial ATA is supposed to be up to 600 in the next year or so.
You ask what (P)ATA 33,(P)ATA 100, (P)ATA 133, SATA 150 and SCSI 320 really mean?
The number is the optimum speed of data transfer between the Hard Disk and the computer via the hard disk controller chips. Such as 33MBS up to 320MBS. That's Megabytes Per Second.
All in all, the (S)ATA (150) drives give you about a 5-8% data throughput improvement over (P)ATA 133. And the prices are pretty comparable. At present having the SATA controller built into the motherboard will give you the 150 throughput and the Add-In SATA controller boards only give you about the same as the (P)ATA 100. Check out the SATA information web pages at SERIALATA.ORG, SEAGATE.COM, or WESTERNDIGITAL.COM. The SATA standard interface will start showing up in CD-ROM drives and other devices in the next few months One driving force is the simpleness of the interface and the ease of installation such as No jumpers to change and quieter hard disks. Many of the newer Motherboard manufacturers are including SATA controllers on the Mother Boards.
Quotes from Western Digital's web page:
"Users benefit from a data transfer rate performance roadmap that begins with 150 MB/s and extends to 600 MB/s, as well as improved cabling that enables greater system design flexibility. Designers of enterprise storage systems and servers are increasingly using desktop-class, large-capacity SATA hard drives because of the advantages that the SATA interface provides."
Gee, now that was not that bad was it? And by the time you read this, It will probably all change.
Warning #201:
If you have a Cable Modem or DSL high speed internet access directly connected to your computer, you could be wide open to problems. Please purchase one of the reasonably priced routers that are on the market. One big advantage is that if you buy one with a 4 port switch or a wireless router, you can share the broad band connection with other PC's in your home or business. It acts as an IP (Internet Protocol) translation device to keep other people from directly taking over your PC. That combined with a good Up to date anti-virus and a copy of the free Zone Alarm software should keep most people out of trouble. Ad-Aware is another free program that will search out and remove Trojans and other nefarious software that some web site installed on your system.
I recommend:
Symantec Anti-Virus - web site SYMANTEC.COM
zonealarm - web site ZONELABS.COM
adaware - web site LAVASOFTUSA.COM
I own all three programs in the pro version and recommend them. Of course your mileage may vary and if you don't keep them constantly updated, they are not the warm fuzzy you think they should be.
Just like the update feature in Windows, each has an update on-line option. USE it..
Don't forget my three favorite words BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP
Rich Schinnell is retired from the USN, Vitro Corporation and CPCUG. He consults to a few small business's to keep his fingers in the pie, so to speak. He is a past president of CPCUG and has been an habitual volunteer for the past 20 or so years. He has a cable modem attached to his home network where he runs the seti@home software when he is not working on his computers. He also volunteers at the Centers for the Handicapped in White Oak. CHICENTERS.ORG is their web site.
He can be reached at schinnel@cpcug.org or his web page at SCHINNELL.ORG. As a last resort his phone number is 301 949-9292.