Obsolescence - It IS Avoidable
                       by James Judge

Or even if it's inevitable, you can put it off for a few years
with a little bit of know-how.

Two issues ago there seemed to be this deluge of people (well,
two) who were bemoaning the fact that their three week old baby is
seriously underpowered by the new super-duper computers which are
arriving with alarming regularity. And they have every right to be
- after all, having a PC is entering yourself into the biggest and
fastest 'keeping up with the Jones'' race of all time - people
don't buy a new microwave every three years, or pay out for a
better house every so many years just because it has faster
central heating. What they do do, though, is pay out œ1500 every
few years buying a new hunk of plastic and metal with which they
play games and write letters on.

I'm not saying that either Ian Taylor or Jim Johnston were wrong
with their estimations that it's always best to wait a few months
before attempting to buy any new piece of machinery and to always
try and buy the best unit you can afford without selling your
mum's gold fillings. In fact they were 110% correct. The problem
is that they both seemed to give the impression that once three
years had lapsed your old, well used machine wouldn't be able to
play a good game of Patience without having to think about every
move for a good few minutes. This needn't be the case. The thought
of paying out œ1500 every three or four years would send shivers
down most peoples spine.

But, there is a way in which you can delay this huge outlay, or
even stop it entirely. Now don't get too excited, I haven't
figured out a revolutionary new way of making all systems 100%
future proof, but there are a few simple things which most people
will be able to do with a little outlay in cash. Oh yes, this
method will still need the readies, but it won't require a huge
lump sum.

The trouble with a lot of PC owners is that they don't know their
COM ports from their ON buttons and RAM chips from their HDD
capacity, and they don't even know what a CPU is.  With this level
of ignorance comes a wonderful ability to pay a lot more than is
necessary to get a job done (and you can see this in all walks of
life, not just computers - if you don't know a few bits of useful
info you'll probably end up paying more).

You see, the good thing with PCs is the way in which they are
designed. Yeah, sure, there are still a lot of failings in this
creaking architecture, and most of it is thanks to Microsoft and
IBM (but let's ignore that for the mo'), but one good thing with
the PC is that you can upgrade nearly any system, putting in new
items of hardware when they become available and are cheap enough,
and not have to outlay for a completely new system just to
increase the speed of your beloved machine.

So, with this upgrade-ability comes a lot of flexibility and the
ability to buy your dream system in instalment. I'm sure we'd all
love 130Mhz Pentiums running a 21" SVGA monitor with AWE32s
attached, multi-gig HDDs, 64megs of RAM and 6x CD-ROMs but a
system like that would cost a hell of a lot, and let's face it -
how many programs can make use of all this power? One day we will
be using these systems, but that is a long way off.

No, our horizons should be set a lot lower when we start
questioning the speed of our system. Instead of automatically
thinking, when our 486s start shunning the latest beat-'em-ups,
that we should invest in the latest Pentium computer and start
scouting the trade magazines for a reputable company which will
throw together a system for around œ1500, we should start to think
in small, cheaper steps.

The best way with which to increase the speed of your machine is
to give it more memory (RAM). Unfortunately machines in Britain
have been vastly underpowered in the RAM department for a long
time, and it is only these last few months which have seen a
significant step in the right direction of supplying 8megs of RAM
with an entry level machine instead of the piddling 4megs which
most machine had been given up until now. Our American
counterparts have been running 8meg machines as standard for ages
now, and this is one of the major reasons (I feel) Microsoft have
had so many calls asking for help with Windows 95. They tested it
with 8meg American machines and said there was no real speed
decrease between it and Windows 3.x but then they ported it over
to our 4meg machines and, well, the rest speaks for itself,
really.

The other bad point about RAM is the way it is installed. You'll
probably need to install your RAM in powers of 2 (ie 4meg first,
then the next size RAM upgrade you'll be able to install will be
8meg and so on), but find out more about this if you want to
increase your RAM. Oh, and it's pretty dear too - the second most
expensive part of the computer, in fact. Prices of RAM have not
dropped for ages and thanks to a fire in a large resin factory a
couple of years back and the Kobe earthquake prices have, in fact,
risen and don't look set to drop in the near future.

@~They've actually just started to drop. John Moore has been
@~keeping me updated on the price of RAM and, at shows near him,
@~it's almost halved in price over the last few months ... Sue

Look out, though, for second hand RAM chips. RAM is the most
reliable component of a computer and, so, can easily be resold.
Just make sure you get the correct type of RAM to go with your
current chips - they all work at different speeds and you can't
mix and match speeds. Your computer manual should have the specs
in it somewhere. If not it may be on the actual chip itself.

After your RAM you can think about upgrading any part of your
machine. Another big problem with machines are the motherboards
themselves (the green piece of plastic which houses the CPU and
expansion cards). The trouble is that there are three different
types of motherboard - ISA, VESA and PCI. ISA is the slowest and
PCI is the fastest (and it supports Plug&Play!). The thing about
the motherboard is that through it passes all the information
which the computer handles. This means the computer only runs as
fast as the motherboard.

The speed of computers are measured by their processor speed which
is measured in megahertz (Mhz). So, a 486sx-25 is a 486 with a CPU
running at 25 Mhz. The trouble is that the whole computer won't
run at that speed - the CPU will carry out the calculations and
then pass the information onto, say, the graphics card. But to get
from the CPU to the graphics card the information must pass
through the motherboard and if the motherboard is a slow one
(running at about 8Mhz for ISA boards) you'll have a wonderfully
slow system.

So, if you can remove your CPU, RAM and FPU (maths co-processor)
and any other bits and bobs which are necessary to the running of
your computer you'll be able to buy a bare PCI motherboard, put in
all the chips from your last motherboard and Bob's your Auntie.
You've got a motherboard that can now pass info between different
processors at a faster rate than your old one.

After these you can start thinking about upgrading your processor.
This is a subject far too detailed to go into now, but make sure
that you can actually (a) remove your current CPU before forking
out for a new one and (b) you'll be able to fit the new one into
your motherboard. It may be easier, if you have an odd CPU or
motherboard, to buy a CPU and motherboard combination for about
œ700. This is still far cheaper than a complete computer and
you'll still be able to use your old RAM etc. with it.

One final thing to look at is your cache RAM. This is a small
amount of RAM which resides very close to the CPU. Because it is
close to the CPU data is transferred between it and the CPU far
quicker than between the CPU and normal RAM. So, if you have some
cache RAM installed into your machine your CPU will be able to
access data faster and, so, your computer will run quicker. This
is one good thing about the new P6 chip - it has 256K of RAM built
into the actual CPU so transfer rates are phenomenal.

After looking at these intrinsic details of upgrading you could
start to get faster hard drives (or just get a new one to increase
your storage capacity), a better CD-ROM, bigger monitor, faster
graphics card (this will be a huge boon - especially to Windows
users and people who like playing Doom-like games. Just ensure
that the card you get works in both DOS and Windows - some only
have a significant speed boost in one or the other) or other bits
and bobs to gradually give you this dream machine.

The fun with gradually upgrading you system is that the computer
no longer becomes a premanufactured toy which some zombie created
in Taiwan. Instead it becomes your own creation - something which
you've built yourself, something in which you can take more than a
little bit of pride. Being confident with the insides of PCs is
infinitely useful and, for me, really enjoyable.

Of course, by upgrading your system bit by bit you take a few
chances - the whole lot may blow up, for instance, or other things
may happen due to sheer incompetence on your behalf.  I can't
cover much in this very brief article which is designed to open
your eyes to the myriad of possibilities which upgrading yourself
brings, but one thing which I really do want to stress is this:

MAKE SURE YOU READ ALL THE MANUALS YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON ABOUT
THE ITEMS WHICH YOU'RE FIDDLING WITH. IF YOU'RE UNSURE ASK SOMEONE
WHO'S IN THE KNOW AND DON'T TRY AND DO ANYTHING YOU DON'T KNOW HOW
TO. YOU'RE DEALING WITH ELECTRICITY AND PRETTY EXPENSIVE COMPUTER
PARTS HERE, SO IT ISN'T A DAY IN THE PARK.

I reckon that if you gradually upgrade your system you'll be able
to stay a little bit behind the Jones' without looking daft and
still be able to play all these funky CRPGs (like DM <snigger>).
Also it'll probably save you a few œs in the long run, and that's
what it all boils down to in the end, isn't it?????

Remember, all of the popular glossies (ie PC Format and most of
the other gaming magazines) quote that, really, the minimum system
you should buy these days is a Pentium in some form or another
with 8megs of RAM, a double speed CD-ROM and PCI motherboard.
Other, less talk-about but wider read, magazines (such as PC Pro,
PCW etc.) say that the basic system is still only a 486 DX/2 or
DX/4. This, they say, will run anything that's thrown at it unless
it is designed to work solely on a Pentium (such as NASCAR Racing)
- whether it's a game or a business application. I'd agree with
them. I'm still perfectly happy with my 486sx and it runs
everything at a decent speed which I've thrown at it. True, I need
some more memory and a larger hard disk - but who doesn't?

What I'm trying to say is don't believe (or buy) everything you
read. Even though the magazines say that a Pentium is now the
minimum, get what is right for you, and is affordable for you. At
the moment a cheap Pentium won't cost all that much, and if you
can just buy the motherboard and CPU you'll cut costs even
further.

Don't keep up with the Jones' (they're rich gits who have no
sense) - keep up with what you want to keep up with...










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