Oh My God I Need Some Help - I'm Thinking About Upgrading My
Computer To A PC But, Through A Combination Of Computer Illiteracy
 And The Fact I've Been Bashing Away On An Atari ST For The Past
Few Year, I Haven't The Foggiest What To Do, What To Get and What
   To Expect. Can ANYONE Help Me????? PUUHLEEEEEEZE!?!?!?!?!!!!

                          (Part 1)

                       By James Judge

Well, as a matter of fact, yes they can, but whether they can be
bothered to is another matter. Still, here's a potted guide to the
dubious world of the PC which is fraught with danger, funny
numbers and strange combinations of letters which can, when
ingested, cause even the strongest man to go wobbly at the knees
and break out in a cold sweat - and that's before he looks at the
price tag!


-WHAT EXACTLY IS A PC?

Well, really it's a couple of plastic boxes piled on top of one
another, one called a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and the other
a monitor. Coming away from the CPU is an assortment of leads
connecting the keyboard, mouse and power. Apart from that you also
need (in the bottom box) a CPU chip, soundcard, graphics card,
CD-ROM (Compact Disk - Read Only Machine), 3.5" High Density Disk
Drive, a hard disk drive, as well as things like the PSU (Power
Supply Unit), fan and motherboard (upon which everything on the
computer is situated). Oh, you'll also need a couple of types of
RAM (Random Access Memory) - cache memory and 'ordinary' memory.

And that little lot (as well as a few items of software and a
spurt of electricity) go together to form your common PC.

-LOVELY. NOW, SPEAKING ENGLISH, JUST WHAT THE HELL DOES ALL THAT
MEAN?!?

OK then, patronising mode on...

Let's start with the CPU. This is the chip which controls
everything that happens in the PC and is the thing which the
majority of people base the speed and overall (in)competence of
the machine on. This may be a mistake, but it is a good starting
point.

Today there are two families of PCs out there - the 486s and
Pentiums. There is also a deluge (well, a slight smattering, at
least) of clone 486s and Pentiums, but for maximum compatibility
on the hardware and software front the Intel 486s and Pentiums
can't be beaten.

-WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO, APART FROM THE FACT ONE
SOUNDS NICERER?

The real difference between the two families is the speed at which
they can process information. The 486s are the older of the two
and, so, are slower than the Pentium chips.

Both families are divided into a number of different chip types.
For the 486 family you've got all of these:

486sx-25
486sx-33
486sx/2
486DX-25 (I think)
486DX-33
486DX/2
486DX/4

Going from top to bottom (in the above list) increases their
power. The basic unit, the 486sx-25, is a 486 chip which runs at
25Mhz. With the sx you can also get a slightly faster version (the
486sx-33) as well as a clock doubled 486sx-25. What this means is
that instead of the crystal inside the CPU resonating at 25Mhz (as
it does in a 486sx-25) it resonates at twice the speed (50Mhz) -
meaning that it can process information at twice the speed!


The 486DX CPUs are the same as the sx chips, but work in
conjunction with another chip to split some of the more intensive
processing operations. The inclusion of this chip is signified by
the DX in the name. The chip is an FPU (Floating Point Unit) and
handles complex mathematical calculations (as you'd find in really
complex games, CAD and, of course, mathematical programs), taking
some stress from the main CPU and allowing the computer to
function faster.

The 486DX/2 is like the 486sx/2 but with an FPU (and it is based
on the 486DX-33, so runs at 66Mhz) and the 486DX/4 is a clock
tripled 486DX-33, running at around 99Mhz.

The Pentium family is slightly easier to understand. Here you've
got these PCs:

Pentium-60
Pentium-75
Pentium-90
Pentium-100
Pentium-120
Pentium-133

Basically all of the above are based on the Pentium chip and just
work at a higher rate (signified by the higher number after the
word 'Pentium'). The Pentium chip includes an FPU as standard and,
so, you don't need to worry about 'Pentium DX' etc. (thank God).

-WELL, THANKS FOR THAT, BUT WHICH 'CPU' SHOULD I GO FOR, OH GURU
OF THE PC?

Now don't get sarcy with me - who's holding the information?

There's one basic rule you should apply when buying any PC -
anything you buy now will be outdated in under 18 months time.

-DO WHAT!?! D' YOU MEAN TO SAY THAT EVERY TWO YEARS I'M GOING TO
HAVE TO REMORTGAGE THE HOUSE TO GET A NEW SYSTEM? WELL, IF THAT'S
THE CASE I'M STICKING WITH THE ST - SO WHAT IF THERE'S NO NEW
GAMES BEING PRODUCED FOR IT?

Hold on a minute. Let me finish. What you buy now may be outdated
and consigned to the old fogeys' home by the glossy magazines in
18 months time, but that doesn't mean you have to trash it. In my
opinion what you buy now will run everything you'd like it to run
for at least the next four or five years. That may not seem a long
time, but to get the top-of-the-pile PC in five years time won't
cost you œ2,000 - it'll only cost you a few hundred.

-GO ON, I'M LISTENING

One of the main reasons that a pre-made PC costs you so much is
that you're paying for everything - from the CPU down to the
screws used in the case. In five years time only two things will
have aged enough to make you replace them and that's the CPU and
motherboard. So, instead of forking out œ2,000 for a completely
new system you'll be able to remove the motherboard of your old
PC, buy a new one and a top-notch CPU, chuck that into your case,
add all your old peripherals such as that trusty HDD, soundcard,
8megs of RAM and so on, and you'll cut down a lot on price.

Take my situation. Here I am with a lowly 486sx. It's still
running everything that I want it to and with the addition of
4megs of RAM and an FPU I'll be able to run 95% of all the new
software coming out. If I wanted to upgrade my machine to a P100
(Pentium-100) I'd have to spend around œ1,500 if I bought it new.
However, if I buy a new motherboard and CPU it'll only cost me
œ400 - and if I do without the new motherboard I'll only have to
spend a couple of hundred pounds.

So, the plight of obsolescence isn't too bad. Continued hype by
Intel, Microsoft and the glossy magazines would have you think
otherwise, but with a little bit of technical knowledge, a touch
of acumen and a few hundred pounds (after your initial outlay) the
prospect of becoming out-dated fades away into the far distance.

-OK THEN, YOU'VE CONVINCED ME (MASTER <grin>). I WON'T HAVE TO
RE-MORTGAGE THE HOUSE FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME. BUT YOU STILL
HAVEN'T ANSWERED MY QUESTION - WHICH CPU SHOULD I GO FOR?

Well, to move the reality of outmoding further into the future
always get the best PC which your burgeoning wallet will allow. A
Pentium is more desirable than a 486 and, so, will last you for a
longer time. Then you'll (maybe) be able to upgrade only the CPU
to a higher speed Pentium in a few years, just so you can keep up
with the Jones'.

-RIGHT, GOT THAT BIT SORTED. NOW WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER LOAD OF
ACRONYMS YOU THREW AT ME TO BEGIN WITH - WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH
THEM, AND WHAT DO THEY MEAN?

OK, after the CPU the next most important part of the PC is the
motherboard. This is the large circuit board which all of the
important chips go on. Again, like the CPUs, there is a variety of
motherboards you can choose from, and they are:

ISA
Local Bus
PCI

ISA is the old one which is now outdated. It worked on a 16bit
basis which meant that the CPU could only communicate with things
such as soundcards and graphic cards at 16bits, which meant the
computer ran at a slow speed. Really it is stupid to have
motherboard like this as all CPUs now are at least 32bit and that
means that although the CPU can burn through processing at a 32bit
speed, it can only communicate with the other parts of the
computer at 16bits, effectively halving the possible speed of the
machine.

The only problem is that many (indeed, the majority) of add-ons
for the PC are 16bit, so that's why the up-to-date PCI
motherboards incorporate a number of these older slots.

The local bus motherboard was faster than the ISA motherboard and
looked to be a pretty good choice until the PCI board came out.

The PCI board could run at faster speeds, support a Pentium chip
(yay!) and it could support the new Plug&Play BIOS.

-PLUG&PLAY - WASSAT?

Well, before P&P was invented whenever you installed something
into your computer (such as a soundcard) you had to worry about it
conflicting with other add-ons. To avoid this you had to manually
fiddle around with IRQ settings and other nefarious techy stuff.
Now, though, you can (with Windows 95 and a PCI based computer),
theoretically, just plug an add-on card into your computer and let
the computer do the rest of the installation. Theoretically
because only a few add-on cards support P&P, so it isn't a true
option at the moment. But there's no damage in planning for the
future, so if you can get a PCI motherboard.

-SO WITH A PENTIUM I SHOULD GO FOR A PCI MOTHERBOARD, YEAH?

Yup! But if you are getting a Pentium try and ensure that the
motherboard is a PCI one but also it is using the Triton chip set.
The technicalities of this chipset are too complex to go into
detail here, but let's just say that it's the latest chipset which
speeds up the computer quite a bit. Pentiums are the only CPUs
which can make use of this chipset, so don't insist on one or your
lowly 486.

-IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE ON THE MOTHERBOARD THAT I SHOULD WORRY
ABOUT?

Well, there are a couple of things. To start with you need
expansion slots. These are slots on the motherboard into which you
can plug things like modems, soundcards and all of the other
add-on cards you can get for your PC. Most motherboards come with
plenty these days, but a minimum should be six. This sounds a lot,
but they soon fill up as time goes by. Also make sure you've got
enough 16bit and PCI slots - a 50/50 spread should be good. Many
motherboard have seven slots - 3 16bit and 3 PCI with one that can
be used as either.

Also check which way the expansion slots are oriented. The
majority of motherboards these days have the slots oriented so
that when you insert a card they stand upright, but some funny
boards have them so that the expansion cards have to be laid on
their side. The former is preferable as it reduces stress on the
card and improves air circulation around the cards. Avoid the
latter if you can (which you should be able to)

Secondly see whether the motherboard incorporates a disk driver,
or any other add-on cards. My motherboard has got a built in disk
driver (which allows the computer to talk to the disk drives), but
some don't so you end up using one of your precious expansion
slots to house a disk controller.

Some later motherboards also incorporate (either on the actual
board itself or on little sub-motherboards (called
daughter-boards)) things such as graphics cards and sound cards.
The sensibility of this, to me, seems a little dubious as you'll
be paying extra for this 'privilege' and you won't have a
selection of sound or graphic cards to choose from, and upgrading
in the future may be harder.

Oh, and one last thing. The insides of PCs get pretty hot. All PCs
should come with a fan attached near the PSU and this will help to
keep the temperature down inside the box. The worst problems comes
with the CPU. With high power 486s and all Pentiums the chips can
easily heat up to 80C and above if they aren't cooled down. To do
this you really need to have a decent sized heat sink to be placed
over the chip. This should come as standard, but just check
anyway.

-WELL, THAT'S IT THEN, I CAN GO OUT AND GET MY PC NOW, CAN I?

Nope, not unless you want to make a few big mistakes. The next
important thing for a computer is its RAM. You've got a choice
here of either 4megs, 8megs or 16megs.

The absolute minimum is 4megs. With this you'll be able to run 75%
of the software available and Windows will run OK (for small
applications). A better amount of RAM is 8megs and should be the
minimum if you are buying a new system. With the extra 4megs
you'll be able to run 99% of all programs and Windows will just
love you. You'll be able to have a couple of meaty applications up

and running without having to read a book every time you want to
switch between the two.

16megs is, in my opinion, a bit of an overkill for a first time
buyer. You can always upgrade to 16megs later on in your PC life,
so it isn't as if you're sending yourself down a blind alley for
opting for the 8meg option. The only slight question that is in my
mind is about Windows 95. Most of the articles I've read about the
operating system says that it'll run perfectly happily on an 8meg
486, but it will always benefit from extra RAM. So, if you've got
an 8meg Pentium the OS will run in complete bliss until the really
large 32bit applications start coming out where you may be
required to have 16megs - but that is a few years into the future.

No, the only reason why you'd need more than 8megs of RAM is if
you are intending to run WindowsNT and if you are planning to run
this system you should know enough about computers not to be
reading this.


So, go for as much RAM as your wallet can afford but as it is one
of the most expensive parts of a PC 8megs would be sensible.

But don't get all excited yet - there are a few more technical
aspects about RAM to worry about. Make sure that you're getting
72pin SIMMs (Single In-line Memory Modules) as they are the latest
make and ensure that even with 8megs installed you'll still have
at least two SIMMs slots free - this will allow you to install
more memory without having to get rid of old chips.

Secondly ensure that, if you're using a Pentium processor, the
type of RAM you're using is EDO RAM, or at least EDO compatible.
EDO RAM is a very fast type of RAM which speeds up the computer.
Only Pentiums can really benefit from this type of RAM, though.

-SO THAT'S IT. I NOW KNOW THE BASICS FOR GETTING ALL THE RAM WHICH
MY MACHINE WILL NEED, YES?

Well, no actually. There are, in fact, two types of RAM which are
connected with the CPU and motherboard. The main type we covered
above, but there is also cache memory. This is a small amount of
memory which is situated near, or on, the main CPU. This allows
the CPU to store small bits of data quickly and recall them
quickly, instead of having to go through the main RAM. Again, this
is another way to speed up your PC.

You can use cache memory with both 486s and Pentiums, they just
utilise them in different ways. The minimum you should envisage
getting is 128K, but a more sensible (if costly) option would be
256K. This doesn't sound a lot but it does help.

One thing if you are getting a Pentium - make sure that it is
Pipeline Burst Cache RAM. Again, only the Pentium can use it and
it is yet another way of adding those go-faster-stripes that
actually work!

@~To be concluded next issue


                              - o -