The Video Subsystem

Video card(s)

There seem to two issues that need to be taken in acount when considering the video cards that can be used in the system.

• Does the new AGP graphics bus offer sufficient benefit over conventional graphics cards to make it worthwhile investing in new technology that is still risky and not proven
  I am not sure that this new technology is mature enough to be selected at the current time. The current Dell catalogue switches from an AGP card to a PCI based Matrox Millenium II for its top of the range machine. This is an interesting indication. It also appears that new versions of AGP are still to come out, although I do not currently understand what I am trying to achieve here.

• What is the correct 3D graphics engine to be used and how can that be best bought into play
  I have just upgraded the old Pentium with an Orchid Righteous 3D (3Dfx) graphics card. This makes a huge difference in framerate for those games that use either the card directly or use Direct X. To date not many games have used this card, but we are on the verge of it, with the release of Longbow 2 in the next few weeks. It is interesting to note that authors of this do not think Direct 3D is the way to go and have achieved performance by writing directly to the card. This means that they do not support any other card.

I cannot see the real need for an AGP card at the current time, especially since there are still further releases of the standard. I need to keep this under review until I actually purchase the machine.

Because Longbow is one of the games that I consider I will be wanting to play on a regular basis, then the 3Dfx card is a must for me. As it happens, I see little need to leave the card in the old machine for the family (they do not really use this sort of power) so will, initially at least, move my current card to the new machine.

Monitor

It seems to me that the quality of the monitor for the purposes that I use the machine is crucial. Fortunately, the change in monitors in use over the past 4 years has been relatively slow, with 14" standard monitors being replaced by 15" ones. My thoughts are that I will by the best 17" monitor that I can afford to fit in with budget constraints. What I need is more advice on what the characteristics of good and bad monitors and how to find out which are good and which are bad.

One thing I would like to achieve is a Flat Screen.

The Iilyama MF-8617E seems to show a good balance between capability and cost and is currently favourite.

Hard disk

Something which supports the new Ultra IDE mode. Just over 3GB in size.

CD-ROM

12 to 16 times.

Floppy

Standard 1.44 unit seems fine for most purposes now. There are 120Mb floppies mentioned, and these could be used for backup (see below), but to date this technology has been slow to catch on and availability of units and software to support them seem non existent.

Should I be giving more thought to this possibility?

Backup

I need a unit to take backups of software and files. On my last configuration I used a tape, but the access to retrieve files (especially when you don't know their name) is slow. I would prefer a large removable random access device.

The Iomega ZIP drive seems to work well (I have an external version at work), and I propose that I should use this. I don't know the difference between and internal and external versions. Can anyone enlighten me?

One slight worry is how long will I still be able to purchase new blank disks?

Sound card

My feeling is that sound is currently not that important. Games don't use the wavetable capability of a sound card - that's for music freaks. In that case the simplest SB16 compatible card will do.

The Creative Lab sound card appears to have an IDE port on it which cannot easily be disabled.

Speakers

Do not want something to big and powerful as the rest of the family will complain. A small, but good quality pair is what I need. Must be able to plug headphones in (either to the speakers or to the sound card)

Microphone

I have a microphone, but at the moment I am not sure if it works (cannot get it or any other microphone to work with my current SoundBlaster 16 card, but I suspect the card is at fault.

Case

The case choice is still a little confusing. Firstly, I do not want a desktop chassis for this PC. I like the monitor to be relatively low on the desk, and if the case of the desktop variety then this gets in the way. My ideal case would be as small a tower that I can get away with.

However, to cater for final expansion requirements then it should support:

• CD-ROM drive 5 ¼" bay
• ZIP drive 5 ¼" bay
• 2 x Disk Drive (hidden - one now and one for the future)
• Floppy drive

I think this is catered for my a mid tower.

Are there any cooling considerations?

Cables brackets and screws

How does the motherboard fasten to the case.

Where do keyboard, mouse port, serial port and line printer port connectors come. Do these have to be purchased separately and what about the cable between these and the motherboard?

What brackets do I need to fasten the hard disk and CD-ROM drive in place?

What Cables do I need between hard disk and motherboard?

Keyboard

A standard keyboard should be fine. I like one with a "hard" feel.

Mouse

I like a mouse which is heavy, as I find that the small light mice quickly get to a point where they are always slipping. I have always liked the Microsoft Mouse as it has always worked without slipping on a reasonable mouse mat.

Joystick

I currently have a Microsoft Sidewinder Pro which I propose to use.

Modem

I currently have an external USR Robotics Sportster capable of 33.6Kbs. I intend to use this on a serial port.

Budget

page last updated 9th November 1997
© 1997 Alan Chandler