COMPAQ'S LATEST DESKTOP PCS BOAST SPEED, ACCESSORIES.Byline: Dwight Silverman Houston Chronicle Those who thought they bought the biggest, fastest and meanest computer they could find during the Christmas season got a rude surprise when January rolled around. That's when Intel announced its 150- and 166-megahertz Pentium chips. Computer manufacturers immediately started offering slick, new machines built around them. Suddenly, 133-megahertz computers that were top-of-the-line weeks before became midrange midrange Epidemiology The halfway point or midpoint in a set of observations; for most data, MR is calculated as the sum of the smallest observation and the largest observation, divided by 2; for age data, one is added to the numerator; a midrange is usually systems. A speedy processor, though, isn't everything. Computer makers continue to look for bells and whistles A slang English term for exceptional features in some product. In the computer field, it typically refers to functions in software that may be greatly appreciated by some users, even though they may not be necessary most of the time. to make their boxes stand out from the other guy's. Compaq Computer Corp. has come up with two nifty hardware add-ons for its latest line of Presario desktop computers. These devices are not installed across the entire line, but only on certain machines. One is a single-sheet paper scanner built into a keyboard. The other is a CD-ROM drive A device that holds and reads CD-ROM discs. CD-ROM drives generally also play audio CD discs by sending analog sound to the sound card via a 4-pin cable. For specifications of 10x, 20x, etc. drives, see CD-ROM drives. See CD-ROM, CD-ROM changer, CD-ROM server and CD-ROM audio cable. that can write huge amounts of data to a cartridge-based compact disc. (Unfortunately, the scanner was not available in time for a review here.) Compaq has opted to put these goodies in its low- to midlevel mid·lev·el n. The middle stage or level, as in a series, course of action, or career. systems. I tried out two new Compaq Presarios Presario is a series of desktop computers and notebooks from Compaq. The Presario family of computers was launched for the consumer marketplace in September 1993. Although HP has since acquired Compaq, the Presario name was not discontinued due to its marketability. . One was the 9660, which has a 166-megahertz Pentium chip, a two-gigabyte hard drive and a six-speed CD-ROM drive. The other was the 9240, with a 133-megahertz chip, the writeable CD-ROM drive and a 1.6-gigabyte hard drive. Both computers had a 28,800-baud fax modem fax modem n. A modem that sends and receives fax transmissions. , 16 megabytes of random-access memory (storage) random-access memory - (RAM) (Previously "direct-access memory"). A data storage device for which the order of access to different locations does not affect the speed of access. and voice mail/speakerphone capabilities. The faster machine sells for $2,999 without a monitor. The other is $2,799 without a monitor. Speaking of monitors, on both of the models I used a 15-inch Presario 1510, which comes with speakers that hang off the side of the screen. The display and speakers, which are among the best I've ever heard on a computer, sell for $499. The most intriguing feature of the 9240 is the writeable CD-ROM drive, called a "PD-CD" drive by its maker, Panasonic. It will hold 650 megabytes, more if you compress the data. However, what you store on the CD cartridge can't be read by standard CD-ROM drives CD-ROM drives, which today typically means a CD-RW drive that is a combo CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-RW drive, come in a variety of speeds. The original drive (1x) transferred data at 150KB per second. , though the PD-CD drive itself can read standard compact discs. Compaq is touting the PD-CD drive as an easy way to do a backup of the computer - a tedious but crucial task that most users neglect. However, the drive is very slow when it's writing to the disk. It took me more than three hours to back up the computer's 400-plus megabytes. By contrast, it takes about 90 minutes to back up 700 megabytes on my own computer, using a Colorado Jumbo 1400 tape drive. The drive might be put to better use doing data-only backups or for storing large graphics files. You could use it to store and launch infrequently used programs, but they'll perform much more slowly than if you run them from a hard drive. |
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