Step 6: Video cards.
I’m biased. As far as I’m concerned they only have two manufacturers of cards. ATI, which is Canadian and nVidia which I believe is American. ATI puts out a better card but their drivers aren’t too good. nVidia puts out a very good card and their drivers are superior. I buy nVidia. I have owned ATI in the past and do like their product very much. However badly written drivers have caused me real heartache in the past. Here is also where you can save some money. Instead of buying that G4 Ti-4600 with 128 Ram for $299+ you can get a G4-440MX with 128 Ram, which is just one step down from the G4 Ti series card. These cards are stable and good. You can get them for less than half what the Ti costs and if you use the web even less. I paid $40 for the one on the wifes computer. I’m sure ATI has their equivalent.
Step 7: Sound cards.
I run a Creative Labs Audigy 2 Platinum with the front faceplate. It now costs a lot less than I paid for it. You can buy one without all the foo-foo for even less. Just remember that if you are a gamer your card has to be able to run with games created in the Global community. Bubbas southern fried sound card may not run with all games. To my knowledge the Sound Blaster 5.1 series is still recognized. I’m not sure about the AWE 64 series though. I always liked the Aureal chipset. Unfortunately Creative sued them out of existance. I never liked my Monster MX-400 card, I really miss my Monster MX-300 card with the Aureal chipset. My P4 board failed to recognize it, called it legacy and refused to let me load it up. It was the saddest day of my life… Computer life that is. Never lost much sleep over it, I just hate to waste good money and an excellant sound card for that matter.
Step 8: Modems.
Never buy a software driven modem like a Win-modem. Those who get kicked off the net regularly are usually the ones using the Win-modem. Plus they don’t run as well or stable as a hardware modem. Hardware modems range in price from $12 to $75. I’ve run both and to me the $12 modem seems to run better than the US Robotics I have in mine!
Cable is too spendy, thats why I go modem. I can’t see paying $60 a month for access. Plus having to install a firewall etc. President Bush says he wants everyone on broadband by 2007. Maybe if the prices go down drastically I might think about it. Say $14-$20? Besides, theres nothing on the net THAT good. Is there?
If you have the money, however, cable IS the way to go. Those who have cable have always told me that they would never go back to dial-up modems. With cable, online video, music, and other things move very quickly. If you do a lot of downloading, you can download 50MB in about 4-5 minutes. VERY NICE. Also, with cable, you are online perpetually, which means that you can jump from internal sources to external sources very quickly. Also, your phone line is free for talking.
Step 9: The CD.
Always buy a CD burner. They are cheap enough that nobody should go without one. DVD-CD burners are coming down also. My next burner will be a DVD-CD. Imagine 17 gigs on one CD. I could back up all my game-save files on one CD instead of ten.
The PCMech.com weekly newsletter has been running strong for over 8 years. Sign up to get tech news, updates and exclusive content - right in your inbox. Also get (several) free gifts.
