Re: hardware etc

[Chuck Banks <chuck -at- ASL -dot- DL -dot- NEC -dot- COM>]

For Caryn Rizell, et al:

        EISA vs ISA vs VESA -- These are designations for IBM-clone
bus structures.  ISA is the old tried and true IBM PC/AT bus.  EISA
is a newer, purportedly faster, bus structure championed by
Hewlett-Packard and others.  VESA is the latest, and fastest, bus
found in the newer "local bus" machines.

        Video accelerators?  Do we need them? -- For fast MS/Windows
response, yes you need one.  These cards are several orders of
magnitude faster than VGA or SVGA cards alone.

        VRAM -- is video ram, used for display paging.  For fast
MS/Windows response, you need 1 meg or more.

        CDROM -- spin refers to speed of rotation of the drive.
There are now quadruple (4-speed) drives.  Not all CDs can be
read at higher speed, but many can be.  Higher speed means faster
response time.  Less waiting.  If your running Corel Draw and
Ventura from CD (for example), the speed of the CD-ROM drive can
make quite a difference in the response of the software.

        Flash BIOS -- I'm not sure.  If I'm right, it refers to
BIOS in FROM (Flash ROM) which gives you "instant-on" BIOS.  It
just means the PC starts running sooner after power up or reboot.

        Whenever I'm shopping for a new hardware or software item,
I refer to the various personal computer magazine buyer's guides
and performance comparisons.  In the IBM-clone magazines, most
comparisons are made against benchmark programs and MS/Windows
performance.  MS/Windows and applications that run on it are
enormous memory and CPU cycle hogs.  Multitasking under MS/Windows
multiplies the demands on the PC.  The PC magazines offer the
best guidance I've found on what to purchase.

        So, jog over to your local library and review past issues
of such magazines as PC Week, PC Computing, etc.  And don't take
one magazine's word as gospel.  Compare the evaluations by two
or more magazines.

I hope all this helps!

Chuck Banks
--
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|  \\ |  ||         ||               NEC America, Inc.
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