Part I: Introduction
Sidebar: The Box
Part II:
Catching the Right Bus
Part
III: What You Get Is What You See
Part IV: Bells
and Whistles
Part V: Wrap-Up
Introduction
Here's how it usually goes: You decide you need a new PC. Maybe there
is some new function you need that your old one can't handle. Maybe the
machine's lack of speed and power becomes noticeable to you. Maybe you
just want a new toy.
Whatever the case, you buy yourself a new box to replace the old one.
Depending on your shopping preferences, you will either (a) pay less than
you did last time and be astonished at how much prices have dropped, or
(b) your new PC will cost exactly what your old one did and you will be
amazed at how much more capabilities your money bought you now.
But if you are like most of us what you probably won't do is think all
that much about the components that are residing inside the box. In fact,
it is more likely that you will note that your basic beige box is now
basic black or basic black-and-silver.
So as a research exercise--or perhaps as an exercise in stupidity--I
decided to build my own new PC to have a look at the state of the art of
computer architecture today. I will be sharing what I found out with you
in a series of articles in the next few issues of The Naked PC.
As I explained to a number of skeptical company public relations people,
this series is not about building a PC. For one thing, my colleague T.J.
Lee already has written about that and more than covered the ground.
Second, this is really a "kids, don't try this at home" process. Building
a PC isn't especially difficult. But it is tedious. While the actual
technical problems were minimal, I fell into a series of low-tech
potholes--putting cables in wrong, forgetting to connect something,
working in tight spaces with fumble fingers, etc. Basically, you are not
likely to do something fatally wrong. but you aren't going to add a whole
lot of value to the project either.
Plus, unless you have access to parts at wholesale, the cost will be high
and--as a friend was kind enough to point out--you don't get a system-wide
warranty or technical support.
There is a reason why Dell sells PCs by the millions or why one of the
fastest growing market segments is "white box" generic PCs--essentially,
the old local computer store products of a decade ago reborn.
I will be looking instead at some of the features available to you when
you call up to place your order, and at how the sum does add up to more
than the total of the component parts.
Intel was kind enough to provide a Pentium 4 processor and a motherboard;
Kingston Technologies supplied RAMBUS memory; ATI Technologies an
All-in-Wonder video card; Turtle Beach, a Santa Cruz audio board; CD
writers and DVD readers were from Plextor; FireWire and SCSI support from
Orange Micro and Adaptec; and ViewSonic showed off their latest and
greatest flat-screen monitors.
What I found was that the modern personal computer is no mere word
processing, spreadsheet, and Internet/email appliance, and has gained
substantial multimedia and graphics capabilities sufficient to give it a
role in the workplace as a light-duty workstation and at home as an
entertainment center. As I will be discussing, modern PC architecture
gives a new dimension to the concept of "multitasking."
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Sidebar: The Box
You know the old joke about what do you buy the person who has
everything: a huge bag to put it all in. Similarly, motherboards and other
PC components really don't do much good floating around in space--you need
a case to put them in.
For my recent do-it-yourself PC construction project I went with
Antec's
Performance Plus ATX mini tower, in the new metallic gray color
(PLUS660AMG). (The gray is a useful color choice because both black and
beige units will look okay when fitted into the outside drive bays.)
The mini tower has eight drive bays, five are externally accessible. The
internal drive bays are in a sub-frame that releases with a twist of a
latch for easy access. The case comes with two fans that score well on the
quietness scale, and I added a third. The chassis design has several
convenient mounting points where an Antec fan will easily snap in place.
The power supply is a 330W unit using
Antec's "True Power" system. Antec
says True Power offers more precise voltage than competing units. More
immediately measurable is its noise- reduction technology: you hook the
fans up to dedicated power cables and the power supply adjusts fan speed
in sync with its own temperature. I found it pleasantly quiet.
All the requisite cables and mounting hardware are included (which, trust
me, is no longer a given these days--as profit margins shrink, companies
seem to think that leaving two cents worth of mounting screws out of the
package is a good idea). The case also has two USB and one FireWire
front-panel ports; a good idea. Alas, they were not all that securely
mounted on my unit-- not a good idea.
With a street price under $125, the Antec Performance Plus 660 offers good
value and a good set of features.
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Part II:
Catching the Right Bus
So you have your basic need for speed. What's the first thing you think
about?
Usually, it's the processor speed. We've got that. For our test system,
Intel provided a 2.53 GHz Pentium 4,
at the time its fastest (since outpaced by a new 2.8, with the 3.0 GHz
mark expected to be surpassed by the end of the year.)
Next on the shopping list usually is memory. Got that covered,
too: 512 MB of Kingston Technology's 1066 MHz RIMM
Rambus modules.
And while we were at it, we also put a couple of 7,200 RPM hard drives
into the system for speedy data access there.
But now how does data travel among all those speed demons? They have to
take the bus.
This brings us to the heart of matter: Intel's D850EMV2 motherboard (Intel
uses the term "Desktop Board"). This is a very nicely conceived unit,
which among other things includes USB 2.0 ports, part of Intel's push to
make that technology mainstream this year. It also has a built-in Ethernet
port, thereby saving you an expansion slot, and there is onboard audio.
The latter might not be an audiophile's dream, but is more than adequate
for business audio needs.
However, the key feature of the D850EMV2 from the point of view of system
capabilities is its 533 MHz system bus. The system bus is, in essence, the
internal wiring that links a system's various components together. Often,
it can be a bottleneck that undercuts the performance of other components,
and is one of the reasons why processor clock speed differences do not
automatically translate into real world performance improvements.
It's like driving here in Boston, a city of narrow streets and heavy
traffic. Whether you are in a Ferrari or a Hyundai, you pretty much are
going to creep along at the same speed. For your Ferrari to act like a
Ferrari, you need to break free of the traffic congestion.
Intel's 850E chipset is the traffic cop on the motherboard and works to
give the components some open road to exploit. The 850 series supports
Rambus memory. Intel's 845 chipsets support conventional DDR SDRAM and the
most recent versions of them also allow for a 533 MHz system bus.
In buying a PC today, a key decision is whether to go with Rambus memory
or stick with DDR SDRAM. Rambus is substantially faster-- as its name
suggests, its architecture involves speedier connections among the chips
that comprise the memory module. Kingston's top Rambus modules clock in at
1066 MHz vs. 266 MHz for the fastest DDRs. But the price is steep--the
street price of 256 MB of DDR is under $100 while the same amount of
Rambus is double that. (Part of the reason is that Los Altos, CA-based
Rambus Inc., which developed the technology, gets a substantial royalty
from manufacturers.) Accordingly, when you go out shopping for a PC, you
will tend to see Rambus only on the top- of-the-line models. Value-priced
units will have DDR.
Will you notice a difference? As always, your mileage will vary. When
writing a document in Word, there will be--and wasn't--any discernable
real world difference. But when running batch conversions of graphics
files and processing multimedia files--my key PC "heavy lifting" test--I
was pleased to see that lengthy tasks took substantially less time to
complete with the faster architecture. The more complex your computing
needs, the more value the architecture will provide.
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Part
III: What You Get Is What You See
The current generation of PC video systems is definitely eye- opening.
My test PC incorporates an
ATI Technologies "All-in-Wonder" Radeon 8500 AGP
128MB video card, which has a street price in the $260 range.
I have it outputting to a $720
ViewSonic VX700
17" flat panel LCD monitor.
ViewSonic's VX series is aimed at multimedia users rather than graphics
professionals. It supports both digital (DVI) and analog
(VGA) signals, making it a good fit with the ATI's digital output. The
resulting displays look sharp, with high legibility text and excellent
graphic presentation. Much of this is no doubt attributable to the
components' inherent capabilities as well as to DVI, but the digital
connections should reduce signal deterioration.
The point is: the video display looks good. The components make it easier
to read documents and make watching movies more enjoyable. They enhance
the ability of a PC to handle a wider range of content.
When ATI first unveiled the "All-in-Wonder" in 1996, the idea of building
a video card that included a TV tuner and supporting seemed a little bit
Out There. What, after all, would you do with it?
Nowadays, of course, hot and cold running cable/satellite and Ethernet
connections are a routine part of home construction, and digital media are
commonplace. It has occurred to many users that if they have a
high-caliber monitor in a room, why do they need a separate TV? And if you
can record video on your PC's mega-sized hard drive, why bother with the
skimpy hard drive on a digital video recorder?
The All-in-Wonder will display TV as a window on your desktop, or
full-screen. It comes with guide software to track and record programs,
will make video screenshots, and will do the usual DVD and PC movie player
things. What it does unique to itself is that it can take captured video
and make it part of a business document. It very much expands the concept
of what a "document" is.
So now we do know what to do with an All-in-Wonder. In fact, the concept
now has the Official Seal of Approval: Microsoft is building a version of
Windows around this kind of capability -- Windows XP Media Center Edition,
scheduled for release at the end of the year.
The latest generation of flat-screen LCD screens complements these
capabilities. In addition to the VX700, I also tested a
ViewSonic VE500
15" flat panel monitor which is available for a more modest $370 and is
the company's "entry level" flat screen monitor.
"Entry level" definitely needs to be in quotes here. When I last looked at
flat panels, in a 1999 magazine piece, I focused on ViewSonic's VP150 -- a
15" LCD that was then a high-end "professional" model that was
substantially more expensive. The VE500's capabilities are superior, both
in terms of video quality and esthetics. In fact, the striking thing about
today's flat screens is how, well, flat, they are. The VE500's case has
half the depth of the VP150, and is designed so that you can fold up its
stand and use it as a wall mount.
The VX700 and VE500 feature nifty silver-and-black styling, all the better
to match today's no-longer-beige PC boxes. The VE series units have lower
resolution than the VX and also lack the DVI digital input. In addition,
the VX series has a 170 degrees horizontal, 170 degrees vertical viewing
angle (50 degrees more in each dimension than the VEs) thereby allowing
movie watching by multiple users.
As Bogie would say, "here's looking at you, kid."
Back to top
Part IV: Bells
and Whistles
No PC is complete without a few "extras" so to complete the "model" unit,
I installed a sampling of additional peripherals.
"Extras" is pretty much a relative term in this context, of course.
A sound card is standard equipment on PCs these days. The Santa Cruz is
classified here as an add-on only because the Intel D850EMV2 motherboard
in my system has onboard audio. I prefer Turtle Beach's cards to Creative
Lab's Sound Blasters on sound quality -- Turtle Beach seems more "musical"
to my ears; Blasters strike me as optimized for games.
Software is another strong point. The Santa Cruz's control panel software
integrates neatly with Windows's sound controls, and the included Voyetra
music software bundle provides sound editing capabilities that will be
more than adequate for most users. Furthermore, the setup routine allows
you to choose exactly what you want installed, so you don't install
unneeded software or find that your existing media players and editors
have been replaced as system defaults.
I also liked the software-controlled mode setup that lets users set the
board for the output mode of their choice: 2- or 4- speaker stereo, 5.1
Surround, and Digital 4.1.
Plextor long have made the most reliable CD burners, and their
Plextor
PlexWriter 40x12x40 Internal EIDE CD-RW Drive ($118) is pretty much
the industry standard. Combined with a separate DVD- ROM, it would be a
good standard configuration on a new PC.
The
PlexCombo is a departure for Plextor, adding read-only DVD
capabilities to the burner but trading off max burning speed -- 20X vs.
40X on the PlexWriter. Company spokespeople say they expect the Combo to
fill many upgrade gaps: users with PCs that shipped with no burner (or a
slow one) or no DVD can upgrade those capabilities with a single unit.
PlexCombo also is a good solution for users with PCs that only have a
single 5 1/4" drive bay available, or who simply do not want to have more
than one DVD or CD drive on their systems. The combo concept is popular on
notebooks (where bays always are in short supply) and Plextor now extends
it to the desktop.
Inasmuch as the Intel chipsets that support both its own motherboards and
those made by other manufacturers are wedded to USB 2.0, users who want
FireWire or SCSI support will need add-on boards. Adaptec makes boards for
both technologies, which were
previously recommended
here.
However, I wanted a look at a unit that might combine both, and I found it
in Orange Micro's
OrangeLink Combo card. Actually, I found a little more
than I expected. The card supports 80 MB/sec SCSI speeds, short of the 160
MB/sec and 320 MB/sec specs of the current generation of SCSI hard drives,
but fast enough to support most SCSI external peripherals.
Also, both the SCSI and FireWire circuits have internal connectors to
support internal as well as peripherals, a feature I would have expected
only in a dedicated card. The card passed the key test for all things that
involve SCSI: setup was easy and no glitches interfered with its use.
Notwithstanding the capabilities of USB 2.0, FireWire's popularity in the
audio/video world makes it worth adding to any system. If you also have
legacy SCSI equipment (in my case, tape backup drives) to deal with,
Orange Micro allows you to Have It All. And just use up one PCI slot.
Watching the evolution of computing technology often is like watching a
major construction project: the amount of progress on any one day rarely
is measurable, but as months go by, the landscape changes dramatically.
As my PC "do-it-yourself" project has gone along, two major lessons have
emerged:
- There is a reason why "off-the-shelf" systems from Dell, Gateway, and
"white box" makers gain market share against "designed" systems from HP
and IBM: the generic units work just fine.
- The definition of "document" and "computer" has changed dramatically
over the years. In that respect, you do need to think outside the box.
In the great battle of Red (Compaq) and Blue (Dell), Compaq's talking
point always was the engineering that went into its components. A Compaq PC
came with, for example, hard drives that were either made by Compaq or made
to Compaq's specs by a parts supplier. As the PC price wars went along, the
latter approach became more prevalent. But still Compaq attached a value to
having a "Compaq" label on its components.
Dell, Gateway and your friendly neighborhood PC maker simply put in a
hard drive from, say, Quantum with a "Quantum" brand. Rarely did anyone
suffer as a result, and as Windows--and device drivers--improved, the
component approach was even less troublesome.
In
assembling my PC I was struck by the fact that I just put the components in
place and they worked without hassle. I had no compatibility issues--at
least none that I noticed. Actually, literally plugging everything in was
much more of a hassle than anything that happened after all the wires were
in place. This is good news for consumers because it means that the
continuing move to lower cost generic components shows no sign of abating.
Another key aspect of PC evolution is a re-definition of its purpose.
When personal computers first became a mainstream business device, they were
primarily replacements for typewriters and calculators. No one even thought
that a PC might be a device for listening to music, watching TV, or burning
CDs. (Gaming, on the other hand, was always part of the deal.)
There is a tendency to consider multimedia kind of, well, you know, not
really "businesslike," more a play toy than a tool. But where is it written
that a document is something that's two- dimensional that can be
transferable to dead trees? Audio and video are a compelling way to convey
content. Today's PCs make doing so a snap and over time that will mean we
communicate in ever more creative ways.
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This is supplemental information to the Series: