Hardware................

The '98 Hardware Guide

What exactly should you be looking for in a PC now ? Buy a cool expensive P2 or a cheaper more shall we say ,disposable one from India ? The idea of importing a high end comp from US is'nt half a bad idea.We tried exactly that and got ourselves a top of the line 333 P2/64 mb SDRAM /17 inch monitor(16 inch viewable)/Viper V330 AGP gfx/512 kb cache/32x CDROM ,a nice setup and a good brand name for under 1.5 L including duty.Whatever you want to do these tips and recommendations ought to help.If money is no object ,take a look at the green text.

Processor

Right now ,nothing less than 233mhz for home,a 300 recommended.If you can wait for Intel's 100mhz Bus to come out in India ,do so.It will vastly improve performance.Everybody's thinking Intel but that's just too bad because abroad(unfortunately , only abroad)Cyrix and AMD are catching up with Intel and catching up real quick . AMD's 3D technology should be cool.

Intel's iCOMP(R) Index 2.0
PII 300 mhz

332
PII 266 mhz

303
PII 233 mhz

267
PPro 200 mhz

220
233 mhz mmx

203
200 mhz mmx

182
P 233 mhz

160
P 200 mhz

142
P 166 mhx

127

Brand recommendation : Intel P2

Import a 400/433 mhz racehorse from the US or THE fastest currently available in India

Monitor
OK . So how big do I want it ? For home multimedia(incidentally,that word is being overused these days) a 15 inch monitor will do as long as it supports a high resolution and supports the capabilities of your gfx card.If you decide to import a Voodoo 2 or the like that supports 1600x1200 with 32 bit color et all and your puny monitor does'nt support it , it'll be a shame . If you're really into gaming or real big fun stuff , go for a 17inch monitor.

Brand recommendation : Philips

21 inch

CD/DVD ROM
If you don't rave about the idea of watching movies on a computer you want at least a 24x CDROM drive.So far you get them till 48x but the difference is'nt really much . DVD's are'nt popular in India yet and movies are not readily available but they will be and that's what counts.DVD's are preferred over Video CD's because of their picture quality and capability of holding 17gig + . If you want DVD , go for a Creative Encore DVD kit . It reads DVD's at 2x and cdroms at 20x . DVD 2 has considerable improvements over DVD.

Brand recommendation : Creative Multimedia

Import a Hi-Vals DVD package($799) or Diamond Multimedia's DVD kit($350)

Graphics card

Ok ,this is important - you have to go for a 3d card now for home entertainment.In India the top choices are the Diamond Viper V330 and Diamond Monster 3D.The Viper seems to be the overall best , especially for video playback and 2D . Check out our 3D Round-up for more info . Make sure that it support's both APIs-Direct3D and OpenGl . Infact ATI Rage cards don't support OpenGL . AGP or PCI ? AGP.It's especially recommended for gaming.Video RAM ? 4mb minimum . SGRAM or DRAM is cool & better than the standard VRAM . The card should support a high res(1280x1024 or more).Voodoo and Voodoo II(If you can get your hands on it) are ideal for gamers.Hot fast 3D performance.

Brand recommendation : Diamond Multimedia

A Diamond Viper V330 AGP with an addon of 2 Voodoo II cards w/12 mb SGRAM each!!!Mindblowing(Diamond Monster 3D II is a great choice)

Memory
You should'nt buy anything below 32mb at this stage . Upgrade if necessary and if possible make it 64 . High end games like Quake 2 need this . More such stuff will release in the future so be prepared .DIMM offers a very small increase in performance over SIMMs . SDRAM is tops and beats EDO by a decent margin . More important : Make sure your RAM is upgradable to 300mb +

128/256 mb SDRAM DIMM

Hard disk
BIG . That's the key.A minimum of 3.2 gig is required . No problem if it's less,you can upgrade . SCSI HDDs are really cool and most of the time really expensive to match . So you don't really need them . An ideal size is a 6.4 gb drive

A Seagate 10gb SCSI-2

Modem

Repeat after me . 'A computer is nothing without a modem'.That's the unofficial 12th commandment(right after a movie is nothing wothout popcorn).You need a minimum 28.8 modem for decent web access(TCP/IP.You don't need a real fast one for Shell) Actually,VSNL does'nt offer decent web access but things will change in a few months .More Internet Service Providers will come and engaged tones will be long forgotten . So get yourself a 56k modem and get ready for what's to come.

Brand recommendation : U.S.Robotics / 3COM

An ISDN modem(Warning:ISDN is'nt supported in every city but it is available in the metros)

Sound Card / Speakers
Sound Blaster 16 , is the usual bundle with an Indian PC .It's ok but a 32 bit card like the AWE 64 is really hot(The AWE 64 Gold is not 64bit as it's misleading name suggests) is better . So go for it if you can afford it . Speakers?

Brand recommendation : Creative Multimedia ,Bose

AWE 64 Gold / Bose Acoustimass speakers

Extras
Extra's include a joystick or gamepad ,a cool mouse, a printer , scanner and a digital camera . Microsoft make good controllers that include the Natural keyboard and great joysticks-Force Feedback and sidewinder . A gamepad is generally considered better for different types of games . Logitech is a close second regarding controllers and they make the best mice . Wireless keyboards would'nt be too bad an idea either . An external storage device such as the Iomega Jaz , Iomega Zip(100mb) or a Seagate drive is needed for backup and sharing large files . On the other hand you can go for an LS 120 thaat supports floppy disks and it's own 120mb disks . You can also insert an MPEG card for superior video playback but it is'nt really a must have or anything . TV tuner cards are available at a relatively low price of around Rs.6000 and are great if you don't want to buy a second TV.

Brand recommendation : Microsoft , Logitech , Hewlett Packard , Sony , Iomega ,
For the money minded,Typhoon products are a good choice
Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite ,Microsoft Force Feedback Pro joysick , top of the line HP printer , an HP Scanner and a Sony digital motion camera.