Andrew J. Froning of the National Software Testing Labs and Geoff Lewis of Business Week were the guests on Oct. 29 to discuss BW's first annual Computer Buying Guide.
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OnlineHost: Good evening and welcome to Business Week Online. Tonight we bring you something new -- a discussion of BW's first annual Computer Buying Guide, featured on the cover of the current issue (Nov. 6). It gives you tips on what to buy, with sections on hardware, software, and much more.
With us tonight to answer your questions about computer gear are Andrew J. Froning (AJFatNSTL), managing editor of National Software Testing Laboratories (which rated some of the products listed in the guide), and Geoff Lewis (GeoffBW), senior editor of Business Week (who edited the guide for the magazine).
Andy Froning has been in the microcomputer industry for more than 15 years in areas from sales to technical support. He joined National Software Testing Labs (a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., as is Business Week) in 1991. In December, 1993, he became managing editor with responsibility for publication of PC Digest, Software Digest, and the NSTL/BYTE Lab Reports.
Geoff Lewis (GEOFFBW) is BW's senior editor in charge of the Information Processing department, covering trends, markets, products, strategies, and people in the computer, software, and telecommunications industries. He has been writing about technology topics for more than 15 years, including 10 years at BW, where he started out covering personal computers.
The moderator is Jack Dierdorff (JackBW), consulting editor of BW Online and former managing editor of the magazine. And now on to our live online version of BW's first annual Computer Buying Guide -- and the questions you send us here on stage via the Interact button.
JackBW: Good evening to all of you on AOL. Hi, Andy Froning and Geoff Lewis.
GEOFFBW: Hi, Jack.
AJFatNSTL: Hello to everyone.
JackBW: Geoff, I'm going to ask you the first question (Andy can comment, too, if he wants).
Question: Lots of technical publications have done computer buying guides. Why did Business Week decide to do one this year for the first time?
GEOFFBW: These days the market is so huge and so many of our readers are in it, we felt that we could come up with something helpful and more accessible than the standard PC mags.
AJFatNSTL: We wanted to add that testing edge that other consumer magazines couldn't.
JackBW: Maren2000 gets us very specific very quickly.
Question: What kind of printer would you recommend (for home use) that is reasonably priced but will print at a reasonably high quality?
AJFatNSTL: Your decision point should be whether you want to print in color or not. If you do, then an ink-jet printer, like the ones we reviewed, is great for the home. If color is not important, buy a low-cost laser printer for business or general printing.
JackBW: What role should Windows 95 play in buying decisions these days?
GEOFFBW: If you're buying a new Intel PC, you're going to get it if you want it or not. The big question is whether you should upgrade now or wait. You may need to buy new hardware (memory and more disk). If you can wait for the Win95 killer app, you can maybe do better later.
AJFatNSTL: Win95 is what you get when buying new -- just remember not to skimp on the memory. Upgrading it will not be cost-effective in the long run, so go for broke now.
JackBW: MikeMerc in South Plainfield, N.J., has obviously read some of the guide already.
Question: I notice that your top 10 desktop list includes only well-known name brands. Did you test any of the lesser-known clones and find them lacking, or did you just test the top names?
GEOFFBW: We thought that for our readers we would want to stick mainly to top brands, to make sure that they would find them when they went out to the stores.
AJFatNSTL: There's also the question of what local brands really are unique or are just made of components found almost anywhere.
JackBW: Are there any others either of you might mention as worth looking at?
AJFatNSTL: Yes, you might look at Micro Express, Micron, and, for the power users, SAG.
JackBW: WIP Sport from the audience sends us the next question.
Question: What's it going to cost me for a good Pentium-75, 16-Meg, nicely loaded system early next year (tax-refund time)?
GEOFFBW: I would guess that you can pick one up for around $1,500 --just a guess, though. How early do you do your taxes? How do you get a REFUND any more?
AJFatNSTL: If you wait until tax time, you'll likely not find 75, 90s, or even 100s on the shelf. Intel is moving so quickly toward the 133s that they may be the slowest product next April.
JackBW: BobAB in Teaneck, N.J., sends along this question -- actually two.
Question: On your list of best desktops, why does IBM show poorly? And on laptops, how/why has IBM finally figured out how to do things right?
JackBW: Andy will answer the first part.
AJFatNSTL: Their desktops are slow to develop for some reason. They were extremely late getting to market with consumer Pentiums, and their performance was not so great. Jack, another factor for this test is that the Aptiva had only 8Mb installed, which hampers its performance under Win95.
JackBW: And now from Geoff.
GEOFFBW: IBM really felt it had some engineering value to bring to notebooks and went for it. The Thinkpads have been first with big screens and other cutting-edge features. They aren't the cheapest, but they have loads of impressive features. Cheaper versions are now coming, we're told.
JackBW: A modem question next, also from New Jersey.
Question: I have a 14.4 internal modem in my PC clone now. If I upgrade to a 28.8, (a) will I really notice the difference and (b) should I stick with an internal or go for an external?
AJFatNSTL: Go for the 28.8K -- it makes a huge difference, but only if the computer on the other end also has a 28.8.
JackBW: Here's another question.
Question: When will machines based on Intel's new P6 chip start coming out? And will they make the Pentium as marginal as the Pentium seemingly has made its 486 predecessor?
GEOFFBW: We'll see the first models introduced by yearend. They will be pricey -- many [will be] servers. With no Pentium clones on the horizon (only NextGen is shipping and in small quantities), I don't think Intel will obsolete the Pentium as quickly as it did in the 486. There are too many profits left in speedy Pentiums and in P6s.
AJFatNSTL: Our feeling is not at the start, since the P6 is really meant to compete against high-end workstations, and there is too much capacity in the Pentium design. Intel showed us recently that they will be able to halve the size of the P90 chip by year's end, making Pentiums both cheaper and faster.
JackBW: Here's the next one.
Question: What do I need to buy if my kids are hot on games and multimedia?
GEOFFBW: Look for at least a midrange Pentium (P90) and get a quad-speed CD-ROM. Also, it would help to pop for a better graphics card and make sure you have plenty of hard disk space. Even though they're on CD, games suck up hard-drive space, too. Finally, you should make sure you get a color printer to save Junior's masterpiece!
AJFatNSTL: Sounds right to me, but don't forget a 16-bit wavetable sound card and 16Mb of RAM.
JackBW: Here's a question from someone who noticed the price tags on laptops.
Question: Manufacturers' margins on laptops must be out of sight. Will laptop prices ever fall to desktop levels for comparable machines?
GEOFFBW: Yes, laptops do have fatter margins. This is something that the folks at Compaq enjoy very much. The reason is that there are still more opportunities to add value in tiny PCs. Desktops are dominated by Intel motherboard designs. In laptops, the PC makers do more of their own engineering and can charge more. I think that eventually the gap will narrow, but the technology of notebooks may always be pricier.
JackBW: Could it also be that more of the laptops go to the business market?
GEOFFBW: Yes. That's where IBM aims its hot noteboooks, for example.
JackBW: Let's be user-friendly and define MPEG for me before you answer this next one.
Question: I'm still confused about MPEG. Is a hardware card always required, or is there also software-based MPEG? And do you need a Pentium to run it?
AJFatNSTL: MPEG stands for Motion Picture Experts Groups, which devised the standards for compressing image data for computers. You don't need both hard and soft MPEG, but hardware is the one to buy. Our tests show hardware MPEG decoding to be more than double the speed of software. Software is just cheaper. Also, a fast Pentium helps a lot here as in all forms of graphics.
JackBW: Another question about prices.
Question: Seems the price of everything but RAM keeps dropping. When will it start falling also?
GEOFFBW: Memory prices are indeed sticking. That's because the demand is outstripping capacity. I don't see the prices dropping in the next few months -- perhaps in the first quarter after the fourth-quarter buying binge is over. Chip plants are operating flat-out.
AJFatNSTL: Memory has dropped greatly since the late '80s, and if you buy in bigger gulps, it's cheaper. Buy 16 MB SIMMs instead of two eights. One note of caution: When buying a computer, check the number of memory slots -- many machines that claim 64 or 128 Mb of capacity will force you to throw out any installed memory to add to what you already have.
JackBW: Take this question next.
Question: When I bought my 486 (18 months ago), I made sure to get a ZIF socket to upgrade to a Pentium chip when available. Does that still seem to be a viable upgrade option?
AJFatNSTL: Well, do it soon -- the Pentium upgrades in the future may not fit in that socket because chip sizes are shrinking. Also, you won't increase the bus speed or memory speed so you won't gain everything you might by having a Pentium optimized motherboard.
JackBW: Now we get around to Apple.
Question: Is Apple's PowerPc 9600 really the fastest PC on the market? If so, why hasn't Apple made a bigger deal of it?
AJFatNSTL: That depends on who's defining fastest and for what task. PowerMacs are great machines if you want to use Macs, but unless you're into a Mac-dominated computing task, stick with Intel's products. Apple, like the rest of us, doesn't really know how to do a real comparison for performance except by measuring a task such as Internet server.
JackBW: And now into gigabytes.
Question: Where 500-megabyte drives were considered plenty big enough a year ago, now all the talk is of 1 gig and up. What's your prediction on what people will be buying a year from now?
GEOFFBW: I'll see your gig and raise you. I'll bet that next Christmas machines will have at least 2 gigs standard. Bloatware is making it impossible for us to live within our disk capacities.
JackBW: Back to Apple.
Question: Do you think Apple has a ghost of a chance to break into the business market beyond its graphics niche? Why, or why not?
AJFatNSTL: No, their market share has fallen to less than 10%, and that's too little to come back from. They are in danger of becoming a total niche player. They waited too long to open up a clone market.
GEOFFBW: The company seems to have thrown in the towel when it comes to broadening in the business market. Now they only talk of defending niches like graphics. All this changes if they get acquired -- by IBM (no news on that front -- we think it's unlikely now).
JackBW: In the scant remaining minutes, could you tell us what you personally -- not BW or NSTL -- would put together for your own ideal setup in today's market? Andy?
AJFatNSTL: Yes, 133MHz, 6 speed CD ROM, 4Mb 128 bit video card, 2Gig drive, 16Mb of memory, which by the second quarter of next year will be less than $2,500. Always buy in this order: processor (not speed but type), memory (RAM), drive space. When it hurts, buy RAM rather than processor speed.
JackBW: Take those specs to the computer store and shop with them!
GEOFFBW: I don't care about power as much as I care about data communications speed. I want a cheap cable modem. I want my data TV. I want my DTV!
JackBW: That's it for tonight. Thanks, Andy and Geoff.
AJFatNSTL: You're more than welcome. It was fun.
OnlineHost: Thanks to Andy Froning of McGraw-Hill's National Software Testing Labs, Geoff Lewis of Business Week, and all the BW Online team for this conference on the magazine's first annual Computer Buying Guide. And thanks to all of you on AOL, with apologies to any of you whose questions we didn't have time for.
If you'd like to continue the discussion, we invite you to move to the BW Online Chat Room. Or you can post comments and questions on the BW Online Message Boards (try Computers & Communications).
Transcripts of this and all other BW Online conferences are available soon after the event (look under Talk, Special Events, or Search BW, or for this one also in BW Online's Computer Room, under What's New on the opening BW Online screen).
Mark your calendars for another BW Online conference, this one on telecommuting, on Wednesday, Nov. 1 (8 pm ET, Globe). And join us in the Globe every Sunday at 9 pm ET for our weekly conference with editors and newsmakers, usually featuring a discussion of the Cover Story in the current issue of Business Week. Thanks again and goodnight!
Copyright 1995 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
