PERIPHERALS
Name Price Rating Comment Additional Info Supplier Tel Issue Page no Additional comments, notes
Drawing Tablets
Acecat II £111 lllllm Best of its kind at the price. 20x24cm, 1cm drawing area, two button pen, powered via keyboard or optional PSU Capital Electronics 0181 573 3681 17 100 recommended
Watcom Art Pad £159 lllllm A quality tablet at an affordable price. Letraset 0171 928 3411 3 130 recommended
Mice and Pointing Devices
Logitech Pilot £20 llllmm A cut above what is usually delivered with a PC. 3 buttons, 9-pin serial connector, driver software. Logitech 01344 894300 10 106
Mouseman 96 £34 lllllm Excellent drivers make the third button useful, and it's a good mouse to boot. 3 buttons, PS/2 connector, drivers for Win 3.1 and above. Logitech 01344 894300 21 126
Midi Keyboards
Music Creator Pro £85 lllllm Good value keyboard. 49 full sized keys, MIDI compatible. Evolution audio software included Evolution Electronics 01525 372621 17 109 recommended
miscellaneous
Epson GT-300 £375 lllmmm Combination fax/scanner/photocopier with filing software. 300dpi mono scanner at 4ppm, faxmodem and/or printer required. Epson 01442 611444 13 119
Kurzweil Voice 1.2 £825 llllmm A voice recognition system that really delivers the goods. 60,000 word vocabulary. Kurzweil 0171 602 4107 13 125
Orange Data Adaptor £499 lllmmm Disappointing performance, unless your software is specially configurable. Type II PC card, data comms and fax software inlcuded. Orange 0973 973973 11 115
combination hard drive/cd-rom drive Teac Combo Drive Kit £629 lllmmm A good technical solution, but not for multimedia development. Combination 4x CD-ROM drive and 540Mb hard disk. Teac UK 01923 225235 10 120
RBG converter TVCoder External £150 lllllm Neat way to get VGA output onto a TV or VCR. Supports most SVGA cards at resolutions of 640x480 or 800x600. Creative Labs 01734 344744 10 120 recommended.
videoconferencing Sharevision PC3000 £999 lllmmm Let down by complex installation and variable video image quality. uses ordinary phone line. Creative Labs 01734 344744 9 109
comms bundle Super Gem Comms Office £199 lllllm A wonderful good value idea for the home/small office. 14.4 fax/data modem with internal switching, fax software and voicemail facilities. Dataflex 0181 543 6417 6 112 recommended.
network hub Micronet NR5 £240 lllmmm Small and unobtrusive, ideal for a small network. UTP network hub, five 10Base connectors, two AI ports. MiTech Europe 01628 475599 6 116
network adaptor Etherlite Network Adaptor £59 llllmm Great for small groups but slower than Ethernet and proprietary. Parallel port networking, cables up to 32 devces via daisy chain. ODI and NDIS drivers. Grey Cell Systems 0181 902 8998 6 122
network card Etherwave PC Network Kit £199 lllmmm A simple solution, but expensive. ISA adaptor, comes with Novell Personal Netware. Farallon 0181 758 7546 4 130
touchscreen adaptor Perex Touchmate £650 lllmmm Expensive but good alternative to mouse or keyboard input. Serial adaptor. Ellinor 01734 311066 4 133
music system Korg AG-10 £340 llllmm Flexible addition to sound card for professional MIDI sound. 4Mb sounds on ROM, 32 note polyphony, software bundle. Korg 0181 427 5377 4 136
motherboard Asustek PCI/E-P54NP4 £649 lllllm Makes SMP computing available and affordable. Computer Connections 01473 232282 3 128
keyboard Natural Keyboard £69 llmmmm Comfortable for some touch typists, a no-no for the self taught. 102 keys, PS/2 connector and 5pin Din adaptor, drivers. Microsoft 01734 271000 2 136
keyboard Accord SK-6000P £70 llllmm A quality alternative to Microsoft's natural keyboard, but overpriced. Capital Electronic Developments 0181 573 3681 25 176
caller display Solwise Caller ID £45 llmmmm Basic with no benefits over free standng options. Caller display unit with Windows Software. Solwise 01482 473899 18 98
keyboard Softkey Butterfly £90 lllmmm Well designed and useful for those worried about RSI. Ergonomic keyboard, integrated trackball option, serial/PS2. Capital Electronics 0181 573 3681 18 98
mouse Gyropoint Desk £119 lllmmm Suitable for presentations, expensive for everyday use. Serial mouse, works in mid air. Ideal Hardware 0181 286 5000 18 99
monitor magnifier Pro-Magna £120 lllmmm A rasonable and cheap solution though not suited to heavy DTP or graphics use. for 14in or 15in monitors with anti radiation, anti glare and anti static coating. Structured Wholesaling 0171 431 5423 21 126
sound enhancement Vivid3D Plus £43 lllllm Small, innocuous box that enhances audio in a pseudo surround sound fashion. Bull and Bear 0171 937 7733 23 152
wavetable MIDI Casion GZ-50M £170 llllmm Expensive but rugged external MIDI sound module. Wavetable MIDI synth module with 128 instruments, ten drum kits. Casio 0181 450 9131 23 153
pda US Robotics Pilot 5000 £297 llllmm Lacking high end features, but a good electronic notepad. Graffiti handwriting recognition, diary, phone book, to do list, memo pad, 160x160 LCD screen. US Robotics 0800 225252 24 169
pda Sharp ZR-5800 £451 lllmmm While fairly powerful the machine is overpriced. Diary, contact manager, datanase, word processor, 2Mb ram, 320x240 LCD screen, infrared data transfer. Sharp UK 0800 262958 25 174

Last Update: 14/10/96

Name: PC Pro