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