Component of the Moment Awards

Yes, I know it's an awful title. It was late one night and I thought it was so awful it was great. It probably won't survive this site going public, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Introduction

I get a lot of calls from people building their own PCs asking what I think of some motherboard or other. It's not always easy to say whether one component is better than another. You really have to consider how a part will fit into the system as a whole.

The best answer I can give to a general query is to say what I'd choose if I was about to spend my money on one. This means that the quality must be such that it's worth having - after that the most cost effective part wins because I'm basically quite tight when it comes to splashing money about on computers. Because the market is moving so fast, this can vary from week to week.

Hence Component of the Moment - what I'd choose if I were to build myself a new PC tomorrow.

The Bits

Processor Intel Celeron or AMD K6
Motherboard None specific, but Air have a dual P-II which looks fun
Hard Disk IBM ATA-66 Hard Disk range
Monitor Samsung Syncmaster 15GLI, 17GLI or 17GLSI or Iiyama Vision Master Pro 17 (their most expensive one), depending on budget. The more you spend the better the picture with these.
Video card ASUS GeForce
Going back to 1997 I was keen on the Matrox Millennium II , but things have really moved on since then. Riva TNT cards have tended to be ahead of the pack, with the stakes being upped every three months. The latest chipset is the GeForce, and the ASUS card stands out because it has video in and out connectors (i.e. TV out) which has to set it apart from the rest. I've yet to get my paws on one to make sure though.
Sound Board Creative Labs SoundBlaster PCI-64 does everything you're reasonably going to want, including full-duplex. This is useful for video conferencing. However, you don't want video conferencing because it just doesn't work by any sensible definition of the word. The SoundBlaster PCI-64 does work, like it's predecessor the SoundBlaster 16. It's also compatible with everything. Why push your luck?
CD-ROM drive Cheap CD-ROMs are useless - try DVD on SCSI
CD-R Teac CD-R56S-450
Removable disk SyQuest SparQ drive
Tape backup Iomega Ditto Parallel - just about. You're probably better off with a HP Surestore DAT24 drive, but these tend to cost more than the desktop PC they'd be backing up.
Low-cost SCSI Iomega Zip Zoom card
PCI SCSI Advansys 940 - faster and much cheaper and, in my experience, less hassle than the Adaptec equivalent. Why pay more?
Scanner I used to like the Novotech Stantak-2c but it appears to have had a few reliability problems over time. Right now I'd go for a USB scanner, but which one?
Colour Printer Epson Stylus 1200 (was HP DeskJet 850 in 1998)
Laser Printer Kyocera FS600
Modem Jury out on this one, waiting for V.90 to become a standard. Not a good time to buy a new high-end modem!

When I get around to it, this section will contain reviews of the best bits and pieces together with general notes on the items in question. The plan was to be able to access them by clicking on the category or the specific item in the table above. However, I think the table looks pretty ugly so I might well think of something else before this site goes public.

Return Computer Answers Index

Processor	Intel Celeron or AMD K6
Motherboard	None specific, but Air have a dual P-II which looks fun
Hard Disk	IBM ATA-66 Hard Disk range
Monitor	Samsung Syncmaster 15GLI, 17GLI or 17GLSI or Iiyama Vision Master Pro 17 (their most expensive one), depending on budget. The more you spend the better the picture with these.
Video card	ASUS GeForce Going back to 1997 I was keen on the Matrox Millennium II , but things have really moved on since then. Riva TNT cards have tended to be ahead of the pack, with the stakes being upped every three months. The latest chipset is the GeForce, and the ASUS card stands out because it has video in and out connectors (i.e. TV out) which has to set it apart from the rest. I've yet to get my paws on one to make sure though.
Sound Board	Creative Labs SoundBlaster PCI-64 does everything you're reasonably going to want, including full-duplex. This is useful for video conferencing. However, you don't want video conferencing because it just doesn't work by any sensible definition of the word. The SoundBlaster PCI-64 does work, like it's predecessor the SoundBlaster 16. It's also compatible with everything. Why push your luck?
CD-ROM drive	Cheap CD-ROMs are useless - try DVD on SCSI
CD-R	Teac CD-R56S-450
Removable disk	SyQuest SparQ drive
Tape backup	Iomega Ditto Parallel - just about. You're probably better off with a HP Surestore DAT24 drive, but these tend to cost more than the desktop PC they'd be backing up.
Low-cost SCSI	Iomega Zip Zoom card
PCI SCSI	Advansys 940 - faster and much cheaper and, in my experience, less hassle than the Adaptec equivalent. Why pay more?
Scanner	I used to like the Novotech Stantak-2c but it appears to have had a few reliability problems over time. Right now I'd go for a USB scanner, but which one?
Colour Printer	Epson Stylus 1200 (was HP DeskJet 850 in 1998)
Laser Printer	Kyocera FS600
Modem	Jury out on this one, waiting for V.90 to become a standard. Not a good time to buy a new high-end modem!