Finishing touches: Peripherals and portables
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb047890 |
| Pages | 107-126 |
| Date | 01 February 1993 |
| Published date | 01 February 1993 |
| Author | Walt Crawford |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
The Trailing Edge: 16
FINISHING TOUCHES:
PERIPHERALS AND PORTABLES
Walt Crawford
It takes more than a computer, hard disk,
diskettes, display, keyboard, and software to
make a fully productive computer system. In this
article, the author discusses the finishing
touches: some of the peripherals (excluding
printers) that you will want to consider for your
new or existing personal computer.
You might even consider the "ultimate
peripheral," a portable computer. The second
section of this article divides portable computers
into their basic categories, discusses the premium
you pay for portability, and notes the greater
importance of vendor survival for portable
computers.
The first quarter of 1993 seemed unusually rich
in noteworthy articles in PC magazines. That
may be at least partially because PC
Sources
has
increased its editorial scope and partially because
the author is now including several Windows-
specific magazines (one new) in the mix.
Take one metal case, one power supply, one
motherboard with
a
CPU, several megabytes of RAM,
several adapter slots, and support chips. Add two
diskette
drives,
a
hard disk
and
controller,
some
ports,
a display adapter, and a display. Mix together in
appropriate
proportions,
add software
to
taste,
and there
you have it: the recipe for a personal computer.
Not
quite.
Or, rather, not completely. You prob-
ably want some "other stuff"—finishing touches to
make the system satisfy your own needs more com-
pletely. In the jargon, those are peripherals: they're
peripheral to the primary computer system, although
possibly quite central to your work.
While each type of peripheral could use a full
article (and such articles are commonly cited in "Notes
on the Literature"), this article provides brief
notes
to
help you put the finishing touches on your computer
system.
WHAT'S OUT THERE?
There are PC peripherals I've never heard of
and
would not quite understand. If something creates or
uses data or can be controlled electronically, chances
are there's a peripheral for it somewhere.
This article notes a few common categories: mo-
dems,
pointing
devices,
keyboards, scanners, CD-ROM
drives, backup devices, surge suppressors, and network
adapters.
Trailing Edge
#15
included a brief discussion
of displays; printers will be discussed in
a
later article.
Even sticking with the most common categories of
peripherals, it's easy to spend more on these finishing
touches than you do on the computer
itself.
Crawford is
president of
the
Library and Information
Technology Association (LITA) and is a senior analyst
in the Development Division of The Research Libraries
Group, Inc. (RLG).
—
FINISHING
TOUCHES
—
ISSUE 42
—
11:2 (1993) 107
The longest section of this brief overview deals
with "the ultimate peripherals": portable computers,
which extend your computing environment beyond the
desktop. That
long
section
relates
directly
to
"Looking
Back #2," which will appear in a forthcoming issue
of
Library
Hi Tech.
CONNECTING: MODEMS AND FAX/MODEMS
One of the early "Common Sense Personal
Computing" articles discussed modems, including the
difficult question of when it made sense to spring for
expensive
1,200bps
modems rather than reasonably
priced 300bps modems. Back then in 1985, a good
300bps modem cost $80-$280, while a
1,200bps
mo-
dem ran
$300-$700.
Conservative buyers would spring
for the full $700, for a Hayes Smartmodem 1200B.
You could even buy a 2,400bps modem at around
$1,000, but they might not be compatible with each
other: CCITT V.22bis was a
recommended
standard,
not yet adopted.
Eight years later, there's a simple answer to the
question "Should you buy
a
300bps or a
1,200bps
mo-
dem?"—but it's not
an
either/or question in
1993.
The
answer today is No. Neither speed makes any sense
for a new modem, and I'm not sure you can even find
a
1,200bps
modem in the PC marketplace unless it's
a discontinued model or some software maker throws
it in for free. Some PC makers do throw in modems
for free, sometimes so they can use remote diagnostic
software if something
goes wrong with
your computer.
If they do throw
in
such modems, chances are the speed
will be 2,400bps, quite possibly with 9,600bps fax
capabilities.
The Need for Speed
Your modem choice today boils down to three
speeds: 2,400bps, 9,600bps, or 14,400bps. Or, to use
the international (CCITT) standards that have made
high-speed telecommunications so much easier in the
past few years, V.22bis (2,400bps), V.32 (9,600bps),
or V.32bis (14,400bps).1
I believe the choices are relatively simple:
• If you're on
a
tight budget
and
you're pretty sure
you won't use telecommunications very much,
then (and only then) you might consider a
2,400bps modem. Don't pay more than $100-
$120,
perhaps up to $150 with 9,600bps fax,
V.42bis support, and
a
good software
bundle.
You
can pay significantly
less;
Hayes sells models for
$80 or less (under its own name and through
Practical Peripherals), and I've seen 2,400bps
modems for as little as $40.
• If you expect to use telecommunications at all
frequently, start at 9,600bps—and make sure the
modem and software provide V.42 and V.42bis
capabilities. You'll probably pay $200-$350 for
a name-brand 9,600bps unit, possibly less, and
possibly a lot more.
• For most users these days, the top of the line is
14,400bps, and you can expect
to
pay $300-$700
or more for
a
top-name unit (e.g., Hayes, Practi-
cal Peripherals, Intel)—but I've seen reputable
name-brand units for as little as $195 including
software.
Do you need 14,400bps telecommunica-
tions—which can actually mean close to 57,000bps in
some cases, after data compression? Certainly not to
type
e-mail
or look at it
online;
you can't type or read
at anywhere near that speed. For that matter, as this
is written, there are very few places to which you can
connect at 14,400bps.
But that's changing, and in truth high-speed tele-
communications isn't about interactive text typing and
display.
It's about file downloading and
(in some
cases)
graphics. When people casually request PostScript-
formatted documents across the Internet or other
networks, where
a
simple document might
be
1,500,000
characters, file transfer speed makes
a
big difference.
And, as you should know by now, that full-color
picture that's worth a thousand words is likely to take
several
hundred
thousand characters to transmit.
I think the real choice is between 2,400bps and
14,400bps:
the price difference between 9,600bps and
14,400bps doesn't seem adequate to worry about the
intermediate
step.
And remember, when you're looking
at the exorbitant
prices
that some online services charge
for high-speed connections, your software
can
instruct
your modem to run slower than its maximum speed
to get the lower rates, and those surcharges are likely
to be temporary.
Readers with
long
memories will
find
this discus-
sion quite a change from my earlier comments. Well,
times have changed, and so have
modems.
Early high-
speed units tended to work best (or only) with brand-
mates at both
ends.
The
2,400bps modem of
1985
cost
as much
as
the 14,400bps modem of today, and almost
certainly didn't include as good quality software.
Reliability was a serious issue in 1985; it's much less
significant these days.
What brand to buy? You'll get the lowest prices
either on house brands (which, from your PC vendor,
may be excellent deals) or no-name brands in super-
108 LIBRARY HI TECH — WALT CRAWFORD —
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