Faster Computer Won’t Wow You

I’ve been cruising in the PC fast lane for the last few weeks, and though I like the way it feels, I can’t say that it’s changed my life.

Gateway, Compaq and Micron each sent me their latest and fastest PCs with an Intel Pentium II microprocessor running at 300 megahertz. Although the machines vary in features, each comes with the industry’s fastest microprocessor, plenty of hard disk space and more than enough bells and whistles to keep even this jaded reviewer happy. I’ll get to the details in a moment, but first I’d like to debunk some myths about PC performance.

One of the things you get with a high-end PC is speed. And although all of these machines are indeed fast, none had any appreciable impact on how long it takes me to do my work.

That might not be the case for people who do computer-aided design, work with complex graphics or crunch very large databases. But, like most people, I use my computer mostly for writing in Microsoft Word, surfing the Internet in Netscape or Internet Explorer, or sending and receiving e-mail. I spend some time balancing my checkbook with Quicken, and once in a while touch up photographs using programs like Adobe PhotoDeluxe or Microsoft Photo Editor.

I ran these programs on all three Pentium II machines, as well as on my old 200-MHz “classic” Pentium system that doesn’t have Intel’s souped-up MMX chip. With all of these tasks except photo editing, I needed a stopwatch to prove to myself that the 300-MHz Pentium II machines are faster than the 200-MHz standard Pentium.

There were differences, but they really aren’t worth writing home about. And if I were to write home about them, the process wouldn’t be any faster. A faster PC doesn’t let you type faster, doesn’t improve the time it takes to print a letter and, if you plan to send it via e-mail, does nothing to speed up your modem. The real bottlenecks in personal computing have little to do with the speed of the computer itself--it’s the operator and all the peripheral devices that affect speed.

Adding random access memory can often have a bigger impact than a faster central processing unit. If you’re running Windows 95 or any Macintosh operating system with 16 megabytes of memory or less, you will get a noticeable improvement if you upgrade to 32 MB.

Even with photo-editing software, the difference in performance between the top-of-the-line Pentium II and the lower-end test machine, though significant, wasn’t exactly dramatic. A photo manipulation task that took 11.3 seconds to complete on the 200-MHz system took 5.5 seconds on the faster machine. That’s about twice as fast, but it’s still less than 6 seconds.

The casual user of a scanner or digital camera who edited a few photos a week would have to be pretty finicky to justify the extra cost of a Pentium II system. However, a professional photographer or serious amateur could easily justify the extra investment because that person would probably use more sophisticated and demanding software, such as Adobe Photoshop, and spend more time manipulating images.

Admittedly, my comparison machine is hardly slow. It wasn’t that long ago that PC power users salivated over 200-MHz Pentium systems. But today they’re near the bottom of the heap for new PCs. The 200-MHz machine I compared the Pentium II systems against has less horsepower than Hewlett-Packard’s new $799 Pavilion 3260 system, which has a 200-MHz MMX Pentium, 32 MB of memory, a 2.1-gigabyte hard disk drive, a 16x CD-ROM drive and a 56-kpbs modem.

I’m not saying there’s no justification for buying a high-end Pentium II system. The more powerful machine you buy today, the longer it will be before you’ll need to replace it. Eventually, the software industry will develop programs that are optimized for more powerful CPUs.

There’s a saying in the PC industry that goes, “What Andy giveth, Bill taketh away.” Andrew Grove and Intel are always coming up with faster CPUs, but Bill Gates’ Microsoft and its competitors are just as busy coming up with software that demands increasingly more powerful hardware platforms. That will continue to be true.

However, because of the enormous popularity of the sub-$1,000 PC and the huge installed base of older PCs, just about any machine you buy today will remain useful for at least two or three years. By that time, the state of the art will be something we can only dream about today, so either way, you’ll want a new machine sometime early in the next millennium.

Aside from speed, the nice thing about high-end systems is that they typically come with larger hard drives, faster video cards, more memory and more expansion slots. So when you spend $2,000 to $3,000 on a Pentium II system, you’re getting more than just a machine with a faster CPU. You also typically get 64 MB of memory (useful for running Windows 95), an 8-gigabyte hard drive, and a 32-speed CD-ROM drive or a DVD drive that can read multi-gigabyte digital videodiscs as well as standard CD-ROMs. These high-end systems come with fast graphic adapters that fit into the new AGP (accelerated graphic port) slot for the fastest possible performance.

Oh, and as for those loaner machines from Gateway, Micron and Compaq, all three are super fast, but the Micron’s fan makes too much noise. The Compaq is sleek, quiet and goes to sleep when it’s not in use, so you don’t have to turn it off to save energy. The Gateway model comes with a new keyboard that lets you control the CD, speaker volume and other features without having to fool around with software.

All three are dream machines, but Compaq’s new $1,999 Presario 4660 has got to be the best deal in town, at least for the moment. The monitor costs extra, but it comes with 64 MB of RAM, a DVD drive, a 4-MB ATI graphics adapter that plugs into an AGP port, a 56-kbps modem and a whopping 8-gigabyte hard drive. A similarly equipped machine from Gateway or Micron would cost about $2,650, about $2,410 from Dell.

Whatever you do, shop around for the latest features and prices. PC prices fluctuate like those for vegetables at the grocery store, and companies are always introducing new models.

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Larry Magid can be reached at magid@latimes.com. His Web page is at https://www.larrysworld.com, or at keyword LarryMagid on AOL.

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The Top 10 / Buying Online

PC hardware and software are the top-selling products online. A look at the hottest sellers via electronic commerce:

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Rank Product 1997 sales, in millions 1. PC hardware and software $863 2. Travel 654 3. Entertainment 298 4. Books and music 156 5. Gifts, flowers and greetings 149 6. Apparel and footwear 92 7. Food and beverages 90 8. Jewelry 38 9. Sporting goods 20 10. Consumer electronics 19

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Source: Forrester Research Inc.