With all the excitement over low cost PC's, I thought it best to talk about buying one. I'm going to look at three price points: $1000, $2000 and $3000. Let's get to it.
For $1000, I assumed the only way to go would be a " white box " computer: something that is built at a local computer store. Let me stress there's nothing wrong with these PC's; Microsoft believes 40 % of the computer market is made up of white box computer dealers. My computers at home are one's I've built myself. Back to the topic at hand: I assembled a list of parts and prices for the low end PC and came in at $1200. Then I started to shop around for what could be had for the same money or less from the big boys: IBM, Dell, Compaq. I located two outstanding deals for under my mark of $1200: a Compaq Presario 2294 ( can't find it on their site www.compaq.ca ) for $1170 and the eMachines 333k ( see www.e4me.com/infocentral/product_tower333k.html ) for $980. Both come with 15" monitors, speakers and a reasonable software bundle. What sets these retail machines apart from the white boxes is the national warranty and software bundle. You can't call the mom and pop store at 11:30 PM when Billy crashed the computer and lost his big assignment that's due the next day. Plus companies buy large numbers of software titles for bundling; your local shop just can't get that kind of pricing. For more information check out my web site at www.globalserve.net/~tbabble/Projects/projects.html and see what's offered. I'll post the specs on the Compaq machine. For this price range, keep in mind that these are not gaming machines: these are introductory computers that are meant for the internet, homework and personal financing. For gaming machines see next months feature.
A few new Playstation games have crossed my path, and MLB 2000 has made it's mark. I'm not a fan of baseball games, but I can appreciate what makes a great product. The graphics are outstanding, the play is straight forward and I have to say it'll keep you coming back. Check out www.989studios.com/pages/mlb/index.html for full details. This is THE baseball game to have, bar none.
If you're a fan of real time strategy, but find yourself getting tired of the same old thing, check out Myth II from Bungie. This game is still real time, but you control a set number of players on the battlefield: no building huge squads and throwing them at your opponent. You start with so many troops, and must win the level with them to carry on. The graphics are quite smooth, with nice sound quality and a pleasing multimedia effect. The controls take some getting used to, as they don't conform to the standard real time strategy's. It's definitely worth a look, so grab a demo at www.bungie.com and see for yourself.
by Scott VanderPloeg
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