SHOPPERS SHOULD STUDY COMPUTERS

KNOWING MEGABYTES FROM MEGAHERTZ CAN GO A LONG WAY TOWARD TAILORING MACHINE TO INDIVIDUAL NEEDS, EXPERTS SAY

Published: Monday, November 20, 1995
Section: WEEKLY BUSINESS
Page: 6

By L.A. LOREK Business Writer

With computer prices falling and technology advancing rapidly, Bill Steinmetz of Pompano Beach decided this was the time to buy a new home computer.

For $3,000, he bought a Macintosh PC with a CD-ROM and color printer. It lets him run both IBM Windows 95 and Apple programs so he can do spreadsheets and word processing for work and his children can use it for desktop publishing, graphics and research.

"My kids are going to have fun with it," Steinmetz said.

This holiday season is a prime time for computer buying. This year, a record 9.4 million consumers will buy new home computers. Many will be first-time buyers. Millions more are current PC owners like Cathy and Chris Krueger of New York who own a home computer but are looking to buy a newer model.

"The newer computers have faster components with more features and they can run more programs," Cathy Krueger said.

Other consumers face the dilemma of whether to upgrade their existing PC or buy a new system. The ones that upgrade will search the store shelves and computer catalogs looking for bigger computer disk drives, more memory chips, better sound cards, faster modems and other gizmos for their aging PCs.

By the end of the year, an estimated 40 percent of all homes will have a PC, up from 33 percent in 1994, according to the Electronic Industries Association, a trade group based in Washington, D.C.

"The home market will drive growth for the PC industry in the United States over the next five years," said Philippe de Marcillac, spokesman for Dataquest, a San Jose, Calif.,-based market research firm that tracks computer trends. "The home PC boom will open up a whole new set of challenges for PC makers who will have to deal with low price points, which home users demand, and provide support that meets consumer expectations."

Strong computer sales have also spurred a boom in the sales of computer peripherals. Today, about 27 percent of the homes with PCs have a laser printer. And about 10 percent of U.S. homes can tap into computer bulletin boards via a modem and cruise the information superhighway.

The good news for PC buyers this season is you will get more for your buck, according to computer retailers. This year's models have 50 percent more disk storage space and are nearly twice as fast as last year's models. To entice buyers, PC makers have also thrown in lots of extras such as up to $1,200 worth of preloaded software.

Prices for computers this season range from as little as $1,200 for a complete system that will get you started or $2,000 to $3,000 for a multimedia system with all the bells and whistles.

So if you want to buy a PC, where do you start?

Here is some advice from experts:-- Decide what you want to do with the PC.

Do you want to surf the Internet's World Wide Web, produce a newsletter, use it for office work or children's homework?

The applications determine whether you need a high-speed modem or a faster microprocessor. You need a high-speed modem to cruise the information superhighway and download files. You might need a fast microprocessor to do a lot of number crunching and spreadsheet work.

"People need to figure out what software they want to run and work backward," said Howard Fellman, Director of the PC Professor, -- Think about future use.

In these fast-paced times, a computer can have a short life span. Models from two years ago have already become outdated.

That's what the Kruegers discovered. They bought a Macintosh Performa 400 two years ago for $600 and have since added a CD-ROM drive and a modem. But they still figure it would cost $700 to upgrade the memory they need to run Adobe's photoshop computer software program. And their PC's processor is too slow, Chris Krueger said.

This time, the Kruegers are planning to spend between $2,000 and $2,500 to buy a PowerPC Macintosh with a 75 megahertz processor, 8 megabytes of memory and quad-speed CD-ROM drive.

Lots of consumers make the mistake of either overbuying or underbuying, Fellman with PC Professor said.

"The ones that buy the biggest, most powerful computer to keep track of their stamp collection is like my grandmother buying a Porsche when she's only going to drive 55," Fellman said. "We also see people who buy an older computer and then find they can't run any current software programs."

A basic PC is OK if you only want to do word processing. But for most of today's great software programs you need a sound card, speakers, high-quality monitor and a CD-ROM drive that allows you to play video and stereo-quality sound. Make sure to get one with quad-speed CD-it has become the standard. It's great for playing back reference materials such as encyclopedias, and also for games.

Also ask the speed of the computer - how many megahertz.  It's similar to a car; it determines how many miles per hour the computer runs at, Fellman said. 

Another choice consumers face is whether to get an Apple Macintosh, an IBM or an IBM compatible. Apple has about 10 percent of the PC market whereas IBM and IBM compatible computers have captured the rest.

More software applications exist for IBM computers and Windows 95 has made them easier to use. Apple created the Macintosh so that computer users could use them without being technology experts and Microsoft's Windows 95 is fashioned a lot like an Apple.

The main difference between an IBM compatible and a Macintosh is their operating systems. An operating system is the software that controls the execution of all the other programs. An IBM machine runs on a system known as MS-DOS or Microsoft Disk Operating System. The Apple is based on a GUI or graphical user interface system.

Apple's system lets users do more than one task at a time. It doesn't require operators to remember as many commands as MS-DOS. All they need to do is point and click to call up files or execute commands. Microsoft Corp. sells an IBM compatible GUI called Microsoft Windows that works similarly to Macintosh's GUI.

One of the advantages to having an IBM or an IBM clone is the amount of software available to run on those systems. However, new conversion hardware exists that allows Apple Macintosh to run Windows programs.

Traditionally, people use the Apple Macintosh for graphics and desktop publishing. They use IBM and IBM compatibles for word processing and number crunching.

Lots of software applications eat up memory and 8 megabytes of random access memory, or RAM, has become the standard. The more RAM you have, the more programs and files you can have open at once.

If you're planning on running Windows 95 and software applications that run on that operating system, you will want at least 8 megs of RAM and (more) is even better. If you've got an older PC and are planning on upgrading your RAM memory, count on spending about $50 per meg of RAM.

Copyright 1995, SUN-SENTINEL