Play it safe: Don't purchase a DVD-equipped PC that uses
software-based MPEG-2 decoding.
zdnet.com
PCs Take The Fast
Track
(Continued)
Originally published in the October 1998 issue
Drive Ways
Just as you can't assume that 64MB of
memory will suffice for the life of your
computer, don't assume that a 4GB or 6GB
hard drive will survive the inevitable increase in
application size. Some applications now
require a 300MB installation, and with
DVD-ROM entering the picture, expect that
figure to jump to 500MB and beyond. If you can
pay $100 to $300 to upgrade to a 10GB to
16GB drive, it might be the best money you'll
spend. That size might seem ridiculously large,
but a 3GB drive seemed equally far-fetched just
two years ago.
Most midrange and high-priced desktops
include an EIDE hard drive, usually supporting
the Ultra DMA spec (also called Ultra ATA),
which should satisfy most purposes. If you're
working with large image, video, or audio files,
or plan to run Windows NT, consider stepping
up to a SCSI drive for additional throughput and
more robust performance when multitasking.
Ultra2 SCSI drives furnish a maximum transfer
rate of 80MB/sec, compared with 16.6MB/sec
and 33.3MB/sec for standard EIDE and Ultra
DMA drives, respectively. However, you will pay
a steep price for the extra speed--SCSI drives
can cost as much as 10 cents a megabyte, as
opposed to 3 cents a megabyte for EIDE
drives. Next year, the performance gap should
narrow between EIDE and SCSI hard
drives--Ultra ATA/66 drives will be able move
data as fast as 66MB/sec.
And let's not forget optical storage. You'll definitely want a CD-ROM or
DVD-ROM drive; the latter can read CD-ROMs, but not as fast as the fastest
CD-ROM drives. In its favor, a DVD-ROM drive will allow you to play DVD
movies on your system. DVD-ROM software titles are still scarce, but more will
be available by the end of the year. When purchasing a system with a
DVD-ROM drive, be sure to ask whether the system has MPEG-2 hardware
support or if it uses a software driver to decode the MPEG-2 video. A software
driver may be able to provide adequate MPEG-2 video playback when combined
with a fast processor, but there won't be a lot of processor power left for other
CPU-intensive tasks. Also, a software driver might not be able to effectively
decode the MPEG-2 video and provide full Digital Dolby surround-sound audio
at the same time. Play it safe: Don't purchase a DVD-equipped PC that uses
software-based MPEG-2 decoding.
Keep in mind that DVD still suffers from several drawbacks. Most important,
several rewritable-DVD formats are currently jockeying for position, including
DVD-RAM (2GB per disc side, supported by the DVD Forum), DVD+RW (3GB
per side, supported by HP, Philips, and Sony Electronics), and DVD-R/W
(3.95GB per side, supported by Pioneer New Media Technologies). Some of
these drives can't read standard DVD-ROMs, so you should definitely ask
about the drive's compatible formats before you buy.
If you want to keep it fast and simple, opt for a CD-ROM drive instead, with a
minimum transfer rate of 24x. Remember that any rating beyond 16x is a
maximum rating--it's not a throughput that can be sustained--and will have more
of an effect on performance for copying files and installing software than running
games or training applications. Also consider a CD-Recordable (CD-R) or
CD-Rewritable (CD-RW) drive, which will let you copy data to write-once or
rewritable discs. Almost all CD-R and CD-RW drives are able to read
CD-ROMs, but ask to be sure.
Extra-large hard drives can be an extra-large headache when the time comes to
back up your data. For example, some models of the Dell Dimension XPS
R400 ship with a 16.8GB Ultra ATA hard drive, which will not fit on most
backup tapes. Using two or more tapes makes it difficult to perform automatic
overnight backups. Even DAT tapes can't handle some of today's larger hard
drives. Look for new generations of tape formats that promise to break through
the 100GB barrier, including the 20GB DDS-4 (essentially an improved DAT), a
50GB version of Sony's Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT) format, and--in 1999--a
new architecture named Linear Tape Open (LTO). |
