Sometimes a new PC will be delivered with parts missing, or incorrect ones fitted. Martin Walker breaks down a typical specification into byte‑sized chunks, and shows you how to find out what's actually inside the case.
When you buy a new computer, it can be difficult to get to grips with everything at once; unless you know where to look, it's hard to check that what you actually receive is what appears on the invoice. It's not unknown for a PC to arrive with an odd component missing (8Mb of memory instead of 16Mb) or a wrong part accidentally installed (a different size of hard drive, for instance). A full check will only take a few minutes, and it will be easier to get the problem sorted out if you discover it within the first few days of ownership. Much of the information can be found on the initial page of text data that appears courtesy of your BIOS during the initial boot‑up of the PC. When this is on screen, use the Pause key (above the cursor keys) to give you time to read everything. Pressing any other key allows you to continue.
It is also useful to re‑check this data after any upgrades have been fitted, to ensure that they are being recognised by the system. For instance, if you upgrade with unsuitable types of memory for a particular machine (you should use a reputable supplier who can advise you properly), these checks will highlight installation problems. For instance, a friend of mine upgraded from 16Mb to 32Mb of memory, but his BIOS still insisted that only 24Mb were present. This turned out to be because one of the two SIMM boards supplied contained slower RAM chips — a phone call resulted in a quick replacement being sent.
For hard disk recording, it is often useful to know the make and model of your drive. Unfortunately, the only way to determine this is to physically remove the cover of your PC and look inside at the drive label. Even then, if the maker's name is fairly easy to find, the model number may not be as obvious. This information tends to be useful only when you're telephoning sequencer help lines in case of performance problems, or if you need to find the performance figures to check against software requirements — unless you're just paranoid, and want to check that you have been supplied with what you paid for. Knowing the model number of the drive allows you to find out technical data such as Average Access Time from the manufacturer's web site, which can be useful when you're choosing a MIDI/Audio sequencer.
Finally, when buying a new monitor, remember that it's the diagonal dimension that determines the rated size. However, not all the tube can be used for display purposes — some will be under the edge of the casing, and not all monitor screens allow you to use all the visible tube area — some still have a significant black border beyond the active display. If you are buying a machine with such a display from a high‑street shop, ask to see the viewing area increased to a border of half an inch or less on each of its four sides. If this is not possible, don't accept promises that it can all be changed by software settings — some 15‑inch monitors end up no bigger than 14‑inch ones, but you will still pay more for them.
Processor Speed & Type
The speed will be shown on the BIOS screen, along with the manufacturer's name. If the speed is not what you expected, then either the supplied processor is the wrong one, or the machine has had its internal jumper settings incorrectly adjusted. Unless you are confident fiddling about inside PCs, this is something that is best sorted out by the manufacturer. Cyrix chips are rated by their performance comparative to the nearest equivalent Pentium, and in fact a P166+ runs at 133MHz rather than 166MHz, so in this case don't worry if your machine shows a different clock speed. 'MMX Upgradeable' is often a crafty ploy by retailers to make you think initially that you're getting a faster MMX processor, when in fact it simply means that you get the standard Pentium, but can pay more money in the future and buy the real thing as a direct plug‑in replacement (which also means writing off the existing one). If you actually have an MMX processor fitted, the BIOS screen should normally show this.
Keyboard, Mouse & Windows 95
The difference between the Windows 95 and the standard keyboard is the three extra keys (one on the left, two on the right of the spacebar). You'll find more information about these in May '97's PC Notes. A UK keyboard is one that has a pound (£) sign appearing above the '3' key, and several other keys are in different places from the American version. You are unlikely to be offered anything but a UK keyboard in this country. The mouse will either have two or three buttons — in my experience, very few people ever use the extra middle button (or even find a suitable three‑button driver to use with it).
The Windows 95 operating system may be provided already installed, but even if it is, insist that that the Windows 95 CD‑ROM is also supplied. If, for whatever reason, you ever have to re‑install Windows 95, you will need it. Sometimes the installation data will be copied as an image of the entire CD‑ROM onto your hard drive, so that installation can be carried out without the separate disk, but ask for it even so: it's better to be safe than sorry!
Case
The box in which your PC components sit can be supplied in several varieties. Desktop cases, as you might suspect, normally sit horizontally on the desktop with the monitor screen perched on top, and are very popular. PC musicians may prefer to opt for a mini tower case (normally about the same price). This stands vertically, and is often placed at the side of the monitor on the desk, but the advantage for musicians is that it is easy to place on the floor, or under a desk, where the noise of the internal cooling‑fan will be far less obtrusive. Midi tower systems are slightly larger, allowing more individual disk drives to be accommodated, and the Full Tower system case is larger again — if you anticipate fitting multiple removable drives for hard disk recording, have a look at these options before buying.
Hard Disk Drive Size
The hard disk drives supplied nowadays tend to start at about 1.5Gb, and this is adequate for many people. If you want to try audio hard disk recording then a better alternative might be a 2 or 2.5Gb version — when you're buying a complete system, the price increase will often only be a few tens of pounds. To find out the size of your drive, double‑click on the Your Computer icon on the Windows 95 desktop. You will see an entry labelled 'Hard Disk (C:)'. Clicking on this will show you the amount of free space, as well as total capacity, but for a more graphic representation, click with your right mouse button on the hard disk icon and then select 'Properties' to see a bar chart with the same information. Normally, drives will be of the EIDE (Extended Integrated Drive Electronics) type. If you have one of the alternative SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) devices, their size can be checked in exactly the same way.
RAM & Cache Size
The BIOS screen will also tell you what memory has been installed in your computer. This will be in the form 'Base Memory: 640K' (the full amount of the bottom 1Mb that is available, as the remaining 384K is overlaid by the BIOS), and 'Extended Memory: 15360K' for a 16Mb machine, and 31744K for a 32Mb machine). If your memory is of the EDO type then most BIOS entries will show this. Mine displays 'EDO RAM in Banks: 1, 2' showing that both pairs of 8Mb SIMMs are of the EDO variety.
The processor contains a small amount of fast memory called an internal cache, to speed up the retrieval of recently used information. A secondary cache, sitting between this and the main RAM, can result in some spectacular performance boosts. Pipeline Burst cache memory is used in conjunction with the EDO type of main RAM. The BIOS screen will again show the amount currently installed in your machine, along the lines of 'Cache Memory: 512K'. The figure will be either 256 or 512K; the latter gives you slightly better performance. Often 256K is hard‑wired to the motherboard, and an additional 256K supplied on a small plug‑in circuit known as a COAST (Cache On A STick). If your machine only shows 256K when you've paid for the full 512K, this extra board has not been fitted.
Graphics Card
The amount of memory on the graphics card (used exclusively for drawing the screen) determines the maximum resolution and maximum number of colours available. For music use, with a 14‑ or 15‑inch screen, most people will be happy with a screen of 800 by 600 pixels in size, with 256 colours. Up to 800 by 600 at 64,000 colours, or 1024 by 768 displays at 256 colours can be achieved with only 1Mb on board. If you need a higher‑resolution display (1280 by 1024 is readable on a 17‑inch screen), or more simultaneous colours, then a 2Mb card is a better proposition: this will manage 1024 by 768 at 65,000 colours. Normally the graphic drivers supplied with the card will check on RAM amount, and any resolutions higher than those that can be supported will either not appear at all, or be 'greyed out' in any display menu. Make sure that both the graphics card and the monitor screen support your desired resolution at a minimum of 75Hz refresh rate. This means that the entire screen will be redrawn at least 75 times a second, which results in less flicker, so less eyestrain and fewer potential headaches.
CD‑ROM & Floppy Drive
The speeds of CD‑ROM drives are referenced to the data‑transfer rate of a standard single‑speed CD audio drive (150K per second). So a typical 8x speed drive should have a theoretical speed of 1.2Mb per second, and a 12x drive of 1.8Mb per second. I say theoretical, because many of the higher‑speed drives occupy your computer's processor 60% or more of the time in shifting this data elsewhere, such as into graphics RAM to appear as on‑screen images. In the real world, these figures may not be achieved all of the time. Since many CD‑ROM drives show no front‑panel model numbers, you might like to check that the actual speed is as stated, using one of the many testers available.
All floppy‑disk drives currently supplied are of the 3.5‑inch 1.44Mb variety. The only thing to watch out for when you first buy a machine is that the floppy drive will successfully read disks written on a previous drive. Sometimes one or the other will be slightly out of alignment, and it's far easier to get a replacement if you spot this quickly. This happened to me on my latest upgrade. Although floppy disks I had written using my previous PC were struggling to load on the new machine, this could well have been the fault of the previous drive. However, when I tried to install several applications from floppies supplied by a manufacturer, the same problem occurred, pointing to the new drive as culprit. My supplier replaced the faulty drive in about 10 minutes (another advantage of using a local dealer).
Monitor
The size of the screen is always measured by the diagonal dimension of the tube, not all of which is displayed. Fourteen‑inch monitors should have an active diagonal display size of about 12.75 inches; 15‑ and 17‑inchers have diagonals of about 13.75 and 15.5 inches respectively. For those with white Rolls Royces and holiday homes in the Bahamas, your 21‑inch monitors end up at about 19.5 inches. The figure 0.28 in our monitor specification refers to the 'dot pitch', and the lower this figure, the better the picture definition. Cheaper and smaller monitors are likely to have 0.31 inch, better is 0.28 inch, and 0.25 inch should give one of the crispest pictures you could hope for with larger screen sizes. 'L/R' stands for 'low radiation', and this is a measure of how small the electromagnetic emissions are — nearly all monitors nowadays meet stringent regulations, to ensure that you don't get headaches or start glowing in the dark after spending all day in front of the computer. 'N/I' stands for non‑interlaced, and this determines the amount of flicker of the picture. An interlaced display is drawn by first scanning all the odd‑numbered lines from top to bottom, and then returning to the top to draw all the even‑numbered ones. This results in flicker, whereas a non‑interlaced display is completely redrawn each time, giving a much better picture. All of these details can be checked in your monitor manual.