Shopping spree: The home upgrade
The odyssey called forth every trick I've learned in the business to successfully locate, purchase, and install everything I needed for the upgrade. I bought from several Web stores and retail outlets, purchased and downloaded software, searched for printer and modem drivers using Google and downloaded them, and acquired a discontinued graphics card for a flat-panel display at an eBay "Dutch" auction (in which multiples of each product are offered). In short, I got deep immersion in researching, buying, and installing tech products. Based on my experience, I can say that options for acquiring products and information are better than ever.
I learned about HomePNA networks from Computer Shopper and selected the NetGear Phoneline 10X based on our editors' recommendation. CNET and ZDNet delivered product specs, news, and reviews; mySimon, Price Watch, and our own computershopper.com let me check prices and availability at various Web stores. To learn more about these stores, I went back to site reviews in our Web Buyer section. I also used Google (plus phone calls to manufacturers) to locate obscure products and drivers. I even faced phone hell seeking tech support from AT&T WorldNet on upgrading my browser to Netscape 4.7. (Once reached, support was great.)
I purchased RAM, keyboards, utilities, applications, operating systems, hard drives, graphics cards, network cards, toner, and inkjet cartridges. In every case, I got the correct product the first time out—whether by luck or careful planning. Prices, delivery speed, and customer support were excellent at CDW, Computers4Sure.com, PC Connection, and even a local Staples (once I found the tech guy—everyone else was clueless).
Despite some false starts, everything eventually worked as expected. What I didn't anticipate was the immense amount of time required to acquire and install it all: adding RAM; buying and installing a 15GB Maxtor hard drive; partitioning and formatting the three other existing hard drives; installing operating systems and applications; attaching add-in cards; configuring modems, printers, and monitors; then setting up the LAN on three computers. Though I worked on the PCs at one large table—leaving them "uncased" throughout—the work filled uncountable hours.
That, really, was one reason to do the full upgrade—to avoid the inch-by-inch tweaks that never get it right. I also gained an appreciation for IT departments, finally understanding why they want standard configurations: Such conformity reduces problems and eases troubleshooting.
Naturally, the best help is the face-to-face kind, and I got some timesaving suggestions from our editors on the optimal sequence for making changes. After the dust settled, I had three Microns on the LAN—133MHz, 200MHz, and 400MHz—each with 64MB, plus hard drives totaling 32GB. Such specs are nothing these days, but the fresh installations boosted speed, and placing the shared modem on the fastest PC helped (though shared 56Kbps access is problematic). My next step up will be a cable modem shared on the LAN.
The biggest load (when it arrives) will be Adobe Photoshop 6.0, which I'll use for photo and image handling. For that, I'll need 128MB to 256MB RAM on the 400MHz Micron, and maybe a better graphics card. But the current equipment is fully adequate for the word processing, finance, spreadsheet, presentation, and browsing applications we use. The network lets my wife economize on consumables: She prints chapters of the book she's writing on the upstairs laser printer, an HP LaserJet IIIP, rather than on the inkjet next to her PC. Either of us can view Quicken financial data from any PC in the house.
Actually, the 133MHz Micron is no longer with us. No sooner was it all done than my son called from San Francisco to say he needed something "basic" for browsing and word processing—after a hard day playing games at 800MHz and reviewing them for the gaming magazine where he works. That leaves a vacant spot. For less than a grand (this is kind of shocking) I should be able to get up to a 700MHz AMD Duron, 128MB of RAM, 15GB-plus hard drive, CD-RW, and 17-inch monitor. That would blow away my best current system for only a few hundred dollars more than I paid to upgrade all three PCs—proof of the amazing deals out there.