Re: Advice pls: buying a new PC

["Robert H. Kubie" rhkubie@xxxxxxxx]

I have no recommendations to make as to the purchase of a PC, but have a
few thoughts on backup.
I ordered a new Gateway when my old one died, and specified an Imation
LS120 superdisk drive, in place of the regular floppy disk drive and in
preference to a ZIP drive. I back the stuff I am currently working on to
an LS120 disk on which I keep my current files, practically every time I
stop to think,. I keep three such disks handy on my desk; one holds my
cash records, one my schedule, addresses, todo lists, etc. and one my
current cases.
I like the LS120 Superdisk drive because it will also read and write to
ordinary 3.5" floppy disks. It is my A drive, and I can boot from it, just
as from the old floppy drive. I don't think a zip drive will allow either
of these practices, but I have not had experience with zip drives. It may
also be that zip drives now can be got with very large capacities, but the
LS120 Superdisk holds a hell of a lot.
I should add that I ALSO use a slow, old fashioned tape drive, onto which I
back my entire hard drive every night. I have a stack of numbered tape
cassettes and rotate them.
This has saved my rear more than once. It is not unusual to screw up a
file and back the screwed-up version. At least it is not unusual for
me. If I do that, I can go back one or more days to an earlier tape
cassette and recover an earlier, un-screwed-up version.
Tape drives seem to be going out. Or they may be. Certainly they are
relatively inconvenient, if only because it takes so long to find a
particular file on a fair sized cassette. But they afford the ability to
set aside a week's backups of my hard drive; I find that backup in depth a
great comfort, and sometimes it has been a lifesaver.

Cheers.




At 10:02 AM 9/18/99 -0400, you wrote:
> With apologies for exploiting the wisdom of this group for my own ends ...
>
> I'm shopping for a new PC, probably a (slowish) Pentium III. I need
> reliability, but the price has to be as low as I can safely get (because
> PCs here in Europe/U.K. are priced way over their U.S. equivalents).
>
> (1) Can anyone point me to the most reliable and objective source, either
> Web-based or in print, of up-to-date comparative reviews of PCs and
> peripherals? There are a lot of items I can't evaluate for myself: e.g. for
> my work, I need a good sound card & speakers but only passable video; I
> want the best but also cheapest backup (probably a Zip drive) and a really
> good CD-RW; because I live out in the boonies, I daren't get stuck with
> unreliable "build quality" (ugly phrase); etc. Where do I find the most
> trustworthy ratings?
>
> (2) In the U.K. specifically, can anyone comment on Mesh or Evesham PCs?
> >From friends' experience, the only worldwide names I'm considering are Dell
> and Gateway; but here both are undercut on price by a slew of local
> outfits, of whom the U.K. magazines seem most often to praise Mesh &
> Evesham. Any advice?
>
> TIA
> Eric Van Tassel