- Tag Archives Windows XP
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PC World (August 2005)
Source: PC World – August 2005
In 2005, PC World was already in decline. It was covering more computer adjacent things such as digital camcorders and phones by this point. It wasn’t terrible…yet, but you could see where it was headed. The August 2005 issue includes:
Cover Story
- Reinvent Your PC – Computer upgrade tips including adding a SATA drive, using a RAID, increasing RAM (to at least 512MB!), upgrading to a dual-core CPU (at least if you are already using an Athlon 64), adding USB 2.0, adding a faster wi-fi card, upgrading to a better graphics card, and more.
Features
- Wireless Networking: Faster! Farther! – A test of six new wi-fi products including the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router and Wireless-G Notebook Adapter, the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router and Wireless Pre-N Notebook Network Card, the Netgear Pre-N Wireless Router and Pre-N Wireless PC Card, the D-Link Super G MIMO Wireless Router, and more.
- PC in a Browser – A look at various services that allow you to access your computer remotely including MyWebEx PC Pro, Citrix Online GoToMyPC 4.1, 3am Labs LogMeIn Pro, Laplink Everywhere 4, Pro Softnet RemotePC 3, and O1 Communique I’m InTouch 4.
Top 100
- Spotlight: DV Camcorders – A look at the latest in DV camcorders including the Sony DCR-DVD403 DVD Handycam ($840), Sony DCR-HC42 MiniDV HandyCam ($560), Panasonic PV-GS250 ($850), Canon Optura 60 ($730), Hitachi DZGX20A ($750), and the JVC GR-DF550US ($450). With the exception of optical zoom, the cheapest modern smartphone is far superior for recording video.
- Top 15 Desktop PCs – The top “power system” this month is the Alienware Aurora 5500 featuring a 2.6 GHz Athlon 64 FX-55, 256MB ATI Radeon X800 Pro graphics, 320 GB hard drive, 19-inch NEC LCD monitor and more for $3500. At the top of the “value system” list is the IBM ThinkCentre A51p featuring a 3 GHz Pentium 4 530, 160GB hard drive, 64MB ATI Radeon X300 Pro graphics and 17-inch ThinkVision LCD monitor for $1592.
- Top 15 Notebook PCs – The top “desktop replacement” laptop this month is the Acer TravelMate 8100 featuring a 2 GHz Pentium M 760 for $2299. The top “all-purpose” laptop is the HP Compaq Nc8230 featuring a 2 Ghz Pentium M 760 for $2244, and the top “ultraportable” is the Dell Inspiron 700m featuring a 1.8 GHz Pentium M 745 for $1567.
- Top 10 DVD Drives – The top internal DVD drive this month is the Plextor PX-716A for $125 and the top external drive is the Plextor PX-716UF for $230.
- More Reviews – The top PCI Express graphics board is the MSI RX850XT-VT2D256E with the top nVidia card coming in at number 4 with the PNY Verto GeForce 6800 GT. The top LCD monitor is the Sony SDM-HS95P.
Departments
- Up Front – Google’s index has reached 8 billion web pages and counting…back when an editor could say things like “To its credit, though, Google has a history of treating its users’ data with respect.” with a straight face.
- Letters – Letters from readers about hardware torture tests, permission-based filtering, spyware, and more.
- Hassle-Free PC – Tips for becoming invisible on instant messaging services, sending files through e-mail that get blocked, and making sure you have all the video codecs you need.
- Full Disclosure – Strategies for making sure you have your important files backed up.
News & Trends
- Longhorn Roundup – A preview of what would ultimately become Windows 7.
- Apple/Intel: The PC Perspective – News on Apple’s switch to Intel processors.
- Low-Cost Broadband From Cities Blocked – Cable and DSL providers square off against cities that want to offer broadband access to residents.
- GPS Phones: New Ways to Find Places – Modern smartphones still weren’t a thing yet but devices such as the BlackBerry, Motorola i830, and others were starting to include GPS capabilities and mapping services.
- Plugged In – Info on what will be in Office 12 (Office 2007), the ECS PF88 Extreme motherboard which supports both Intel and AMD CPUs, new internet radio services, and more.
New Products
- Anti-Spyware Utilities – A look at the latest spyware protection including CounterSpy 1.5, Spy Sweeper 4, and ZeroSpyware 2005.
- LCD Monitor – The Samsung Syncmaster 242mp, a 24-inch LCD monitor featuring a TV tuner for $1700.
- HP’s First 64-Bit-Ready Business PC – A look at the HP DX5150 featuring a 2.2 GHz Athlon 64 3500+ CPU for $915.
- Online Calendar – The OneCalendar online calendar from Trumba.
- Photo Printer – Epson’s PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition photo printer.
- Web Browser – Netscape 8.
- Online Music Service – Yahoo Music Unlimited.
Digital World
- TV Recorders – Modern ways to record your favorite TV shows, including DirecTV DVR with TiVo, DVR from Comcast, the MOXI set-top DVR cable box, and more.
- Digital Audio – New satellite radio devices such as the Sirius Starmate, Tivoli Audio Model Satellite, Pioneer AirWare, Tao XM2go, and more.
- Gadget Freak – All about becoming a podcaster.
Here’s How
- Hardware Tips – Tips for making a backup of your hard drive.
- Internet Tips – Creating a mobile internet suite on a flash drive.
- Windows Tips – Fixing bad folder behavior in windows file explorer.
- Photo Printer Tips – Tips for getting good photo prints cheaply and keeping your photo printer running smoothly.
- Answer Line – Questions answered about preventing viruses from disabling your protection, reading CDs that have become unreadable, and more.
…and more!
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Digital Archaeology: Averatec 3200
The Averatec 3200 was a low-end laptop model with an emphasis on DVD playback. While it seems to be reasonably well built, it does have quite a few limitations in order to cut costs. Having said that, if you were on a budget and it was sufficient for your needs at the time, it wasn’t a bad deal.
The Averatec 3200 featured a mobile Athlon XP processor which was essentially just a regular Athlon XP that ran at a lower voltage. These were highly desired by desktop builders because they would typically run at “normal” voltages and be excellent overclockers. It’s most direct competitor would have been a mobile Pentium 4 but by the time the Averatec 3200 came out there were better choices, mainly in the form of the Pentium M. It looks like the Averatec 3200 became available some time in late 2004 and was available at least at Best Buy, Sam’s, Newegg, Circuit City and Amazon and probably from other retailers as well. It looks like the configurations probably varied slightly depending on the retailer. For instance, the one I am using has an Athlon XP 2000+ whereas it looks like Newegg had one with a 2200+.
Some of the features of my particular model include:
- CPU: Athlon XP-M 2000+
- Video: VIA/S3 UniChrome with 32 MBytes of DDR SDRAM
- Screen: 12.1″ @ 1024×768
- Memory: 1 GB DDR PC2700 (This has likely been upgraded)
- Hard Drive: Hitachi 40GB E-IDE (ATA-6)
- Optical Drive: Slimtype COMBO SOSC-2483K DVD-ROM/CD-RW
- WiFi: MSI 802.11g MiniPCI Wireless Network Adapter
- Ethernet: VIA VT6102 Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
Plus VGA port, 3 USB ports, and a single cardbus slot. For more complete specs see the output of HWiNFO here.
Limitations include the relatively limited number of ports plus the fact that there is only one memory slot so 1 GB is probably as far as the memory can be expanded in this laptop. Plus, the XP-M was kind of old tech at this point. As mentioned before the Pentium M was becoming the dominant mobile CPU at this time and in most cases they were as fast of faster than an XP-M would have been and they were certainly more energy efficient making for longer battery life.
However, the big advantage of this laptop was price. Depending on where you got it and the exact configuration, it cost around $1000 which was pretty cheap for the time. And while the Athlon XP-M may not have been the latest tech or the most energy efficient mobile processor, it was still reasonably powerful. The S3 Unichrome graphics were a slight upgrade to the S3 ProSavage and were not very good. But then you weren’t going to find strong graphics capabilities in any budget laptop, regardless of brand. The only real (relatively minor) complaint I have with this laptop is the keyboard. It actually feels pretty good for the most part but some of the keys are smaller than others making typing a little awkward. Fortunately, it only affects lesser used keys like the arrow keys, the greater than/less than keys, slashes and punctuation. I find myself hitting the wrong arrow key or the slash instead of an arrow (or vice versa). But overall, it’s a pretty small issue.
Drivers were somewhat problematic to find. I installed Windows XP and for the most part things worked fine. However, while the graphics were the proper resolution and color depth, screen draw was very slow until I tracked down the proper drivers which took a while. Also, Wi-Fi didn’t work out of the box either so I had to find those drivers as well. In addition, I had to track down sound and modem drivers (not that I really needed the modem). Most of these I had to track down by device ID as Averatec is no longer in business as far as I can tell and even if they were I doubt they would have drivers available to download for such old hardware. In theory, you should also be able to install a 32-bit version of Linux (but more RAM would be better).
The Athlon XP and Windows XP are still capable of running a variety of BOINC projects. So far it has processed work for Einstein@home, Asteroids@home, World Community Grid and MilkyWay@home. One oddity I noticed was the the laptop would sometimes freeze while running the screensaver or fail to wake up. I thought at first it might be a thermal issue but I disabled the BOINC screensaver (not the crunching itself, just the screensaver) and the problem was solved. There’s probably some issue with the relatively obscure Unichrome graphics and whatever the screensaver is doing. Or it could just be a driver issue but I think I’m using the latest that were available. At any rate, it works fine if I disable the screensaver or use a non-BOINC screensaver so it turns out not to be a big deal. In addition to the individual project links above, you can also see how this laptop is doing overall via BOINCStats or FreeDC.
