{"id":35234,"date":"2025-03-19T11:22:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T15:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=35234"},"modified":"2025-04-01T17:09:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T21:09:51","slug":"pc-world-november-1999","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2025\/03\/19\/pc-world-november-1999\/","title":{"rendered":"PC World (November 1999)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/magazines\/index.php?twg_album=Computer_Magazines%2FPC_World%2F1999-11&amp;twg_show=PC_World_1999-11_001.jpg\" class=\"keychainify-checked\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_001-746x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"746\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-35239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_001-746x1024.jpg 746w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_001-219x300.jpg 219w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_001-768x1054.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_001-1120x1536.jpg 1120w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_001-1493x2048.jpg 1493w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_001-87x120.jpg 87w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_001-scaled.jpg 1866w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 746px) 100vw, 746px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: <em><a href=\"\/magazines\/index.php?twg_album=Computer_Magazines%2FPC_World%2F1999-11&amp;twg_show=PC_World_1999-11_001.jpg\" class=\"keychainify-checked\">PC World &#8211; November 1999<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I haven&#8217;t researched the numbers but it wouldn&#8217;t surprise me if PC World was the most successful PC magazine in history. Of course, these days I don&#8217;t think there are any successful PC magazines. Certainly not on the scale they used to be. The November 1999 issue of PC World includes:<\/p>\n<h1>Cover Story<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The Lowdown on Upgrades<\/b> &#8211; For this article, PC World upgrades a Hewlett-Packard Vectra VL5 Series 5 in the following way: Pentium 166 -&gt; K6-III-400 (via a PowerLeap adapter) ($199), 16MB RAM -&gt; 64MB RAM ($100), add 17.2GB Seagate Medalist hard drive ($210), add 3dfx Voodoo3 with 16MB ($130), plus upgraded sound card, modem, USB ports, and monitor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Features<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Spam!: How it Happens and How to Beat It<\/b> &#8211; Spam, the eternal problem. This article offers tips to avoid and filter spam.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Notebooks for Cheapskates<\/b> &#8211; A survey of &#8220;bargain&#8221; (i.e. sub $1700) notebooks. Ranked highest on their list of 10 notebooks is the Compaq Presario Notebook 150 featuring an AMD K6-2 380, 64MB RAM, and a 4GB hard drive for $1499.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Eyes on the Price: 17-inch Monitors For Under $400<\/b> &#8211; A look at 10 different 17-inch CRT monitors. The &#8220;best buy&#8221; in this bunch is the Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 71 for $349.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Special Report<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>You Say You Want A Revolution: Music on the Web<\/b> &#8211; A look at new ways of getting music and other audio on the web. While there were already some streaming sites, most were still downloads of static content.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=35238\" class=\"attachment wp-att-35238 keychainify-checked\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_010-742x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"742\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-35238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_010-742x1024.jpg 742w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_010-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_010-768x1059.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_010-1114x1536.jpg 1114w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_010-1485x2048.jpg 1485w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_010-87x120.jpg 87w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_010-scaled.jpg 1856w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 742px) 100vw, 742px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1>Top of the News<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>What&#8217;s a Buyer to Do?<\/b> &#8211; A look at new chipsets for the Pentium III and the new Pentium III-600. Chipsets for the PIII and Celeron at the time included the Intel 440BX, Intel 810, Intel 810e, and Via Apollo Pro133 4x. RDRAM was available on the 820 but didn&#8217;t make much difference and the Athlon 600 was faster no matter what.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Speechware Needs Less Coaching<\/b> &#8211; Speech software continues to improve but hasn&#8217;t quite reached Star Trek levels. Today, we practically have the Universal Translator.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>High-Style Portables<\/b> &#8211; A look at new Notebooks including the Thinkpad I Series 1480, Sony&#8217;s PCG-XG9, NEC&#8217;s Versa FX, and the Apple iBook.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Instant Messaging Brouhaha<\/b> &#8211; Microsoft and AOL bicker over compatibility between Instant Messenger and Microsoft Messenger. I mostly used ICQ myself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Microsoft Does Its Home Works<\/b> &#8211; Microsoft releases Works Suite 2000. Works was sort of a lite version of Office that was cheaper and meant for home users.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Signed, Sealed, Delivered&#8230;Online<\/b> &#8211; The legality of electronic signatures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Whose Cable Is It Anyway?<\/b> &#8211; AOL and other ISPs fight with AT&amp;T over who should connect AT&amp;T&#8217;s customers to the Internet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=35237\" class=\"attachment wp-att-35237 keychainify-checked\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_011-742x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"742\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-35237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_011-742x1024.jpg 742w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_011-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_011-768x1059.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_011-1114x1536.jpg 1114w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_011-1485x2048.jpg 1485w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_011-87x120.jpg 87w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_011-scaled.jpg 1856w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 742px) 100vw, 742px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1>New Products<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Micron Millennia Max PIII-600<\/b> &#8211; Back when I was buying Gateways, Micron was another computer maker I considered. This one includes a Pentium III 600.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Polywell Poly 800K7-65 Desktop PCs<\/b> &#8211; AMD&#8217;s Athlon was the main competitor for the Pentium III and at this time it tended to be faster. This Polywell includes an Athlon 750.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>HP Pavilion FX70 Flat Panel Display<\/b> &#8211; Flat panel displays were around in 1999 but they were very expensive and not very good. This 15-inch LCD would set you back nearly $1200, had a native resolution of 1024&#215;768 and one analog plus one DVI input.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Toshiba Portege 3110CT Ultraportable<\/b> &#8211; This 3.1 notebook includes a 300 MHz Pentium II, a 6.4GB hard drive and 64MB of SDRAM for $2300.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Handspring Visor PDA<\/b> &#8211; A PDA that runs PalmOS apps better than the Palm Pilot. The Palm Pilot and its derivatives made the best PDAs but it couldn&#8217;t compete with iOS and Android when they arrived.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Top 100<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Power PCs<\/b> &#8211; At the top of the list this month is the Dell Dimension XPS T600 featuring a Pentium III-600, 128MB of RAM, and a 20GB hard drive. However, it is the Sys Performance 600A with its Athlon-600 processor that wins out in terms of raw speed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Midrange PCs<\/b> &#8211; Dell tops this category too with the Dell Dimension XPS T450 featuring a Pentium III-450, Diamond Viper NVidia TNT graphics board with 16MB, 64MB of RAM, and a 13GB hard drive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Budget PCs<\/b> &#8211; The top budget system this month is the Micro Express MicroFlec-50C featuring a Pentium III-450, 64MB RAM, ATI RageGL graphics board, for just under $1200.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Notebook PCs<\/b> &#8211; The top power notebook this month is the Dell Inspiron A400LT featuring a Pentium II-400, 64MB of RAM and a 14GB hard drive for well over $3000. The top budget notebook is the Micron TransPort Trek2 featuring a Celeron-400, 64MB of RAM and 4GB hard drive for about $2300.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Home PCs<\/b> &#8211; Still not sure how &#8220;home PC&#8221; varies from the other categories but the top power home system this month is the Dell Dimension XPS T550 featuring a Pentium III-550, 128MB SDRAM, Diamond Viper V770 video card with 32MB for a little over $2300. The top budget system is the Quantex M466c featuring a Celeron-466, 64MB SDRAM, 6GB hard drive for under $1000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Graphics Boards<\/b> &#8211; The top AGP board this month is the Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Riva TNT for $100 while the best PCI card is the 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 for $130.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=35236\" class=\"attachment wp-att-35236 keychainify-checked\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_012-742x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"742\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-35236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_012-742x1024.jpg 742w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_012-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_012-768x1059.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_012-1114x1536.jpg 1114w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_012-1485x2048.jpg 1485w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_012-87x120.jpg 87w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_012-scaled.jpg 1856w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 742px) 100vw, 742px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1>Here&#8217;s How<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Windows Tips<\/b> &#8211; Tips for disabling startup apps, cascading menus, using CDDB, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Windows NT<\/b> &#8211; Using Windows NT to share your internet connection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Answer Line<\/b> &#8211; Questions answered about hard drive crashes, Tweak UI, default file associations, creating a shortcut to standby, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Internet Tips<\/b> &#8211; Finding radio stations on the web, troubleshooting audio problems, trimming AOL files, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Word Processing<\/b> &#8211; Using watermarks, quick pasting in Word, keyboard shortcuts, protecting styles in Word, an e-mail formatting macro, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Spreadsheets<\/b> &#8211; Filling empty cells in Excel in line charts, summing the highest values in a range, and reducing the size of 1-2-3 imports into Excel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Hardware Tips<\/b> &#8211; Adding RAM vs. adding L2 cache, printing on different paper sizes, troubleshooting IRQ conflicts, and automating modem logoffs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Departments<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Up Front<\/b> &#8211; Hotmail suffers one of the biggest security breaches on the web up until that point.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Letters<\/b> &#8211; Readers write in about Price Watch, the use of PCs (an the internet) in schools, Y2K utilities, online auctions, using FTP from Windows, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Home Office<\/b> &#8211; A look at DSL vs. Cable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Full Disclosure<\/b> &#8211; A look at seven improvements over the past year including aggressive price cuts, faster internet connections, improvements in ink jet printers, better and more affordable CD-R drives, MiniDV and Digtial8 camcorders with IEEE 1394 (firewire) connections, personal video recorders, and &#8220;profitless&#8221; e-business.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_362-735x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"735\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-35235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_362-735x1024.jpg 735w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_362-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_362-768x1070.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_362-1103x1536.jpg 1103w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_362-1470x2048.jpg 1470w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_362-86x120.jpg 86w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PC_World_1999-11_362-scaled.jpg 1838w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 735px) 100vw, 735px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: PC World &#8211; November 1999 I haven&#8217;t researched the numbers but it wouldn&#8217;t surprise me if PC World was the most successful PC magazine in history. Of course, these days I don&#8217;t think there are any successful PC magazines. Certainly not on the scale they used to be. The November 1999 issue of PC World includes: Cover Story The Lowdown on Upgrades &#8211; For this article, PC World upgrades a Hewlett-Packard Vectra VL5 Series 5 in the following way: Pentium 166 -&gt; K6-III-400 (via a PowerLeap adapter) ($199), 16MB RAM -&gt; 64MB RAM ($100), add 17.2GB Seagate Medalist hard drive ($210), add 3dfx Voodoo3 with 16MB ($130), plus upgraded sound card, modem, USB ports, and monitor. Features Spam!: How it Happens and How to Beat It &#8211; Spam, the eternal problem. This article offers tips to avoid and filter spam. Notebooks for Cheapskates &#8211; A survey of &#8220;bargain&#8221; (i.e. sub $1700) notebooks. Ranked highest on their list of 10 notebooks is the Compaq Presario Notebook 150 featuring an AMD K6-2 380, 64MB RAM, and a 4GB hard drive for $1499. Eyes on the Price: 17-inch Monitors For Under $400 &#8211; A look at 10 different 17-inch CRT monitors. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[2835,3979,3947,2362,1934,4075,4149],"class_list":["post-35234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-arcana","category-dos","tag-magazine","tag-magazines","tag-pc-world","tag-retrocomputing","tag-windows","tag-windows-98","tag-windows-98se"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35234"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35293,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35234\/revisions\/35293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}