PC World (July 1995)

about 1 hour ago

_{Cover of the July 1995 issue of PC World}

PC World was probably the post popular PC magazine through most of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The July 1995 issue includes:

Cover Story

Product of the Year - The product of the year was OS/2 Warp 3.0. I never used Warp but I did try OS/2 2.1. I loved it's promise of being able to run DOS, Windows 3.1 and native OS/2 apps together. However, I could never find a driver for my video card so was stuck at 640x480 and I think 16 colors. I moved to Windows 95 as soon as it was available.
Desktop Dynamos - The Business Desktop Computer of the Year was the Dell Dimension XPS P90 and the Home Desktop Computer of the Year was the Micron P90 Home MPS. Both are Pentium 90 based systems. Other winners in this category include the Microsoft Mouse 2.0, Viewsonic 17 monitor, and Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM graphics accelerator.

Power Apps - Application winners include Microsoft Word 6.0 for Windows, Microsoft Excel 5.0, Microsoft Access 2.0, and Microsoft Office Professional 4.3.

Sound, Fury, and Fun - Winners in this category include the Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 sound card, Plextor 4Plex CD-ROM Drive, Creative Labs Edutainment CD 16 (CD-ROM upgrade kit), Intuit Quicken 4.0 for Windows (CD-ROM), Microsoft Encarta '95 (CD-ROM), Myst, Just Grandma and Me, and Doom II.

ON the Road - The best notebook computer was the Toshiba T4900CT, the best subnotebook was the Toshiba Portege T3600CT, the best PCMCIA card was the Xircom Credit Card Ethernet and the best personal digital assistant was Sony Magic Link.

Cold, Hard Storage - This category includes best hard drive (Western Digital Caviar AC31000), best removeable/portable drive (Iomega Bernoulli 150 Insider), best tape backup drive (Colorado Jumbo 250), and best optical drive (Pinnacle Micro Tahoe 230).

LAN Links - This category includes best network server (Compaq Proliant 2000), best peer-to-peer LAN operating system (Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11), best server-based LAN operating system (Novell Netware 3.12), best groupware application (Lotus Notes), and best LAN e-mail package (Lotus cc:Mail Desktop Release 2.0 for Windows).

Making Connections - This category includes best fax-modem (U.S. Robotics Sportster 14.4 Data/Fax Modem), best fax software (Delrina WinFax Pro 4.0), best communications software (Datastorm ProComm Plus 2.0 for Windows - this was my favorite terminal software at the time), best internet interface/utility (NetScape Navigator 1.0), best online service (CompuServe), best BBS (The WELL), and best internet access provider (Netcom).

Off the Page - This category includes best scanner (Hewlett-Packard ScanJet Iicx) and best OCR software (Caere OmniPage Professional 5.0).

Page Pumpers - This category includes best color laser/dye-sublimation printer (Fargo PrimeraPro and Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet), best monochrome laser printer (Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4), best color ink-jet printer (Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 560C), and best monochrome ink jet printer (Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 540).

Swiss Army Knives - This category includes best utility collection (Symantec Norton Utilities 8.0), best windows shell (Symantec Norton Desktop 3.0 for Windows - I used this extensively back in the day), best backup software (Symantec Norton Backup 8.0), and best shareware (PKWare PKZip 2.04g).

Presentation Is Everything - This category includes best desktop publishing software (Adobe PageMaker 5.0), best font software (Adobe Type Manager 3.0), best presentation graphics (Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0), best drawing software (CorelDraw - I used this as a general picture/graphics viewer up until I switched to Paint Shop Pro), and best image editing/paint software (Adobe Photoshop 3.0).

Power Tools - This category includes best computer-aided design software (Autodesk AutoCAD) and best programming language (Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0).

Keep Your Ducks in a Row - This category includes best project manager (Microsoft Project 4.0), best personal information manager (Lotus Organizer 2.0), best contact manager (Symantec Act 2.0 for Windows), and best forms software (Delrina PerForm for Windows).

Money, Money, Money - This category includes best accounting software (Intuit QuickBooks 3.0 for Windows), best personal finance software (Intuit Quicken 4.0 for Windows) and best planning/preparation software (Intuit TurboTax for Windows).

Who Can You Trust? - This category includes best hardware service and support (Dell and Compaq), best software service and support (Microsoft), and best mail-order company (PC Connection).

_{Table of Contents from the July 1995 issue of PC World}

Video Accelerators

Fast Forward: Full-Motion Video Boards - A look at the best graphics boards capable of full screen video in Windows. These include the Diamond Stealth 64 Video VRAM, Diamond Stealth Video, Diamond Viper Pro Video, Genoa VideoBlitz III AV, Hercules Stingray 64/Video, Jazz Multimedia Jakarta, miroVideo 20TD, Number Nine 9FX Motion771, STB Velocity 64V, and VideoLogic PCI Movie.

Business Graphics

Drawing for Dummies - A look at various business graphics packages including ABC FlowCharter 4.0, CorelFlow 2.0, IntelliDraw 2.01, and Visio 3.0.

Multimedia Notebooks

Multimedia to Go - Notebook PCs looked at here include the MPC CD-Book 875 (486 DX4-75 CPU, 8MB RAM, 340MB hard drive for $2458), Aspen Universe CD (486 DX2-66 CPU, 8MB RAM, 520MB hard drive for $3675), Toshiba Satellite Pro T2150CDT (486 DX4-75 CPU, 8MB RAM, 500MB hard drive for $3799), Panasonic V41 (486 DX4-100 CPU, 8MB RAM, 450MB hard drive for $4599), and IBM ThinkPad 755CD (486 DX4-100 CPU, 8MB RAM, 540MB hard drive for $6799). All feature a CD-ROM drive, 9.5 or 10.4-inch color screen, and a maximum resolution of 1024x768.

Systems

Top 20 PCs: Power for Penny-Pinchers - At the top of the Power Desktop list is the Dell Dimension XPS P120c featuring a Pentium 120 CPU, 16MB RAM, and 1.6GB hard drive for $4689. My choice would have been the Gateway 2000 P5-120 coming in at number 7 with similar specs. The top budget system is the Vektron PCI P75 featuring a Pentium 75 CPU, 8MB RAM, and 852MB hard drive for $1695. My choice would have probably been the Gateway 2000 P5-60 coming it at number 8. The top power notebook is the Gateway 2000 Liberty DX4-100 while the best budget notebook is the WinBook XP SX-33 Monochrome.

Graphics Boards

Top 10 Windows Accelerators - The top Windows accelerator graphics card was the Hercules Terminator 64 DRAM. 3D accelerators were still on the horizon.

Top of the News

Pentium PCs Pick Up the Pace to 133MHz - Three system makers release systems based on Intel's new Pentium 133 including Micron, Gateway, and Dell with Gateway and Micron tying for the fastest PCs ever tested.

At Long Last, Power PCs - Vendors prepare to release systems based on the PowerPC that can run PowerPC versions of Windows NT and OS/2.

Voice/Data Modem Short on Software - Modems were starting to incorporate features such as voice mail, speakerphone and fax capabilities but software to support these features was limited. The Boca Research MultiMedia Voice Modem With VoiceView is tested here.

Customize...or Compromise? - Buying pre-configured systems vs. customizing your build.

_{Table of Contents from the July 1995 issue of PC World (continued)}

New Products

Compaq Deskpro, Presario, and Prolinea - New Deskpro XL models feature CPUs ranging from the 486 DX2-66 to the Pentium 100, the Prolinea 575 features a Pentium 75, and future Presarios may use 586 processors from NexGen and AMD.

Phone Blaster modem/sound board - These combo sound card/modem cards were a fad for a while but they always seemed to be a pain to get working. Even Windows XP and Linux don't seem to like these and I always take them out if I run across an old PC with one of these.

GoPrintwireless Printer-sharing system - Today we take wifi and wireless printers for granted but they just didn't exist in 1995. These are devices that let you connect PCs and printers wirelessly.

Here's How

Help Line - Questions answered about backing up a laptop on a desktop tape drive, sending e-mail from an AOL account to a GEnie account, sharing a modem, and more.

Windows - Questions answered about keeping track of installed files, moving the task manager, Adobe Type Manager, and more.

Windows 95 Adviser - Analyzing Windows 95 performance, multitasking, stability, and more.

Online - How to make your own web pages, online games, and more.

Hardware - Questions answered about 32-bit disk access and backing up to another hard drive.

Departments

Letters - Letters from readers about truth in advertising, pentium upgrades, software piracy, and more.

Consumer Watch - Reasons to sign up to a PC user group.

Real Problems, Real Solutions - A case study in upgrading to Windows 95.

Full Disclosure - The deficiency of the multimedia/CD-ROM tech of the time.

Break Time - A look at a few games including the time-wasting Take Your Best Shot, a collection of mini-games from 7th Level, the classic Descent, and the Atari 2600 Action Pack.