A personal computer for those who still have dollars to burn
A personal computer for those who still have dollars to burn
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): First, when business has ground down to a
snail's pace, what is the most ideal thing that employers can do
in addition to keeping their employees on the payroll? Those who
can still afford it should, of course, continue to invest in
human resources. Lucky employees, who can still hold a job, can
spend their time learning new things or reading books to improve
their skills.
Or taking good courses.
Speaking of courses that employees can take, Cisco Systems of
Indonesia has pioneered a highly welcomed move by offering a two-
day training camp at Hotel Millennium Sirih this weekend. The
registration fee is a meager Rp 150,000, (US$16.66) which
entitles participants to eight sessions of their choice, two
lunches at the hotel and a certificate at the end of the program.
The instructors will be Cisco's own systems engineers, and that's
probably why the company can afford to offer the courses
virtually free of charge. The bad news is, the courses are fully
booked and registration closed last week.
Cisco Systems is commonly considered the third major player in
the computer industry, the two others being Intel and Microsoft.
While Intel provides the brain for 80 percent of the PCs in the
world and Microsoft makes the software that enable us to work
with these boxes, Cisco provides 80 percent of the devices that
help our computers talk to each other -- routers, switches, hubs,
etc. However, as Daniel Tofani, Cisco's Country Manager for
Indonesia said, the sessions during the entire training camp
would cover general topics in LAN, voice-over data, etc., and not
be limited to products only sold by his company.
It shows, however, how people need IT courses that can help
them gain more knowledge. Indeed, the world's IT industry has
been plagued by a lack of workers with IT knowledge and skills,
and the current economic crisis is a good time to invest in human
resources to fill the need. I just hope that more major IT
vendors with presence in this country will follow suit by
offering short but valuable courses to our workforce like the
ones that Cisco is organizing.
Presario
While the employees spend their time reading or sitting in
classrooms, the boss can perhaps indulge in a new toy called
Presario 4615. Compaq, which has just bought Digital and become
the second largest computer company in the world, informed me
that this would be the top-end Presario that they will make
available in Indonesia in the near future.
And the top end it certainly is. I felt so sad when I had to
return it to Compaq after three weeks of enjoying its speed and
features. This Presario comes with amenities that I had not
really expected: Pentium II 300 MHz, 32 MB of RAM, a Digital
Versatile Disk (DVD) drive that also works as a high-speed CD-ROM
drive, a whopping 6 GB hard drive, JBL speakers that are supposed
to be attached to the sides of the matching monitor, two USB
ports and a 56K fax modem. Wow!
As a top-of-the-line multimedia machine, it also comes with
various sound enhancements to complement the DVD drive, including
Dolby Digital Surround Sound capability. To increase overall
performance, Compaq has also chosen SyncDRAM for the memory
subsystem. In SyncDRAM, the memory is synchronized with the
system's clock signal, making all operations run at the same
speed as the processor bus.
The hard disk is a Quantum Bigfoot TX. This is a low-cost but
very reliable model from Quantum. Unlike the 3.5" hard disk that
you're familiar with, Bigfoot comes -- as the name correctly
indicates -- in 5.25" format. When I opened the casing, the first
thing I saw on the top was this big hard disk.
The motherboard uses an ATX design, with the sound card and
graphics sub-system already built in. Unfortunately, only three
expansion slots are available: two for PCI cards and one for an
ISA card. The latter was already occupied by the modem. So, if I
had wanted to equip this machine with an MPEG card such as Boser,
I'd be out of luck. But, because the processor is so powerful and
the system very efficient, I could run the software-based Xing
MPEG Player to play Video CDs without any problem in the full-
screen mode. No hiccup whatsoever.
But the availability of only two PCI slots is quite a
limitation. Should I decide to network this PC with a Network
Interface Card and add a SCSI drive for a CD-Writer, I'd have
expanded the system to its limit. But, then again, the Presario
is not meant for power users that enjoy playing around with
gadgets. The overall design says it loudly. The casing is the
smallest that I've seen. While it is categorized as a mini tower,
its depth is just about 60 percent of the depth of any standard
PC casing. It's so luggable that when I took it out of the box, I
thought it was a notebook. The downside of this compact design by
Compaq is that servicing can be tedious. The power supply on the
lower left side of the chassis, for instance, blocks access to
the motherboard.
Power
Despite the size of the CPU casing, Compaq has packed the
next-to-the-best in terms of processing power into this machine
(Pentium II's top speed is 333 MHz). But the 300 MHz brain is
really breathtaking. On this Presario, CorelDRAW 8.0 sails as
smoothly as Windows Paintbrush does on the 133 MHz that I'm using
to write this article. Compaq targets this machine for those who
really want and can afford the most powerful home PC.
Although it is assembled in Taiwan, the CPU casing is sturdily
built. The metal cover of the casing is thick and heavy, and the
design of the front panel's face is simple but cool. This CPU
design is shared by its siblings, the Presarios 4620, 4540 and
4550.
This Presario comes with a few CDs, and it has Microsoft Works
already installed. One of my favorite non-productivity tools,
which was also included, was Moto Race. It was a 3-D game
featuring motorcycles racing, and it played superbly with the
background scenery recreated flawlessly in real time--thanks to
its ATI Rage Pro #-D graphics controller.
The price for the Indonesian market has not been set yet, but
in the United States similarly configured Presario can be bought
through mail order stores for US$2,299.
If you still have tons of U.S. dollars stored under your
pillow, this tire-burning PC will definitely give you a lot of
excitement. But, remember, don't get carried away by the Moto
Race craze!