NWA-PCUG 06/99 NewsLetter Article 18861 N. Hwy 112, Springdale, AR 72762-9303 Ken's Korner Why I Like "Rolling Upgrades" By Ken Fermoyle, TUGNET In the past I've written about "Upgrades that Make Sense." This time I will explain my approach to computer upgrades and how I revamped the Fermoyle office system over a 15-month period. First, I believe in lagging various distances behind the cutting edge. Let early adopters and corporate users pay big bucks to buy (and find bugs in) the latest and greatest. Prices will drop as production and competition increase. Second, I believe in what Roger Radcliffe, one of TUGNET's most knowledgeable gurus, aptly describes as "rolling upgrades." This means upgrading in increments, as needed, instead of wholesale makeovers or buying entirely new systems. Need more speed? Add RAM. Hard disk getting full? Install a second hard drive. The trick is to try to buy components that will be compatible with the next enhancements you expect to make. This requires reasearch and may not always be possible, but make it your goal. We started our 15-month upgrade with three computers in January, 1998. No. 1 was my 14-month-old, 166MHz Pentium Micron ClientPro, with 32MB of RAM, 28.8 modem and 2.1GB IDE hard drive. No. 2 was a 133MHz Pentium in full tower case, with 32MB RAM, 33.3 modem and 2.3GB IDE drive. No. 3 was a 100MHz Pentium, mid-tower case, 32MB RAM, 14.4 modem and 1.2GB IDE drive. No. 2 had previously gone though rolling upgrades from a hot 386 in 1989 to 486, then to 133 Pentium. No. 3 started life as a 386 in 1991 and had been upgraded with a new motherboard about 1995. No. 1 and No. 2 were directly connected (coax cable) in a peer-to-peer network. All had CD=ROM drives and 32MB of RAM. Our peripherals included: two scanners (Relisys Taurus SCSI flatbed acquired late in '97 and older HP sheetfed, grayscale ScanJet 4.2 with parallel port interface), two printers (HP LaserJet III and HP InkJet 855Cse), SyQuest 135MB removable cartridge drive and Casio QV100 digital camera (Christmas present, 1996) and a couple of sets of inexpensive speakers. Now we have all the above, plus one new machine, in a peer-to-peer network, using a LinkSys 5-port hub and Category 5 UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cables. The Micron got a 6.4GB Seagate UDMA hard drive. That worked so well and was so easy to install that I later (when prices dropped 10-15%) added a similar drive to No. 2 computer. Then came a Super Woofer speaker system and 56.6Kbps fax/modem for the Micron; about midsummer I upped the RAM to 64MB and slipped in a 200MHz WinChip cpu. Then came a windfall in the form of several freelance assignments, including one for PC World. At the same time, Ken's Korner was growing rapidly and I needed more resources to do research, check products and technologies and store and keep track of data. So I decided to accelerate an upgrade of our entire system, compressing it into six months instead of spread over the year originally planned. No. 2 computer, the one my wife Liz uses for graphics and financial work, got a major upgrade: New Socket 7 ATX motherboard, 225MHz WindChip, 56Kbps fax/modem, 32X CD-ROM drive replacing the 8X unit, 64MB RAM. The motherboard needed a new case, so we scrapped the full tower for a midtower with new power supply. Next I added a totally new machine, as a combination server and workstation: 300MHz Pentium II with ball-bearing fan, BX motherboard, 64MB SDRAM, 6.4GB Samsung hard drive, AGP (advanced graphics port) Trident 4MB graphics card, 36X CD-ROM drive, 1.44MB floppy drive and ATX midtower case. I use a KVM (keyboard, video display, mouse) switch (covered in another article: "KVM Switch: Secret Weapon for Small Offices") to control the server and my No. 1 Micron machine. We use the server mainly to store files, for backup and for Windows Office 97 Professional Edition, which can be run via the network from any of the other machines. The spare No. 3 computer got major upgrades, too. It now has a new motherboard, 300MHz AMD K6-2 cpu, 64MB RAM, 24X CD-ROM drive, 56K fax/modem, the 2.3GB IDE drive taken from the No. 2 computer (for a total of 3.5GB), new keyboard and mouse. I added a suitcase handle to the top of the midtower case so I can take it to meetings to show Power Point presentations or do demos. It retains both 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives so I can copy files archived on older nisks to newer media. I added a Quicknet PhoneJack card and digital video camera so we can use this computer as a Net Telephony/video conferencing workstation. (Watch for a future article on this subject.) Computers 1, 2 and 3 each have an attached printer: No. 1, LaserJet III; No. 2, HP InkJet 722C; No. 3, InkJet 855Cse. Any of our four computers can print to any of the printers via the network. We have speaker systems for all three of these machines, plus two microphones and a headsets which are plugged in as needed. The networked system works great for our needs. While fairly extensive - more elaborate than many home offices, perhaps on a par with small businesses, whether run from home or a small office - it is not cutting edge by current standards. No Pentium III CPUs, no gigantic 12- to 18GB UDMA drives and no T1 or cable modem access to the Interest (though we're hoping for an ADSL commection later this year). Liz doesn't do 3D graphics, we don't yet do any video editing or manipulate huge spreadsheets and we don't play performance-hungry games, so the system serves our needs more than adequately. What are future plans? I intend to upgrade Liz' No. 2 computer to a 300MHz CPU, maximum for the motherboard, and will replace her CD-ROM drive with either a CD-R or DVD drive. The No. 3 machine will get a 15" SVGA monitor (to replace the current 14" VGA model) and an 8.4GB UDMA drive (to replace the two smaller IDE drives). My No. 1 Micron computer likely will get a new motherboard and CPU within the next six to eight months The wish list include a new higher-resolution digital still camera. Beyond that, who knows? Depends on the budget, our growing needs and price trends. We'll keep you posted! Ken Fermoyle, columnist (Ken's Korner) & publisher Fermoyle Publications, (818) 346-9384 22250 Capulin Court, Woodland Hills, CA 91364-3005 Newsletters, Editorial Services, Graphics & Web Design "In the beginning was the Word..." And don't you forget it!