Advertisment
Trends Watch

TO BUY OR TO NOT TO BUY

author-image
PCQ Bureau
New Update

It is time for IT purchases to start looking up. After all, is not corporate India defying the predictions of doom and posting some excellent results? And when you sit down to make those purchases, you need to have enough information to make the right choices. It is to help you make these choices that we have reviewed 101 products in this issue; so that you can check before you buy. Instead of doing a shootout of one or two categories, we have covered products across a spectrum of categories.

Advertisment

To be sure, we have not covered all available products in any given segment. After all, it would be physically impossible to do so! Instead, here are the questions to ask, when you decide about a product not covered here. Remember that these are usability related questions and do not cover issues of availability, or support.

What is special or unique about it? Who is it meant for? What are the requirements (OS, hardware) to run it? How do I install it? How easy is it to install? How does it work? What else is required to make it work? How easy is it to work with? What is the quality of output produced or work done? How does its performance compare to other products? What is its price and warranty? How does the price compare with that of similar products? What are the consumables? What is their life? How much do they cost? What are the limitations of the product?

You may not always get all the answers; but the more you get, the better your decision will be. So, check before you buy.

Advertisment
TO BUY OR TO NOT TO BUY
Operating Systems Multimedia Products

ENTERPRISE Video Solutions
PCs Digital Cameras
Processors Accessories
Hard Drives Free

Palm Software
Mobile Hard Drives Office

Suites
Mobile Printers Utilities
Printing Software Linux

Software
Motherboards Network

Tools
Graphics Software Network

Hardware

Krishna Kumar

Operating Systems

Advertisment

Enterprise

PCs

Advertisment

  • Asus Terminator



    A barebone system that can be built by adding your own processor, RAM, and hard drive

  • Cerebra Celeron



    A well-priced PC that is also a good performer

  • IBM NetVista



    This PC comes with a customizable configuration

  • GreenVision



    This P4 2 GHz PC could do with a better display card

Processors

Advertisment

Hard Drives

Mobile Hard Drives

Advertisment
  • WeP MStore



    A lightweight, 20 GB mobile hard drive

Mobile Printers

Advertisment

Printing Software

  • MarkVision Professional 7.1



    An easy-to-use application for monitoring, managing, and troubleshooting network printers within an enterprise

Motherboards

  • Mercury’s Latest P4 Motherboard



    A well-priced board based on the new i845 chipset that works with standard SDRAM

  • Asus CUWE-RM



    An inexpensive motherboard for low-end computers

  • ASUS CUPLE-VM



    An entry-level motherboard with good features but average performance

  • DFI CM33-EC



    An inexpensive board with a nice set of features, but average performance

  • Asus P4T-E



    An ATX motherboard for the latest P4 processors

Graphics Software

  • Photoshop Elements



    A pared down but powerful version of the original Photoshop, with the
    complexities removed

  • Auto FX DreamSuite 1



    Impressive filters for Photoshop that give very high amount of detail and control

  • Xara Webstyle 2



    An elementary template-based Web graphics utility for the graphically challenged

Multimedia Products

Video Solutions

Digital Cameras

Accessories

Free Palm Software

  • DiddleBug



    Utility that lets you take quick notes

  • ISiloFree



    A PalmDoc reader

  • HappyDay



    This integrates two popular applications–Address book and date book

Office Suites

  • Star Office 6 Beta



    Version 6 improves on start-up time, has XML file formats and handles MS Office documents up to Office XP

Utilities

Linux Software

Network Tools

Network Hardware

Advertisment