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Date: July 26, 1995

Title: Working Smarter/ A Faster Computer Means Faster Work

Author: Jeffrey Mayer

Do you ever pick up the newspaper and look at the computer advertisements? It seems that the prices for new computers continue to fall, and fall, and fall. But before you rush out to purchase a new computer, I would like to tell you about two very important parts of a computer”s system that most people don”t pay enough attention to: the video card and the monitor. In fact, you can get a lot more performance from your present computer and save yourself thousands of dollars by performing a minor upgrade, instead of rushing out to buy a new one.

If you”re using a 486 or Pentium computer but think that all of your programs are running just a bit too slowly, or if you”ve just gotten into multimedia and CD-ROMs, and everything appears on your screen in slow motion, it may not be your computer that”s slowing you down. It may be your video card. Even though you own a super-fast computer, the computer manufacturer may have installed a super-slow video card, one with only 1 megabyte of memory.

Having a video card with 1 megabyte of memory is like driving a Ferrari with under-inflated tires. Yes, the car works, but it doesn”t go fast. A video card with 4 megabytes of memory will make your computer fly.

I recently replaced my old video card with a Diamond Stealth 64 with 4MB of memory. When I turned my computer on, I couldn”t believe how much faster it ran. When I started using my graphics programs, the images on the screen redrew themselves in just a fraction of a second, with 16 million colors. I would have to estimate that my graphics programs are now running five to 10 times faster than they were before. It”s also done the same thing to my CD-ROMs. And, if you”re one of those people who likes to play games on your computer, a faster video card will make a world of difference. Diamond Computer Systems (800-468-5846) makes a full line of video cards.

In addition to upgrading your video card, you should probably upgrade your monitor. If you”re using a monitor that is smaller than 17 inches, it may be time to get a new one. A 17-inch monitor can make a world of difference to your daily productivity. When you have to over-concentrate to read the words on your screen because of either low resolution or small screen size, the muscles in your neck and shoulders become tense. You get tired, and your productivity goes south. With a larger monitor, there will be such a substantial increase in your productivity that it will pay for itself in a matter of weeks.

Last month I replaced my old monitor with a Nanao 17-inch monitor. I didn”t know what I had been missing until I plugged it into my computer and turned it on. The first things I noticed were the increase in size, clarity, and brightness with the higher screen resolution. And with Nanao”s flat, non-glare screen, I no longer needed a visor to keep the glare from the lights in my office off my monitor. Furthermore, Nanao”s WideView screen provides an edge-to-edge viewing area.

Until you change monitors, you won”t realize how much you were straining to read the text on your computer screen because of its small size and low resolution. With a new monitor, you”ll know how people feel when they come back from the eye doctor with a new set of eyeglasses. You can see clearly again. In fact, you”ll no longer need to have the monitor so close to you. u