Holiday computer shoppinggot you confused? Santa's elves match systems to budgets big and small

By Doug Bedell / Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News
Published 11-17-1998

The computer industry is watching, holiday shoppers.

Economists fear you're not in the buying mood this season.

You're too confused. The economy worries you. You're too busy tearing open shutters, throwing up the sash.

Bah humbug predictions aside, the 1998 holiday season holds the greatest trove of bargains ever assembled for electronically inclined Santas.

With a little guidance, bagging the yule computer - one that easily hooks to the Internet, does Dad's taxes in a flash and wows Junior with incredible video games - doesn't have to be a chore.

For as little as $478, your family can be up and running on a brand new 180 MHz machine just minutes after the bow comes off.

Midprice selections, in the $1,000 range, offer an incredible array of choices.

And, for performance nuts, the top-of-the-line Pentium II 450 MHz monsters promise value for years to come at the $3,000 level.

Scanning the snowy landscape, we picked out can't-miss packages for each price range. Each was ripped open, tested and inspected for:

Ease of assembly.

Internet-readiness.

Service and help-desk ratings for the manufacturer.

Expandability, with an eye toward the coming wave of DVD discs, digital cameras and other nifty products.

Video gaming performance.

Internal and external construction.

The results should bring comfort to the confused. Three well-known brands - Apple, Dell and Compaq - are among the selections.

And the rock-bottom pricing of Gazelle Computers is bound to win name recognition for California-based PrecisionTec by Christmas 1999. IBM may have broken the $600 price barrier this year for the largest computer manufacturers, but these Gazelles were already loping along below $400.

Here, then, is a list designed to bring beige-boxed joy to any lucky recipient.

A low-priced deal

The Gazelle GZW-180 is the product leading the way toward affordable computers for the masses. Like the other computers tested, its price - $399 without monitor, $478 with - was effective Monday.

Gazelle shook the industry to its core in September when it introduced this computer. The storm of industry publicity - and an immediate surge in orders through online computer retailer Egghead.com - convinced company honchos they had struck a chord with a new target audience, buyers from households with annual incomes of $30,000 or less.

With the price drops led by PrecisionTec, nearly half of all U.S. families are expected to own a desktop machine by year-end, up from 45 percent at the end of 1997, according to Matt Sargent, an analyst with ZD Market Intelligence, a La Jolla, Calif.-based market research firm.

Traditionally, holiday computer purchases are made by families making $50,000 or more. But, PrecisionTec president Selwyn Glasser promises, this is "just the beginning of a major change in who buys computers and how they use them."

The product represents the performance that industry insiders have come to expect from PrecisionTec. This white-box company - a firm that cut its teeth on mass production of low-cost units for businesses - is now a best seller at such online and mail-order retailers as Auction-Sales.com and Cyberian Outpost, which last week featured Gazelle computers in the America Online Virtual Sidewalk sale.

Powered by a dependable IDT 180 MHz Winchip, the GZW-180 comes with all the essentials except the monitor by mail-order only. Bargains can be found for those, too.

We teamed up the GZW-180 with a $79 EZC monitor on sale at a Dallas- area Fry's electronics store. The results did not disappoint.

The Gazelle's 16MB of RAM and 1.2 gigabyte hard drive moved with the grace and speed of its namesake through the battery of Winstone 99 standard computer performance tests.

With its punchy speakers, ample 2MB VGA graphics card and a 16X CD-ROM, this PC can capably handle most of today's video games. And its 33.6 kbps internal modem provides Internet browsing speed near the top of regular telephone line hookups.

Everything Gazelle sells comes with a one-year warranty and a toll-free, 24-hour tech support number.

How does PrecisionTec do it?

The company is betting that the new sales avenues opening with this price will create a cadre of loyal consumers.

"We want to sell the Gazelle to first-time buyers in familiar mass-market consumer venues," says Greg Shandel, PrecisionTec's vice president of sales. "Until now, the price point for personal computers has been too high for many of these outlets."

Mr. Shandel and company boast the lowest rate of returns in the industry. Inspection of the Gazelle's innards backs company claims that it uses only name-brand components. PrecisionTec says it triple- tests each system - at the component level, during manufacture and at the final inspection. Inspection seals and marks litter the inside of the box.

If Gazelle doesn't have this model in stock, it has other 180 packages available at the same price or less.

Look for even more incredible bargains from this company. Tip: How about a 233 MHz machine of similar quality for less than $500?

It's coming.

Values in the midrange

The quandary is this: Do you give Apple a chance? Or do you stay supersafe with the PC format - one that is sure to remain usable well beyond 2000.

Apple's $1,299 iMac and its 8.5 operating system make the choice a little tougher this holiday season.

"What I look at is this: Are you willing to bet $1,200 that Apple will still be around in five or 10 years? If not, you have to opt for the PC," says Dallas lawyer John Collins, who runs a law and home office on custom PC clones.

On Apple's side, Mike Foley, vice president of Dallas PhotoImaging, sees the question as a no-brainer: "Windows and PCs are poor copycats of the Apple model. You have to go with the class of Apple."

And so, the two midrange options come down to the consumer's preferences.

The iMac is the model of simplicity in assembly and operation. But if the recipient of the yule computer is a gamer or likes to tinker with newfangled add-ons, the iMac will not pass muster.

Those who don't give a whit about staying current with fast-moving computer trends will love the iMac concept. Encased in a stylish, translucent gray-and-teal pod, this all-in-one offering looks wonderful anywhere in the house.

A tiny keyboard and teensie mouse allow installation in the smallest of spots. The revolutionary and daring design, which includes a built- in 15-inch monitor, makes competitors look klutzy.

The 233 MHz processor, 4 gigabyte hard drive and built-in modem provide just about all most people require for surfing the Internet. And Sherlock, an innovative operating system search engine, will amaze with its ability to gather information from inside your hard disk and outside on the Internet. Just type a question, and the computer knows how to search - and where to look - for the answer.

Unlike its IBM clone brethren, the Apple product is of questionable expandability. Its developers make it clear that this is a machine users should never open up.

Special ports called USBs are the lone way to plug cameras and other peripherals into this unit. These machines are easily networked. A single CD-ROM/DVD-ready drive gives the user some options. But games are not available in near the number developed for clones such as the Compaq 5150.

Therein lies the rub.

For about the same price, Compaq, a thriving, well-known company, offers the 5150 - a much faster, more flexible but uglier alternative. It goes for $1,348 with the MV500 monitor, $1,099 without.

The Presario 5150 and its 350 MHz AMD K6-2 processor with 3DNow! graphics give the business user and gamer a virtual playroom.

The Presario consistently tested near the top among its competitors in running the most complex, impressive 3-D games on the market. Using Winbench 99 tests, the 5150 performs at levels higher than similarly configured offerings from companies such as Hewlett-Packard.

Compaq, hungry to develop a direct market with home computer Santas, just last week offered an impressive set of price cuts for this model. With reductions and a recently introduced rebate program, Compaq advertises that it has dropped prices up to 17 percent over the last 30 days.

With 8 gigabytes of hard disk space, a suite of Windows 98 applications, a 56 kbps built-in modem and dizzying 3-D "gamers" graphics, the 5150 can meet the needs of just about anyone in the household. Buyers are guaranteed to be ready for most of the gadgets that will be out in the next three years.

As Buzzy Pyles, president of Dallas' ComPyles custom computers, says: "The brilliant software of tomorrow is the shareware of today. With a PC like that, you'll be able to see what's happening out there without any restrictions."

High-end recommendation

After a set of expert computer testers put this whiz-bang machine through its paces, they were left agog.

"What is it about Dell systems that make them feel so darn right?" asked the independent panel of techies assembled by Cnet (www.computers.com), the online electronics evaluation and news service. "Like the finest automobile, the $2,829 Dell Dimension XPS R450 is a tightly built, smooth-running machine."

In a class that includes impressive competitors such as Gateway, Polywell and Quantex, the XPS R450 has a decided edge in special effects.

In fact, gamers might consider soundproofing their computer rooms. This sleek, thin box comes with state-of-the-art Altec Lansing Full Dolby Surround Sound speakers. Part of that assembly is a subwoofer, a separately powered box that goes under the desk. The Altecs, coupled with a Turtle Beach Montego sound card, present an incredible aural sensation.

Visually, the 17-inch Trinitron monitor is decidedly crisp.

Those features, plus a jumbo software package, expandable motherboard and zippy all-round performance - are the reasons the R450 has received the Computer Buyer's Guide & Handbook "Best Buy" mark for June, August and September.

Meanwhile, Dell's help desk availability and quick response to complaints took PC Magazine's "Reader's Choice Award" for service and reliability in July.

Windows magazine has also awarded this Dell product its top mark. Dell's reputation for enhanced business-side considerations can also be found in the R450 package. Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition, Encarta Encyclopedia 98 and Expedia Streets 98 are all included.

An internal Zip drive makes backing up programs and files a snap. And the built-in DVD drive presents itself ready for the next wave of movies and high-end games coming in 2000.

The Dimension is backed by a convincing three-year parts and labor warranty.

"If you give this system to someone for Christmas," says independent computer reviewer Mitchell Gangston, "you might consider bolting it to the floor. Santa might not be able to withstand the temptation."

EDITOR'S NOTE

Manufacturers of the standard computer testing programs require the following descriptions be used if their products are named. Winstone 99 is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC's overall performance when running today's top-selling Windows- based 32-bit applications. Norton Multimedia Benchmark measures a PC's video, 3-D, audio, CD-ROM and imaging performance when running today's top-selling Windows-based applications. Ziff-Davis Graphics Winmark 99 is a subsystem-level benchmark that measures the performance of a PC's graphics subsystem in a Windows environment.

ILLUSTRATION(S): (DMN: Matt Pinkney) Santa's elves
match systems for holiday computer shopping. CHART(S): Quality

At Any Price.

© 1998 The Dallas Morning News All Rights Reserved

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