PC World was probably the most popular PC specific magazine in the U.S. and the late 1990s was still pretty early days of the Internet (at least in terms of widespread public access). To me, the 1990s to the early 2000s will always be the golden age of the PC. The October 1997 issue of PC World includes:
Cover Story - The Complete Troubleshooting Guide
Hard Disk Housekeeping - A guide to organizing your data, creating new subdirectories and configuring your programs to save to the appropriate place, partitioning your hard drive, and more.
The Complete PC Toolbox - A guide to the best diagnostic and disk repair programs including Norton Utilities and Nuts & Bolts. Norton Utilities dominated this category back in the day.
Keep Your PC Safe and Secure - Essential steps for keeping your data safe including having a backup drive, anti-virus software, surge protector, and more.
Your PC Tune-Up Schedule - Suggestions for a schedule for backing up, defragging your hard drive, performing a disk scan, and more.
Want Good Software Support? Good Luck... - A look at the state of tech support from major software companies...or the lack thereof.
Features
Everything You Need To Run Your Business - PC World picks the best business software in five categories including accounting, business planning, contact management, project management, and human resources.
2D And 3D Graphics Boards: You Can't Always Get What You Want - At this time, boards could do 2D very well or 3D very well, but not both very well. This article looks at the 10 best boards. At the top of the list is the ATI 3D Pro Turbo PC2TV featuring the ATI Rage II chip.
The Web At Your Service - A look at the creation of four public service web sites including OncoLink (providing cancer information), Joe & Mindy's WebGarden (providing gardening info), and more.
Top Of The News
Pentium II-300: The Latest May Not Be The Greatest - A look at the first Pentium II-300 based systems including the Gateway G6 300XL, AST Bravo MS-6300, and NEC Direction SPL 300. Unsurprisingly, they weren't all that much faster than Pentium II-266 based systems. Intel's new 440LX chipset was also introduced with the Pentium II-300 with the biggest change being the introduction of AGP.
Pentium MMX-233 Notebooks Break Speed Records - A look at the first laptops based on the mobile Pentium MMX-233 including the Gateway 2000 Solo 9100-233, NEC Versa 6230, and Quantex Meridian H233.
Satellite, Radio, Super Wireless For High-Speed Net Access - Cable and ADSL tech was largely still being developed but there were already some high speed wireless technologies available for Internet access in 1997 including a 400kbps satellite service from Hughes Network Systems (though a modem was needed for uplink), Super Wireless offering 500kbps/33.6kbps starting in New York, WinStar digital radioat 1.544mbps available in 9 cities at the time, plus other satellite services planned for 2002.
Coming PC Technologies: Techno-Paradise Or Mere Puffery? - A look at new tech coming soon including FireWire (IEEE 1394), Device Bay (never heard of this one), JetSend (never heard of this one either), and various smart monitoring sensors which did become common (i.e. for monitoring temperature, etc.).
Internet Filters: The Smut Stops Here. Ore Does It? - A look at five web filters designed to block adult and other undesirable web sites.
New Products
DirectWave MVP V C2-233 Cyrix-based PC - This PC was one of the first to feature the Cyrix 6x86MX-PR233 CPU. It also features 32MB of SDRAM, 512K of pipeline-burst cache, a 6.5GB hard drive, a 4MB Matrox Millennium graphics card, and more for $2295.
Digital HiNote Ultra 2000 notebook - This notebook features a Pentium MMX-166, 32MB RAM, 512K cache, 2GB hard drive, a 14.1-inch 1024x768 screen, and more for $5999.
Sony VAIO PCG-707C notebook - This Pentium MMX-166 based notebook from Sony also features 32MB of RAM, a 12.1-inch 1024x768 screen, a 2.1 GB hard drive, and more for $4499.
Seanix Baby Grand CS and TCO PCs - The CS features a Pentium MMX-166 CPU, 1.6GB hard drive, 16MB of EDO RAM, and more for $999. The TCO trades some multimedia features for more RAM and nicer display for the same price.
AITech PC/TV AirLink - A digital-to-analog scan converter that transmits audio and video signals from a radio transmitter attached to your computer's VGA port to a receiver connected to a TV up to 100 feet away for $400.
Diamond Maximum DVD Kit - A DVD upgrade kit featuring a Toshiba SDM1002 DVD-ROM drive, DVD decoder card, and bundled software for $600.
Sony CPJ-D500 LCD projector - A portable projector capable of 640x480 resolution for $1999.
Number Nine Revolution 3D graphics card - A fairly expensive for the time 2D/3D card for $299.
Microsoft FrontPage 98 - Many early web pages were created with this software.
Power Desktops - At the top of this list is the Dell Dimension XPS H266 featuring a Pentium II-266, 32MB of RAM, Matrox Millennium II graphics card, 6.4GB hard drive, and more.
Budget Desktops - At the top of this list is the Dell Dimension M200a featuring a Pentium MMX-200 CPU, 16MB of RAM, 2.1 GB hard drive, and more for $1829.
Notebooks - The top power notebook this month was the WinBook FX featuring a Pentium MMX-166, 48MB of RAM, and more for $3999. The top budget notebook was the CTX EzBook 750MS featuring a Pentium MMX-150, 16MB of RAM and more for $1799.
15-Inch Monitors - 15-inch CRT monitors were pretty standard at the time (though 17-inch monitors were starting to become the default). The top 15-inch monitor this month was the Panasonic PanaSync Pro P15 for $349.
Graphics Boards - PC World's pick for the best graphics board this month was the ATI 3D Pro Turbo PC2TV for $219.
External Modems - The best 33.6kbps modem was the 3Com/U.S. Robotics Courier V.Everything 33.6 for $225. I always wanted a Courier. The best 56kbps modem was the 3Com/U.S. Robotics Sportster 56K Faxmodem.
Here's How
Answer Line - Questions answered about getting integrated video on a 486 motherboard working properly, old CD-ROM drive compatibility, and more.
Internet Tips - Understanding the differences between Microsoft's various mail programs, blocking cookies, and more.
Hardware Tips - Troubleshooting laser printers, the terribleness of winmodems, ISA slots to start disappearing, and more.
Upgrade Guide - A guide to installing a CD-Recordable drive.
Home products - Reviews of various products including Topo Interactive Map (topographic maps from the USG), WebResume (HTML editor with resume related templates), EasyPhoto SmartPage Pro scanner, and more.
Keeping Up - Grocery shopping online, getting a car loan online, and more.
Top 5 Home PCs - At the top of this list is the Dell Dimension XPS M233s featuring a Pentium MMX-233, 32MB SDRAM, 4.3GB hard drive, and more for $2379. In second is the Gateway 2000 G5-200M featuring a Pentium MMX-200, 32MB SDRAM, 3.1GB hard drive, and more for $2129.
Departments
Up Front - The difficulties of using a computer and the state of tech support.
Letters - Letters from readers about spam, online advertisement, misleading web pages, and more.
Consumer Watch - Using the web to get companies to respond to complaints.
PCW Advocate - What to do when your PC vendor goes out of business.
Full Disclosure - Speech recognition comes of age and actually reaches a point of usefulness.
