Hardware for Corel Draw 4.0 What kind of iron does it take to run Corel Draw 4.0? The short answer is, as much as you can afford. The practical answer is, it depends on what you are going to do with it. The "best" system today for Corel Draw 4.0 -- the system that will do everything without a pause -- is based on an Intel 486DX2/66mHz processor. It has at least 16mb of RAM and a 500mb fixed disk, as well as 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives. The display system uses a Windows "accelerator" display adapter, such as the Video 7 Win.Pro (similar units are available from Hercules and other name brand vendors at modest prices) or -- if budget is not an object, a very-high-end graphics coprocessor. Commonly based on the Texas Instruments 34020 processor, optimized for graphics, these include TrueVision and Illustrator cards, as well as products from Hercules, Number Nine and Artist. These cards will do 1024x768 pixel resolution display on 17" and 20" monitor, in somewhere between 256 and 16.7 million colors -- depending on display memory, software capabilities, and so on. An EISA buss or true-blue IBM PS/2 microchannel model will cost a bit more, but opens the opportunity to install much more capable cards. Fully found, a system in this category starts at around $4,000. You need this kind of power if you will be doing a great deal with Corel Paint, or the Corel multimedia applications Show and Move, and if you will be driving high-end imaging tools such as a film recorder, or high-resolution color printer. The "better" system -- the mid-range model -- is more than adequate for Corel Draw, and will do well enough with Corel Paint. It is adequate for simpler multimedia development projects. It couples a 486DX/33mHz processor with at least 8mb of RAM (16mb is really better, and it is easier to order the memory right from the start). Add in a hard drive of at least 200-250mb. Since this is a mid-range machine for the price-conscious buyer, the display adapter will be a fast Windows accelerator model, not the more expensive 34020 graphics engine; it will do fewer colors, but Corel (and other products in the high-end desktop graphics category) do a good job simulating the omitted colors on-screen. Again, price considerations will probably mean a good quality 14" or 16" edge-to-edge monitor, such as the 4FGe or 5FG from NEC (graphics users should probably give the 5FGe, which omits color calibration, a miss). Other monitors in this class are available from vendors such as Panasonic or Viewsonic. Look to spend between $2,000 and $2,400 for this category of system. The "good" system is strictly utilitarian; it is really not a graphics-oriented box. It is a "legacy" system for most graphics users. It includes all 386-based systems and most 486SX systems. These systems are adequate for vector-drawing applications (e. g., Corel Draw) and will play multimedia (though they are not up to multimedia development). They lack sufficient power to do much with bitmap graphics -- painting and scanning jobs will go >very< slowly. Printing from these machines is limited to the power of the printer; there is sufficient horsepower for neither host-based rasterizing nor host-based printer engines. These machines have a place in the graphics studio as a "second seat" or backup system. These "good" systems, which start at about $1,000 (pretty much, regardless of vendor), commonly are sold with a 100mb hard disk; run one of the various compression programs on the disk to yield an effective 180mb of "virtual space." These systems come with 4mb of RAM; kick this up to 8mb. These systems normally come with some kind of "super-VGA" display system; you want a system able to do 1024x768 pixel resolution, with 256 colors. Be careful about the monitor; if the seller is telling you about the virtues of ".31mm dot pitch," tell him to blow it out his ear, because that is too coarse a dot for extended graphics sessions. Buying the System PC-family computers are commodities; they are assemblies of more or less standard, commonly available parts, produced in large enough numbers that the principal differentiation among comparable machines is price. Brand-name vendors would have you believe otherwise; with the exception of a few vendors, the claims are specious. In fact, we don't want a PC-family machine to be too different from the "lowest-common-denominator" in any given class of machine; the greater the variance, the greater the chance a favorite program won't run. Generally, you buy a desktop computer suitable for Corel Draw and graphics applications from one of four kinds of places: Traditional computer stores survive, though they are less common than before. "Superstores" and chain outlets of various kinds are in business to sell computers at a discount; they sell pre-packaged systems. Mail-order houses do the same thing, but you order the machine over the phone; some of these companies have effectively created their own "tier-three" brands -- Gateway and Zeos are good examples. Finally, system-integration shops do business locally or regionally -- occasionally, they have national business. For graphics users, a >good< local system-integration shop offers a number of advantages. PC-family machines intended for graphics use are not as "off-the-shelf" as the office-automation machines sold in most superstores and chain outlets; at least, they need more memory and more fixed-disk capacity. A >competent< local system builder knows what can be had, and can build the machine to order, either from basic parts or using a tier-two or tier-three "bare-bones" system as a foundation. The best of these local builders will do the job at a very competitive price, especially at the upper end of the spectrum. If something goes wrong -- and these more complex machines are more fragile than off-the-shelf machines, because they are more complex -- the system builder knows the machine well and is right there to provide service. We have used several such local system integration shops in New York for test-bench systems (Xylon Research, Inc. in Syosset for our top-end systems and Great Chieftrain Enterprises in Jackson Heights for mid-range machines); the quality has been excellent and the after-market support has been superb (though actually, we have not had much need of it...). Incidentally, prices were comparable to the lowest prices from other sources. Superstores and chain stores sell off-the-shelf systems. The sales staff in such stores are not generally knowledgeable about the special needs of graphics users; frequently their knowledge is limited to what is overstocked in the warehouse, and that is what they will push. Ask a tough question about a system need, and expect to be fobbed off very fast. In New York, where we shop, this experience is common at such well-known outlets as J&R Computer World. After-market support will be limited, and can vary from acceptable to the kind of service that makes the problem worse (we actually know of one case where a system needing a minor adjustment was sent out for service and came back with a virus-infected fixed disk!). Prices can be very attractive for basic boxes, if you are prepared to do necessary enhancements yourself. Otherwise, use these stores only as a good place to buy diskettes, cables and printer supplies. Mail-order houses and direct-order facilities from major-brand vendors are a mixed blessing. Despite promises of low prices, most mail-order houses sell systems at prices slightly above what a local system integrator can do. Some are actually as much as $1,000 higher for comparable systems; when we were shopping for a high-end bench system, Computer Discount Warehouse's price for our specified configuration -- was $4,500 without a display system (monitor and adapter). The system we bought from our local system integrator offered more fixed disk capacity and more memory, and still cost $700 less. We have found similar pricing problems with Gateway and Zeos. The best mail-order houses -- for example, Computer Mail Order, near Philadelphia -- offer fairly good service policies. Our experience has been that the company will ship a replacement part immediately, letting you do the swap yourself and ship the defective part back to them. This is fine if you are comfortable with doing your own service. But this does involve time-lag of between four days and a week -- a problem if you need the machine for time-critical work. And God forbid you should have to send the entire system back! Major-vendor direct sales systems are only marginally better, according to the reports we have had from those using them. Power Supplies If you rely on your system, spend the money on a really good power conditioner. Avoid the $9.95 powerstrip/surge protector. Low-end surge protectors ($20-$40,commonly) are fine for most peripherals having independent low-wattage power requirements; something more able is probably better for your system and monitor. For good solid protection of your system itself, consider a line conditioner. Effectively, this maintains steady power levels even when the electric company is "browning out" or flipping switches, or otherwise disturbing things. In the event you live in a place with altogether unreliable power, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is essential; if the power dies, in a flash you are automatically switched to batteries, with enough time to save your work and shut things down in an orderly way. This is not a consideration only for folks in the country or in "foreign parts." Major cities in "first world" countries have unreliable power these days. Tape Backup If you do not back up your Corel Draw work, it is absolutely certain that you will eventually lose it. It's a variant on Murphy's Law, or something; the loss will happen just when it is least convenient. On systems with modest hard disks -- certainly, not more than 100mb -- backing up to diskettes is feasible (though time consuming). On larger systems, the time to do a backup is such that you won't do it, unless you have a fast solution. The most common solution -- offering the best performance for the dollar and suitable for most people -- is a tape drive. The most commonly available drives use DC2000-type mini-cartridge tapes; the DC2120 version of this format stores 250mb of compressed data a very full, very large hard disk require four of these tapes; the rest of us will normally fill one or two at a time. For ease of installation, try a tape drive that plugs into your parallel port, between your computer and your printer. Our tests thus far suggest no significant performance difference, and the convenience is worth the extra cost. The very high end solution is to have a second hard disk, of the same capacity as your main disk, and use a "mirroring" approach. Effectively, when you write to disk, a copy is made on the second disk; if one hard disk fails, the other slides in unnoticably. It is possible to have more than one "mirror" disk, for very high reliability. See comments on SCSI interfaces for further comments. Removable Media "Removable media" covers all the ways you can store or transport large files in a way that lets you access them easily from place to place. The "transport" part of that is especially important to graphics users generating large files for processing by service bureaux; sending multi-megabyte files over a modem connection is painful.... First there were floppy disks; they are still with us, and commonly store 1.44mb -- more if you use one or another data-compression option, such as Stacker or PKZIP. Less commonly, you might find drives supporting the 2.88mb standard advocated by IBM and Toshiba (the former likes the drives, the latter sells the diskettes...). And the hot new floppy format uses an optical drive, is called a "floptical" and stores up to 20mb in uncompressed files. Graphics users, in particular, are candidates for large-scale removable media -- SyQuest removable hard disks, Iomega Bernoulli disks and magneto-optical disks. Starting at 44mb and running up to 150mb, these disks perform like native fixed-disk storage -- but can be packed up and messengered to a local service bureau full of data to be processed. Multi-site graphics operations can have machines equipped with the appropriate drives, so that people moving from place to place can carry their key data and programs with them. At the moment, SyQuest 5.25" removable hard disks are clearly the medium of choice for graphics users. Most service bureaux started out supporting Macintosh graphics systems, and SyQuest drives were the big players in that environment. Most service bureaux can read both 44mb and 88mb SyQuest disks. If the disk was formatted for DOS using a SyDOS drive (SyQuest's PC-family products marketing subsidiary), and the service bureau is still firmly in the Mac-camp, use Access-PC to read the removable hard disk. Cartridge prices are not modest: The 44mb disk lists for $178. while the 88mb disk lists for $278.. SyQuest/SyDOS also offers a 110mb 3.5" format removable hard disk subsystem dubbed "Marlin" ("Puma" in the external version); at the time this is written, the product is new and not generally available in most resale locations. For example, the nearest sales point to New York for this unit is Pennsylvania. The cartridges are presently hard to find outside SyQuest's own mail-order channel, and list for a rather painful $299.. Another option in this same category is Iomega's Bernoulli disk system. The most common models offer 90 or 150 megabytes of uncompressed storage (roughly twice that, if a disk-doubling program is used). Bernoulli drives sell "on the street" for about the same as SyQuest drives; the cartridges, which use what is effectively a super-floppy, are somewhat less costly. Bernoulli disks are widely used in business environments, but are not as widely used in graphics shops and service bureaux. This makes Bernoulli drives a good second-drive and archive choice, but means you had best have a portable version of the drive if you expect to use it at a service bureau. Magneto-optical read/write drives offer substantially less costly media (commonly under $50 for 128mb), in a drive unit that costs easily twice that of the SyQuest and Iomega products. Where SyQuest drives run just about as fast as a standard fast hard disk, and Bernoulli drives are about as fast as a standard mid-range hard disk, most optical drives turn in speeds similar to the older hard disks found in earlier PC systems. This is changing; improved units from Ricoh are presently available, and Canon is showing some dramatically improved technology. Clearly the most interesting technology for graphics users, the problem remains the very high buy-in price -- easily 50 percent added to the cost of our "best" system. CD-ROM The best CD-ROM drives -- double-speed, Kodak Photo-CD compatible, etc. -- cost between $500 and $600 at the deep-discounters. Slower models -- but still "Multimedia PC" (MPC) compatible -- cost as little as $175. They are read-only devices (write-able CD costs 10-15 times as much). Serious users of Corel Draw will want one of these in the box. Installing a complete Corel Draw 4.0 is faster from CD-ROM; a good deal of the supporting software (especially, clip art and fonts) is only available on the CD-ROM that ships in every box; Corel Draw can even be run from the CD-ROM, reducing the amount of hard disk space needed for the program dramatically. It's not just for Corel Draw, though, that you want this drive. The costs associated with making distribution-disk sets is encouraging software vendors offering complex, powerful applications to publish on CD-ROM as a general thing. For example, Aysmetrix multimedia products now come on CD-ROM. Microsoft Video for Windows ships all its clips on CD-ROM. Expect this to continue, and increase. SCSI SCSI (pronounced "scuzzy") is an alternative way of hooking in peripherals. Originally designed as a way to connect hard disks, it is now used to connect CD-ROM drives, tape drives, optical drives, scanners and printers. Its great advantages are speed, and the ability to chain up to six devices (both inside the system unit and externally) using only one slot in the box. This last capability is the life-saver for graphics users. Most PCs have no more than eight slots (some have less) on the system buss, which have to suffice for the drive connection, the display adapter, a network interface, a sound card, a type-setting card, and additional serial/parallel port adapters. Adding in additional cards can be a problem, in short, because no more slots are available. You could extend the system buss, but that is clumsy, and anyway, most motherboard designs don't support that option anymore. SCSI is a good solution. The downside is that SCSI on PC family machines is not as simple as it is on Macintoshes (which have used the SCSI interface as a standard for several years). There are several competing standards, both for design and driver specifications. Generally, you will want a SCSI adapter that uses the ASPI specification, and you will probably want one that is directly supported by Corel Corp.'s justly well-reviewed Corel SCSI software. This software automates much of the installation procedure for common peripherals. But implementing SCSI is not easy (it is easiest on true-blue IBM Microchannel machines, or on EISA machines if a true EISA SCSI adapter is used). If you are comfortable with installing hardware, go ahead and do it; be prepared for some trial-and-error tuning to make sure you have the addressing and interrupt settings correct. If you are not comfortable with that last clause, have your SCSI adapter put in by a competent system integrator -- and make sure you know where he lives, and that he knows you know where he lives.... Display systems >Never< think of the monitor on which you see your work as divorced from the board in the computer (built-in to the motherboard, or separate) that produces the signal displayed on that screen. They are closely related to each other; some display boards actually sense the monitor at power-up time (in which case, the monitor must be on when computer starts, for the picture to appear in the first place). Bill Gates has told us that a minimal display system for Windows shows 1024 pixels ("pix elements") across, 768 down, and can display at least 256 colors ("8-bit" color). Graphics users had already figured that out, and actually had some doubts about the last part of the specification. While the software we use can simulate far more colors than that, using dithering (essentially the use of patterns of related colors to achieve a close approximation of the actual color desired), it is better to have a display system that shows the actual colors we choose. Better display adapters can do this. It is a function of memory available, in most cases. A display adapter with 1mb of display memory can normally be configured to display 1024x768x8 (256 colors at the appropriate resolution). Increase the memory to 2mb, and the board should be able to handle "high color" -- up to 64,000 colors roughly, which is better than the average TV set can do. 3mb of memory kicks things along to "true color" or "photo-realism" -- you work with a potential of 16.7 million colors. You will never use that many colors in any one picture, but the capacity also shows up in the capability to have several different applications open in separate windows, using different working palettes at the same time. Since that is what graphics users commonly do (run, say, a paint program and a drawing program, and an an image-acquisition session, all at once), having the better display adapter is not really an option for graphics users. Occasional graphics users, and people whose principal graphics work is oriented to business uses like presentations and site-planning and most desktop publishing work, will do perfectly well with the current generations of accelerated graphics boards. These boards use hardware that knows exactly how to read the data coming in from the central processor, and quickly put up the geometry specified. A 1mb, 1024x768-capable board will do nicely, and will cost not more than $175. Intermediate boards run between $250 and $500, depending on memory and where you buy it, and whose name is on the box. These boards commonly come with 1mb of memory standard, and can have a second megabyte added using a daughter-board or by plugging in chips purchased locally (they are standard parts). Using the extra memory to produce more colors in Windows means making sure you have the requisite drivers; high color is not supported in Microsoft-produced drivers as yet, so check with the board maker before you buy (and don't assume that your local dealer -- especially if that is a discount house or a mailorder vendor -- will know this). High-end boards -- able to deliver absolutely true color in every imaginable shade -- today use a separate processor just to manage the picture. The most common processor for this purpose is the Texas Instruments 34020. This is quite literally a matter of running a second computer dedicated to putting a picture on the screen, and it is enormously able. It is also rather costly -- you run at least three megabytes of display memory as well as a megabyte of system memory for this second computer. This translates into higher cost; expect to pay at least $1,000, up to $2,000, for such a graphics engine. On the other hand, a number of companies, now making the parts for the mid-range boards, are evolving designs (now in engineering prototype stage) which should deliver this kind of performance at lower cost in the short-term future. One last comment on the display adapter side of the matter: Local buss is faster than system buss for display adapters, but puts an extra strain on the electronics in the process. Also, a fast display adapter, sitting in a normal system-buss slot, proves faster in our tests than some slower local-buss display adapters. In short, local buss is nice, but not necessary. The local-buss story is not all hype, but it is also not a panacea. The other part of the story is the monitor, and this is an area where graphics users should not stint. It is not a matter of buying the "big one." In fact, a 20" display is nice, but needs a lot of desktop real estate. On the other hand, the better class of 14" monitors, offering true edge-to-edge, flattened (not perfectly flat, but only slightly curved in comparison to older style monitors) display, provide a diagonal display area of just over 14" and adequately display 1024x768 resolution images. The better class of 16"-17" monitors will do it a bit better, without too much greater a hit on the desktop area. Both will deliver readable text, and good detail without zooming in on the picture. The best of breed monitors for graphics users offer hardware color calibration. Commonly, this means tuning the monitor's red, green and blue signals so that a given application shows colors as accurately as possible. For example, with this capability, you can put up on-screen swatches of PMS color, put the PMS guide against it, and tune the monitor, then store the setting. Many monitors will let you store several such adjustments, permitting compensation for variant software implementations of color standards. The monitor can be re-calibrated from time to time, to adjust for wear. Pointing Devices Graphics users need good pointing devices; they are more absolutely dependent on mice, trackballs or digitizing tablets than other desktop computer users. The deluxe pointer is a graphics tablet. Originally designed for users of computer-assisted design (CAD) systems, these tablets come closest to matching the facility of regular artists' tools. Unlike CAD, where a big (12" square or bigger) is mandatory, most graphics users will find something that can fit next to their keyboard or tuck handily in the lap to be more convenient. That makes life simple, because these are also the least costly models of what is, generally, the most costly pointing device. For your money, you get a small format, with absolute one-to-one correspondence between screen and pointer position. We like pressure-sensitive tablets with cordless styli and pucks (the former is like a pen; the latter performs like a mouse; you want and should buy both, as they serve different needs). Wacom is the best known in this category, and offers several models in the 6"x9" size that seems most useful for Corel Draw users. CalComp's DrawingPad, with a 7"x7" active surface is also attractive. I particularly like the CalComp stylus, which is weighted more like the fountain pens I use, and which offers three programmable switches (compared to Wacom's two-button limit). I have one of the switches programmed for "double-clicking," which speeds things up substantially. The most modestly priced small tablet comes from AceCAD. It sports a 5"x5" active surface and comes with a corded stylus; the corded puck is optional at extra cost. The stylus has two programmable buttons; the standard puck comes with four buttons. Don't let the economy pricing fool you; this is a very good product and it challenges the better-known vendors. There is an interesting new product just coming on the market, from Appoint. Known for compact pointing devices, the company is launching a modestly priced ($300) compact tablet with what looks to be the most innovative cordless puck design around. As yet untested here, nevertheless, this is a product to look for and consider. Mice are the most common pointers around, and the offerings are legion. Quality is a major issue, as is design. For years, I have favored the shield-shaped Microsoft mouse; its design permitted very accurate control of the on-screen pointer. Microsoft just changed that design, adopting what the company claims is a more "ergonomic" shape. We've only had limited experience with the new design, and it seems better suited to office-automation needs than those of graphics users. In short, the verdict is still out on this new Microsoft style. On the other hand, mouse-maker Logitech seems to have gotten its act together in some important ways; earlier designs which we have not favored are giving way to some extremely comfortable and highly sensitive models. In particular, the latest cordless mouse from Logitech looks to be a winner. The softened-triangle shape this three-button cordless mouse uses fits the palm well, and the rolling-ball is located in such a way that slight, sensitive hand motion affords good control. Again, we have not lived with this product, but first looks suggest this merits a close look. Again, Appoint has a new product that merits careful attention by virtue of unique design. The company's new Gulliver mouse is tiny -- about two inches long and two inches wide, and sort of triangular in shape, resting on four little feet with a roughly 3/8ths inch rolling ball. What's neat about the Gulliver -- which we've been using for awhile on the road as well as on the bench -- is its feel; it's like having a largish piece of chalk in one's fingers. This is a general-purpose tool, but it may prove ideal for graphics users, especially those who work with paint programs. Trackballs are the ideal choice for users with limited desktop real estate. The box remains stable, while the ball is twiddled with the fingers. Most trackballs come with click-lock controls -- essential for easy dragging. An issue is the ball size; for graphics users, the greater weight and size of the balls used in market-leading MicroSpeed PC-Trac and Kensington models will probably afford greater control than the thumb-ball and pea-ball designs found in trackballs intended for office-automation users.