While budgets are tighter than ever, I wanted to provide these quick hints
for those few who might have purchases coming up.

WINDOWS: As always, we strongly urge departments to purchase Dell
computers.  While there are other brands that have proven acceptable, none
can offer the quality, consistency, and support that Dell provides.  Dell
now has network-ready Dimension models starting as low as $1,063 and
state-of-the-art Pentium III systems for around $2,000.   We recommend a
mid-priced 400Mhz Pentium II System for $1,400.  See http://www.dell.com.

MACINTOSH: The new G3 Macs are both fast and expensive.  We recommend a
minimum of a 350Mhz G3 with the optional SCSI support.  Expect to pay
around $2,300 with monitor (plus $149 more if you, like the rest of the
world, still have some files on floppy disk and must therefore purchase the
external SuperDisk).  If it was our money, we'd add another $123 for a 3
year warranty to match the current industry standard.  Note that Apple
doesn't guarantee that any older printers or other serial devices (even
those made by Apple) will work with the new G3's, so plan on using a
network printer.  The good news is that Apple has a special offer that
includes a free Zip drive, plus a $100 rebate when you purchase a 17"
monitor if you buy before June 27.  See
http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

PRINTERS: In general, we discourage the purchase of inkjet printers.  While
inkjets cost less to purchase, they are slower, less reliable, and cost
more to operate than laser printers, erasing any savings in the long run.
The only advantage of inkjets is the capability to print color, which if
considered honestly (outside of a few selected disciplines) is more of a
"fun" than necessary feature.   We recommend any of the HP laser printers
and suggest that a single, heavy-duty network printer that can be shared
among several individuals is often the most cost-effective solution.

SOFTWARE: The Help Desk continues to make available, at no cost to
departments, MS Office 97 Professional for Windows (Word, Excel,
Powerpoint, and Access), Office 98 for Macintosh (Word, Excel, Powerpoint),
Windows 95, Mac OS, and the basic modules of SPSS (if you are interested in
obtaining all SPSS modules for a $55 annual fee, let me know).  SAS is
available through UTK for a $50 annual fee.  We also routinely install
Netscape, Eudora, Reflection, Acrobat Reader, and various other
Internet-based applications.  For Lab Managers, we have site licenses for
Norton Antivirus, Foolproof, Ghost, and Imagecast.   For the rest of the
campus, we have plans to implement a campus-wide implementation of Norton
AntiVirus within the next month.

More information about software is available at
http://www.utc.edu/helpdesk/software.htm.  If you need site-licensed
software installed, call the Help Desk at 755-4000.  Please have your
computer's 6-digit tag number ready when you call.  Note: We do not install
or support other applications not listed above.

For more information on any of these recommendations, see the Help Desk web
pages at http://www.utc.edu/helpdesk/hardware.htm.

   --Rodger Ling

Rodger Ling
Manager, Microcomputer Support
Instructional & Computing Support Services
Department 4304
The Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga
[log in to unmask]
(423) 755-4000
http://www.utc.edu/helpdesk
http://www.cdc.net/~rling/home.htm