Stories by PC World Staff

Break It Up, Microsoft!

In its second attempt to reign over Microsoft Corp., the U.S. Department of Justice is taking no chances: It wants to break the convicted monopolist in two.

Microsoft Antitrust Remedies Due

The U.S. Department of Justice is expected to formally request a breakup of Microsoft Corp. on Friday, but some partner plaintiffs in the antitrust action apparently dissent.

Top 10 Power PCs

The price is fright: If your stock options are kicking in and you're about ready to start living like Thurston Howell III, this month's chart offers fancy new systems bristling with 800-MHz Athlon and Pentium III processors, Rambus RAM, and high-end graphics cards. They also carry high-end price tags.

Top 10 Midrange PCs

The typical midrange PC this month runs at a fleet 650 MHz and costs a modest $1650. The Dell Computer Corp. Dimension XPS T600r and the Micron Millennia Max 667--both new--take the number one and number two spots on the chart, respectively. The Micron posted a stellar PC WorldBench 2000 score of 143.

Top 10 Budget PCs

This month's budget systems aren't quite so budget, with most prices in the $1100 to $1199 range. Racer and Hewlett-Packard Co. make the chart with systems under $900 that also earned respectable PC WorldBench 2000 scores. Best Buys from Micro Express and NuTrend offer great performance, but cost over $1100.

An Antitrust Time Line

Microsoft Corp.'s court troubles began in 1991, when the U.S. Federal Trade Commission began investigating the company's alleged anticompetitive practices. Here's a blow-by-blow account of the saga so far.

Judge Rules: Microsoft Broke Law

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has ruled in his conclusions of law that Microsoft Corp. violated federal antitrust laws.

Dispatch

Next Netscape: The first brand-new version of Netscape in more than two years should be in public beta by the time you read this (scheduled release date: April 6)--and it will not be Netscape 5, which was to have been based on the existing 4.x code. Instead, Netscape 6 will be based on the Gecko browsing engine, which Netscape says is smaller, faster, and more customizable than its predecessors.

Top 10 Graphics Boards

New boards featuring fast DDR (double data rate)
memory duke it out this month. ELSA AG's Erazor X2 and Leadtek's WinFast
GeForce 256 DDR make strong showings, thanks to winning combinations of
performance, price, and features. Both produce smokin' graphics performance on
business apps and 3D gaming. The Hercules 3D Prophet DDR-DVI showed impressive
speed, but its lack of bundled applications held it back a bit.

Top 10 Monitors

The price of 19-inch monitors creeps down--$20
here, $50 there. Four models on the chart under $400 means great prices for
big-screen real estate. The C901 from Cornerstone Technology lands in Best Buy
territory, courtesy of its rock-bottom price and clear text. Mitsubishi Corp.'s
Diamond Plus 91 also finds a place thanks to crisp text. Models from CTX, HP,
Iiyama, and Princeton fell short. Next month we review 21-inchers.

Top 10 Scanners

Three new scanners make the cut this month. Canon
Inc.'s bargain-priced CanoScan FB 630P joins the chart with surprisingly sharp
images for a Contact Image Sensor model. The other SOHO newbie, Hewlett-Packard
Co.'s ScanJet 5300Cse, replaces the ScanJet 5200Cse, and on the corporate side,
the Astra 4000U supplants the Astra 2400S; both of these newcomers have better
resolution than their predecessors but somewhat less speed.

Top 10 Power PCs

A system needs at least 600 MHz of processing might to make our power chart these days, whether its CPU is a Pentium or an Athlon. But pumped-up processors don't tell the whole story--graphics cards are getting buffed, too. Seven cards in this month's power Top 10 systems carry 32MB of RAM.

Dispatch

3.3-Megapixel Cameras: Canon Inc.'s PowerShot S20, Nikon's Coolpix 990, and the Olympus C-3030 Zoom will be among the first 3.3-megapixel cameras, appearing by May for close to $1000. Previous cameras maxed out at 2.5 megapixels. The new cameras let photographers produce crisper large prints--but also require costly media.

Top 10 Midrange PCs

Three new systems on the midrange chart bring excellent performance scores to the ball but leave the high-priced pumpkin outside. The new MicroFlex-700A from Micro Express captures the number one spot, but the Xi Computer 700K MTower edges out all others with a PC WorldBench 98 score of 295.

Top 10 Graphic Boards

Whether you're upgrading the graphics on your
office PC or adding 3D punch to your gaming machine, you'll find the board you
need here. Guillemot's Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 tops the all-AGP list with fine 3D
performance and a moderate price. Meanwhile, Creative Labs Inc.'s 3D Blaster
Annihilator Pro runs like the wind even when handling 3D graphics in 32-bit
mode; its 3D Blaster RIVA TNT2 Ultra sibling has been discontinued.

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