The Hoc 100

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1998

We salute the home office standouts, bargains, and innovations of 1998

When you make a shopping list, it probably takes you a few minutes. When our editors and reviewers do it, we have to book the conference room and test center for two weeks.

Each year, the experts at Home Office Computing crunch 12 months of testing the latest hardware, software, and communications products into a few pages that present the best of the best. This year, we raised the stakes by revamping the seventh annual Editors' Picks Awards into the first annual HOC 100 Awards: Instead of teaming with our sister publication Small Business Computing & Communications to honor entire product lines in scores of categories, we focused exclusively on home office productivity, and on 100 specific products and services in 31 categories.

As you'll see, we picked a Gold Award winner and one or more Silver runners-up (listed alphabetically) in each category. With rare exceptions, we chose products newly released during 1998--and because of this, worthy veterans ranging from Adobe PageMaker to the all-in-one workstation armoire The Office missed our cut.

Because we wanted the awards to be meaningful, we skipped some conventional categories. Like it or not, there's not enough competition to bother with a "Best Spreadsheet" prize. And we omitted the modem category, not because there aren't plenty of excellent V. 90 modems on the market, but because none of them stand head and shoulders above the crowd.

We also tried to avoid some criticisms leveled at computer magazine awards in the past. Dream-machine products at sky-high prices? Even our High-Performance Desktop picks cost less than $2,900 each, and Toshiba's to-die-for Portege 7000CT was upset by lower-priced contenders on our lightweight notebook ballot.

All the usual suspects? Yes, you'll see familiar names like Dell, Gateway, and Quicken--alongside lesser-known brands like Vadem, Unicent, and Agfa. Microsoft bashing? True, Windows 98 got nary a vote, and Windows CE palm-size PCs were dissed and dismissed as PalmPilot pretenders. On the other hand, two keyboard-based CE handhelds won our hearts, as did Microsoft Office, Outlook, Publisher, and FrontPage.

Most of all, we sought outstanding buys for home-based entrepreneurs, telecommuters, and after-hours overtimers. We don't endorse these products for IS managers in corporate offices, nor for families playing games. The HOC 100 winners are all about getting work done--with efficiency and ease--in your home office.

Hardware

HIGH-PERFORMANCE DESKTOP PC

Gold: Gateway G6-450

(800-GATEWAY, www.gateway.com; $2,810)

Top speed, solid support, low prices, cow-spotted boxes--what more could you want? In a market packed with sizzling Pentium II/450s, Gateway's stands out for its superabundant equipment (128MB of SDRAM, a 13.5GB hard disk, a DVD drive, a 19-inch monitor) and nearly endless list of options, including your choice of CD-RW, Zip, or LS-120 drives.

Silver: Dell Dimension XPS R450

(800-388-8542, www.dell.com; $2,420)

The Mercedes of mail order offers a heavyweight desktop--with everything from a 17inch monitor and a DVD drive to Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition--for a lightweight price.

Silver: Micron Millennia 450 Max

(888-634-8799, www.micronpc.com; $2,899)

Micron's full-size, fully loaded PC maintains the company's hot-rod reputation for performance, and throws in dazzling DVD and awesome audio.

Silver: NEC Direction SP B450

(888-8-NEC-NOW, www.necnow.com; $2,700)

A fast desktop that's as nicely engineered as NEC's monitors--and its notebooks, handhelds, and printers.

HIGH-VALUE DESKTOP PC

Gold: Micron Millennia 450 Microtower

(888-634-8799, www.micronpc.com; $1,799)

This sporty compact sacrifices some expandability (it has just one vacant drive bay and two free PCI slots), but packs spectacular power--including Intel's fastest Pentium II chip, 64MB of SDRAM, a roomy 10GB hard disk, a crisp 17-inch monitor, and Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition--for an unbelievably low price.

Silver: Compaq Presario 5150

(800-345-1518, www.compaq.com; $1,199 w/o monitor)

Its 350MHz AMD K6-2 keeps pace with Pentium IIs, while its standard 128MB of RAM, 8GB hard disk, and Ethernet and digital flat panel ports help this home PC take care of business. And it comes with a $100 rebate. If it came with Office instead of Works, it would've won Gold.

Silver: IBM Aptiva E5U

(800-426-7235, www.ibm.com; $1,299 w/o monitor)

Big Blue's bargain desktop delivers a 350MHz Pentium II chip, 96MB of RAM, a DVD-ROM drive, and Lotus SmartSuite with ViaVoice.

Silver: Unicent Avanta B450

(800-628-4888, www.unicent.com; $1,850)

An easy-opening case, easy-on-the-eyes 17-inch monitor, and easy-to-love performance put this direct vendor's desktop on the short list for shoppers who crave peak speed on a tight budget.

DESKTOP REPLACEMENT NOTEBOOK

Gold: Dell Inspiron 7000

(800-388-8542, www.dell.com; $2,899)

It's a briefcase-buster (weighing in at more than nine pounds with its AC adapter), but Dell's desktop alternative is loaded with 300MHz Pentium II power, a long-haul lithium-ion battery, and your choice of CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. You also get a gorgeous 14.1-inch or spectacular, drive-in movie-like 15-inch active-matrix screen--all for a surprisingly sensible price.