PC speed is still the top concern for federal workers

By GCN

| March 30, 2001

The more PC clock speeds change, the more one thing stays the same: Federal users crave the fastest chips.

| GCN STAFFThe more PC clock speeds change, the more one thing stays the same: Federal users crave the fastest chips.Two years ago, most feds in a GCN PC product preference survey were using PCs with processors running at 200 MHz to 300 MHz [].By this year, many had upgraded to PCs with 600-MHz or faster chips, the latest GCN telephone survey found.But with powerful new applications demanding ever more speed and RAM, PCs can never go fast enough for many feds.'My PC is older, and it's too slow,' said James Mislick, a supervisor at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Boston.Mislick uses what he calls the old clunker'a 200-MHz Pentium II PC from Dell Computer Corp. Dell is by far the most widely used PC brand in the survey sample.Puget Sound's engineers, who use power-sapping computer-aided design programs, are getting new Pentium III Dell machines with 800-MHz chips, Mislick said.He expects to get his own upgrade in a few months but for now he'll have to wait ... and wait.'We're supervisors, and we're less critical on the requirements of the machine,' he said. 'The CAD people need the horsepower. So they always get the latest and the fastest.'Nearly half'47 percent'of the feds who said their PC underperformed wanted more speed.This is not to say that feds are discontented with their PCs. More than half'54 percent'had no gripes at all.

BY RICHARD W. WALKER

The GCN Reader Survey is intended to provide data on trends and product preferences. This survey on PC product preferences is based on a telephone survey of 100 federal readers who on their subscription forms identified themselves as PC users.

GCN, June 28, 1999, Page 20

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