Worried that your PC will be obsolete before you uncrate it? A screwdriver and Nexar's upgradable PCs can allay your fears. The Nexar midtower business and multimedia systems are designed for easy upgrades with off-the-shelf components. A removable side panel lets you get at the CPU, RAM and cache without opening the chassis cover.

Just pop out a part, drop in a new one and your low-cost upgrade is complete. You can use any industry-standard components.

The PCs are built to support a 200MHz CPU, hard drives up to 4GB, 128MB Fast Page Mode or EDO DRAM, and 512KB cache.

The Nexar 4000 small business and home series and the Nexar 9000 corporate series of PCs are made to order. Standard configurations include 75MHz and faster Pentiums-or 6x86 CPUs from Intel, Cyrix and NexGen/AMD-three ISA and four PCI expansion slots, 64-bit PCI graphics accelerators and 104-key Windows 95 keyboards.

Options include EIDE CD-ROM drives, a 16-bit stereo sound card with MIDI, 12-watt speakers and a 28.8 fax modem.

Nexar 4000 (133MHz Pentium, 16MB of EDO RAM, 1.6GB hard disk, 256KB cache, 6X CD-ROM), $1,699; Nexar 9000 (same as 4000, except for 512KB cache, 8X CD-ROM and Diamond Stealth 64 video graphics), $2,199
Nexar Technologies
888-NEXAR-PC, 508-836-8700

Unisys builds its Aquanta line of business computers to your specs. The desktop PC line includes the Unisys Aquanta DM/6 Pentium Pro mini-tower system, the Unisys Aquanta DX midrange system and Unisys Aquanta DM midrange mini-tower, and the Unisys Aquanta DL entry-level system.

All these systems support up to 166MHz Pentiums, and include built-in super VGA graphics and PCI bus. The midrange and Pentium Pro models have 16-bit full-duplex audio, telephony software and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) high-speed peripheral interface. The DM/6 includes 256KB or 512KB cache, along with high-speed EDO memory and optional ECC memory support.

Aquanta DM/6 starts at $5,414; DM starts at $2,198; DX starts at $1,972; DL starts at $1,200
Unisys Corp.
800-448-1424

The $500 network box has arrived. Well, almost. The HDS @workStation costs $750 for the bare-bones version. For that price, you get an Intel i960 RISC processor, 4MB of RAM, keyboard, mouse, 17-inch monochrome monitor, serial and parallel ports, and 10BaseT port. The PC uses its own operating system, HDS netOS, and also supports Windows 3.1x, Windows 95 and NT. The base configuration offers access to the Internet, company intranet and network resources. It also includes a Web browser and runs Java applets.

The HDS Network Computer's options let you add anything you have on a standard PC. You can get a hard disk up to 2GB, up to 128MB of RAM, a floppy disk drive, PCMCIA slots, cable modem, Fast Ethernet and full multimedia-CD-ROM, speakers, full-motion video and videoconferencing capabilities. A model with 24MB of RAM, 1.2GB hard disk, four PCMCIA slots, 17-inch Trinitron color monitor, quad-speed

CD-ROM and stereo speakers would cost around $3,000.

Starts at $750
HDS Network Systems
800-HDS-1551, 610-277-8300

Hitting the road? Fujitsu wants you to put its Monte Carlo, Milan or Montego notebooks on your itinerary. The Fujitsu Monte Carlo is the high end of the line, with a 6X CD-ROM drive, built-in stereo speakers, 1GB hard drive, and a 133MHz, 120MHz or 100MHz Pentium. It measures 2 by 12.1 by 9.6 inches and weighs 7.3 pounds. The Fujitsu Milan measures 1.5 by 11.5 by 9.5 inches and weighs 5.9 pounds. It includes a 1.2GB hard drive and up to 48MB of RAM. The Fujitsu Montego weighs only 4.9 pounds, measures 1.9 by 10.2 by 8.3 inches and ships with a 100MHz Pentium, 1GB hard disk and a removable 3.5-inch floppy disk.

Monte Carlo, from $3,299 to $4,999; Milan, from $2,199 to $3,999; Montego, from $2,999 to $3,199
Fujitsu PC Corp.
888-4-ON-THE-GO, 408-935-8800

CineVideo/Direct lets you teleconference over regular analog phone lines, or using the Internet, LANs, WANs or ISDN. Although the software lets you conference over a 28.8 connection, the quality is higher with ISDN. CineVideo/Direct works with Sound Blaster-compatible systems and supports video cameras using NTSC/PAL output, full-duplex audio and video, and color or black-and-white cameras. For teleconferencing, the program shows both you and the person you're talking to on the screen. If you have a sound board but no camera, you can chat in voice-only mode. If you don't have camera or sound board, you can use the program's real-time text chat.

Sound board, $39.95; with black-and-white camera and microphone, $149.95; with color camera and microphone, $699.95; ProShare, $160 extra
Cinecom
888-246-8101, 703-680-4733,

The Sampo AlphaScan 760 17-inch microprocessor-based color monitor features a 0.25mm aperture-grille cylindrical Diamondtron CRT display. The display has a 1600x1280-pixel maximum resolution at 60Hz. It reaches resolutions of 1280x1024 at 76Hz, 1024x768 at 100Hz, and either 800x600 or 640x480 at 120Hz.

$845
Sampo Technology
770-449-6220, fax 770-447-1109

For design professionals, CAD/CAM users and desktop publishers, the CTX PR700 17-inch monitor offers a Diamondtron 0.25mm aperture-grille cylindrical CRT. The screen has a 16-inch viewable area. The CTX PR700 provides a maximum resolution of 1600x1200 noninterlaced pixels. Its recommended resolution is 1280x1024 at 75Hz. It provides frequency ranges of 30kHz to 85kHz horizontally and 50kHz to 120kHz vertically.

$999
CTX International
800-888-2012, 818-839-0500

The Panasonic PanaSync E15 is an entry-level 15-inch monitor with a 0.27mm dot pitch, and a 75Hz refresh rate that helps provide flicker-free video at resolutions up to 1024x768 pixels. The monitor has analog controls, seven preset timing modes, and frequency ranges of 30.5kHz to 61kHz horizontally and 50kHz to 90kHz vertically. The front-mounted analog controls handle horizontal and vertical position, and size, contrast, brightness and power.

$359
Panasonic Computer Peripherals Co.
800-742-8086, 201-348-7000

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