Need Advice
The new top of the line Texel really is a fine CD ROM at one of the best
prices in the business, I agree. Although I use a SoundBlaster card in my main
machine, when I got a multimedia upgrade kit for my other big 486 I got the
PAS16/NEC83 MultiMedia Upgrade kit because (A) it is hardware superior overall
to anything SB puts out, and (B) neither the card nor the CD ROM are specific
to each other so upgrade paths exist on both sides. While the SoundBlaster MM
kit is cheaper, and provides fine results, the CD ROM port is proprietary to
Creative Labs, meaning that only specific CD ROMs made for CL/SB cards will
work with it and those CDRs won't work with anything else. Thus, if you want to
upgrade either the card or the CD ROM at some later date, you have to replace
both. The PAS16 has a SCSI port that's fairly standard and the NEC (and Texel)
are standard SCSI devices, meaning you can hook the CDRs to any SCSI port and
not just the PAS16 and you can use other SCSI devices with the PAS.
Frankly, if cash is a real consideration here, I'd go with a Texel MM
upgrade kit (and get the top of the line Texel, it's at the current state of
the art) or pick up an inexpensive SCSI-2 card, manager software like
CorelSCSI, a Texel drive, and a good sound card which could be SoundBlaster,
PAS16, you name it. The components won't run much more than the kits these days
with a little judicious shopping, you'll get more efficient results, and, as
with all component systems, it'll be easy to replace any one without having to
replace everything. And the card will also run at least 6 more SCSI devices
when you get the yen….