Recommendation: CanoScan LIDE 50 or other?

[Stan Brown]

(follow-ups set to comp.periphs.scanners)

I've given up the idea of an all-in-one and selected a nice laser
printer to replace my trusty LJ IIIp, which finally bit the dust.

My requirements:

- I have a lot of photos (my own and from magazines) that I want to
store on my computer. I have no interest in printing them, but if
possible I'd like to keep that option open for the future.

- It's lower priority, but I will eventually scan pages from one or
two of my books and OCR them for text searching. Therefore I want a
flatbed.

- Image size: 8.5x11 is fine

- Feeder: I don't care about ADF because the photos are all odd
sizes and I want to expect to take some time with each one.

- Speed vs quality: For the same reason, I'm willing to wait a few
extra seconds for an image if I gain in quality of scan and
especially of cleaning up schmutz like crease marks on photos.

- My system: Windows 98 (desktop not laptop), 96 MB, USB port (not
2.0)

- My desk space is really limited, so being able to run the scanner
on its side is a plus though not a must.

Looking at the review sites, I really like what I read about the
CanoScan LIDE 50, but I'm concerned for two things:

(1) The manufacturer site says "128 MB required". Do I need to take
that seriously in Win98? If so, memory's not expensive, so I'm
willing to add some; but I'd like to know for sure first.

(2) The CanoScan pulls power from the PC through its USB 2.0 cable.
My PC has the older form of USB; will the CanoScan be able to pull
power even so, or if not is there an auxiliary hookup to power it
off a wall outlet?

While the CanoScan LIDE 50 looks good on the Web, I'm not married to
it; if you think another scanner would be better for my needs
please say so.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
"Sticklers unite! You have nothing to lose but your sense of
proportion (and arguably you didn't have a lot of that to
begin with)." -- Lynne Truss, /Eats, Shoots & Leaves/

 

[Thomas Houseman]

(1) The manufacturer site says "128 MB required". Do I need to take

that seriously in Win98? If so, memory's not expensive, so I'm
willing to add some; but I'd like to know for sure first.

It would probably run but not very well...
I'd get more RAM. Like you said, it's not that expensive and photo images
use RAM like you can't get enough.
You'd be doing yourself and your hard drive swap file a favour.

(2) The CanoScan pulls power from the PC through its USB 2.0 cable.
My PC has the older form of USB; will the CanoScan be able to pull
power even so, or if not is there an auxiliary hookup to power it
off a wall outlet?

It'll work fine. All USB2 stuff is backward compatible. Just slower data
transfer.

Rgds,

T.

 

[Stan Brown]

in comp.periphs.scanners:
(answering my questions)

I'd get more RAM.


It'll work fine. All USB2 stuff is backward compatible. Just slower data
transfer.

Thanks Thomas! I knew the data transfer was backwards compatible,
but I didn't know if power transmission was new with USB 2.0.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
"Sticklers unite! You have nothing to lose but your sense of
proportion (and arguably you didn't have a lot of that to
begin with)." -- Lynne Truss, /Eats, Shoots & Leaves/

 

[Mike Powers]

Make sure the motherboard will support more ram and what type. Some
common Pentium and Pentium MMX chipsets stopped at 64 meg. Also check
the type and sizes required. Older 168 pin SIMMs have tended to go up
in price and you may not get away with a simple addition, you may have
to replace.

 

[Stan Brown]

Make sure the motherboard will support more ram and what type. Some
common Pentium and Pentium MMX chipsets stopped at 64 meg. Also check
the type and sizes required. Older 168 pin SIMMs have tended to go up
in price and you may not get away with a simple addition, you may have
to replace.

Thanks. Let me run by you what the manual says and what I infer, and
see if this sounds right:

The motherboard is "GA-6BXC Inter 440X AGPset", and the manual says
there are "3 banks 168 pins DIMM module sockets on board: Use
8/16/32/64/128/256 MB DIMM module DRAM". Since I've got 96 MB I'll
bet there are 3 32-MB DIMMs in there. (Obviously I'll have to open
it up and look, but I don't like to do that while it's powered up.)

The manual says "8-768 MB SDRAM", so I could probably buy a 128 MB
module, throw away one of the 32s, and have 192 MB. Prices didn't
look bad for DIMMs at Compuetrs4Sure, where I have bought a CD-RW
drive in the past.

It further says "Supports 3.3V SDRAM" and on a separate line
"Supports EDD or non-ECC type DRAM".

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
"Sticklers unite! You have nothing to lose but your sense of
proportion (and arguably you didn't have a lot of that to
begin with)." -- Lynne Truss, /Eats, Shoots & Leaves/

 

[Mike Powers]

You are probably close to right. Either 3 32 meg or 1 64 and one 32.
Take a look at what is in it, you will probably need PC66 or PC100 if
you are running 66 meg FSB or PC100 if 100 meg FSB. You might get away
with PC133 if it is cheaper but sometimes you get into a mix and match.
Since the board was apparently built before PC133 became popular, it
may or may not run it.

 

[Bruce Gaylinn]

Stan,

Your motherboard uses the Intel 440BX chipset and requires older type
low density RAM. Newer higher density memory chips are cheaper, more
common and may fit into the slot, but will not be properly recognized.
Often these days PC133 is high density and PC100 is low density, but
this is not guaranteed. Best bet is to use a site that specifies that
the memory fits your board. Crucial.com is a good start. (also, many
freeware programs can report what memory type you have in each slot
without opening the hood, you could try AIDA32, Sisoft Sandra, or Belarc
Adviser to get more technical about your upgrade path). Depending on
the rest of your set up, with a little more memory your machine may do
just fine. But don't invest too much into upgrading that machine as
prices for new and used machines with better everything have come down.

Bruce

 

[Stan Brown]

Your motherboard uses the Intel 440BX chipset and requires older type

(chipset and RAM advice)

My thanks to both you and Mike Powers!

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
"Sticklers unite! You have nothing to lose but your sense of
proportion (and arguably you didn't have a lot of that to
begin with)." -- Lynne Truss, /Eats, Shoots & Leaves/

 

[PurSpyk!!]

Hi

I have this scanner, it used to run on a 5 year old Celeron 400 without any
problems. The motherboard also only supported USB 1.1. I had 384MB ram
though.

I would upgrade the memory even if you don't go for this scanner, Windows
will work better.

The scanner only gets its power through the USB cable.

regards

Brett

(follow-ups set to comp.periphs.scanners)

I've given up the idea of an all-in-one and selected a nice laser
printer to replace my trusty LJ IIIp, which finally bit the dust.

My requirements:

- I have a lot of photos (my own and from magazines) that I want to
store on my computer. I have no interest in printing them, but if
possible I'd like to keep that option open for the future.

- It's lower priority, but I will eventually scan pages from one or
two of my books and OCR them for text searching. Therefore I want a
flatbed.

- Image size: 8.5x11 is fine

- Feeder: I don't care about ADF because the photos are all odd
sizes and I want to expect to take some time with each one.

- Speed vs quality: For the same reason, I'm willing to wait a few
extra seconds for an image if I gain in quality of scan and
especially of cleaning up schmutz like crease marks on photos.

- My system: Windows 98 (desktop not laptop), 96 MB, USB port (not
2.0)

- My desk space is really limited, so being able to run the scanner
on its side is a plus though not a must.

Looking at the review sites, I really like what I read about the
CanoScan LIDE 50, but I'm concerned for two things:

(1) The manufacturer site says "128 MB required". Do I need to take
that seriously in Win98? If so, memory's not expensive, so I'm
willing to add some; but I'd like to know for sure first.

(2) The CanoScan pulls power from the PC through its USB 2.0 cable.
My PC has the older form of USB; will the CanoScan be able to pull
power even so, or if not is there an auxiliary hookup to power it
off a wall outlet?

While the CanoScan LIDE 50 looks good on the Web, I'm not married to
it; if you think another scanner would be better for my needs
please say so.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
"Sticklers unite! You have nothing to lose but your sense of
proportion (and arguably you didn't have a lot of that to
begin with)." -- Lynne Truss, /Eats, Shoots & Leaves/