Suitable PC's
For legal reasons we never make recommendations, but we do offer guidelines based upon our historical experience.

For the same legal reasons, just because we have had difficulties with a certain PC brand at some stage, this should not be taken to indicate that there is any particular problem with this brand. It merely means that on occasion in the recent years, our customers have experienced configuration problems during software and/or hardware installation. We cannot exclude the possibility that these problems were related to our software, but the same software did not have these problems on some other PC brands.

This advice always assumes that you are working with the current revisions of the PC operating system and of the DataRay software & firmware.

1) 'Standards'. Be aware that PC standards are somewhat loose. Not all BIOS's are equally flexible. Not all expansion slots are created equal.

2) Buy Good PC's. If you try to use a 'No-name' cheap PC you may run into problems.
We have experienced inflexible BIOS's, 16-bits where 32-bits is the 'standard', no 3.3V on PCI slots, etc.
We cannot help solve your problems if you have bought a cheap computer.
Good PC's are such an excellent value that this is what you should purchase.

3) PC's that consistently work with DataRay products. We have had virtually zero problems with Dell, IBM and Micron PC's.

4) PC's with BIOS's that have given problems (but may now be fine):
Compaqs - problems a few years ago, no recent experience.
HP - problems a few years ago, no recent experience.

'Industrial' PC's - in general
PC's with the video driver on the motherboard.

5) Notebook PC's
Notebook PC's that will not work with the Magma Notebook PC interface:
Sony Vaio, and others that use the Ricoh Cardbus interface.


Notebook PC's that have consistently worked with the Magma PCI to Cardbus interface
Toshiba, Gateway

Notebook PC's that sometimes work with the Magma PCI to Cardbus interface
IBM - We have had some problems with some ThinkPad models:
Model 2647 under Windows 2000 Pro has given no problems
Mode 2656 under Windows XP Pro Japanese version freezes on Go when running WinCamD via the Magma interface, we currently have no solution for this.