the best gear for your home office A consumer's guide to smart choices in computers, phones, facsimile machines and copiers
By PHIL PATTON

(MONEY Magazine) – When she moved her $300,000-a-year health-care consulting business into her Mill Valley, Calif. home two years ago, Marla Orth prepared for any disaster. She had twin IBM PC ATs, so there was a backup in case one failed. She added surge suppressors to protect them from electrical overload. And for traveling, she bought a Toshiba portable computer and a 10.7-ounce Motorola MicroTac cellular telephone. ''We got through the San Francisco earthquake without losing any data,'' Orth says proudly. The one thing she didn't reckon on was Annie, her six-month-old Labrador retriever. ''I was supposed to make a big presentation to a client's board of directors,'' recalls Orth, 38. ''I went into the house for a last cup of coffee before hitting the road when suddenly it dawned on me: 'Oh, my God! I left Annie in the office.' '' Sure enough, the chocolate-colored puppy had chewed up all of the carefully stacked presentation packets, denuded the Rolodex and, worst of all, remodeled the $1,300 cellular telephone into something resembling a well-gnawed Milk Bone. ''I showed up late for the meeting and handed out soggy, dog-eared papers,'' says Orth. ''Everyone on the board was very polite, but I don't think any of them believed my story until I reached into the briefcase and pulled out that phone. Then they all started to laugh, and things went all right.'' While no defense is foolproof against dogs and small children, you can at least protect yourself against earthquakes and other more run-of-the-mill business hazards by choosing the right equipment for your office at home. But doing so will be a challenge, because the equipment market is as complex as it is hot. Fully 11.2 million Americans are now self-employed at home, 9.4 million moonlight from home and 13.7 million more keep an office there for convenience. Total outlay on gear: about $9.8 billion in 1990, according to the New York City consulting firm Link Resources. Excluding furniture, the well-equipped home office comes with computer, fax, copier and phones worth an average of $5,100, says Link's Tom Miller. And if you run an entire enterprise (an architecture practice, say) from home, you could be looking at an outlay of $20,000 or more. With sums like those at stake, it pays to shop with a technonerd's eye for price and quality. If you do, you can outfit your home with gear that is not only cheaper but often better than what the average office worker enjoys, since you can choose exactly what suits you. ''Most 'open-collar workers,' as we call them, become quite savvy about electronics,'' says Paul Edwards, co- author with his wife Sarah of Working from Home (Jeremy P. Tarcher, $14.95). ''They are not excited by technology per se, only about what it can do for them. They look for low prices. But they also ask, 'Is it reliable? Will it do the job?' '' In the sections that follow, we lay out some guidelines for finding -- and buying -- the best gear.

Computers For years, the choice was between the workhorse IBM Personal Computer (PC) and Apple's Macintosh, and that choice was as emotionally charged as joining sides in a civil war. The IBM's appeal was low price and compatibility -- meaning you could mix IBM-style hardware from several different makers and it would still work together. Two years ago, you could buy a PC clone with a 40-megabyte hard disk, 512K of RAM and VGA color monitor for about $2,000 to $3,000 (prices in this article reflect what you'd pay at big electronics stores and discounters nationwide), and then select from a wide range of compatible software and accessories. The Mac, though costlier at about $4,000 for an equally powerful machine, was easier to learn. Once you mastered its visually oriented system of so-called windows, pull-down menus and mouse, you could run any program; they all operated much alike. Within the past year, though, Macs and IBMs converged in price and friendliness. Apple introduced the Macintosh Classic, at just $999. It sold about 200,000 units in its first six months on the market, making it one of the hottest-selling new models ever. And the software company Microsoft brought out Windows Version 3.0 (about $95), which has sold almost 3 million copies and lends a Mac-like feel to IBM machines that employ the Intel 80286 or 80386 microprocessors. (Geoworks' Ensemble, at about $120, offers many of the same features for older, slower PCs.) Thus while you still have to select between IBM and Macintosh, the sacrifices implicit in the choice have grown smaller. The basic rule: if you collaborate with other computer users, or already have a system at another office, equip your home with that brand. Here's what to ask for: -- When shopping for IBMs, tell your dealer that you want to see a 386SX or compatible machine, with a microprocessor running 16 megahertz or faster, a minimum of two megabytes of RAM, a 60-megabyte hard disk and VGA color monitor. Cost: $3,295 from IBM, down to $1,500 to $2,500 for clones like the NEC, AST or Packard-Bell 386SX.

-- If Mac is the apple of your eye, specify the Macintosh LC, with a microprocessor running at 16 megahertz, two megabytes of RAM, a 40-megabyte hard disk, built-in sound capabilities and a color monitor. Total package: $2,000 to $3,000. -- Unless you print pages just for yourself, consider spending $1,000 or so for a laser printer. It will give you quality, speed (four pages a minute or faster) and silence (a relief after the rattletrap old daisy-wheel printers). The leading low-end model is the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet IIP ($850 to $1,000). Competitors include the Panasonic KX-P4420 ($800 to $1,000) and Okidata 0L400 ($635 to $900). An ink-jet printer -- like the HP DeskJet 500 ($400 to $500) or the Canon BJ-10e ($400) -- saves money, but the print may smear when wet. -- Buy a modem if you plan to exchange data over a telephone line with other computers or a data base. Just about any Hayes-compatible 2400-baud modem (about $100 to $200) will do. And don't neglect a surge suppressor ($30 to $60) to protect all your gear against jolts of excess power through the plug.

Software If your needs are simple -- some letter writing, say, and elementary bookkeeping -- you might get by with an all-in-one package like Microsoft Works or Lotus Works, both about $100. (The Microsoft program is for Apple or IBM computers; the Lotus one for IBM only. All other software in this article works on both IBM and Mac unless otherwise noted.) Each includes a basic word processor for writing, a simple spreadsheet for manipulating numbers, a communications package to run a modem and a data-base program to track inventory. For more complicated chores, though, you will need one or more specialized programs. If your business requires a lot of writing, for instance, you'll need an industrial-strength word processor like Wordperfect ($220 to $300), Microsoft Word ($270 to $350) or XyWrite ($200 to $300, IBM only). Ami from Samna ($130) and the more powerful Ami Professional ($290) and Microsoft's Word for Windows ($300) are excellent word processors for machines that run on the Windows system. (Lotus bought Samna last year and now offers Ami Professional free with its popular 1-2-3 spreadsheet, version 3.1.) Mac users rate Word and T/Maker's WriteNow ($125) slightly ahead of the basic MacWrite ($140 to $200). For fancy number crunching, you will need a full-powered spreadsheet. The leader in the IBM world -- Lotus 1-2-3 ($330 to $400) -- is being challenged by Microsoft's Excel 3.0 ($300) and Borland's Quattro Pro ($350). Excel ($300 for the Mac) dominates on Apple but is fighting Informix's Wingz ($350). For minding massive quantities of data -- such as large mailing lists -- look into a data-base program such as Symantec's best-selling Q&A ($200 to $260, IBM only), which includes a simple word processor; Ashton-Tate's dBase IV ($480 to $600, IBM only); or Borland's Paradox ($500, IBM only). For accounting, consider In-House Accountant ($135) or DacEasy ($60 to $100) as a popular and low-cost alternative. And Pacioli 2000, named for the 15th-century Italian monk who invented double-entry bookkeeping, has stunned competitors with its low price ($30, IBM only). Intuit's best-selling Quicken ($40) is a good tool for small-business bookkeeping. For more extensive needs, consider the nine-module Peachtree Complete ($150, IBM only) package.

Telephones Your basic gear may consist simply of a phone and answering machine, which you can purchase as one unit in a model like the Panasonic KXT 2395 ($80 to $100). For taking calls in the garden, add a cordless like the Southwestern Bell FF 650 ($75 to $100) or AT&T 5352 ($150), both of which are relatively static-free. And by all means pay the installation fee ($40 to $80) and monthly charge ($20 to $50) for a separate office phone line. If your fax machine is not already equipped with a voice-data switch, you can purchase one for about $100 instead of installing additional phone lines for your fax or your modem.

Faxes Though facsimile machines come in a dizzying number of varieties, all of the ones from industry leaders like Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, Murata, Ricoh, Sharp and Toshiba do a solid job of their basic task -- sending and receiving documents by phone line. The stripped-down models start at $400 and go up in price depending on their features. The four most important are an automatic paper feeder, an automatic paper cutter, automatic redial and a transmission speed of a page every 15 seconds. You'll find all four in machines such as the Sharp UX-171 ($600 to $800), the PanaFax UF 160M ($800 to $1,000) or the Toshiba 4700 ($650 to $900).

Copiers Fax makers brag that their machines double as copiers. It's true: they copy by sending to themselves. But the copy comes out on that crinkly fax paper, and you usually can't duplicate pages of a book or magazine. For that reason, many home workers invest in a small copier like the portable Canon PC-1 ($400 to $500) or Sharp Z-55 ($700 to $850). If you need a machine that reduces and enlarges too, move up to models like the Sharp Z-72 ($900 to $1,100), Canon PC-7 ($900) or Xerox 5011 R/E ($2,000). The standard shopping drill applies for all of the above equipment: Visit four or five stores to try out and compare models, features and prices (new models come out almost monthly, so don't be surprised if some of the ones listed above have already been superceded). Talk to friends who own similar gear to see what features are important. Check prices from discounters like 47th Street Photo (800-221-7774, 212-608-6934 in New York State), office supply giants like Staples (800-333-3330) or Office Depot (800-637-8474), and mail-order outfits like Dell (800-937-1470), Northgate (800-545-6065) and Tri- Star (800-678-2799). Pay by credit card, so you can protest the charge if needed. And if the darn thing breaks, ask the maker for help even if it's no longer technically covered by warranty. That's what Marla Orth did when her dog dismantled her cellular phone, and the people at Motorola were nice enough to fix it for a few hundred dollars. Now all is forgiven. And Annie -- who came perilously close to a one-way trip to the dog pound -- has redeemed herself by delivering 11 ink-jet black puppies (the father was Moki, pictured on page 67). ''She's a good dog,'' Orth observes. ''She just likes to chew.''