Computer buying tips

Hardware tips -> Computer buying tips

Today computers have become a necessity in every home. More and more middle income households are now owning a computer now. That is why there are many different branded PCs at different prices. It has become a tough decision to choose the right computer. If you do not know the different components in the computer and their functions, it becomes even more difficult to choose. In this article let us see the various components in a computer to help you in your choosing the right computer for you. CPU (Central Processing Unit) Most of the computers have Pentium Processors. Pentium processors are very popular CPUs. Pentium Processors are manufactured by Intel. Other than Pentium, Intel also manufactures Celeron processors. AMD manufactures Athlon processors. If you want to save money then go for Celeron processors. If you want higher performance then choose Pentium processors. Pentium processors come in 2.6 GHz, 2.8 GHz, 3.0 GHz and above while Celeron processors come in 950 MHz to 2.80 MHz speed. RAM (Random Access Memory) There are many types of RAM namely DDR and SDRAM. The type of RAM you choose depends on the motherboard you choose and what your motherboard supports. Get a RAM as big as possible. 256MB of RAM is the minimum RAM required for a decent computer. But it is recommended that you go for atleast 512MB RAM or even higher if possible. Motherboard Intel, Asus and Mercury are some of the motherboard brands. Generally computer buyers overlook on motherboards. This is wrong. A good quality motherboard will provide an efficient and faster computer. The Chipset of a motherboard is very important. Intel's 845 and 915G chipsets can take in Pentium processors. Likewise nVidia's nForce 4SLI chipset takes AMD's Athelon 64 and Athelon 64 FX processors. Hard Disk Harddisks with 7200RPM speed are available. Harddisks with 40GB, 80GB, 120GB storage capacity are available. 80GB harddisk capacity is suitable for home as well as office use. HardDisks come in two types of interfaces. EIDE or SATA among which SATA interface is better. Graphics Card Graphics card is integrated inside the motherboard. Unlike before the graphics card and the motherboard are now integrated. Intel's Extreme Graphics, Graphics Media Accelerator 900 are popular. If you go for nVidia motherboard then Riva TNT2 graphics card is better. Sound Card Like graphics card, sound cards are also integrated in the motherboard. Many motherboards come with Ac97 Audio cards. CD Drives Until 2004 the sale of CDROM drives was good. All computers came with 48x or 52x CD drives. But sales of CD Writers took over CDROM drives in late 2004. From 2005 it is DVD writers and the combo drives that can handle both CDs and DVDs. So choose either combo drives that can read and write CDs and read DVDs or go for DVD Writers. Monitor 15" and 17" monitors are very popular. The CRT monitors occupy more space on the table and consume more power. Where as the flat LCD panel monitors occupy less space and consume less power. So choose a LCD monitor KeyBoard A simple keyboard is usually sufficient. You may also try multimedia keyboards or Internet keyboards. But most computer users usually do not use these additional short cut keys provided in these new keyboards. Membrane keys or mechanical type keys are available. Of these Mechanical keys are more durable. Mouse Optical mouse is better than the ordinary mouse. The ball inside the ordinary mouse tends to gather dust and therefore the optical mouse is better to use. Others If you are an audio buff then you can buy good speakers, earphone and head set. Try to get integrated network interface card and modem if you will be using networking or dialup internet.