Computers for Beginners/Buying A Computer
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[edit] Building a Computer
Building a computer is not as difficult as it sounds. It is not recommended for absolute beginners, but if you have toyed with computers for some time, it might be a good idea, especially if you plan on playing games. It can save you a bundle on hardware. There is a separate wikibook on this, as well as some other resources online.
[edit] Choosing a computer
Choosing a computer is not as difficult as one might think. If all you plan to do is surf the web, send a few e-mails and write someone a letter, any new computer you find for sale will work well. Currently available computers have more than enough processing power for the tasks most people use. The more expensive models provide extra performance or software that you may or may not use. In fact, even computers as old as five years may be more than adequate for your needs. You can save a bundle by buying a refurbished or used computer from a big company (like Dell or Gateway) or from a small, local reseller (like Computer Renaissance -- a franchise/chain). Most people do not realize this!
What you need to get is determined by what you plan to do with your computer. If you don't plan to play high end games, you don't need a $500 video card, a $1000 top of the line processor and a $400 hard drive. If you are typing letters to your grandkids there is no way you can type faster than even the slowest new computers. Consider what you plan to do, how much you want to spend and chose your computer from there. Don't be the guy who bought the SLI pc and 30" flat panel display when he just wanted to play pac-man!
There are a few choices you have to make:
[edit] Desktop v. Laptop
It comes down to a choice between size and price. Desktop computers (those with a tower case and a separate monitor) offer better value for the money. They are usually cheaper and faster than laptops. Laptops, on the other hand, are easy to carry from place to place and can be set-up on any table or your lap (although lap use tends to be discouraged by manufacturers due to heat issues, and most have gone so far as to discourage the use of the term "laptop", preferring "notebook" instead). If you need to move your computer from location to location, or would like to be able to take your computer with you anywhere you go, spend the extra to get a laptop. An important factor to consider with laptops is that, due to their compact design, they are also more prone to hardware failure, making an extended warranty a must. If you just plan to use your computer at your desk at home, save a few bucks and get a desktop. For computer gaming, desktops are generally considered greatly superior. Most laptops are oriented for work use. For an idea of how big the difference typically is, a laptop will generally cost 20-30% more than a comparable desktop.
[edit] Optical Drives
Almost all computers come with some sort of Compact Disc drive. With a standard CD drive you can play music CDs and install software stored on CDs. For a little extra you can get a drive that will play both CDs and DVDs. That means you can watch movies on your computer. The next step after that is what is called a recordable CD (CD-R). This allows you to be able to record your own Compact Discs. You can create music CDs or save data to a disc for safe keeping. Some CD-R can also play DVDs and are called combo drives. The top of the line are DVD recorders (DVD-R, DVD+R or DVD-/+R). They can create both read and write CDs and DVDs. Most home DVD players will play DVDs that you create on your computer. There are two types of DVD recorders: the +R and the -R. Try to get a recorder that works with both formats. If one will fit into your budget, get a DVD recorder.
The next big thing in optical media are Blu-Ray discs/ drives. These discs have a large capacity (upto 50 Gigabytes) and are already available in the markets, although they remain expensive.
[edit] Hard Drives
Hard drives are like big filing cabinets for your computer. Although they are all the same physical size (except in desktop v. laptop comparison), hard drives come in different capacities. When it comes to hard drives, bigger is better, within reason. As of early 2005 the bottom end is about a 40GB (gigabytes*). This would allow you to install a quite a few programs and still have room left for your data. An upgrade to a 60GB or 80GB is a good idea, to give yourself that little bit extra room. If you plan to do lots of video editing, or playing lots of games, you might want to go with a 120GB, 160GB or bigger hard drive. If you start to run out of room for your stuff you can always add a second hard drive later. Remember, there's no sense in buying a 400GB hard drive if you only surf the Net.
When sorting through HD controllers, SATA150 is better than IDE, SATA 300 is twice as good as SATA150, and SCSI is best as it allows for drive speeds for up to 15,000 RPMs. Not to say that you can't make a high end gaming system with IDE. It can be from 40 gb to 500 gb.
[edit] Processor
The processor (or CPU) is the brains of the computer; it does all the calculating. Simply put, faster is better. However, faster is generally more expensive. Unless you plan on playing the latest games, or doing a lot of video editing, buy a middle of the pack processor. You can save a few bucks by going with a slower processor, or spend a few extra for a little more speed. This book recommends that you stay away from the very high end as you spend a lot more money for only a small increase in performance. For instance, the highest-end processor in the Pentium 4 line, labeled the "Extreme Edition" (EE), will add $1,000 to the price of the chip for only about a 10% speed increase.
There are two main CPU manufacturers, Intel and AMD. Competition keeps them fairly evenly matched. Intel offers the high-end Pentium 4 and the low-end Celeron processors while AMD has the high-end 64-bit Athlon 64 and Athlon FX lines, and the mid-range and low-range Athlon and Sempron, respectively. The low-end processors (Celeron and Sempron) tend to offer 80% of the performance of their big brothers, at about 50% of the price - although this varies between applications.
[edit] RAM (Memory)
RAM, or Random Access Memory, is memory that is not on your hard drive that your computer uses to store things you have not saved, such as this web page and a document that you are typing. RAM is much faster than a hard drive- every letter you type would take about a second if you used just the hard drive. As with most things computer-related, more is better. This book suggests getting a minimum of 512MB (megabytes) - 1GB (gigabyte) of RAM. If you have a little extra money, you may want to go with 2048 (more commonly referred to in most specifications as simply 2GB). Anything over that is a little excessive.
In any case the amount of memory you will need will be dictated by the applications you will be using. For example, graphics-heavy applications such as Adobe Photoshop will demand considerably more RAM than text-based software such as email programs and word processors.
[edit] Operating System
An Operating System is a software that runs your Hardware and interacts with other software applications and the peripherals. It is on the users choice which operating system he wants to install. Operating systems come into various ccategories i.e. some designed to act as server and some as client, server operating system serves many individual computers (client) and Client operating system serves the client itself i.e. your individual computer. Operating system in layman term can be defined as a software designed to enable interaction between the hardware and the user. With the help of the operating system you can install various need specific applications and control the peripherals like printers, modem, speakers and removable drives. In short a new computer is only a naked hardware device incapable of any operation, it needs an operating system that interacts between the user and the hardware to bring desired results for performing various tasks.
Most likely the most essential part of a computer is the operating system. An operating system is what connects the computer to the applications, or programs you wish to use, software speaking.
Although Windows is the most popular operating system, this does not necessarily make it the best. Linux and Mac are much faster, safer, and more reliable, and if it is within your budget, consider buying a Mac or a installing Linux on a computer with no operating system, on which to install Linux.
[edit] Virus Protection
If you are using Windows, virus protection is recommended. There are pay products that require a subscription such as Norton or McAfee, or you can use free products like AVG and Malwarebytes. Linux and Mac are less prone to virus infection but anti-virus is always a good idea no matter what operating system you use.
[edit] Video card
Computers aren't very useful if you can't see anything, unless you build a server or other form of distributed workstation. A video card allows you to see output from the computer.
- If you plan to do any 3D gaming whatsoever, you need a graphics card. There are two main companies who produce graphics card chipsets: ATI and Nvidia. Both make good graphics cards in all price and performance ranges and you should do more research before choosing a specific card. Basically, the more expensive cards allow you to play fancier games. Video cards have their own onboard RAM and have their own processor known as a Graphics Processing Unit (or GPU). Sometimes, you will find pcs with dual graphics. This gives the user 2x the power of one card. It will also cost a paltry 500 bucks more.
- If you only want to surf the web, write documents, send and receive email, then "integrated graphics" are fine and costs much less. Most bargain computers come with what is known as integrated graphics--very basic graphics built right into the motherboard.
Also keep in mind that graphics processing requires memory. Memory can be available from any single source on your PC.
- a video card as described here, that has its own on-board memory
- video chip(s) embedded on the motherboard that have memory
- video chip(s) that need to share the RAM described above
Most desktop and notebook computers have only one memory source for processing graphics.
