What You Should Know Before Buying Computer Equipment

What You Should Know Before Buying Computer Equipment

by:
Bonnie Archer

There are many
factors to consider when deciding on which computer equipment
to buy. The massive amount of choices can seem overwhelming. This
guide can help you compare computer equipment features, and help
you to examine and sift through the basic items before you buy
a new computer.
If it is a desktop PC, laptop, discount/surplus computer, a refurbished
computer or a computer accessory, this quick guide will help you
to get the most for your money.

With computer equipment today almost any of them will adequately
handle what most people need to buy a new computer for; word processing,
basic office, internet surfing and email. Which you can buy for
about $1000. or less! But if you are into digital videos, photo
editing, music, or manage a large database you will need more
than the basic Desktop PC or Laptop. This higher end computer
will cost you around $1500-$2000.

(CPU) Processors:
There is always a lot of change in the computer market, but no
matter what the upgrades there is always two basic choices to
be made when purchasing computer equipment:
1) brand 2) speed. To buy a new computer that handles standard
office and Internet tasks any processor will work.

Need more 'power' in your computer equipment? Then the Intel Pentium4
or the AMD Athlon XP (great for graphics and photos which use
a lot of memory space) are for you.

If you buy a new computer one or two levels from the top you will
only lose about five percent per tier performance but you can
save a couple hundred dollars!

(RAM) Memory:
Memory is very important because optimum running of your computer
equipment is dependent on enough RAM. The minimum amount should
be 256MB, for better performance you should get 512MB. If you
can afford to buy a new computer with more, you should. It's worth
it because you can keep more applications open and it will easily
handle memory hogs like Photoshop and music applications!

Monitors:
When buying computer equipment look for a monitor that is at least
17" with a resolution of 1280 by 1024 pixels. A Desktop PC with
a 19-inch monitor gives you 20 % more screen area. If you can
spend $300-$450 on a monitor when you buy a new computer you might
want to get a 15" LCD because it has the same viewable area as
the 17" CRT and takes up much less space.

Hard Drives (storage):
Most hard drives sold today will provide more than enough storage.
The basic computer equipment comes with 40GB or larger, which
is plenty for most tasks. But for working with graphics, video,
music, or large databases 80GB should be the minimum you settle
for. 7200-rpm drives give better performance. But for the best
performance get a computer with 8MB of cache.


Warranty and Tech Support:
A one-year warranty on most computer equipment is enough, because
most problems seem to happen in the first year. If you want you
can get an extended two to three year warranty for around $150.
to $200. If you buy a Dell you can get priority call routing to
tech support for a year for only $39.
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About the author:
About The Author
B. Archer is a successful author and publisher of http://www.A1-computers.net

A great source of information about computers and computer accessories.



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