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Sunday, February 10, 2008

How to buy a desktop PC

I did a good 2 months of research
before buying my first computer.
2 months was too much because I
didn't have access to internet at
that time. But I will tell you
what to look for when go out to
buy a computer.
Okay first I will list all
the components which will make a
computer. This is for those who are
new to this time consuming toy ;).
So here they are :
1. Mother Board/ Main Board. (Required)
2. Chipset. (Required)
3. CPU (Central processing unit) (Required)
4. RAM (Random Access Memory also
called main memory) (Required)
5. Graphics card. (Required)
6. Hard Disk. (Required)
7. Audio Card. (optional)
8. Network Card/s. (Optional)
9. Monitor. (Required)
10. Keyboard. (Required)
11. Mouse.(REquired)
12. External Disk Reader (CD/DVD ROM). (Optional)
13 Speakers. (Optional)

The parts which are listed as required
are necessary for a computer to work properly
and you will do fine even without the optional
components. While buying a computer you should
invest on the required parts while the optional
components can be bought later. Even amongst the
required components you have to invest on most
important components. Some of the components
can not to upgraded later or upgrading them
would mean buying a new computer. These parts
are the motherboard, the chipset, the CPU. So
when buying a computer you should spend more
on these components. The next paragraph will
explain how to select individual component from
the above list.
While looking for a motherboard you
should look what are the various on-board features.
For example most mother boards come with a an
on-board graphics card, an on board audio and
an on board network adapter. If you are going
to connect your computer to a network then always
go for a motherboard with an on-board network card.
Other things to look for on a motherboard are
number of PCI/PCIX/PCIE/AGP slots. These are the
slots which will help you upgrade some of your
computer components like graphics card, audio
card, network adapter just in case you want to.
Like wise you should see if the motherboard
supports SATA or PATA. This will determine what
kind of hard drive you should by. Also look for
the number of USB ports. One more important thing
is the number of RAM slots on the board. This is
necessary if you want to increase the amount of
memory in the future.
The CPU, this is one of the components
which would determine how good run computer will
be when you run heavy applications. The processing
power of a CPU is measured in GHz. Buy a CPU with
a large GHz value if you can afford. Next factor
is the L2 cache. This factor determines how much
data can the CPU store locally so that it doesn't
have to access the main memory every time. The
larger the better. If you have enough money go for
a dual core one. That way you will have two CPUs
to work for you. Also look for a 64 bit CPU.
The RAM( main memory). Again you should
by a fast and large amount of memory. Buy less
number of sticks of larger amount if possible.
This is help you free up some slots for future
upgrade.
Graphics card. It usually comes on
board. But if you want a better one then you
can buy another one also. Buy a graphics card
that has a large amount of memory on it so that
you don't have to share it from the main memory.
The hard disk. If you want to store
a large amount of data like songs, videos and
movies etc then go for a big one like 160 GB.
If your mother board supports SATA option then
always buy a SATA hard drive. SATA is faster
then ide drives. With SATA also buy one with
higher speeds (greater number of RPMs). Usually
7200 rpms is good. It all depends upon how much
money you can spend.
As of monitor, go for an LCD one preferrably
large one if you can.
Keyboard and mouse, go for usb or wireless
one. One factor with wireless is that they
operate on battery and will eat up a large amount
of those. If you can afford go for wireless ones.
CD/DVD ROM. Always buy a writer if you
can. That way you can burn cds/dvds to free up
some space on you hard drive. Buy one with a larger
burning speed.
Rest of the components are optional. You
can buy them later easily.

2 comments:

Dhawal Kumar - The Journalist said...

Thank you for this great information. It is good. I will certainly get in touch with you when I buy a computer. Dhawal Kumar

Unknown said...

Hi! This is Amit. Your article was very helpful as M gonna buy a PC 1st time. Will apprecite if u let me know the current PC Configs in local market as I live in Pune.
My budget is Rs.35000 to 40000/-
TC!