Hardware Information

What You Should Know Before You Buy Computer Equipment


You will have many factors to consider when deciding on which computer equipment to buy. The bewildering amount of choices can seem overwhelming. This guide will help you compare computer equipment features, and help you to examine and sift through many of the basic items before you buy a new computer. If it be 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 today's computer equipment 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 most 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 it is affordable 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 your 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 in today market 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 plenty, 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. As of this writing, if you buy a Dell you can get priority call routing to tech support for a year for only $39.

Thanks For Reading
Bonnie Archer
http://www.A1-computers.net
Check out our Blog! http://a1-computers.blogspot.com


MORE RESOURCES:

From this Vista, it looks like same old Microsoft
Newsday, NY - 23 hours ago
Does anyone seriously expect MIS departments to invest in conversion costs and new hardware, a Vista requirement, in the middle of a recession? ...
Walter Mossberg: There's really no reason to use 64-bit Explorer Arizona Daily Star
Windows XP gets another reprieve Computerworld
all 3 news articles


Dawsonville Hardware October Bargains
Dawson Times, GA - 15 hours ago
Step into Dawsonville Hardware on the square in October for these bargains of the month. Dawsonville Hardware carries a large selection of hardware ...


ZDNet

Six money-saving secrets to help stretch your tech budget
ZDNet - 13 hours ago
You might be tempted to impose a freeze on all new purchases of hardware and software, but that draconian strategy only works for so long. ...


Cost-cutting, greater efficiencies to be topics at SNW
Computerworld, MA - 4 hours ago
HP has added an option for users -- new hardware encryption for its HP StorageWorks XP24000 and XP20000 disk arrays. The enhancements can reduce the risk of ...


RE[3]: yeah
Newmobilecomputing.com - 5 hours ago
I'd say that over half the performance and stability is due to the combination of the hardware and software rather than simply the software alone. ...
RE[3]: yeah Newmobilecomputing.com
all 6 news articles


Washington Post

Japanese Hardware: 360 Lead Narrows Over PS3
Gamasutra, CA - Oct 10, 2008
Although software sales were relatively healthy, this week has seen some of the lowest overall hardware sales this year. As both PSP and Nintendo DS await ...
Japanese Sales Data: Media Create hardware sales for 29/9 – 05/10 EL33TONLINE
Japan Hardware Sales Results Kezins
Xbox 360 beats PS3 for fourth week in Japan Punch Jump
CVG Online - Stuff.co.nz
all 656 news articles


Windows Mobile Devices with no Hardware Buttons
Mobility Site, AL - Oct 11, 2008
Knowing the limitations of Windows Mobile, I wonder how good the user experience can get without having some of the traditional hard buttons. ...


Source Consulting Launches WMS Webstore at shop.2sci.com
PR Web (press release), WA - 1 hour ago
By offering warehouse management system (WMS) hardware such as Symbol wireless handheld scanners and AML handhelds, Source Consulting has become a one-stop ...


UPDATE: Brokers Cut Estimates For IT Hardware Firms
CNNMoney.com - Oct 7, 2008
For several months, many of the leading hardware companies were thought of as being largely immune to the fallout from the credit crisis as it was mostly ...
Tech hardware makers take a hard hit on Wall Street Austin American-Statesman
all 16 news articles


eCopy Announces Office Equipment Channel Partners Best Practices
ECM Connection (press release), PA - 4 hours ago
In addition to helping move their sales team from a hardware focus to solution selling, the program results included increasing the quarterly rate of ...

Hardware - Google News

home | site map
© 2006