How to Buy the Perfect Home Computer
Are you a gaming fanatic who would shrivel up and die if you couldn’t have the fastest and best gaming system on the planet? Or is a home based business your reason for buying a computer? All of these things form the basis for shopping smart and getting a personal computer ideally suited for you.
Next before going out to buy that PC, do your research. Check all the major PC builders sites, Gateway, Dell, Macintosh, Cyberpowerpc and Alienware to name a few. Check out PC magazine and PCWorld for reviews of systems in your price range. Unless you need a specialized machine, you can get by with low end PC’s for most ordinary home uses. One important note, if you are currently thinking about buyng a computer as a replacement, you might want to wait until Microsoft releases Vista, the new operating system. Currently it’s in home beta testing, and once they have the final bugs out, we may be seeing it come out by Christmas or soon after.
If you write or use intensive graphics online as part of your business, you should consider a mid to high end machine. There are several items that are very critical in selecting options in this category. This requires an understanding of what the core components are in a high performance computer.
You’ll see HT (hyperthread technology), dual core processing, S.AT.A., RAID, and liquid cooling. DDSRAM, memory, storage, NVIDIA GForce and other arcane options listed. Each is crucial to faster performance, less overheating, improved graphics and better security through mirrored hard drives. Each of these are important so let’s take a brief look at what each one of these things does.
HT and Dual Core Processors: “A single-core Pentium 4 with Hyper-Threading, two data threads can be processed across the core at one time in a parallel fashion. This was a major improvement over single-threaded cores, yielding significant performance gains over the earlier designs, especially when multitasking and in multithread-capable applications. With a dual-core Pentium D, however, each core has its own dedicated thread and physical processing resource, significantly improving the efficiency of how workloads are processed.
While the cores reside in a single package, what you essentially have are two distinct processors sharing a common bus. Just like a dual-processor configuration, however, applications need to be coded to take full advantage of both cores simultaneously. Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean that two cores are not beneficial with single-threaded applications. One of the dual-core’s strengths is its effects on multitasking. For example, it is now much more feasible to encode video while playing a game, working in a word processing application, and browsing the Web simultaneously as each task can be processed in a seperate core. Furthermore, the overall system responsiveness should be improved significantly over single-core processors as system tasks are effectively split between the two cores.” ibid: Hot Hardware.com
SATA: Often abbreviated SATA or S-ATA, an evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is a serial link – a single cable with a minimum of four wires creates a point-to-point connection between devices. Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150MBps. One of the main design advantages of Serial ATA is that the thinner serial cables facilitate more efficient airflow inside a form factor and also allow for smaller chassis designs. In contrast, IDE cables used in parallel ATA systems are bulkier than Serial ATA cables and can only extend to 40cm long, while Serial ATA cables can extend up to one meter. Serial ATA is an evolutionary replacement for the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) is the group responsible for developing, managing and driving adoption of the Serial ATA specifications. Users of the Serial ATA interface benefit from greater speed, simpler upgradeable storage devices and easier configuration.
RAID: You cannot have RAID without SATA. RAID at level One provides for disk mirroring. The two drives operate simultaneously. If one hard drive fails, the other hard drive-the mirror- kicks in providing instant back up. Both hard drives must be the same size for SATA/Raid to work.
DDS RAM: Pronounced ramm, acronym for random access memory, a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly; that is, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computers and other devices, such as printers.
There are two basic types of RAM:
dynamic RAM (DRAM)
static RAM (SRAM)
The two types differ in the technology they use to hold data, dynamic RAM being the more common type. Dynamic RAM needs to be refreshed thousands of times per second. Static RAM does not need to be refreshed, which makes it faster; but it is also more expensive than dynamic RAM. Both types of RAM are volatile, meaning that they lose their contents when the power is turned off.
Storage: the ability of a device to hold and save data. These are both critical areas, where for instance the newer operating systems such as Windows Vista will require 512 megs of memory, and a bare minimun 80 megs of storage.
NVIDIA: This is the most common of the graphics card makers found in most computers. The pre-bundled machines offer usually a low to mid-range graphics card, whgich admittedly will serve the average user well. However, if you use intensive imaging in your work, or are an ultimate gaming fan, spending the money for a top of the line card will more than pay for itself over time.
Liquid cooling/Cool wiring: This function offers superior cooling ability to the inner chassis and processor, which in the long run can help prolong the life of your computer, if you are a daily user over long hours. The cool wiring prevents overheating which can cause all kinds of malfunctions to key areas of your computer.CyberPower PC is one of the few online sites offering this option.
Once you get into high end computers, you are normally looking at anywhere from $2,000-$5.0000 for faster processing speeds, bigger, better graphics and huge storage and memory. Only serious gamers buy these machines, as most home businesses can get by with mid level-$1500-$2900 computers. Casual users can normally find a good pre-configured computer from Gateway, Dell or CyberPower for anywhere from $399-599 complete with monitor.
As someone who uses her computer for writing and business, I’ll never buy a pre-configured machine again. My new computer will be stripped of all extraneous items, including the ubiquitous MS package of suites, because of security issues, no monitor, and a custom set of options geared to my needs.
The total cost of the new machine at CyberPower, with SATA, Raid, dual hard drives, SSDRAM, liquid cooling, cool wiring, and dual core processing comes in at under $1300. That’s not bad for a machine built to fit my needs perfectly.
A word about warranties. Read the fine print or call and have them send you a sample warranty, before forking over $249.. or more for a 3 year deal. Take the standard free usual warranty, as most major problems with a computer develop in the first 90 days. By being an informed consumer, and avoiding sales hype and ‘special’ deals that often don’t add real value, you too can have the computer of your dreams.
