Computer Buyer's Guide

The overall speed of a computer is affected by several things, but most notably the clock speed of the processor and the speed and size of the instruction/data bus. The clock speed is the rate at which the processor processes information and this is measured in millions of cycles per second (MHz) in older computers and billions of cycles per second (GHz) in newer computers. The way that this information gets to the processor is via the instruction/data bus. The instruction/data bus is the pathway for data communications between the computer's processor and the various components in the computer and is analogous to the buses that run in the city. The bigger the bus, the more people that it can carry. The faster the bus travels, the faster you get to where you want to go. Similarly, the computer's bus has a certain size or width called the data path which is measured in bits. The speed of the bus is also measured in MHz just like the processor. The larger the bus width and/or the faster the bus speed, the more data that can travel on it in a given amount of time.

Power users should consider Pentium 4 CPUs at speeds of 2.0- 3.06 GHz or an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ - 30000+. If you must save money, the Intel Celeron at speeds greater than 2.5 GHz is a good second choice.

Motherboard

Buy a motherboard that supports the speed and functions that you want to have. Those buying Celerons should make sure their system is upgradeable to the Pentium 4 (requires Celerons at speeds 2 GHz or faster). Duron buyers should make sure they can upgrade to an Athlon XP.Intel motherboards are performing well.

RAM

Packages like Adobe Photoshop really benefit from large amounts of memory - they will run with less but try to get 256Mb or even 512Mb if you can. Memory is one of the speed bottlenecks and adding more is one of the most cost-effective ways of improving an entry-level computer's performance.

We recommend that new computer owners upgrade to 512 MB as soon as possible, as more RAM will improve the performance of your system.

Hard Disk

Hard disks are also cheap so buy as big as you can afford. You may find that a 80Gb disk costs hardly any more than a 40 Gb one. If you want to cut corners here bear in mind that many software packages need several hundred Mb of disk space. Add up the amount for all of the software that you are going to install and leave enough room for your data.

Upgrading Later

Choose a machine that can be upgraded but remember it is more expensive to add extras later. The most common upgrade options are a faster processor, more memory and additional hard drives. Important questions to ask are: what is the maximum processor speed that can be put in this machine? How much extra memory will it take? Most machines will take at least one additional hard drive, but ask anyway for peace of mind.

The Operating System

New computers typically come with the operating system pre-installed. The manufacturer may offer some choice of which operating system is installed. If you intend to use a particular software package, make sure that you choose an operating system that the package supports. Windows XP professional is the best choice for operating system, but it is frequently affected by virus.Instead of Internet explorer browser use Mozilla firebox browser to escape from virus threat.

Monitor

LCD 17" monitor is the best choice since it emits low radiation compared to CRT monitor.

Warranty