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There's few things more disappointing than finding out your 6
month old computer can't do what you want it too, or that you
don't really need that $400 graphics card to run Microsoft Word
or Excel.
Don't just buy blindly. Hopefully this article will help you ask
the right questions and get the right hardware for your needs
in return.
Each computer part is listed below with a brief explanation
of its purpose and how it could apply to your purchase. This article
only applies to the box internals and is directed to the most
advanced personal use -- GAMING. Most complete pre-built systems purchased
at your local retail outlet will do for home or office use except
where it applies to gaming.
Power Supply:
Often overlooked as a component; your power supply is an important
part of your computer as it powers all the internal components.
The power supply you need will largely be determined by the components
in your PC - in particular CPU type, graphics card and number
of internal devices.
At the time of this writing for Pentium 4 and all AMD CPUs, a
minimum 300W power supply is recommended. If you want to run one
of the new ATI X8xx or GeForce 6xxx series 3D graphics cards,
don't even try anything weaker than a 400W power supply.
Never overlook the significance of a power supply - an underpowered
system will be prone not only to unreliable operation, but also
to component damage.
CPU:
On the entry level side of things you have a choice between AMD's
Sempron CPUs and Intel's Celeron D. These CPUs are not for the
hardcore gamer - they're for the average user who only want to
run office applications and use the Internet.
For the hardcore user/gamer there's the Pentium 4 and the AMD
Athlon 64 CPUs. There's little to choose between the two big guns
in the CPU business. The slowest Pentium 4 CPU readily available
at present is the 3Ghz version, while AMD's equivalent, the Athlon
64 3000+ will likewise satisfy most users' demand for processing
power.
Go faster than that and the increase in cost becomes quite significant,
and you'll have to weigh that up against your budget and your
demands.
Motherboard:
The most important thing to keep in mind when picking a motherboard
is to get one that's fairly future proof.
For Pentium 4 that means a motherboard that supports socket 775
CPUs, and for AMD a motherboard that supports socket 939 CPUs.
Also, make sure your motherboard has enough expansion slots (most
commonly PCI slots) to support all additional cards you may want
to use in the near future - including sound cards, TV cards, wireless
network cards, etc.
If you're a gamer, also make sure that your motherboard supports
either an AGP 8x (obsolete soon), but preferably a PCI-Express
16x slot for a 3D graphics card.
3D Graphics Card:
While most motherboards these days feature an onboard graphics
card that is suitable for the casual user, these aren't adequate
for gamers.
With the old AGP 8x architecture almost obsolete, the way to go
is a PCI-Express graphics card if you have a motherboard that
supports it.
For casual gamers who want to play a bit of Sims and Harry Potter,
nVidia's GeForce 6600 and ATI's X700 series of cards will do the
trick.
For the hardcore gamer who wants to play cutting edge games like
Doom 3 and Battlefield 2 at rocking frame rates, don't get anything
smaller than a GeForce 6600GT or ATI X800 with 256MB of GDDR3
memory on the card. 128MB is also acceptable if you don't want
to play at resolutions higher than 1152x864.
Before buying a graphics card, make sure that a) your motherboard
has the appropriate slot for it and b) that your power supply
is strong enough to support it.
RAM:
RAM is fast memory used by your computer to execute tasks. When
your computer runs out of RAM, it starts swapping data to the
much slower hard drive, which slows down your entire system.
With RAM being so cheap these days I'd recommend you get at least
512MB. If you're going to run Windows XP, don't get less than
256MB or you'll slow even the fastest CPU powered computer to
a crawl.
For hardcore gamers, less than 1GB simply isn't an option anymore.
HARD DRIVES:
The smallest hard drive you can buy at the time of this writing
is 80GB. That's more than the average home/office user will ever
fill, while it's not nearly enough for music/video collectors
or avid gamers.
At the moment the first big price jump in hard drives comes between
200GB and 250GB, so 200GB would be a great option if you need
some serious space. Be sure to make comparisons if you need more
space - for example, two 200GB drives are much cheaper than one
400GB, even though you get the same amount of space.
On the other hand again, two 80GB drives are more expensive than
one 160GB drive.
It's also worth getting a SATA hard drive if your motherboard
supports it. It's much faster than IDE drives, which are still
abundantly available.
Optical Drives:
Fortunately CD-ROM drives have quietly vanished off the market,
so you can now get more versatile DVD-ROM and CD-ReWriter drives
very cheaply.
If you want to be able to write DVDs, naturally go for a DVD-RW
drive, and make sure the drive you get supports double-layer writing
so you can use the new 8.5GB double layer DVD discs in it, which
is a whole lot of backup storage.
So, that's just a quick rundown of the things to keep in mind
when buying a new computer. Fortunately it's almost impossible
to buy a slow computer these days - only gamers and other users
of high-demand software need to pay special attention to what
they get.
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