Buying a Computer

The primary element prior to purchasing a computer is to know ones computing requirements. The following steps could be attributed for making a right decision and finally purchasing the personal computer: †¢ Deciding ones computing requirements is the essential factor as that would determine the configuration the personal computer must possess. If one requires a general one for office applications and spreadsheets, a minimum configuration is suitable.On the other hand if one requires to perform programming and other high computing platform usages then processing capability would be greater to support the launching and running of applications. †¢ The next decision would be to select between branded and non-branded PCs. Branded ones are non-assembled by the customer and are reconfigurable up to a certain limit, however they possess quality guaranteed by the vendor. Whereas the assembled PCs are reconfigurable to any extent and one can select their own hardware parts to match. This option is sought to be the best option.†¢ The hardware configuration is the next most vital point in the PC (How to buy a computer, 2007). One must focus on the following three: o Power: It usually comes from the microprocessors which are implemented in the PCs for executing the instructions faster. The Intel powered processors, AMD and others are recommended for usage. The Intel Pentium III or IV with 550 Megahertz is ideal for computing and personal environments. For extreme gamers and multimedia designers and users Intel Celeron 433 megahertz is quite ideal. Configurations: Pentium IV 1.3 to 3. 6 GHz (robust than Celeron), Pentium IVs greater than 2. 66 GHz possess Hyper Threading technology (basically it's like having 2 CPUs for the one), Celeron D is quite good for business applications), Xeon is used often in servers, Pentium M is common in laptops which helps the battery last longer. AMD: Sempron 2200 to 3300, Opteron, Duron (much like the Celeron, but an older AMD chip), Athlon (AMD's model match to the Pentium III) (WisdomCorner. com). AMD would be my ideal choice as it is faster and the fans cool the chips constantly.