You can't go wrong (or right)
Jul 22 '00
In the past twenty years, I’ve advised literally thousands of people on the “best deal” for a first computer. To the best of my knowledge, no one has followed that advice. Here I go again…
Let’s start with “IBM compatible”: the Macintosh is a different animal (if you are really into art or music consider it).
Where to buy?
A quick answer is to get the best price. Support is very nice, but an unquantifiable variable. In other words the big name store or vendor may give you lousy service while Joe’s Computer Shop might excel. I personally have been pleased with UBid as an on-line vendor and Staples as a “brick and mortar” (or on-line). Be aware that the “best price in the world” today, will look absurdly, high priced six months from now.
Vendor Reputation
In a nutshell, don’t be loyal to any vendor. I’ve had terrific service from a company last year: lousy this year. Dell, Gateway and Compaq do, however, have fine reputations.
CPU (processor)
This chip is the computer’s brain. Fast is nice (see below). A few years ago Intel owned this market. Today, unless you intend to become a power user, don’t be afraid of AMD or anyone else.
Processor Speed
For the best value/price ratio, stay about a year behind the “latest and greatest”. 200-500 MHz puts you in this category (July 2000) today. Faster is unnecessary and slower might have some problems running your favorite software.
Ram
Ram is the chip’ technology that stores information that the computer is working on now. It’s probably the single most viable upgrade to an existing computer. You can live with 32 Meg. 64 will probably be available at a slight increase in cost. Consider higher numbers based on price.
Hard Drive
This is the disk that is internal to your machine and stores the programs and data when they are not in Ram. In today’s world a couple of gig (billions of characters) will suffice. Most off-the-shelf systems will offer you more.
Modem
The modem is the thing that allows you to “talk” to computers on the Internet. 56KBPS speed is pretty standard. Don’t be concerned if you only get 33.6: not a significant performance detractor. If you have a “network” available (e.g. Ethernet, Road Runner etc.) opt for a network’ card instead.
In summary, don’t overbuy on the assumption that you will “grow into” a high powered system. Technology will grow faster than you will!
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Epinions.com ID:
showard
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Member: Steve Howard
Location: Lebanon, Maine
Reviews written: 73
Trusted by: 23 members
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