Buying a home computer has never been easier or more affordable. Computers continue to get more and more powerful and also continue to drop in price. I've been working on computers for a long time and I get asked a lot, "what should I look for when buying a home computer?" This article will go over the general process of buying a home computer.
1) Decide what you want to do with this computer and set an appropriate budget. Do you just want to surf the web, check email, maybe upload some pictures? Expect to pay in the 500-750 dollar range. Are you going to do a lot of image/movie editing or gaming? Look for that to be 750-1300 depending on exact needs. Do you want to go all out when buying this home computer? You can spend 2000 or more!
2) Based on those needs, you'll need to look at a few particular parts: the cpu, the harddrive, the memory, and the graphics card.
*For a web browsing home computer, you don't need much. Look for something in the 2GHz range (although keep in mind, each company (and even each CPU line) has different standards for speeds. A 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo will kick the pants off a 2.4GHz Pentium 4, for example.) For a computer running Windows XP get at least 512MB of RAM. The biggest factor in how fast your home computer will be for general tasks is how much memory you have. If you get less than 512MB, I guarantee your computer will feel sluggish. If you want Vista, get at least 1GB of RAM. Trust me, you'll thank me for that. You can get as big or as small as a harddrive as you want. For the price to size I would suggest a 250GB as being the best value, but if you need more or less space, adjust accordingly. Finally, the graphics card can be ignored for a web browsing home computer, just get integrated graphics.
*For an editing/gaming home computer, look for a processor that is at least dual core (AMD X2, Intel Core 2 Duo or Pentium D). Look for at least 1GB of memory, preferably 2GB. For a hard drive, I'd recommend 320GB or 500GB. For the graphics card, the sky is the limit. If it's only mild gaming look for something in the low nVidia Geforce 7000 series (7300). For more intense gaming, look for higher Geforce 7000 series (7800 or better) or 8000 series.
3) Buy the home computer online. I know some of you are uncomfortable with that, but you'll get a way better deal buying a home computer online than in a store. I personally recommend you take advantage of Free Shipping w Select PC Purchase at TigerDirect They are a company that has been in the business a long time and offer great deals. I've found other companies to be higher in price and not nearly as easy to work with.
When buying a home computer don't be afraid. It's not that hard!
About the Author
Doug is a long time computer tech with experience building his own PCs.
Webmaster Related Information & Resource Sites:
Domain Buffs
Parking PPC
PPC Ad Income: Website Monetization
Apache Website Hosting
Design: CSS Websites
foo site: Website Coding
php Web Development
Target: Page 1 Search Result Rankings
Ad Working
Yahooter?
