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Many, many people have come up to me and asked me my opinion on this subject when looking into new computers. The first question I always ask them is, "are you good enough at computers that you can confidently build your own?" If you feel the answer is no, but you want to learn how to, go to My tutorial on how to build a computer. If you are like the average person, you probably don't want to fool around with building a computer. And let me tell you the truth, unless you search the internet like I have done on this page, and really look for the best deals, you really don't save too much money over bargain computers. I've seen computers on Home Shopping Network and such that cost about the same to build, but come with warrantees, software, tech support, and all the bells and whistles. I've also seen ones that are extremely over priced with people who don't know what they're talking about. Either way, you need to ask yourself the same questions, and answer them honestly. I usually ask the person, "What is going to be the main role of this computer?" by which I mean, are you going to be designing cars on it with high-tech top of the line software, are you going to going online with light word processing, are you going to be playing games, or are you just using it for occasional emails and such. If you are going to be using it for occasional emails and internet usage, I'd recommend buying the same computer you'd buy if using it for constant internet and all the background software. In todays market, it costs the same, so why not get the better one? To run a fireware, virus protection, AOL, and such on Windows XP Home (standard for new computers), I'd recommend at least 600 or 700MHz, and 128 MB of RAM. You may need 256, but 128 should do. For this basic needs, I would highly recommend using a Dell. I find that Dell's are really good computers, and I feel that you should use one if you don't want to build your own. If building your own average computer, I'd stay under 1 GHz, probably using Intel with Windows 98SE, XP Pro (or Home), or Windows 2000. I would not recommend Windows ME. It's a terrible operation system. If you are using this for intense gaming, like Counter Strike, Star Craft, Diablo, and all those other games I'd recommend that you go with an Acer, high class Dell, IBM, or Gateway. I wouldn't recommend HP or Compaq. Both have notoriously bad gaming computers, even though they may be cheap. If you are planning on building a gaming PC, I'd look at under 2 GHz, Athlon XP's being my choice, 256 DDR RAM, GeForce video card, 17 or 19 inch monitor, big hard drive, and some nice speakers. If you are going to also be putting MP3s on it, I'd say get a bigger hard drive, 20-40GB. If you are using it as a server, or are going to be doing a lot of gaming, while running other programs, are planning on designing graphics, or using high tech programs, I'd recommend 512MB of DDR or more with Athlon XP's or 2 Athlon MP's. However, studies show that 2 MP's really isn't too much of an improvement on 1 higher speed XP, so don't get caught up in the hype. The extra processor with better motherboard will really cost you. I am sorry to say that I honestly don't like the new Pentium 4's. They use Rambus RAM which is very expensive and must be installed in pairs. They have 2 different versions, the original containing less pins on the processor, and not upgradeable past 1.5GHz, and they are more expensive overall. I hope I have given you an idea about how I decide what computer is really needed. If you have a question, feel free to Email me and you can be sure I'll answer you promptly. |
