Computer Buying Specs

When you are in the market for a new computer it is very easy to be overwhelmed by the variety that is out there. There are so many brands, Dell, Gateway, Sony, HP, Acer, Asus, eMachine, etc., that the decision can seem impossible. Luckily, there are several metrics that can help narrow your search.

CPU

The CPU is the Central Processing Unit, or brains of the computer. Newer processors come with several cores, the standard being dual or quad core. The two main brands are AMD and Intel, and I'm not really going to address which one is better. The main thing to remember when considering a processor, is that all computers out there have a processor that is more than powerful enough for browsing the internet, watching movies, sending email, word processing. The only thing you might need a faster processor for is certain types of software. Maybe you have software for work that uses a lot of processing power, you play a lot of computer games, you want to do sound or video edition, or you are a student who needs to be able to run a certain program for school.

RAM

The RAM is the short term memory of the computer. Programs that are actually being run and files that are open are stored in RAM. The basic rule with RAM is always put the most in a computer that you can. If you don't have enough RAM, then if you have a lot of programs open some of the information is going to be stored on your hard drive. This will slow down your computer because when the CPU goes to use an open file in a program it has to read it from the hard drive, which takes about 100 times longer than reading it from the RAM. Increasing the RAM is the easiest way to speed up a computer.

Hard Drive

The hard drive is the storage media for a computer, and most computers built now contain more space than most people will ever need. The question of space really comes down to what you will be storing. If you are going to use the computer as a media station, you might need a bigger hard drive. If you were just going to be going online and using a word processor, then you don't need one as big. When looking at a drive some things to keep in mind are that an mp3 song file is around 4 MB each, and recorded TV can be around 300 MB for a 30 minute show.

Laptop/Desktop

One of the main debates is whether someone should get a laptop or desktop. Personally, if you can afford it, I would recommend having both. A desktop generally allows you to get something more powerful for cheaper, at the sacrifice of portability.