Article 4 - Choosing a computer

Choosing a New Computer

This article is aimed at those of you who are thinking of buying a new (or replacement) computer in the near future. One of the characteristics of the computer market is that whatever you buy, and whenever you buy it, a better machine will be available at a lower price soon after you walk out of the shop.

The things to look for in a new machine are:

CPU (central processing unit)

The speed of the CPU is specified in "megahertz" or "Gigahertz", where the latter is 1000 times the former. So, for example, a 2600 megahertz CPU is the same as a 2.6 gigahertz CPU. There are two main processor manufacturers, Intel and AMD, and between them they produce a bewildering array of different processors. The key factors that determine the performance (speed / power) of a processor are the number of cores and the GHz speed. Processors are available as 'single core', 'dual core', and 'quad core'. New processors are always being released, making it hard to keep up. To run Windows 7 at a decent speed, you need a minimum of a 2.2 GHz dual core processor.

Memory

Memory capacity is stated in terms of gigabytes (GB). A minimum recommended memory size today is 2 GB. Note that if a computer has more that 4 GB memory, it needs the 64-bit version of Windows to use the memory effectively.

Hard Disk

Disk capacity is measured in gigabytes these days. An 250 gigabyte disk is likely to be sufficient for most needs.

CD / DVD

There is minimal price difference between CD rewriters and DVD rewriters, so a new computer should come with a DVD rewriter as standard.

Interface Ports

Most of these are fitted as standard. However, make sure that you have some "USB 2" ports. These ports are up to 10 times faster than the original USB ports and support the faster printers and scanners available at reasonable prices today.

Screen

TFT (flat) screens are more expensive than the better known computer monitor (CRT), but are lighter and use less space.

Graphics

Some new jargon has appeared that relates specifically to the graphics used by a computer. People talk about dedicated graphics and integrated / onboard graphics. The onboard or integrated graphics is built into the motherboard and uses the system memory. Effectively, if your computer has 512 MB memory, 128 MB will be used by the onboard graphics system, leaving you with 384 MB memory for the rest of the computer. Dedicated graphics is a separate graphics card, which has its own memory, and runs without borrowing resources from the rest of the computer.

As with all things, it is for you to choose what you think you need.

If you plan to do a lot of video editing or working with high resolution digital photos, you should consider more memory (4 GB), a bigger hard disk, and a graphics card. Pictures take up a lot of space.

If you want to play some of today's graphic-intensive computer games, consider a high-powered graphics card with 512 MB or 1 GB of onboard memory to complement the 4 GB of memory in the computer. The latest evolution in computer graphics involves having a GPU (graphics processing unit) built into the processor (e.g. Intel i3, i5, i7).

With the right combination of sound card and speakers, you can set up surround sound for your computer.

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