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Before Buying a Computer

In the initial stages of determining what sort of computer you need to get, at some point you need to ask yourself, what am I going to be using the computer for? Whether you intend to write papers for class, surf the World Wide Web, or just play computer games, you need to have an idea of what the minimum requirements the computer needs to have. If all you intend to do is just write letters using a DOS based word processing program, a 386 or 486 system with a couple megabytes of memory is more than adequate

If you want to use a Windows version of some word processing program, then your requirements go up a bit, particularly on the amount of RAM memory and hard disk space. If you want to be able to surf the Web and play some of the multimedia on-line virtual reality games, then you need a higher-end system, with more memory, more disk space, and a modem or network card to connect to the Internet.

Once you determine what you need the computer for, the next question that you need to ask yourself is how much money I can afford to spend.Buy as much PC as you can afford. Don't cut corners on the main system unit (monitor, processor, memory, disk space, etc.). If you are short on cash, hold off on the printer or a software application or two that you really don't need right away. Remember, this system is going to last you at least 2 or 3 years or more and you don't want to start running out of disk space or memory in the first week that you have it because you trimmed down the amount of memory or got a smaller hard drive so that you could afford to buy 18 different versions of a screen saver program!

Remember, you get what you pay for. If the price is cheap, most likely the components are cheap.

Hardware

There are literally hundreds of manufacturers for computers, monitors, printers, and other components. My advice to a first time buyer is to stick with a brand name. Getting that first computer can be very exciting, but the excitement can quickly dwindle to sheer terror and frustration if there are compatibility problems between the components and the software.

The basic components of a computer system are the motherboard (containing the processor and memory), keyboard, mouse, monitor, diskette drive, CD-ROM drive, and hard drive. In addition to these, there are several other types of devices that you may or may not want to include in your computer purchase, such as a trackball, joy stick, modem, tape drive, zip drive, printer, plotter, scanner, sound card and speakers, TV card, video capture card, power supply backup, and surge protector. Whether you need any of these other devices or not will depend on which software applications that you intend to use. Also, if you are short on money when you buy your computer or decide that you need one or more of these items later on, you shouldn't have any problem installing these after the original purchase has been made, just make sure you buy components that are compatible with your system.