Time to Buy That PC?
Contents
1. that s working with If a connector or plug doesn t fit at the first try don t force it read the diagrams and instructions Examine the socket and the plug cause most only fit one way I know this sounds elementary and I m certainly not trying to be condescending after 20 some years at this game I still occasionally break something in my impatience to get it running This of course requires that one develop advanced skills at schmoozing refunds for merchandise damaged in shipment but that s another story2. holding the programs and data installed on the system In recent years memory has become much cheaper and I heartily recommend equipping your new system with the maximum memory it or your wallet will accommodate The newer operating systems unlike those of yesteryear can make use of every bit of memory available and the difference in performance is quite perceptible to the user At least a 120 gigabyte or larger capacity hard disk or a pair of same if you can afford it We all tend to ignore the housekeeping chores of deleting old information from our computers and nothing is more frustrating than purchasing the latest great software package for your business only to discover that you haven t room on your PC to install it much less run it and that you re now faced with an expensive hardware upgrade with labor charges included Much cheaper to buy the disk space at system purchase time and avoid the worrisome consequences of limiting yourself with too little storage space A graphics or video card with at least 128 megabytes of on board memory and again get the most you can afford Graphics memory gets used up pretty fast with today s feature rich and visually pleasing software and websites so the more memory your graphics card s got to work with the better This is another area where the user s perception of speed is greatly impacted You can t easily tell how fast your microprocessor chip is running but you can sure tel
3. Time to buy a Personal Computer just how sweet is that deal NOTE Updated December 2004 Disclaimer The following editorial reflects the opinion and experience of the author and does not constitute a mandate or recommendation of any specific product or manufacturer by NSDCAR Greetings NSDCAR members Well it s nearly 2005 and once again time to take a hard look at that PC we re relying upon for our daily entertainment communication and bread For many of us our personal computer especially the one at home has become merely another appliance with which to connect to others stay abreast of events check our email or occasionally verify a spelling issue or dictionary quandary For others among us it s our playground our telephone our news service our substitute memory and serves any number of other indispensable purposes in our lives No matter the degree of dependency we may have upon these ubiquitous machines the simple fact is that no matter which one we own it s probably out of date almost as soon as it s purchased And for many of us it s so far out of date that we re finding it s once again time to consider an upgrade I ve received many requests for advice from members visiting the Association so IIl attempt to offer some professional guidance here I chose the systems for the Association s offices based on these criteria and I think they re equally applicable to the home or home office co
4. Which is the best video card they ve ever owned Which motherboard the main brain in your computer is their favorite and why Even if you don t clearly understand their responses to these inquiries you Il quickly get an impression of how knowledgeable and experienced they are and whether you can depend on them to help you put together a clone system that will serve you well A good clone system should give 3 5 years of good service then be upgradeable to a more current set of internal components which will allow you to get another 3 5 years out of it For the folks with a big inheritance from Uncle Gottbux At the opposite extreme is the other tactic I can recommend equally If you don t know the technologies at all and want the size and stability of a major manufacturer behind your purchase and money is no object but time definitely is then go to the superstore purchase the branded computer with all the goodies upgrade your monitor size hard disk capacity and RAM memory capacity to the maximum available then purchase the most protective warranty and upgrade package offered This will produce the same peace of mind and will probably get you the same system reliability and capability you re seeking and will only lead to headaches in the event of a major system meltdown or the failure of some component that is not covered by that expensive warranty For some folks this is the preferable course of action thoug
5. at most of these bundled deals you ll find that they feature downgrades like smaller hard disk drives the place roomy or sparse where you must store your data smaller amounts of Random Access Memory RAM is the memory your system uses to process commands and store running software and last year s technology that wouldn t sell printers with essential features lacking modems that don t support current communications standards software bundles that failed in the marketplace And this year s affordable monitor screen size is almost never included in a package deal they need to get rid of all those 15 inch monitors left in the warehouse now don t they Oh but it s just another computer right Another caveat Did you know that many of the branded computers like Hewlett Packard Compaq Dell IBM Packard Bell and others are fitted with proprietary combinations of components such that you cannot upgrade these systems with any except the original manufacturer s parts Or that these same famous makers often combine many components of the personal computer on a single integrated circuit board What does all this mean to the consumer Simple you buy a brand and you re stuck with it You can t upgrade except with the original manufacturer s parts If it breaks only the manufacturer or their authorized representative can repair it And while the original system package seems too cheap to pass up wait
6. dropping near the service intake desk Does the technician in the service bay seem knowledgeable Is his her demeanor confrontational accusatory inflammatory and impatient Move on to another store If the personnel seem helpful and knowledgeable check out the store itself Do all the demonstration machines work well Is the place clean and well organized Do other customers seem pleased with their encounter or is there an angry line of waiting customers hovering around the service counter with scowls dragging their faces toward the floor Are placards proudly displayed showing Better Business Bureau membership local community service endorsements and the like What s the issue date on their business license and is it current Phew That s a lot of hassle You may rationalize that this is too time consuming and detailed but let s face it you re about to spend over a thousand bucks on one of the major tools of your trade I submit that it s well worth your time to shop intelligently and intuitively You may not be a computer expert but if you ve survived the working world of real estate for a few years and perhaps raised a couple of kids then use the people skills you ve developed to enhance your judgment Getting the Inside Scoop Now once you ve tentatively chosen your vendor talk to the service technicians in the shop Ask them what sort of tasks they do with their computers and which components are their favorites
7. ght even consider if you re happy with your present operating system it works well and it s not too woefully out of date just keeping that Windows 98 or MS Office 97 software installing it on your new computer and staying in familiar territory I know I know PII take a lot of flack for this recommendation but I remember when people lined up for blocks to get the first copy of Windows 95 ran home to perform their upgrade from their old 16 bit Windows and ended up with expensive re installation tasks because things did not go as swimmingly as Mr Gates promised I m a firm believer in not fixing what ain t broke so unless your software is so old that it s incompatible with current technologies this an area where you can save some bucks You already own the license to a good operating system and word processing software so keep it When the second or third version of the newest operating system has been released and all the patches needed to make it perform as advertised have been incorporated into the software then it s time to try the new stuff If you need status symbols go shop for a bigger sport utility vehicle your software is your livelihood you want a reliable jeep not a touchy jag Finally choose your comfort items and toys A nice comfortable keyboard is a joy indeed Check out the new crop of mouse input devices the nicest to use are those with no mechanical parts to wear out or get dir
8. h it s not without tradeoffs which I ve previously identified as mainly dollars outgoing Only you can decide which is the best course for you The Heart of the Matter For those of you who ve managed to wade through this long winded missive thus far here are a few pearls that may prove helpful in your quest for the right new computer Selling points Many computer company marketing mavens are fond of quoting numbers in support of their boxes superiority over the competition and most of these numbers are nearly meaningless to the average computer user Take for instance processor speed This highly over rated benchmark of computer performance is the main selling point with every new family of processor chip that comes down the pike The truth of the matter is however that no matter how fast the processor is clocked a much more important consideration is the speed of the bus or the data pathway that moves signals and information around and between the components of your system Unless you re intimately familiar with prime number sieves or you re doing advanced 3 D object modeling the fastest processor chip on the planet is not going to provide a lot of day to day satisfaction It s like purchasing an Indy race car to drive around a town where the speed limit of the fastest highway is 35 mph Similarly a fast processor fast data bus and a great video card aren t much use if the system hasn t enough memory on board t
9. he individual dots which compose the picture on the screen It s easy to see that the smaller the dots the finer the resolution of the picture and the more pleasing to the eye Consider the falling prices of the new crop of LCD or liquid crystal monitor displays These devices generate less heat consume less power produce less electrical interference and are certainly a pleasure to use on a daily basis from the eyeball s perspective Ensure that the power supply that comes with your computer features a ball bearing fan It is quite common for expensive computer systems to feature sleeve type cooling fans which quickly wear out and start oscillating and creating a horrible noise compromised cooling function and an eventual repair bill I just love throwing away a 60 dollar power supply because a 50 cent fan failed and the noise is driving me nuts If the case you ve chosen for your new system features auxiliary fan slots put one in The extra cooling is worth it and cockroaches hate revolving doors so they re not likely to take up residence inside your computer case At this point the author firmly extracts tongue from cheek Buy the current standard in operating systems and business software NOT the new release Just because Microsoft or another software house tells us we must have their latest product that s no reason to become a tester for products that haven t performed in the real world yet You mi
10. l a sluggish video card when you use one Don t short yourself here A DVD CD writer for making copying or playing CD s and DVD s This device can be used to back up the data on your hard disk for making take along copies of your favorite music CD s and for transferring files to another user or computer It s a must have it s relatively cheap and it s more expensive to try and add it later A case with plenty of expansion slots for adding other devices later Nothing s worse than getting that cool DVD drive for Christmas only to find out that your PC is housed in a case with no available slots Well maybe dental surgery is worse but only slightly A good brand name V dot anything modem The V xx refers to the handshaking or communications encoding standards that the modem employs when interacting with other modems out there in cyberspace Another place where the few extra bucks up front and the purchase of a brand name will pay off No name offshore modems with so called compatible chipsets are trouble looking for a place to occur Steer clear Ask yourself what your eyes are worth then choose a monitor Monitor specifications to watch for are actual viewing size and what s called dot pitch The average 17 inch monitor actually features a diagonally measured 15 inch viewing area A 19 inch is 17 inches viewable and so on Deceptive but legal The dot pitch refers to the diameter of t
11. mputer purchase as well Avoid the Bleeding Edge First of all I recommend that any but the most technically savvy among us stay away from the bleeding edge technology wise Just because Intel or AMD has produced the latest and fastest family of microprocessor chip in history that s no reason to subject one s self to the torture of finding their bugs for them It is noteworthy that purchasing last year s best microprocessor can save you lots of bucks and still produce a very able and tolerably fast platform for whatever computer chores you re facing on a daily basis This practice extends to other components as well Last year s laser printer may not have all the goodies of this year s offerings but does it print reliably Are all the bugs ironed out because the machine s been in the marketplace for a year Does it do everything you need it to do Then by all means buy it and let the others pay top dollar for the latest greatest If you re gonna go work in the yard you don t put on your tuxedo after all Cloning is controversial but NOT in a computer Another strong recommendation is to consider clone systems as opposed to brand name off the shelf bundles from the big name manufacturers as found in most computer superstores These tempting bundles of computer monitor printer and software can save you money in some ways but can cost you big time in the long run If you look closely
12. o handle more than a relative few instructions or programs at a time Why put a trailer hitch on your VW so you can tow your Cadillac along on vacation Minimum requirements For a real estate professional I d recommend the following minimum configuration for a business or home office computer system A Pentium 4 equivalent or later processor chip running at 2 gigahertz or faster Avoid the low end processor chips Intel calls theirs Celeron which lack certain internal components which speed processing of data And avoid over clocked systems that use a processor chip rated for a given speed but push that speed figure as a marketing ploy Insist on a motherboard or main circuit board that features a single manufacturer s chipsets A pure Intel board is my preference and in my experience cheaper boards that attempt to integrate chipsets from several manufacturers almost always produce compatibility and or timing problems Avoid fully integrated motherboards that feature all of the support circuitry like parallel ports serial ports video modem and network card on the same board It s not fun replacing an entire main board for one malfunctioning video chip At least 512 megabytes preferably 1 gigabyte or more of Random Access Memory RAM This is the memory that dynamically stores the information needed to run your programs within the computer and is often confused with hard disk space which is static storage space for
13. till you catch the prices of their spare parts and upgrades Also because all the component parts sound card video card parallel and serial printer ports modem network card are integrated into one main circuit board when one single element has a problem the whole computer must be sent for repair No quick removal of a video card run to the store pick up a cheap replacement and back in business nope drop it off or ship it back wait for the estimate consult your cardiologist to help you deal with the estimate then wait for the repair then wait some more then help the poor underpaid sales guy at the store find your lost system in his database then wait some more then pick up the repaired computer then return to the store to deal with the OTHER part that s now broken and is no longer manufactured oh well you know the drill Now I m not saying that this is everyone s experience but 20 years of dealing with these things from the manufacturer s service vendor s and end user s perspective has led me to avoid branded bundled systems So it s hopeless right So what s a body to do Here s my recommendation Find a local computer store preferably small to medium in size and inventory and especially one that does a good volume in service and repair Talk to any computer professional you know they ll know who to recommend Go there during non peak traffic hours and spend some time browsing and especially eaves
14. ty They re called optical mice and they last longer perform better and often feature software enhancements to make navigation a breeze Mine for instance has 5 count em 5 buttons all programmable for any function I prefer plus a scrolling wheel and a really cool red light emitting diode on the back And sheesh as everyone knows cool little blinking lights make everything run better You might even consider a wireless mouse and keyboard which communicates with your computer via infrared or radio signals instead of a wire hooked into the back of the box This allows one to slouch comfortably with the keyboard mouse in one s lap never having to fear knocking over that coke or coffee by dragging those annoying wires around Ah life is good In Conclusion see I do know when to quit These tips I hope will make your next computer purchase just a little more pleasant and will get you on the road to owning and enjoying a current technology fun to use personal computer There s one last recommendation however that I feel is paramount to a pleasant computer experience and for which I will again hear a few sighs and groans from my virtual audience READ THE BOOKS THAT COME WITH EVERYTHING Manufacturers have a nasty habit of including dire warnings of what not to do buried on Page 16 of the User Manual It pays to slow down take your time and learn all the little nuances of whatever new device you re playing ahem
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