Choosing a PC
01 January 2008
What to look out for...
Choosing a PC.
Computer design has evolved rapidly over the last twenty years and most older machines are very difficult to service now because suitable replacement parts are available only second hand. New *motherboards will not fit in older cases and modern accessories are difficult to fit in older machines. (*The motherboard is the main printed-circuit board that acts as the "chassis" for the computer.)
Starter “Kit”
When you are about to buy your PC, ask yourself honestly what you want to do with it. Do you want to play games? Do you want to create letters or articles with a word processor? Do you want to manage finances, home accounts etc. that need a spreadsheet program? Do you want to teach using presentations? What am I waffling about?
If you add peripherals (printer, scanner, etc.) or software after purchase and you have problems, you could easily get in an endless loop of the hardware maker saying it's the software that's at fault, or the software maker blaming the hardware.
The most obvious choice is between a desktop or a laptop. Most desktops have tower cases, that is they stand upright and take up less desk space. Laptops come in a wide variety of sizes but the “standard” will be based on a 15 inch screen. If you go up or down in size from there, the price will go up. Going down in size means more miniaturisation; going up in size means that a larger screen is used. That’s a bit obvious I suppose but LCD screens increase in price considerably with size.
Desktop PCs are easy to fix, laptops are not and repair bills can be large.
Always get the biggest screen you can afford and accommodate. Only LCD screens are available now and 17 or 19 inch units are the best value. Increasingly, most screens are in the Widescreen format, i.e. 16:9 ratio. So you'll need to consider buying a 19" size if it's a widescreen unit.
Until recently, performance was closely related to the processor speed but now that there are Dual-core and even Quad-core processors available, the quoted processor speed cannot be used to compare performance. There are also 32bit and 64bit processors to confue further your choice. Come and talk to us at the club for advice as the use to which you want to put yopur PC. Aim for a dual-core 64bit processor for a general purpose machine.
Storage (Hard disc).
Most new desktop PC packages come with 180 Gb (Giga Bytes) or more of storage space, quite adequate for most uses. Only buy bigger if you fancy yourself as a movie producer or you have a large collection of digital photos. However most users have been consistently surprised over the last 10 years how fast software has expanded to fill the available space so take larger sizes if offered. With all hard disk drives do get them partitioned (divided up) at least into 2 partitions, and save your files (spreadsheets, photos, letters etc.) onto the second partition because that helps to protect those items from any Operating System problems. At least once in a PCs useful life all the software will need to be reloaded, and often that means throwing away everything on the primary drive (usually C:). If your creations are on the other drive they will survive. That doesn't mean you should forget about backing up valuable items but with writable CDs, DVDs or external hard discs, that is not a major problem. Most laptops start at 80Gb hard disc size but 320Gb is currently (April 2008) the biggest generally available. New technology has thrown up the solid state hard disc for laptops; currently the largest is 128Gb but these are very expensive.
Memory. (RAM).
RAM (Random Access Memory. You don’t really need to know the technical significance of the details but I thought you’d like to know where the terminology comes from) is where the Operating System and your software do their work. Give them plenty of room and they are less likely to bang into one another and make mistakes. All new machines will come with the Vista operating system now so you’ll need at least 1Gb (preferably 2) for the types of programs I mentioned before.
Graphics card.
Many machines may have the graphics functions integrated onto the motherboard. A separate graphics card can be added later if you need more performance. You can get good graphics cards (suitable for everything except game play, flight simulators, and 3D graphics) from about £50 and the flavour of the month changes all the time. Worry about the more expensive cards (several hundred pounds) only if you really need the performance. You can always upgrade at a later date.
Sound card.
As with graphic functions, most machines have the sound function integrated into the motherboard. If you need "hi-fi" sound, then there are numerous add-on sound cards to choose from. Do you want to make music on your PC? If so, you'll probably need a fancy sound card.
Printers.
Many new PCs come packaged with a printer and most are adequate for the basic uses. If you are going to play with photos or graphics then you might need to try and improve on the basics. Only a few years ago any of today's printers would have seemed impossible so they will all be quite good, but you might need to consider the cost and availability of replacement ink cartridges and the number of pages the manufacturers claim you can print from each cartridge. Read the small print because most of the claims are for only 10% page coverage or less so they may run out rather quicker than you expect.
For Colour, an inkjet printer is the most practical, and cheap ones start at £20 or so. For photos, you can get a "photo" printer and these start at about £50. Running costs for injet printers are high.
For Monochrome, cheap laser printers start from about £50 and are far cheaper to run.
If most of your printing is in monochrome with the occasional requirement for high quality colour, then buy one of each type. Before you ask, yes you can easily connect them both at the same time and choose between them when you print.
Modem.
Modem (MOdulator-DEModulator) Most PCs come with a modem built in and you would use this with a dial-up internet account. If you use broadband (as most do these days) then you will usually have a new “modem” supplied by your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
(The interface unit the ISP provides is generally referred to as a “modem” as it serves the same function as a dial-up modem but it works in a different way. No, don’t ask!)
Technical Support.
Make sure that technical support is available. Don't rely on the supplier saying it's available. PC magazine reviews are increasingly taking support into account so buy a magazine and see what they say.
Operating system Disc.
All PCs come with the operating system pre-installed, but some provide only a "Recovery disc" in place of the operating system makers original disc. This is legal but very inconvenient, particularly later on if you need to re-install the operating system. When you use the supplied "recovery" disc, it will restore your PC to exactly how it was when you bought it. That is, everything you put on it after buying it will disappear, software and the files that you created with that software. Recovery CDs do work or you can buy an operating system disc from Microsoft for a small fee, currently about £16.
If you want to chat about any of this advice come along to a club evening and speak to us and we should be able to point you in the right direction.
