I bought a New Personal computer in December 2001, and although prices were higher then than what they are now I got the best configuration then at the best price.
I will give the tips on buying a new personal computer for New prospective buyers.
If you are the average PC user, like myself and your needs are basic Like working in Microsoft Word, Excel, MS Money and Browsing the internet, playing some multimedia CD’s and light games, Listening to Music and using your Pc for watching television, then you do not need a very high end PC.
But if your needs run very high like Working in Photoshop, 3D Gaming, audio and Video Authoring Movie making then the latest Like a Pentium 4 2.80ghz with Rd Ram Is recommended.I give Below the Configurations best suited for home use.Please note that in a PC the mother board and the processor are the main Brain and Heart of the PC and Buyers are advised to opt for the Best Available within their Budgets as Cost Cutting on this Will prove futile and will be a penny wise pound foolish approach.
For Average home use As Above. Intel Celeron 2.40 Ghz Processor 400 Mhz System Bus 128kb L2 cache, or Pentium 4 2.40 Ghz 400mhz System Bus 256kb L2 cache.If affordable the Later Is recommended. Intel Boxed D845WN Genuine Mother Board, supporting PC-133mhz Sd ram, Sound Built on the Mother Board, and Having Hardware Monitoring Features Like Intel Active Monitor. PC-133 Mhz Memory, 256 mb Sdram Make Hynix or Samsung. 40 Gb Samsung Hard Disk Drive, Model SV4002H rated at 5400 Rpm. GeForce-2, 32/64 mb MX 200 AGP Graphics Card Make ASUS, Mercury, Pine.Users who are totally Non Interested In games Can settle for the Much Cheaper Riva TNT2 M64 32mb Graphics Card Make Asus/Pine.The Above mother board will not accept cards below 32 Mb. 52x Cd Rom Drive Make Samsung. 1.44 Mb Floppy Disk Drive Make Samsung. 24x Cd writer Make Samsung. Pentium-4 ATX Cabinet with atleast 320 watts Power Supply.Microtek or Mercury. Motorola, 56.6 kbps Voice Data Fax, Internal Modem. Pixel View Tv Tuner Card with FM and Remote. 17’ Microtek Colour OSD Monitor, if tv tuner is not installed settle for 15’monitor Microtek. Logitech Scroll Mouse. TVSE Gold Key Board. Microtek speakers Josh. 600 VA Microtek UPS. Canon S400SP bubble jet Printer. Please Note that in the above Configuration Samsung and Microtek Products Provide the best after sales service and hence have been used.Samsung is the only Provider of a 3 Year Replacement warranty on it’s hard disk drives and hence is recommended though technologically Seagate is Better.Also Rashi Peripherals Mumbai the importer of Pixel View Tv Tuner Card Provided me With excellent service for a minor volume control feature on remote, In New delhi as they are having a full Service centre with Telephonic and Personal support.My Microtek UPS was also Replaced within the warranty period when it failed to provide back up on 2 accounts.Intel Genuine Mother Boards offer Rock Solid Stability and the Best Support in Terms of Warranty and BIOS Updates.They also have the Feature of Hardware monitoring and automatic shut down of the Pc if CPU Fan fails or the temperature exceeds the Maximum Limit using the Intel Active Monitor Software which comes with Mother board Cd.As far as operating system is Concerned Go for Windows Me/Xp Original not Pirated.
Update to the above after three years of usage:
My Experience of having a PC after three years and a Note of Caution to Prospective Buyers in the Pitfalls involved in purchasing one.
1) A PC Can be bought for running just basic applications like word processing, Spread Sheets, data base software tracking, and for Personal Finances Software like MS Money without taxing the hardware much.Please note that new buyers can still opt for lighter OS like Windows_me that still do a decent job than go for the taxing OS like Windows_xp which has lot of unwanted useless features which brings even a P4 pc to it’s knees due to high system resources usage.
2)Even though modern computer hardware has reached a decent level of reliability, never take it for granted as my Computer’s Mother Board Main Chip Set Chip burnt suddenly on 27/11/2004 when the computer was running TV Programmes via the TV Tuner Card.The Motherboard Repair costed Rs 1350.00 after the Main Chip Was Replaced, even though the Genuine Intel D845WN Mother board was under warranty with one month to spare the dealer refused to honour the warranty saying that local repair was much better, as otherwise the motherboard had to be sent to Intel Service Centre in Bangalore which would take more time and expense.
3)Avoid Clustering too many softwares and devices like Music, tv, movie watching in a pc as a single fragile part of the PC namely the Hard Disk takes the full load and can crash any moment.Use Separate Devices for each application.At the very most please avoid playing high end 3D games as these can reduce the life of pc hardware by 50%.Average life of a hard disk is just three years and that of whole pc 3 to 4 years due to new pc technologies. However never take the security of data in a pc for granted as any moment anything can get erased by virus or hacker attack.Data would be more secure in paper notebooks in a cupboard than on a pc hard disk.This I am saying after suffering two hard disk crashes in a span of three years, and this hard disk has also developed many bad sectors inspite of me having just 4 gb of data on a 40 gb hard drive.My Personal account ledgers costing just Rs 50.00 in paper, 10 years old are still in a solid state than my data on the crashed hard drive costing Rs 4600.What is the sense of storing data on pc if one has to again keep back up’s in cd’s or thumb drives especially for home use.
4)Even though my pc is running fine after the motherboard repairs it sometimes hangs while running tv.
5) Please note that if a motherboard or a processor fail after a year or three after purchasing the pc and that particular board is not repairable nor replacable then the only option for the user is to change the Complete motherboard, Processor, Ram and incur a huge expense.In my Case had the motherboard been unrepairable I would have had to scrap my P4 1.7 Ghz Processor, 256 mb SD Ram and the option for me was to buy a separate Play Tv box 3 costing Rs 6000/- for viewing TV without the pc(a new color Portable tv costs Rs 7000/-) just to prevent my 17” Samsung Monitor from Getting Junked or to spend Rs 10, 000 on a new P4 Processor, New Motherboard and Ram with nil resale value for the Junked Hardware in order to salvage all my other peripherals like Monitor, Key Board, Mouse, Scanner, Printer etc.
Please note that due to changing technology in Processors, Rams, hard disks, depreciation rate is very high for computers and once bought it would take constant expense in softwares and hardware updates and maintainance.The resale value would be very poor even if the condition of these peripherals was as good as first hand.
This kind of a choice between the devil and deep sea can be a nightmare for PC buyers and users.So think before spending your hard earned cash on this unreliable gadget.
With Best Wishes to all readers and wishing them a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!