So you’ve thought about it and decided to get into the 21st century and get yourself a PC. But which one and from where? You’ve heard loads of horror stories where a purchase has turned out to be a real lemon and the store has had the PC more often than the buyer. And you don’t want that to happen to you. After all you intend to spend anything between £500(33, 500 IRP) and £1, 500(100, 000 IRP) and you want value for your money.
But do you buy it in bits and put it all together yourself or buy a superstore package? You could save two, three or even four hundred pounds by buying all the various bits and tower and installing everything yourself and when you get it all wrong you pay some “expert” two, three or even four hundred pounds to correct your mistakes and you have no warranty. So unless you really do know what you are doing, buy a package. With a package, apart from the warranty you get the PC fully installed with the latest OS and loads of software. It comes complete with minimum fuss to get going. It is almost plug in and use.
So just how do you go about buying a PC?
Do you dash off to the nearest super store that sells such things, look around and say, “I’ll have that one?”
Well you can if you want to but first consult MouthShut for their experience and see how other people got on. At this stage never mind the brand or the store just get a feel for buying a PC. Don’t be in such a hurry to spend your cash.
First decision is how much you are prepared to spend and make a mental note of the absolute top figure with a lower one as an ideal total.
The next most important factor is the CPU and it’s processing speed. I am advised that the Intel Pentium IV is the best and most reliable CPU with the Athlon coming a very close second and both would need a minimum of 64MB of RAM for optimum performance. The Celeron and Duron, being poor relations and therefore cheaper, would need a minimum of 128MB of RAM. On balance the Pentium and Athlon with 64MB of RAM costs only slightly more than the other two with 128MB of RAM but are better quality and more reliable.
All these CPU’s come in various speeds and it is a case of the faster the better. However faster means more money so you have to strike a compromise. There is no point getting the latest 2GHz CPU if you have no intention of going into 3D animations and the like. You want something that will run a DVD smoothly, so that would be at about 700 MHz and above. A CPU running at about 850 MHz seems a nice compromise.
Then we get to the CD drive. If you go for CD ROM re-write and DVD you’ve got the lot in one unit but it is more complex and therefore probably more prone to developing a fault. But then so is a plain CD drive. If you don’t want a DVD drive, then you can come down a bit on your CPU speed. But with a CD RW DVD you can watch films on DVD and a decent graphic card will allow you to connect the output to your TV.
Your new system needs to have a decent graphics card that is separate to the motherboard as this makes upgrading easier and it will need a minimum of 32MB of RAM but if you are going to be heavily into graphics and animations then 64MB is required. So make sure that the graphics card inside the tower has at least one extra slot for more RAM and whilst you are at it make sure that the motherboard too has additional RAM slots.
Obviously your new computer will have a hard drive and the absolute minimum is 10GB especially if your system will have a CD-ROM writer. 20GB seems large enough for the average domestic usage without being too expensive. Go for a 15MB and you just may rue the day six months down the line. For my money 20GB is the minimum.
You will also be looking to have a sound card installed and a 16 bit is the minimum. Anything higher and you’re lurching into the professional area. You’d be amazed at the quality of a 16 bit card.
No one buys modems less than 56K nowadays and of course you will need a normal high-density disk drive. Mouse and keyboard? They are pretty standard and the basic ones will do to begin with and they are not too expensive to change for something a bit flashier. Likewise speakers although some monitors come with speakers.
Finally the monitor. The bigger the better but bear in mind desk room that is called footprint now. A large 19” monitor takes up an awful lot of room yet a 17” monitor is only slightly smaller in screen size yet seems to take up much less room. Of course the 17” is dearer than the 15” so it’s back to money again.
I haven’t even mentioned printers and scanners and the like because they are add on peripherals and are not really part of a PC system as you can run a PC without them. If you want to know about them look it up in MouthShut. There’s a lot of expertise in there.
Armed with your ideal set up, go and make a nuisance of yourself by asking awkward questions of sale staff at various super stores until you are almost on first name terms. Then worry friends with PC’s to show you their set-up and explain why they thought theirs was so good or bad. Somewhere along the way you will find YOUR IDEAL PACKAGE.
O.K. So the set-up that you fancy has a 19” monitor and you only want a 17” monitor. Tell them and they will be only too happy to change it and reduce the price. It has a printer but you don’t want that particular make. They will change it and adjust the price.
Having chosen your PC you need to be able to take it away with you. If the store says that they will order it from their head office or factory, walk away. You are handing out your hard earned cash and you want the goods to go with you. The best way to pay for a PC system is to use your credit card, even if you have the cash in your pocket. I don’t know about India but in England purchases that have been made using a credit card give you double protection should you buy a lemon and the store refuses to refund the money or you foolishly buy the PC on the understanding that it will be delivered to your door in a few days time and the delivery never arrives because the factory has gone bust.
People may think that I have a cynical attitude when it comes to buying a PC or any product for that matter but I would rather have a cynical approach to making a purchase and get what I paid that for and it works without problems rather than being ripped off.