Thinking of buying an assembled PC but you are not sure of its configurations. Let me try to tell you what kind of components you will need depending on your need. Buying a PC is almost as difficult as buying a car. No matter how many dealers visit or how many ads see, many still not get the best bargain. And unlike cars, PC gets obsolte faster then you can Bill Gates. Fist you have to decide for what purpose you are going to use the system. Are you going to use it for typing documents, Surfing the net, Graphics processing, playing games(like me) or the likes. Depending upon this you have to buy a PC.
Now we will take a look at the components of a PC as per the purpose you are going to use your PC.
1) PROCESSOR - The processor is one of the most important part of a PC. The overall speed of a PC depends on the MHz ratig and the speed of the bus speed. Therefore more the bus speed and MHz rating, the more faster is the system. First u had the choice of only an Intel processor but now you have AMD and the Cyrix processors, so have a wide choice. Until recently, all the processors had a bus speed of 100 MHz but now you have 133 MHz and even 200 and 266 MHz with the Athlon range of processors. Pentium IV has a mindboggling Bus speed of 400 MHz. If you use your PC for graphics application like Graphics or Gaming or the likes you will need a processor above 700 MHz preferably. Another important factor is the cahce of the system. More the cache, the faster is the processor. AMD processors have a higher Cache than Intel.
2) MOTHERBOARD - You do not need a high perfomance mother board if you are going to use your PC just for internet and office use. A good choice in this case would be the i810 motherboard which has integrated Audio and Video. If you need it for graphically intensive stuff and hig end gaming, you will need a powerful motherboard. The * ASUS CUSl2* with the 733 MHz processor is a expensive but a good option. Also if you want something other than intel you can go for the * ASUS A7V * which supports the Athlon range of processors.
3) RAM - * SDRAM * is the most easlif available and one of the fastest types of RAM. It is available with the bus speeds of 100 and 133 MHZ. You also have * RDRAM * which is pretty fast but expensive and not really recommended. The minimum amount of RAM you will require is 64 MB but if you are into heavy gaming you will need atleast 128 MB RAM. But considering the low prices of RAM, it is not a bad idea or an investment even to go to 256 MB RAM. You alos have the DDR ram or the double data ram which ahs a speed of 200 and 266 MHz but are avaliable only for DDR motherboards which are available for only the Athlon range.
4) GRAPHIC CARD - This is probably the most neglected part of a PC. Most of them do not choose is properly. If you are into heavy gaming or using applications like Autocad or photoshop or 3d Max, you have to have a 16 MB or a 32 MB AGP cards like * 3dfx, Voodoo 3, ATI rage 128, nVidia, TNT2, *etc. If you are on a budget you can buy the intel 810 or 815 motherboards. But this not advisable as if your onboard graphic card develops a fault then you cannot add a Graphic card as there is no AGP slot. But the newer i815 allows you to add a card to the board.
5) SOUNDCARD AND SPEAKERS - Currently the soundcard market is dominated by Creative * .In the creative range, the *Sound Blaster range is pretty good. If you have the money, *Sound Blaster Live * is the best option. Otherwise the 810 motherboard has a onboard sound subsystem which I do not recommened. The Yamaha soundcard is a good buy as it is cheap and the perfomance is reasonable.
6) Hard Disk - This is one thing which you can have as much as you want but you will never have enough. The current norm is the 20 GB and the minimum amount will require . But there is not a much diffrerence in price between 40 GB and 20 GB hard disk. If you want a perfomance oriented hard disk then you can choose a * ATA/100 IDE * drive or the * SCSI * drive. Also for perfomance oriented PC you will need 7200 RPM based hard disk but if you have the green stuff then you can choose the 10000 RPM disk.
7) CDROM or DVD- ROM - If you are buying a CDROM then 52X is the minimum you should go for . Then if you go far a DVD ROM, then 8X is the minimum. But rather go for a DVD, you can go for a CD-writer for a few hundred more. A lot has been said about DVD’s making it big, but I really dont see it taking of in India. The brands you can go for in CDROM and DVDROM are * LG, Creative, Acer and Pioneer . The best option in CD writer is *Yamaha and HP.
8) Monitor - A 15 inch monitor is the bare minimum. But I would recommend a 17 inch monitor as they are priced reasonably and surfing, movies and gaming is cool on these monitors. Also it should have a refresh rate of atleast 75 Hz whatever be the resolution. This helps in minimizing eyestrain and fatigue. The brands are *LG, Phillips and Samtron *. The others are not so good.
9) MODEM - Settle nothing less than a 56 kbps modem. External Modem is advised rather than a internal one as it is easier to repair a external one. you can also consider DSL or cable internet or ISDN line. Also take care that your vendor offers you good after sales service and gives you a warranty on products like monitors and printers and stuff. So I hope I have made your task of buying a PC much easier. Thank you for reading my review.