Computer Buying Guide

You have decided to buy a computer because somebody told you that it is wonderful thing and is a very useful thing for your work. Or your child sees a computer in his school or at somebody's place and you want to buy a computer for him. You may have any other reason for buying but one thing is same that you have no knowledge on what to buy and you don't entirely trust your computer vendor. So this is your guide on buying a PC.

There are a lot of parts of a computer on which you have to think wisely before buying it. Don't be surprised if your vendor gives a Pentium III for around Rs. 40,000. It will have a very weak sub-system compared to the processor. Go in for a computer which has an equally powerful sub-system as the processor as this gives the best performance. The Performance you get with Pentium III 450 , 32 MB RAM, SiS 6326 Card is same the as you get with Pentium II 400, 64 MB RAM, Creative Exxtreme card, although the latter will be cheaper. What you buy also depends on the reason you need the PC. It will not be good for your budget to buy a Pentium III for word-processing or net-surfing (Internet speed does not depends on the processor). Buy the computer with respect to your needs.

Here is a list of various parts of a computer with a brief introduction about what it is.

Motherboard:

It is the main electronic board on which all the other components are connected to.

Intel 440BX - All

Processor:

It is the main component which primarily defines the speed of your PC.

Intel Celeron 333/366 MHz - Word Processing, net surfing etc.
Intel Pentium II 350/400 MHz or Celeron 400/433 MHz - Home Multimedia
Intel Pentium III - Fast Gaming or Advanced Graphics

RAM:

It is the primary memory of your computer. It depends on both the type and amount.

Type - 100 MHz SDRAM

Amount:
32 MB - Word Processing, net surfing etc.
64 MB - Home Multimedia
128 MB - Fast Gaming or Advanced Graphics

Hard Disk Drive:

Hard Disk is the secondary memory of your computer. It has 2 interfaces(IDE and SCSI) and comes in different sizes.

Samsung 4.3 GB IDE - Word Processing, net surfing etc.
Samsung 4.3/6.4 GB IDE - Home Multimedia
Seagate 4.5/9.1 GB SCSI - Fast Gaming or Advanced Graphics

Floppy Disk Drive:

This also is a type of secondary memory but these are removable and portable and are used for transportation and backup of data. This comes in different sizes and does not only depends on the speed but the amount of data you want to transport or backup.

Samsung/Sony 1.44 MB - Less amount
Imation 120 MB/ Iomega 100/250 MB Zip - Big amount
Iomega 1 /2 GB - Extremely large amount

Multimedia:

As the name suggests, it means the use of PC for creating pictures and sound. There are 3 types primary multimedia hardware - Graphics Card, Sound Card and CD/DVD - ROM drive of which sound card can be dropped in a word-processing machine. You should keep the sound card if you want the net-surfing as many sites have background music and you can download many audio files. The difference between CD and DVD - ROM drive is that DVD - ROM drive can support DVDs which can store many times the data than CD. It also supports Dolby Sound and the audio/video quality is also better. DVD drives can also read from CDs. Although, CD-ROM drive is the current standard because of the price but DVD will soon be the standard.

Graphics Card:

SiS 6326 - Non 3D graphics and some gaming.
Creative Graphics Blaster Exxtreme/Asus 3000 ZXTV - Multimedia applications and good-speed gaming
Creative RIVA TNT/TNT2 - Fast Gaming and 3D Graphics

Multimedia Kit: (Combination of Sound Card and CD-ROM Drive)

Creative Kit consisting PCI128 Sound Card, 48x CD drive, SBS 20 speakers - All

Sound Card: (If you need high quality sound)

Creative Sound Blaster Live!/ Live! Value

DVD-ROM drive:

Creative Encore 6x or Sony 5x - All

Monitor:

This the TV like screen in your computer. It comes in different sizes. This component also does not depend on the speed of your computer.

Daewoo 14" - Word Processing etc.
Smile/Hansol 15" - Gaming and multimedia
Samtron 700/900 IFT or Philips 21" - CAD/Design

Input Devices:

These devices are components which help you communicate with the computer. Gaming devices like Joystick also come in this category. What you buy depends on what features you want and how comfortable you want it to be. And you can if you want neglect this part as you might not be comfortable with what I advise here.

Keyboards:

GVC 104 keys - just a cheap one
Logitech /TVSE (Cherry) 104 keys - comfortable
MS Natural Elite - Extremely comfortable

Mouse:
GVC 3-button - just a cheap one
Logitech First Mouse - comfortable
MS Intellimouse - Extremely Comfortable

Joystick:
Logitech Wingman Light - less features
MS Sidewinder Pro - good one with many features
MS Sidewinder Pro - one with force feedback

Internet:

You must have heard about the internet. To get to it you need a device called modem. There are different types of modems. They are different because of their speed, features and types (PSTN, ISDN, Cable). Cable modems and ISDN modems are normally better then PSTN modems because they offer much more speed. Speed is the main criteria to consider while buying it. In India, the speed of your modem is normally not matched by your ISP(Internet Service Provider) because the condition of telephone lines in India is not good. The speed of modems is calculated in kbps(Kilo bits per second). 56K(56 kbps) modems are the most common one available. ISDN offer speeds like 64K and 128K.

GVC or D-Link 33.6/56k - for home
USR Message Modem 56K - for a complete communications solution
D-link or Multitech ISDN modems - for companies

Power Management:

If you are living in India, you must be having problems with electricity you get. Electricity fluctuation and frequent power-cuts is what you are faced with in your daily life. But computers cannot withstand this. They need a lot of protection when it comes to power. So you need to get CVT or UPS that give you right amount of electricity constantly. The difference between these are that UPS have a feature that when there is power-cut then it gives you some time to save your important work and shut down safely.

Elent 300 or 500VA CVT - for home
APC 420 or 500 VA UPS - again for home

Operating System :

Operating System(OS) as name suggests it helps you operate the system. You cannot communicate with the hardware directly so OS comes in use to communicate with hardware. And it does lots of other work.

MS Windows 98 OSR2 - home
MS Windows NT 4.0 - for companies


Now that you have been given proper guidance you can go out and buy a PC. But their prices is another thing that you must know. So their approximate prices are given below.

PC for word-processing etc. - Rs. 27,000 to 35,000
Home Multimedia - Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 60,000
Fast System - Rs. 60,000 to 1 lakh (or more)



You have now also got the prices. So what are you waiting for ? Go out buy a new PC.