What To Look For When buying a Desktop PC

Make an informed decision before buying your new computer: There are so many factors to consider when deciding on a desktop pc, the bewildering amount of choices can seem overwhelming. But this guide will help you compare desktop computer equipment, and help you to examine and sift through many of the basic items that go along with your computer system. If it be a computer sale, new computer, used computer, a whole computer system or an accessory, this quick guide will help you to get the most for your money. With today's computers almost any of them will adequately handle what most people want a pc for; word processing, basic office, internet surfing and email. Which you can easily get for $1000. or less!

But if you are into digital videos, photo editing or manage a large database you will need more than the basic Desktop PC. It should cost you around $1500. to $2000., and should keep you happy for a few years.

(CPU) Processors
There is always a lot of change in the computer market, but no matter what the upgrades there is always two basic choices to be made when purchasing a Desktop PC:
1) brand 2) speed For a desktop pc that handles standard office and Internet tasks any processor will work.

Need more power? Then the Intel Pentium4 or the AMD Athlon XP (great for graphics and photos which use a lot of memory space) are for you. If you buy one or two levels from the top you will only lose about five percent per tier performance but you can save a couple hundred dollars!

(RAM) Memory
Memory is very important because optimum running of your desktop pc is dependent on enough RAM. The minimum amount should be 256MB, for better performance you should get 512MB. If you can afford more get it, its worth it because you can keep more applications open and it will handle memory hogs like Photoshop and music applications!

All current systems use DDR memory, the most common would be PC3200, and budget may still be using the older PC2100 or PC2700 DDR. To allow for future upgrades of memory you should buy as few DIMMs as possible.

Also, your motherboard determines the kind of RAM your computer system will use. You can't substitute DDR SDRAM for RDRAM or PC133 SDRAM. The price difference is
minuet and sometimes not at all. Tests show DDR provides a boost over PC133, so DDR is the best buy.

Monitors
Look for a monitor that is at least 17" with a resolution of 1280 by 1024 pixels. A Desktop PC with a 19-inch monitor gives you 20 % more screen area. If you can spend $300-$450 you might want to get a 15" LCD because it has the same viewable area as the 17" CRT and takes up much less space.


Hard Drives (storage)
Most hard drives sold today will provide more than enough storage. Most basic Desktop PCs come with 40GB or larger, which is plenty for most tasks. But for working with graphics, video, music, or large databases 80GB should be the minimum you settle for. 7200-rpm drives give better performance. But for the best performance get a computer with 8MB of cache.

Warranty and Tech Support
A one-year warranty on most Desktop PCs is enough because most problems seem to happen in the first year. If you want you can get a two to three year warranty for around $150. to $200. If you buy a Dell you can get priority call routing to tech support for a year for only $39.

Desktop PC