ACQUIRING THE COMPUTER
When I first wrote this page, way back in 2001, it was very technical at the component level.
With changes coming so fast, to try to maintain such a page would be a very time-consuming excercise. Thus the structure of this page has changed somewhat. The idea now is to point out certain things that may not be obvious but which may be worthy of consideration for the particular computer use that you have in mind.
If you can think of any useful additions that are in the spirit of this page do let me know. Lastly do bear in mind that what follows is in no way authoritative - they are just my personal views.
The main components of a computer are the motherboard, processor, memory, hard drive, video card, operating software and a floppy disc drive is usually fitted. These are 'held together' in a box to which is attached the monitor, keyboard and mouse. Additionally you may want a variety of other devices such as a CD-ROM, sound card and speakers, printer, modem, back-up drive, graphic tablet, scanner, camera or what you will. Note that some of these 'peripheral devices' may actually be fitted inside the computer case such as the modem or a TV capture card.
One question that keeps coming up is that of updating. Some items are fairly standard and easy to update. With other items, although theoretically possible it's just not worthwhile whatever anyone says. For example the relationship between the motherboard, processor and memory is very close. Thus updating the processor in anything over a year's time is just not realistic - even if the machine works, it may not be taking advantage of extra capabilities in the new processor because the motherboard does not have the facilities to channel the extras between the different components correctly. At the moment major changes in these components are happening every nine months or so!
The basics
There really isn't much to choose between the motherboard, processor and memory these days. The cheaper computers tend to have video and sound integrated on the motherboard. Whereas sound integration is common, video is not. Thus if you see the possibility that you may wish to upgrade your graphics, you might as well get a machine that does not have video integrated in the motherboard. Reasons for wanting separate graphics is because you will be playing high-end games, or you may want to run a cluster of monitors from the same machine.
Processor
The higher the MHz rating the faster the processor is. There really is very little difference between the two major suppliers, Intel and AMD. For the majority of users either will be adequate. I understand that for high-end games machines there is a slight advantage to the AMD chips.
Each person will have their favourites. I do not use AMD chips but this is a personal, illogical, choice - there really is nothing wrong with them. It is just that of the many machines I have built, two (a long time ago) are memorable because of the amount of grief I had with them.
Each of the manufacturers tend to supply two distinct processor families. Thus the Celeron are a cut down version of the Pentium chips and the Duron, a cut down Athlon. The main difference is in memory handling. Although appreciably cheaper and perfectly adequate, do not use Celerons or Durons if speed is a major requirement.
There really isn't much that I can say about memory and hard drives. All current technologies work well. Appreciate that the more memory you have, the faster your machine will run. At what point it stops making a difference depends on the operating system and the appliactions you use, with graphic and sound operations being the memory hungry ones.
Perhaps the one criticism I have of modern hard drives is that they are huge and smaller ones are fast disappearing. If you have a lot of disc space, you will probably get quite lethargic about deleting what is no longer required etc.. It does make things extremely time-consuming when things go wrong. Not only do restorations take longer but you also have a lot of stuff to examine and save, simply because the critical stuff is somewhere amidst a sea of rubbish.
Adding memory to a machine is easy if it has spare memory slots. Hard drive replacements are easy but extremely time-consuming - especially if critical work has to be saved first, in case the transfer goes wrong.
CDs
The CD type of disc is extremely confused with new technologies appearing all the time. Most machines these days will have at least a reader. With more and more stuff appearing in DVD (including magazine freebie discs), ensure you have a CD-Rom/DVD reader. DVD devices are proving to be far less reliable than conventional CD-ROM ones. However they are virtually just as cheap and easy to replace thus the advantage of being able to run DVDs on the computer (including films) warrants the combined device.
The same however cannot be said for CD writers. The DVD versions are less reliable and with various standards currently in use, less compatible in that some discs may not run on other machines. Unless you know you have a need for the extra capacity, go for an ordinary CD burner. One particular advantage is that if you copy say, a music CD for use in the car, most modernish car systems will read a CD.
CDs are are painless way by which to back-up your data. Do use 'write once' discs rather than re-writeables. Also make sure your back-ups are fairly frequently since the life of a CD is unknown. The life of an empty CD is obviously many years. However the manufacturer has no means of knowing how good your writing equipment is and thus cannot be expected to guarantee a CD that you have written. Assume the worst.
One of the problems with CD writing is the 'depth of burn'. Sometimes, especially with music recordings, the CD you have made refuses to play on some audio CD players. There really is no way of finding out if this is going to be a problem beforehand. I actually came across someone who replaced a friends existing old CD burner with a new one because he wanted the old one - he knew the old one would meet this requirement!
Monitors
The entry point these days is usually 17 inch in Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) rather than glass (CRT). The larger the monitor, the more information you can have on the screen for a given distance. Monitor quality does vary significantly between makes but there is not much to choose between the cheaper makes. Expensive ones are really a must if you are doing lots of graphic work. LCD monitors are beginning to be very good and are rapidly coming down in price. They are great if desk space is at a premium. LCD monitors display a larger picture thus you could say that a 15 inch LCD is equivalent to a 17 inch ordinary monitor.
Problems with LCD monitors are those of resolution, colour and smearing. LCD monitors have a 'natural' resolution which should match your viewing habits. Although you can depart from this resolution, the screen often doesn't look so good as at the natural size. CRT monitors are better at hiding adjustments in resolution. Thus if your work consists of frequent resolution changes, a glass monitor would be a better proposition.
The second problem is that colours tend to be over-bright. For serious photographic work a properly adjusted CRT monitor gives a better colour rendition.
Lastly some of the cheap LCD monitors, even now, when LCD televisions are fast becoming popular, still suffer from sluggish display updates. This gives an effect of smearing on fast-actioned games or video clips.
Scanner
Modern ones are very consistent. The optical character recognition (OCR) software that comes with them often leaves much to be desired and does NOT depend on the resolution of the scanner. A cheap one will do unless you are going to do reproduction work in which case you will need a printer in the 1000s of pounds bracket. If OCR work is important you will probably want to buy some OCR software you can live with.
Modem
An external one gives you the advantage of swapping between machines or re-selling it more easily if at some point in the future you want to update to whatever is the latest technology of the time. An internal one will not require yet another mains socket or computer port.
Of more importance is how the technology is implemented. Many modems operate with minimum hardware with most of the work being done in software by the main processor in the computer. This increases the amount of work that the computer has to do and can slow certain kinds of connections. A hardware modem is thus to be preferred. External ones are invariably hardware based and also more tolerant to noisey telephone lines.
TV/Teletext cards
These work well although you do need to connect a television aerial. The problem is with the teletext side, if you need to trap lots of items into your computer (such as share prices) which exist across various pages and sub-pages. In this case you will need a card that supports scripts, unless you are prepared to load and save each page by hand! A script allows you to specify what you want to grab and save with the machine unattended. Unfortunately, having tried various makes of cards, the only one I can currently recommend with script facilities is the Hauppauge range which are not cheap.
Digital camera
Cameras are now very cheap but some models remain very power-hungry. Camera specifications are quite easily read. However what is often not quoted is the effective film speed. With ordinary cameras you simply get a faster film if you are going to do lots of internal work. With digital you obviously cannot do that. Most of the cheaper cameras have an equivalent film speed of around 200ASA. This means that in poor light they are a bit 'blind' and thus fire the flash. Unfortuantely the flash fitted to most cameras is quite poor and neither do the cameras make provision for an external flash unit.
If you travel a lot to exotic but perhaps, primitive places, try and select a camera that uses ordinary sized batteries. Normally these will be based on rechargeable metal hydride (not Nicads) batteries. It does however mean that in an emergency you can use ordinary none-rechargeable batteries.
Graphic tablet
For serious artwork this is a must. Some people prefer them to a mouse. Even a simple A5 sized table can be very useful. Since they are thin and flat, they are easy to carry with a laptop and usually are a vast improvement on the laptop's pointing device.
Operating system
The operating system of choice these days is WinXP. WinXP is a great operating system for people that do not know much about computers. It is very good at installing devices and protecting users from each other. The price you pay is that it is huge program, that it goes off to find things such as drivers and updates unilaterally and that it is more difficult to structure the filing system as you may want it. For some reason, practically anything you do does requires that extra mouse-click. When things go wrong, it is that bit more difficult, sometimes impossible, to find things that must be saved before a restore can take place. Thus a back-up policy, external to the machine is essential - see the page 'Protecting your data'. I would say that without an Internet connection, using WinXP is a pain.
If your use is running a business with a limited set of programs and devices that do not often change, consider buying a copy of Win98. Win98 in its second edition (Win98SE) is quite stable. Win-ME can be ignored - it was always an interim measure and is not as stable as Win98SE. Once installed properly, this will give you day to day functionality without the bloat of XP and with the ability to structure your filing system as you want it, even with little computer knowledge. The fact that support for Win98 will cease soon is not a problem.
In some cases Win98 may be a must. If your business has some old program which is crucial to your operations, you may find that it does not run under WinXP.
If you have a need for WIN2xxx, you probably know why that is. Such programs are too technical and needlessly complicated for individuals or small business operations.
The same is true of Linux in its many flavours. Linux is the operating system of choice for large chunks of the Internet. It is good for application-specific work that is unchanging. However I have yet to see a version of Linux that has the ease of use and adaptability of Windows.
I would say that for operating systems such as Linux and Win2xxx recourse to a systems administrator is a must.
Often you hear of someone whose machine has become unstable. The solution has been to clean it out and replace the Win98 with XP. XP is theoretically more stable. However it doesn't seem to occur to such people that, having ignored their machine for years, if they had just cleaned it out and restored Win98, it would have cured the problems! Bit like changing the petrol pump in the car just because there is a bit of rubbish in the petrol!
Computer support
Computer support comes at two levels. Support as part of the learning process and support when things go wrong.
To offer support as part of the learning process is quite frankly, admirable of the supplier. Whereas I can understand the need for this with some specialised piece of equipment or software, often the questions asked are much too general to fall into these categories. This kind of support is getting rare and can thus be expensive. If you need support at this level you really should consider going on some evening familiarisation courses. It will probably be a cheaper alternative. Indeed in the area where I live, such courses are available free including one by the local radio station.
The second kind of support is what happens when things go wrong. Computers can go wrong because 'it broke' although more often than not it is not physically broken but rather that some of the software has become corrupted and the machine does not work in part or in whole.
This subtle distinction is not much help if you know little about computers. Unfortunately some distributors do use this as a cop-out for poor service. That is, they are basically saying that it is your fault - there is nothing wrong with the machine other than you corrupting the software. Faced with this impasse it is sometimes difficult to know how to handle the situation. Perhaps best to go for a distributor that is known to have good support. Bear in mind that the support you get from some firms is negligible, yet quite good if you purchase their support package. With such firms, you must budget for the purchase of their support package as part of your computing budget.
Lastly do not forget the small local outfit - the little man round the corner. They usually go by reputation. It's a bit like finding a garage - it is rather difficult not to recommend it and keep going back once you have found a good one! The problem with the corner shop is that, in a highly competitive market, they might not be in business for long.
Which? magazine do publish a list of the brand distributors and the quality of their support. It seems to have become an annual event and I think it comes out in the early months of the year. I'm sure your local library will have copies.
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Last modified on 21st July 2006 - Re-write