What do I need?
Aug 19 '00
So you want to buy a computer and stay in the $1500 to $2000 range. What you pay for a computer is what you get. The lower priced ones run slower and generally do not have good accessories to go with it.
First you have to figure out what you want to do with your new computer.
1. Are you going to be a gamer and mainly play games?
If you are a gamer you will probably want a 17" to 19" monitor so you can get a lot of excitement out of your game. You will want a good sound card and good speakers with a sub woofer to go along. Then you will want a good graphics card of at least 16 megabytes.
2. Are you going to use one for the Internet mainly?
If you are using it mainly for the Internet, I recommend a good graphics card of at least 16 Megs. You might indulge in a large 17" to 19" monitor.
3. Are you going to need it for graphics applications?
If you are into graphics like AutoCAD go for the 19" monitor or bigger and the best graphics card that you can afford to go along with your system. Memory of 128 Megs or more and use PC100 or PC 133 memory.
4. Are you going to use it for mainly word processing and spreadsheets?
If you are going to use it for spreadsheets and word processing then I recommend you get the fastest processor with 128 Megs of memory.
Accessories
1. CDR & CDRW burner (or writer) - With this you can make your own CDs.
2. DVD player - Recommended, but not required unless you are into DVD movies. There are advantages on DVD verses CD, 17 gigabytes of storage verses 650 megabytes on a CD.
3. Sound system - Get a good sound card and speakers.
4. Cases - Do you want a full size case or what I call the normal size case.
5. Power Supplies - Get 250 or 300 watts, I recommend 300 watts.
6. Surge Protectors - Definitely get one, you can get them for less than $10, but I recommend paying a little more for one.
7. Mouse - There are all kinds of choices, I like my cordless Logitech wheel mouse.
My recommendation for an all around computer.
To stay within the guidelines of $1500 to $2000, here is what I recommend.
1. Get a 700 to 800 megahertz AMD Athlon processor. (Same speed for an Intel processor is several hundred dollars more and AMD is an excellent processor.) Your AMD Athlon processors will run faster than Intel. (I run the Athlon 800 megahertz and I love it.)
2. Get a Voodoo card by 3dfx with at least 16 Megs. There are other good brands to choose from.
3. Get Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live sound card.
4. Get speakers with a sub woofer.
5. Get 128 Megs of PC100 memory.
6. Get a DVD player.
7. Get a CDRW writer.
8. Get at least 20 Megs of hard drive.
9. 17" Monitor.
There are many choices to choose from as far as name brands. You can stay under $2000 with the computer system I listed above, just look around and do some shopping. For on-line shopping, look up Cybermax, you can customize your own and stay under $2000.
For more information about computers and how they rate them and the hardware, I recommend looking up all of these three on the Internet. 1. Cnet 2. ZDNet 3. Computer Shopper (These 3 can give you a lot of information on any specific hardware you are looking for.)
Happy Shopping!
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