Did I Spend Enough or Too Much?
Jun 13 '00
Buying a computer is an art. There are many steps that are involved in making the right decision and it pretty much depends on what you think you will need your computer for not just in the present, but perhaps the near future. If you can make a good judgement of what you might need to use your computer for in the next few months/years, you'll be able to make a very educated purchase that will last you for a while.
Speed
The speeds advance everyday.. today you can purchase a p3-500 and tomorrow it'll be obsolete. Honestly, think of what you plan to use your computer for. If you're someone who has hopes and asiprations for surfing the net and perhaps doing stocks and other online services but not too much more, you might want to settle for something LOW END like a p3-500 (it's sad that the 500 is low end). They don't cost too much and will allow you to get lots of pleasure and efficiency out of your computer.
If you're hardcore into graphics/gaming, you might want to get something a little more speedy such as something in the athlon series high up in speed (they have a gigahertz, you know). This will definitely be good for you because graphics and gaming take up lots of resources and the faster your computer is the more efficient it will be at playing these new games and loading those heavy .jpg files.
Hard Drive
Get the largest you possibly can. I mean it. If you can get options on getting a 25 gb hard drive for 40 dollars more, do it. It's something you will not look badly upon in the years to come. Storage is such a big need nowadays. 4 years ago I had a 350 megabyte hard drive and everything fit nicely because games were only 1-5 megs and most programs weren't large either. Now that most games take up 3-4 cds and most programs are 100-200 megs full install, you will thank me that you have the largest hard drive you can possibly get at the time. If you have any doubts, think about your needs. Hard drives are expensive upgrades, even now when there are 30 gb hard drives, they still are costly. Why not get the largest one while you can get it cheaper (in a package) than in 2 years when you need more space.
Monitor
You wonder what these mm and hz mean when you search for monitors. The mm are the pixels, and the hz is the refresh speed. A rule to follow is you want the lowest mm (.24, .22) and a high Hz (in the thousands). Panasonic and Cornerstone have some excellent monitors but they also cost a lot. Look into purchasing a 17inch or higher because they just seem to be the most popular ones to purchase right now. 15 inch monitors are nice, but you'll probably find that a 17 isn't that much more expensive. Spend a few extra dollars and get 2 more inches.
Overall
Well, it seems that although computers are changing at an exponential rate, you can still purchase one today which will last you a few years. Try to make sure there is memory expansion (for future upgrades), lots of extra pci slots (for card upgrades such as a scsi card or an extra video card), lots of external slots (for cd-roms and other drives such as a CD-R or tape backup). Get something that you think is too much, because in a few months/years, it will definitely be too little. The more you get now, the better off you are in a few months because it'll still be at the top of the market.
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