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Buying a laptop
Laptops are exactly the same computers as desktops but much smaller in size. Back in the days laptops were very expensive and much slower than desktops, therefore not too many people had one. However, this has changed a lot over the past few years, and laptops are becoming very common. Laptops have become much cheaper, and much faster, being able to compete with desktop in speed and price. Because of this, a lot of people have actually switched their desktops for laptops. And with wireless Internet now being very cheap, you can have your laptop hocked to the Internet, without having any cords while being anywhere in your house. You can browse the Internet while sitting in your comfortable couch in front of the TV.
The same thing that counts for desktops and all computer parts, counts for laptops too. Do not buy top of the line laptop. Always aim for the lasts year laptop model which still has great performances, but the price that is much more affordable.
Here are a few tips for buying a laptop:
- If you'll use your laptop only for word, surfing the Internet, or similar simple tasks, even the slowest of today's laptops will do a fine job. However, make sure you get a Hard Disk of least 20-30GB of space.
- Even though the 256MB is common in laptops today, try getting 512MB or ram. It will considerably increase your laptop's performances.
- Try getting an optical writable drive. CD-RW is very common today, but if you can, get a DVD-RW that supports DVD-R and DVD+ media.
Buying a desktop
By buying a desktop that is not the top of the line (lasts years model, for example) you can save a lot of money. Because computer technology is changing so fast, it is never a good move to buy anything that is the best in its category. For example, Athlon XP 3200+ costs around $330-350. Athlon 3000+ costs around $170-190. So by choosing to go with only around 6% slower CPU (the difference you will hardy notice) you can save plenty of money. So even if you have a lot of money on hand and want to buy the best computer out there, remember that you are making a bad decision. By buying parts that are at least one step below the fastest one you can save tons of money, and see almost no difference in your computer performances. Just a thing to remember!
Buying a Video Card
Choosing a graphic (video) card is not a hard thing to do. Well not as nearly as hard as choosing the motherboard. When choosing a video card there are a few things to consider. What will you use your computer for, an if you motherboard supports the type of the graphic card that you want. If you are building a computer from scratch than you can buy the graphic card that will be compatible with your mother board. Usually all motherboards that came out in the last few years will be compatible with your graphic card, however if you are buying a new motherboard make sure that it is AGP 8X compatible, in order to get the most out of your 8X AGP graphic card. The next question is if you will be using your computer only for the office work, or you will also play games. Latest games require fast graphic cards with 8X AGP and at least 64 meg of memory, preferably 128.
Here are a quick guide lines for a good graphic card:
AGP 8X
128 meg of 128 bit memory (make sure you don't buy a graphic card with 64 bit memory).
Make sure your graphic cards has a fan for cooling, not the heatsink.
New generation graphic card with only a heat sink means that it has a slow memory that does not need additional cooling. DO NOT buy this graphic card! They are cheaper, but way too slow.
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