buying a computer

[dr nick]

now please excuse my rather hesitant dip into this forum. i am well out of my depth because i know nothing about computers. trouble is, i have to go out and buy one in the next month or so, and was wondering what type of things i should look for when buying a good computer.

most of them have a pentium processor. which one is the best. are the others substantially worse? i have no idea what a decent RAM size is. the only thing i really know is the hard drive when they say 40GB, they mean there is 40GB of memory to store programmes and what not

 

[Mr Q]

OK nicko, I'll do my best:

There are two main types of processors out there, the Intel Pentiums and the AMD Athlon processors. Intel are considered of slightly higher quality, but the Athlons are usually as fast (and IMO as reliable) as the equivalent Pentium, and usually cheaper. Certainly if costs are a factor for you, then I'd consider an Athlon rather than a Pentium IV. The faster the better, but sometimes the absolute fastest is not yet value for money.

For RAM (memory), you should be looking at at least 256Mb, but realistically if you want the computer to be useful in the longer term 512Mb is probably preferable. You should be looking at DDR RAM, although its probably hard to get any other sort in a new PC anyway.

For most light computer users, hard disk space isn't really an issue - 40Gb should be enough easily, but as always with computers the more you get the better your machine.

When you get down to the video card it depends on what you want to do with the computer. If you want to play games, then you will need a good quality video card - there are probably better people than I on these boards to tell you about them. If you just want it for Internet/Office style stuff, then its not so critical.

There are lots of other things you can worry about, but most of them are fairly technical, and not as important as those above.

As a rule of thumb, don't buy a computer from anywhere like Harvey Norman or other department store - you will pay over the odds for what you get. The best thing to do is to find someone you trust who knows what they're talking about to help you in your market - if you were in Perth I could tell you where to go that IMO are reasonable value, but I never found out in Sydney.

 

[Deej]

I run a business and we're looking at buying a new system, maybe two, and connecting them by cable. I basically want to find out if this is a good deal or not price wise.

I have been offered to get an LCD flatscreen BenQ 15cm, a cdrw lite-on 48x12x48, dvd rom, multimedia keyboard and mouse, pentium4 2.4g, 60gb hard drive, gigabyte motherboard, 512mb ram

all for $1500 plus gst

is this a good deal?

 

[Desredandwhite]

Nicko, what is "best" for you will vary depending on what you want to use it for. Definitely have someone who knows PCs walk you through what you want, or you'll be liable to get ripped off.

What are you going to use it for? IMHO most people these days buy a machine that is WAY too powerful for their needs. As Mr Q suggested, if you are a hardcore gamer, you will need the biggest, best computer out there. If you are going to primarily use it for Video editing, graphic or print design, you'll need a pretty beefy machine too. If you're going to do typical office stuff, then a low end model will be PLENTY.

As a general rule, if you get a new machine, just about anything will be sufficient if you want to just run word processing, modest spreadsheets etc. 256MB is a good RAM starting point (if you're playing with video or photoshop, as much as possible). 40GB of hard disk space is decent, though again if you're doing graphics, sound or video be aware that they take up a lot of space.

All depends on what you want to use it for. IMHO (and I can't stress the IMHO part enough) you can get a perfectly good usable 2nd hand machine (a high-end Pentium-III model, fer'instance) for much less than $1000 - if all you need it for is typical office apps.


Deej, the best way to find out if something is worth it is to go to one of the online computer retailers (my favourites are http://pluscorp.com.au - http://techbuy.com.au - http://www.msy.com.au ) and actually add up all the individual component parts yourself.

 

[dr nick]

thanks for the informnation, that is really helpful. i was hoping to buy one of someone from ebay. someone said to me that the speed of the computer is compromised when you buy it second hand, even though they might uninstall everything they put on? at school, somebody wouldnt let us load Jonah Lomu's rugby because he said even if we uninstall it, too many programs will in the long run stuff the machine.

 

[dr nick]

laptops... any brands to be wary of? best brands etc?

 

[Desredandwhite]

I can't understand that statement at all. When you get a new machine, you should probably do a fresh installation of the operating system anyway, especially if it isn't straight from the factory. As far as I'm aware, machines don't "just lose speed with time".... True, windows in particular tends to bog down after a few months but that's easily solved by reinstalling the lot.

Hope that helps.

 

[Desredandwhite]

re: laptops, have a look at this older thread..

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60177

 

[Spidergirl~RiCkChiCk]

had the same problem and was fixed with one simple link...

http://www.ht.com.au/Scripts/xworks.exe?M

and an Optus pre paid card

 

[mighty mick]

thanks spidey with word of mouth like that last post you should be keeing me in a job for a little bit longer.

 

[Bluey]

Originally posted by nicko18
thanks for the informnation, that is really helpful. i was hoping to buy one of someone from ebay. someone said to me that the speed of the computer is compromised when you buy it second hand, even though they might uninstall everything they put on? at school, somebody wouldnt let us load Jonah Lomu's rugby because he said even if we uninstall it, too many programs will in the long run stuff the machine.

If the software you load on does not uninstall properly it may leave files and registry settings on the machine that, in the long run, clog up the works. You can get disk cleanup software that will fix this problem.

Otherwise - barring physical damage - I don't think that machines just lose speed over time.

 

[Zeke]

Originally posted by nicko18
now please excuse my rather hesitant dip into this forum. i am well out of my depth because i know nothing about computers. trouble is, i have to go out and buy one in the next month or so, and was wondering what type of things i should look for when buying a good computer.

most of them have a pentium processor. which one is the best. are the others substantially worse? i have no idea what a decent RAM size is. the only thing i really know is the hard drive when they say 40GB, they mean there is 40GB of memory to store programmes and what not

My best advice: Don't buy a PC.

Buy a real computer:

 

[dr nick]

its the screenshot that makes the computer