This week will be the start of our series on purchasing a personal computer (Windows). We’ll begin by addressing important PC components and what they mean.

Brand

A common question is what brand is best. Should I buy an HP or a Dell? What about Gateway? This is very subjective and often the brand doesn’t define the quality of the computer. The quality depends on the individual components you’ve decided upon. The manufacturer, such as Dell, doesn’t make what actually goes inside. They just assemble the components. So you could end up with the same insides whether you buy an Acer or a Toshiba. There are several major components that make up every PC.

Important Components

Usually the first item you must decide upon is processor. There are two popular brands, Intel and AMD, and a large selection of choices from each. Typically PC manufacturers offer a standard single-core processor or the more powerful dual-core and quad-core CPUs. The speeds of these processors are measured in gigahertz (GHz). More cores and higher speeds mean faster processing, but also higher price. Right now an average Intel dual core processor is rated at about 2.0 GHz. This should be sufficient for most users right now, but it is important to find one that is suitable for your individual needs, without spending too much or too little. Keep in mind processing power isn’t everything, but if you plan on keeping this computer for a number of years, you may want to spend more up front for a computer that will stand the test of time better.

The next option is random access memory (RAM) and is measured in megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB). RAM is where your computer stores all of the data it is currently using. If you have many programs open at once or use large, intensive programs (video editing, 3D modeling) then you will benefit from having more RAM. If your computer is using all of your RAM it has to begin storing data on your hard drive. Accessing RAM is a lot faster than accessing your hard drive, so you computer responds a lot slower as it works to constantly move data around. Right now, I would not recommend anything less than 1 GB and if you plan on running Windows Vista I recommend 2 GB. Buy more if you can afford it (RAM is a good place to spend money), but you should be fine with 2 GB.

Hard drive sizes have increased dramatically in the last few years. Most setups start with options above 200 GB. I use my computer intensively and have many videos and music files and still have a hard time filling my hard drive. You can upgrade your drive if you want more space and often you can find free upgrade specials or sales. Keep in mind that easy to use USB external hard drives are available if you find that you need space in the future. For most users a hard drive of 120 GB or larger will be just fine. If you plan on storing a lot of video files or tens of thousands of pictures, I would suggest upgrading to 320 GB or 500 GB.

An option that can quickly increase the price of your machine is a video card. Without upgrading, your system will have a standard integrated video card. This means that your video card is a part of the motherboard and shares your system RAM (which reduces the amount of RAM available to the system). There are two reasons to upgrade your video card and the upgrade choice depends on how you plan to use your computer. If you plan on running a dual-monitor setup, you will need to upgrade from an integrated video card. This will provide you with multiple outputs for the two displays. If you plan on running graphics intensive software, such as videogames, photo editing software like Photoshop, or video editing, you will want to spend a little more and upgrade to one of the higher options. This will increase performance during these demanding tasks. A slow video card will limit your entire computer if you run applications which are video intensive. For normal tasks like surfing the Internet or using Microsoft Office, an integrated card will be fine.

When selecting an optical drive, I recommend one DVD±RW drive. This will read and burn both CDs and DVDs.

A monitor is a necessary component that has many sizes and price options. The bigger the better, but be prepared to spend some money. If you don’t think you need a high-end monitor you probably don’t; any name brand monitor will work just fine. My advice is to only buy a 17”, 20” or 24” monitor. There are sizes in between, but they don’t give you any more viewable space than their smaller counterpart. For instance, a 19” monitor displays just as many pixels as a 17”, but the pixels are just bigger. 20” and 22” monitors go together, and 24” and 26.1” monitors have the same resolution.

Next Week

In Part 2, I’ll address what you may want in a computer for different applications and what to look for in pricing. If you have any questions or want something specifically addressed, respond to this post in the comments.