Computer Shopping 101
September 17th 2006 06:27
I don’t think anyone gets ripped off so much as when they buy a new computer. When we go out to buy something we are doing it to feel a need or a want. I know most people who are out for a computer are only looking for a way to surf the net, look at their emails, read e-books, perhaps at most they might be transferring mp3 files to their iPods. Fortunately these tasks do not require very powerful (hence expensive) computers at all, unfortunately it is nearly impossible to find a PC that will carry out such tasks and not have too much extra power that you will be spending heaps of money on.
During your time looking for a new PC you must understand your greatest enemy is the computer salesmen. They are probably (next to car salesmen) the sleaziest of their kind because nine times out of ten their ‘customer’ (or more accurately their prey) has no idea about anything to do with computers.
Because the slowest computers you can buy brand new right now are more powerful than you probably need your going to get ripped off whether you like it or not, but the question is to what degree are you willing to get ripped off? The trick is to go for the cheapest PC on the stand, don’t let them fool you with wiz waz words of ‘gigahertz’ and ‘ram’ or even ‘hard drive space’. Odds are these PC’s already contain a copious amount of the aforementioned especially if all you’re going for is simple tasks like I mentioned. Most computers these days even come equipped with a DVD burner, a tool many people will probably never use! It’s there though, and it’s nice to have should the need arise.
For the reader’s interests I will try and explain the basics of the tech jargon.
The CPU is the Central Processing Unit, it basically is the brains of the computer and it takes care of all the core processing. The old rule of thumb was the more ‘gigahertz’ you have on these suckers the more powerful they will be. However that is not necessarily the truth as there are many other factors to be… factored into the equation. Though you shouldn’t be worried if Mr. Computer Salesman insists this is faster than that one, odds are you won’t really care if you save 0.2 seconds from one or the other given you aren’t using it for anything more than basic email checking and the like.
The hard drive is where all the programs are stored. My old, old PC from 2001 has a 20gigbayte hard drive and now has Windows XP installed, it is using 15 of the 20 gigabytes and it has a lot of junk data on it so it probably really has a good 10gigabytes free anyway. Because of this I believe a computer with 40gigabytes is more than enough for anyone though these day’s you won’t ever come by a computer with a hard drive less than 80gigabytes!
The RAM is the Random Access Memory, my uncle gave me a great explanation of what it is. Basically imagine you have a desk with drawers, what is in the drawers you cant work with, what’s on the table you can, the drawers are the hard drive and the table top is the RAM, naturally you have more space in your drawers than on your table with the catch being you cant use what’s in your drawers in an effective manner. So the amount of RAM you have determines how much your computer can be doing at any one time, please not having 256 megabytes of RAM should be enough, the next leap to 512 megabytes of RAM is over the top and despite the price difference being negligible it probably really is not much of a worthy upgrade for your purposes.
The Video Card is responsible for processing all the video output information and feeding it to a computer monitor they usually have enough grunt to run most, if not all modern games as well. If your not very tech savvy it would be far better for you to buy a proper videogame console otherwise you’ll find that it is extremely easy to be ripped off with a sub par graphics card which you’ll pay the equivalent of a proper videogame console for. They are very complex pieces of equipment and their more powerful variants don’t often find their way into mainstream PC’s. Even those who know well enough about computers can get duped into buying one that might look good on paper but otherwise isn't, so don’t worry about it. It’s not a factor, and don’t let Mr. Sleazy Computer salesman convince you that you need it because you are going to watch DVD’s on your PC or some crap like that, even if you did one day watch a DVD movie on your computer the crappiest Video Card they put in a new computer will take care of it for you.
The computer monitor is usually standard with the computer, if not you should demand for one to be put on for a cheap price (about $200-ish AUD), generally a 17inch monitor is a good buy and these days a 17 inch LCD display is quite cheap. Don’t let Mr. Sleazy Computer salesman try and convince you that one LCD display is better than another because of ‘ghosting’, you don’t need to worry about ‘ghosting’ unless your going to be watching DVD movies or playing games very often and even then it’s often too subtle to pick out. Ask for a demonstration though so you can tell the difference. Take my advice here and DEMAND for a dead pixel warranty, DEMAND IT! A pixel is a little dot on the computer monitor, there are millions of them on all PC monitors and they basically create the pictures you see in front of you. A dead pixel is one that does not change its colour anymore with the rest of the pixels hence you get a little speck of dot on the monitor. While alone (and out of the way) you might not notice these dead pixels unless concentrating on it, you can get several of them popping up on screen simultaneously which is most definitely not good as it will annoy the crap out of you. It happens to LCD monitors but not to CRT ones, you can tell the difference between an LCD monitor and a CRT one by the size of it, LCD monitors are flat and easy to carry around, CRT’s aren’t. So be sure to demand for a dead pixel warranty if you’re buying an LCD monitor. It might cost a bit more, but better safe than sorry.
What you should be interested in most is the pre-bundled software, because the pre-bundled software is CHEAP. Make sure you are getting Microsoft Word, and try and get extras, usually you’ll get a copy of Microsoft Office and Encarta Encyclopedia, and sometimes, if you’re, lucky they throw in one or two free games.
Also remember, one of the main reasons why you’d be buying a pre-built computer from a respectable manufacturer (assuming said manufacturer exists) is for warranty. Try and get a year or two worth of warranty without paying anything extra, perhaps haggling even. Don’t pay too much extra for it, computers don’t break easily, and if they do can be repaired by… someone in your family no doubt.
That is all for now, I hope I have helped in some regards to your computer purchasing questions, I fully intend on continuing this topic with other aspects of computer purchasing including peripherals and software further down the line.
Target: Computer Salesman, Locked on.
Because the slowest computers you can buy brand new right now are more powerful than you probably need your going to get ripped off whether you like it or not, but the question is to what degree are you willing to get ripped off? The trick is to go for the cheapest PC on the stand, don’t let them fool you with wiz waz words of ‘gigahertz’ and ‘ram’ or even ‘hard drive space’. Odds are these PC’s already contain a copious amount of the aforementioned especially if all you’re going for is simple tasks like I mentioned. Most computers these days even come equipped with a DVD burner, a tool many people will probably never use! It’s there though, and it’s nice to have should the need arise.
For the reader’s interests I will try and explain the basics of the tech jargon.
Behold, a CPU chip, a key seller for a PC with its much hyped 'gigahertz'.
The hard drive is where all the programs are stored. My old, old PC from 2001 has a 20gigbayte hard drive and now has Windows XP installed, it is using 15 of the 20 gigabytes and it has a lot of junk data on it so it probably really has a good 10gigabytes free anyway. Because of this I believe a computer with 40gigabytes is more than enough for anyone though these day’s you won’t ever come by a computer with a hard drive less than 80gigabytes!
The RAM is the Random Access Memory, my uncle gave me a great explanation of what it is. Basically imagine you have a desk with drawers, what is in the drawers you cant work with, what’s on the table you can, the drawers are the hard drive and the table top is the RAM, naturally you have more space in your drawers than on your table with the catch being you cant use what’s in your drawers in an effective manner. So the amount of RAM you have determines how much your computer can be doing at any one time, please not having 256 megabytes of RAM should be enough, the next leap to 512 megabytes of RAM is over the top and despite the price difference being negligible it probably really is not much of a worthy upgrade for your purposes.
The Video Card is responsible for processing all the video output information and feeding it to a computer monitor they usually have enough grunt to run most, if not all modern games as well. If your not very tech savvy it would be far better for you to buy a proper videogame console otherwise you’ll find that it is extremely easy to be ripped off with a sub par graphics card which you’ll pay the equivalent of a proper videogame console for. They are very complex pieces of equipment and their more powerful variants don’t often find their way into mainstream PC’s. Even those who know well enough about computers can get duped into buying one that might look good on paper but otherwise isn't, so don’t worry about it. It’s not a factor, and don’t let Mr. Sleazy Computer salesman convince you that you need it because you are going to watch DVD’s on your PC or some crap like that, even if you did one day watch a DVD movie on your computer the crappiest Video Card they put in a new computer will take care of it for you.
The computer monitor is usually standard with the computer, if not you should demand for one to be put on for a cheap price (about $200-ish AUD), generally a 17inch monitor is a good buy and these days a 17 inch LCD display is quite cheap. Don’t let Mr. Sleazy Computer salesman try and convince you that one LCD display is better than another because of ‘ghosting’, you don’t need to worry about ‘ghosting’ unless your going to be watching DVD movies or playing games very often and even then it’s often too subtle to pick out. Ask for a demonstration though so you can tell the difference. Take my advice here and DEMAND for a dead pixel warranty, DEMAND IT! A pixel is a little dot on the computer monitor, there are millions of them on all PC monitors and they basically create the pictures you see in front of you. A dead pixel is one that does not change its colour anymore with the rest of the pixels hence you get a little speck of dot on the monitor. While alone (and out of the way) you might not notice these dead pixels unless concentrating on it, you can get several of them popping up on screen simultaneously which is most definitely not good as it will annoy the crap out of you. It happens to LCD monitors but not to CRT ones, you can tell the difference between an LCD monitor and a CRT one by the size of it, LCD monitors are flat and easy to carry around, CRT’s aren’t. So be sure to demand for a dead pixel warranty if you’re buying an LCD monitor. It might cost a bit more, but better safe than sorry.
A Computer LCD monitor
A Computer CRT Monitor
What you should be interested in most is the pre-bundled software, because the pre-bundled software is CHEAP. Make sure you are getting Microsoft Word, and try and get extras, usually you’ll get a copy of Microsoft Office and Encarta Encyclopedia, and sometimes, if you’re, lucky they throw in one or two free games.
Also remember, one of the main reasons why you’d be buying a pre-built computer from a respectable manufacturer (assuming said manufacturer exists) is for warranty. Try and get a year or two worth of warranty without paying anything extra, perhaps haggling even. Don’t pay too much extra for it, computers don’t break easily, and if they do can be repaired by… someone in your family no doubt.
That is all for now, I hope I have helped in some regards to your computer purchasing questions, I fully intend on continuing this topic with other aspects of computer purchasing including peripherals and software further down the line.
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Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Comment by Joy
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Comment by Joy
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Comment by Joy
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
I might, definately going to be adding stuff about peripherals in the near future, today was more about getting the jargon out of the way.
Comment by dalelynn21
Alternate Universe Authors and Their Books
This post was very helpful to me. It gives me a good idea of what to look for in a new computer. A 40 gig harddrive sounds really good, since I only have 9 on this computer. I'm not even sure how much RAM I have. 256 RAM sounds like a lot to me.
I do have a question about monitors. I'm currently using a 17inch CRT monitor. I have vision problems and I'm hoping to get BigShot on my computer to help me see and read on the computer. I've been thinking about getting a 21 inch monitor, but I'm not sure how much better that would be instead of the BigShot. When I use the BigShot I have to keep scrolling back and forth to see what would be a complete picture on a 17 inch monitor without it. I also wonder if I should use both the 21 inch and BigShot. BigShot costs $100 USD, and I'm not sure what a 21 inch would cost yet, I can't buy this stuff yet, and I don't want to drool over a screen I can't get right now.
I really got long winded again. Sorry
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Since you are using a CRT monitor there is a novel way you could try and get things bigger on the screen. You are running a 17inch which I believe would have an ideal resolution of 1024*768 or 1280*1024 pixels. I know most people who are not very tech savvy use a resolution of 800*600 with their computer monitors. The lower the resolution is the larger the images on screen is. So you can try lowering the resolution of your computer monitor so the size of the images increase on screen. I don't know what resolution your running at, but if its 1024*768 or (worse) 1280*1024 the images on screen will be quite small which isn't good for your purpouses.
Just give me a second while I write up something to show how you change desktop resolutions. It wont take too long hopefully but I want to take some pictures of the screen so you can get a clearer picture of what I'm trying to do.
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
(I have attached images to the links, so click on the instrcution to see a picture of what I'm asking)
Ok, first right click on your desktop a menu pops up, on this menu you click on properties
Now a new window pops up, on the top of this window are a bunch of tabs, the tab on the right most position is 'settings', click on that.
This brings you to the settings of the display. On the middle left hand corner (you can see it in the picture) is a bar, drag it to the left until it says 800*600 underneath it (you can see on the picture it says 1280*1024 on my pc) if it already is at 800*600 scroll it further to the left if you can to try and get it to be 640*480 (this makes things even more bigger). Don't go below 640*480 as that is going too far. Then click on Ok or apply Note that after you click 'ok' or 'apply' it might give you a warning, if it does click on yes so you can do it. Now DONT PANIC if the screen looks really bad and you cant see anything, if that happens just wait 20 to 30 seconds and the screen will restore itself to its previous sate. This happens if you try and set the desktop resoultion to something that your monitor does not suport. If the change is successful and you like it, there is a dialogu box that asks you if you want to keep it, and you can click on yes to keep it.
THere is also another way you can make things bigger if your computer allows it (I think older ones don't, I dont remember). What you should do is from the settings tab you are in you should click on 'advanced'
This opens up a new window where (if your computer supports it) there is an option to change the DPI settings (highlighted in the picture I have uploaded), what you should do is bring down the menu and choose a higher dpi which will make the screen images bigger without changing the resolution. It might or might not be supported by your computer, its wroth a shot though
As for the price of 21inch monitors, I went looking for them, you think they are easy to come by, but no they are not. I did find those elusive monitors here which cost $135 USD (or $225.00 for a 22inch, just goes to show the price hike is huge for just one extra inch!).
I think though before coughing up money on bigshot you should try and give microsofts zoom tool a shot, try here to get started.
cheers
Comment by dalelynn21
Alternate Universe Authors and Their Books
Thank you so much for the tips. I did go in and change the monitor on the advanced setting because I couldn't get it to go any lower than 800x600, and it was set at that when I went in to look. I'm hoping it'll work because I put it as high as I could. I have to restart the computer, but I wanted to let you know what worked.
The microsoft magnifier doesn't work for me, I've tried it, but I just can't seem to tolerate it. I get lost on the screen and don't know where I'm at. I seem to need a whole screen magnifier.
I knew they would be expensive. Thank you for looking, and I'll look at them after I restart the computer.
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
hmm, I should have checked the resetting thing was off with you first, now I'm worried it might stuff up your display, it shouldn't really on a CRT monitor its virtually impossible, but right now I"m a little edgy on the matter.
Comment by dalelynn21
Alternate Universe Authors and Their Books
So far so good. It's so nice to be able to read the monitor without having my nose practically touching the monitor.
I'm going to bookmark that site you led me to, and I hope that I'll be able to get a bigger monitor soon.
I also wanted to tell you that in Microsoft Word and probably in other programs as well, a button that will make what you see on the screen bigger, and I do use that all the time.
Also if you go into View to Text Size you can enlarge what you see on some sites, but not all. Some sites don't get any bigger at all.
There is a way to disable the settings on the websites by going into Tools and Properties, from there I don't remember exactly what you do, but I didn't like it too much. Everything kind of overlapped in places and it was harder to navigate.
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
the overlapping is caused because the text size increases and starts pushing its text area too far (its text area is what we call 'tables' and 'cells') and they start overlapping iwth each other.
I'm glad it worked though, I was really worried there for a moment.