Home PC Specifications

One that does the job you want it for at a price which suits you.

John.

You need to be a w-h-o-l-e lot more specific!

Basically, you need to know what you are going to be doing on your PC if you want to maximize your spending money. You can go from just getting on the internet and doing basic activities, to memory heavy graphics and serious gaming.

You need to specify your requirements. That is how do you intend to use it.

If you want to play games buy yourselves a graphic monster.

Other types of uses may also change the specs.

Are you buying a new computer because your caps lock is stuck on?

Don't let the salesman talk you into anything with Vista.

Just my 2 cents

.

Connect your computer to at least two large 20"-22" LCD monitors, even on your home PC. You will be surprised how much more work you get done on your home PC and how much time you save.

Don't buy the best system out there on the market.. buy only what you need for now. The extra cost to get the best system isr usually good enough to buy a much better system when you grow out of the second-best or third-best system today.

Buy extra main memory. Processor does have to be fast. At work, we always extend the lives of laptops and desktops beyond 5 years to upto 8 years just by adding more memory.

Every home PC nowadays needs bluetooth and wifi. But the desktops don't come with it while they are almost standard features on laptops. You need those as much as you need a processor. Buy those accessories. Alternatively, just buy a laptop if you need to move it around.

External hard drive for backup.

Finally, all home PCs should run Linux, not Windows. :)

Hi,

Well, that's a little like asking which car you should buy. There are lots of options. Others have already said it, but you need to first determine how you will use it mostly. There's a big difference in giving one to the 'folks' to check emails and snapshots you may want to send them, from the one you may want to buy your college student who may need some real horsepower. Although this sounds like a sales pitch, I personally appreciate the staff at Best Buy because they generally do know what they're talking about, and they don't work on commission, so they don't necessarily push the high price. The additional warranty they sell (some extra money) is a pretty good deal if you want an extended warranty. Best yet, no one every stays the same month after month in what they want, so as you 'grow' in your idea of what you want (more memory, more capability, more programs, etc.) that staff also pretty well knows what can be done.

(okay, now everyone thinks I an agent for BB ... nope, just a satisfied customer).

Finally, there is another point ... always buy the MOST you can for the money you can afford. Computers become obsolete (or at least several steps below current) very quickly and the only hedge for that is to buy the most you can within your budget. To clarify, I'm not talking about peripherals (monitors, mice, keyboards, or other external devices), but internals like CPU and speed.

Cheers, and good luck.

Guest,

As the other responders have suggested, decide what you are going to use the machine for first. Once you have an idea about that, go talk to one of your local computer stores. Not a big box store like Circuit City etc. I'm talking about a small store usually locally owned. There you can purchase the bits and pieces to put together a very nice machine that will fit your needs. Talk to the sales people, ask about their opinions on various components. Don't be intimidated even if you aren't sure about the difference between a CPU and ram. These folks tend to be young, very knowledgeable about what they sell and more than happy to help you and share information. You can then take all your bits home and assemble them yourself, or for about $50.00 let them do it. You will wind up with a machine that is much more upgradeable, (you will want to upgrade within two years believe me) not loaded with a bunch of bundled crap for software and local personalized warranty service. Try getting that from Dell ! For example, the machine I am using now is two years old. It uses a MSI Micro-ATX motherboard which has 8ch HD audio and a Nividia graphics card on board. An AMD Athalon 3000+ CPU , an eighty gigabyte hard drive,1gigabyte of ram, windows xp pro sp2 operating system, two DVD , cd burners, a speaker system with a sub woofer, a cigarette lighter and cup holder (No joke, caffeine and nicotine are pre-requisites for late night blog and cad sessions) A 22" CRT monitor, a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse and I spent less than $800.00. As I mentioned the machine is now two years old. As the motherboard was a reasonably current one when purchased and carries a 939 socket for the CPU, I can upgrade to an AMD dual core CPU for about $150.00. I can also easily put 2 gig of ram in when I am ready. The only downside to this method of purchasing a computer is you do have to purchase your own software. As for basic specs for any home machine today that isn't intended to be a game monster: a good, up to date motherboard, even beyond the CPU this is the heart of the machine and will determine its' longevity and ability to be up graded. A fast dual core CPU. I prefer AMD, the cost is less than Intel and I believe the architecture of the chip is more web friendly. No less than a gigabyte of ram. No less than a 60 gigabyte hard drive, and with todays' application software bigger is definitely better . At least one DVD burner. The operating system is a matter of personnel preference and as you are starting with a clean slate you can choose what you want. I would just avoid MS VISTA. I've loaded it on some friends machines and used it, what a disappointment! Everything else, speakers, monitors, keyboards, the case to put it all in are a matter of your taste. Good luck and have fun, you are guaranteed to learn something from the purchase.

If you intend to play games you probably want to go with something with 3gig CPU and and something equivalent to about a 6200 Nvidia graphics card. With about 1 gig of RAM and 120 gig hard drive.

For things like business applications you can get away with less then 2 gig CPU even as low as 1 gig CPU and like what was mentioned before, get a graphics card that can handle plugging two monitors onto an 5700 Nvidia or equivalent would work. With two monitors you can set it up so that each monitor displays exactly the same thing or where one monitor is an extension of the other. With the latter you can have internet pages, instant messenger or email display on one monitor, while other applications lilke Office or AutoCad come up on the other without you having to move things around.

If you're just using it to surf the internet and read email then any old computer will work unless you plan to watch videos on sites like NBC.com. Then the gaming set up would be more suitable for that kind of work load for a more smoother data steam.

I am niether a good Tech or user but have some bitter experience of BIG-Shots like Intel.
Before purchasing Intel CPU or Mother-Board look for users' comments. This you can get on big venders sites. Most of them have purchasers / users views on their web-sites.
In last 3years or more I purchased 2 systems [latst at that time], but I vame to know that all failures in their MBs & CPUs are totally masked by them & don't respond to your complaints.

shart4legged in #11 says avalid & most important point about MB. Latest.
I add "Latest & by a Mfr who offers online-updates of BIOS & Built-Cards' driver-updates"

MSI is one of the Mfrs who have it.

Intel's website is the worst I have faced for drivers & even I could not find info about
"Pentium4, prescot, 3.2GH" in normal way of listing.

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Pentium4, prescot, 3.2GH-Overheating
http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/7267?frmtrk=cr4sd#newcomments
Richard L #1
Sorry to say this but this is nothing new, Intel knew that theses CPU's
ran hot when they put them on the market. ...

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http://www.amazon.co.uk/
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processors

" Customer Reviews Avg.
Customer Review:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/flex-sign-in/202-1765713-1248614?opt=o&page=help/non-ir-sign-in-secure.html&response=tg/stores/detail/customer-review-form/-/electronics/B000184B1U

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
HOT!!!!, October 9, 2005
Reviewer: xvidman from Birmingham, UK

Previously, I used to have Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, 800FSB, 512 kb L2 Cache. So i decided to upgrade to Prescott Core, with 1mb L2 cache and 3.2 GHz speed.
My old cpu used to have a stable temperature of 45 Degrees C.

When i installed this, the temperature jumped to 70 Degrees Celcius, without any noticeable performance improvements "

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