The cost of purchasing a computer has reduced significantly recently making the PC
almost a big a must have as a television. But buying a telly is childsplay compared to the jungle
one is faced with when trying to purchase a PC.
Firstly you need to decide what you want the computer for, both in the short and long term.
If you are a complete newbie to this technology you may at this point just be interested in surfing
the internet and keeping in touch with friends and family by email and word-processing.
But the world of the PC is a steep and absorbing learning curve. You will discover that your
little box of tricks can do so much more and unfortunately if you haven't the correct machine
you may have to spend more money so to be able to get the PC to do what you want.
Way back when basic PC's cost the same as a second hand car, the term 'Future Proof' was
banded around alot. Basically you bought the best computer you could afford and hoped it
didn't go out of date too soon. The princely sum of upto and beyond £2000 could be paid
for a so called top notch machine.
The PC I'm typing this on is nearly 10 years old. It was a buy now pay later deal from a high street chain
and set me back £800 but for this I did get a printer and scanner as part of the bundle
which is something you don't see much nowadays as prices have come down.
The spec for this machine is as follows.
Processor AMD Athlon XP 1800+
1.54 GHz
RAM 224MB
Hard Drive 35Gig
Running Windows XP Home Edition.
The only upgrade I have done is add four USB 2 sockets. This is the new standard for connecting printers and
cameras etc. and wasn't around when the computer was new.
With this set up, I have manipulated both pictures and video, downloaded and recorded music, created large databases
and of course surfed the internet and sent emails etc.
After 10 years, at this precise time I have 3.50gig left on the hard drive. It isn't as fast as it was from new,
but it still does what I want it to do and if I invest in a new hard drive it will serve me for another few years.
The equivalent today would have a faster processor, more ram, bigger hard drive and of course Windows Vista and cost around
half the price.
To fully 'Future Proof' yourself you would be wise to invest in what is known as a 'Gamers PC'. The latest PC games
require vast amounts of processing power to run effectively and having this power under your hood will easily cope
with most tasks you throw at the machine to do for a long while.
When buying a computer the majority of people purchase from a chain store that sell PC's
with all the software pre installed by the manufacturer. You just plug in and away you go.
This is fine for the complete novice buying their first computer and it is this market this sort of
store is aiming for. The downside to this whether you are a beginner or not is after a while you find
you have a computer filled with programs you never use and are unlikely ever to.
My computer is 6 years old and bundled with it came 10 applications that I've never even opened.
These included a collection of GCSE exam revision guides, encyclopedias and an inferior desktop
publishing suite and for that privalage cost me £800.
OEM stands for 'Original equipment manufacturer'. But when in relation to software it stands for
'On Every Machine'. The manufacterer buys a range of software titles and is licensed to bundle the
programs on every machine they make, you as the end user have no choice as to what is installed on the
computer you purchase. So in essence what is actually a computer that you could of built yourself for a mere
£100 becomes a £400 machine, with a hard drive stuffed with rubbish.
For the same sort of price it would be better to find a local retailer who can build the machine to your specs
with just the operating system of your choice installed. This then allows you to choose the programs you want.
What the newcomer to the world of computers doesn't realise is you don't have to buy commercial software.
Mr. Gates is rich enough, you don't need to buy his office products or even his operating systems if you don't
wish to. In fact you can have a computer that is able to do everything that a machine filled with Microsoft goodies
can do but for free. Yes you read correct FREE!
For every commercial product released by the big software makers there is a free alternative. Whether you are after
an office suite like Microsoft Office or drawing and image editing software like the programs by Adobe or Coral
or maybe video and audio are more what you're into you will find them on the internet for free.
To find out more see the article 'Free Versus Paid For'
