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Buying that New Christmas PC

It will soon be Christmas and time to think buying a new PC for a Christmas gift. More and more today we rely on our home computers to keep us in contact with our friends and family, shop, manage music and photos, play games, and more. A PC or multiple PCs in home with kids is fairly common. Most children cannot live without instant messaging. Such communications sure saves phone bills. Probably this year high speed Internet access will be in 50% of homes with PCs.

My point here is that there are many choices when it comes to PC Christmas gifts. So what do you choose? Since I do not have lots of money, (I write this column for peanuts so I have lots of them.) I must decide carefully what best matches my needs to PC capabilities. Some of the components parameters are:

    1.CPU and speed – either AMD or Intel are fine CPUs. The more GHz the better, but most web surfers and email users can be happy with a cheaper CPU running around 2 GHz. The fastest CPUs for photo manipulation and gamers run at 3 GHz and faster.

    2.RAM – For home work PCs and web surfing 512 MB is sufficient. Manipulating photos, video, and playing games goes faster with more than 1 GB of RAM. A good upper limit today is 2 GB of RAM. Faster RAM is dual channel PC800 DDR2. This RAM is hot – it can burn you when the PC is on – and fast.

    3.DVD, CD/RW or DVD/RW drives are important. With Windows XP and a DVD/RW you can backup 4.2 or perhaps 8.4 GB of data. However, CD/RW drives that backup 700 MB are faster.

    4.Displays and monitors are next. There is a new PCI-Express graphics bus standard that makes displays faster. Of course flat panel monitors are becoming very affordable. Both of these are costly high performance PC features today not needed by most users (unless you want to brag about your PC – sorry I am a nerd). However a really cost effective and cool upgrade is dual monitors. Some 17-inch flat panel monitors now run around $100 and a dual display card runs less than $100. I have used dual displays since 2000 and they can really make you productive for about $300. Multiple displays are so good, I wish that I could use four displays.

    5.Disk drives come in many sizes and now with a new faster Serial ATA (SATA – although most of us would believe at one time or another that they are Satan drives.) interface. However, the smallest 120 GB drives way big enough for most people. Drives up to 320 GB work with most PCs. Only nerds that store lots of MP3 files and pictures need drives that are 1 TB or more.

    6.Floppy disks are gone and multimedia flash memory is becoming the vogue. I have a flash drive that stores 2GB and fits in my pocket. PCs that read a variety of memory types are good for digital photography.

    7.Other frills are Bluetooth wireless links to Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Laptop PCs, Video cards that turn your PC into a TV, and fancy multifunction printers and more.

With so much to choose, what should you buy? For most of us the cheapest of Windows XP PCs works just fine. Make sure that it comes with full and not trial versions of software. This means you spend from $700 to $1,000 for the PC because the cheaper PCs come with 60 day trail versions of software and lots of advertising software. Getting full software versions is cheaper when the PC is purchased rather than getting them later.. You only need the top end PC if you must have nerd bragging rights or are a young PC user that loves games.

Sorry about the technical jargon in this column. However, you can just clip this column out and match the technical terms to those on the PC box. That and the price should help you make the right selection.


Link to "Upgrading or Buying a New Christmas PC"

P. D. Moulton and Dial A Nerd, a local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) PC repair, computer repair, laptop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server computer support, and virus & spyware removal. Dial-A-Nerd repairs PC (s), computers, networks, removes viruses & spyware and upgrades slow computers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. DialANerd provides immediate remote access as well as fixed price computer repair, network repair, virus & spyware removal services at its local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) repair shop. Repair completion is typically 24-hours to 48-hours. Dial A Nerd recovers hard disk data and saves your data. Each hard disk is tested for errors for free. Dial A Nerd makes a fixed disk image, recovers and saves your data for about a 90% of the desktop computer, laptop computer, and netbook PC (s) serviced. Dial A Nerd, a local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) repair business provides fast PC repair, computer repair, desktop computer repair, laptop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server support, and virus & spyware removal services with a warranty. Dial A Nerd works on many PCs including Sony computers, Gateway computers, Hewlett Packard computers, Compaq computers, Toshiba computers, Emachines computers, Clone PCs, and Dell computers in the local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD). The Dial A Nerd mission is delivering the best quality, affordable cost effective PC repair, computer repair, laptop computer repair, desktop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server support, virus & spyware removal, home PC repair, printer configuration, PC - desktop computer - laptop computer - netbook computer performance optimization & speed up service. Homes and small businesses with limited IT service and IT support budgets in the local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) hire Dial A Nerd.


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DialANerd
7146 Rivers Edge Road Columbia, MD 21044 US
Phone: 410-531-5890 Website: dialanerd.com