How to Buy Computer Manual - Buying computer hardware - Mac, laptop, Motherboard, processor, memory,

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How to buy a
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Tips and advises
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Buying hardware, computer, laptop tips and advices – howtobuycomputer.net 1


Content

INTRO

FOR WHAT WILL COMPUTER BE USED
o For what will it be used?
o Do i need desktop or laptop?
o How much money will i spend on new buy?
o Mac or PC?

COMPUTER AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS
o Motherboard, processor, memory, hard drive, CD-ROM
drive, video card, case, sound card

LAPTOP
o Motherboard, processor, memory, hard drive, CD-ROM
drive, video card, case, sound card

OTHER COMPONENTS AND HARDWARE
o Printer, speakers, mouse, keyboard, monitor

CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE

BUYING: WHERE, HOW?



INTRO
Nowdays we can find computer in almost every home.
Computer technology is developing very rapidly and it makes quite a difficult
decision when buying one.

Almost all readers of this manual have probably met with problems as: How to
decide on the new buy? Which characteristics are important? And also
very important: how much money will it take to satisfy my needs.

A lot of questions which are difficult to answer and for a normal person not quite
important. So we let our friends to decide on our buy, which is not always the
best choice.

In this manual we will provide you with some of the best information, which
will hopefully help you to your best buy.

We’ve helped thousands, now it is Your turn.



For what will computer be used?

A lots of users do not know a lot about hardware characteristics. But
when buying one, that is the most important thing to know. To know how
good and fast computer we really need we first have to ask ourselve a few
questions:

1. For what it will be used?
Will we use it for office work, listening to music, watching movies, playing games
or just for surfing on the web.

Computer characteristics, its quality and the prices are proportionally.
If it will be used for playing games, graphical forming, making of videos, or other
things that need a lot of memory and a good video card, than we have to look
after better and more expensive computer.
In other cases mentioned above, for example quality of the video card
(which is one of expensive components) is not so important. Also other
components do not need to be so “good”. At your wish you must decide only for
the hard drive, which is important if you want a lot of space.

2. Do i need a laptop or a desktop?
Desktops are less expensive, while
laptops are more expensive due to size.

Desktops are computers which we
use on our desktops and are not mobile.
Laptops are quite the opposite, we can
use them where ever we want, because
they are light weight and can be carried
around.
Before we decide what we need we have
to look also from financial perspective.
Laptops are twice as expensive as desktops, which is very important.
Try to figure it out what you really need.

3. How much money will we need for computer?
Nowdays computers are getting cheaper and cheaper, but they are still worth a
lot of sweat in the office to afford one, so we need to think it through very
carefully.

Often it is better to buy a bit better and a bit expensive computer, so it is still
good after a year or two. Why good? So programs and other tasks are performed
without crashing or that your work is not slowed down by slow working system.

Technology is developing very fast, so what you buy today is tomorrow “old”. So
you have really to think about what you really need.



But when buying a better computer you may get enthusiasm for new
things like graphic designing etc.

Mac or PC?
There will always be two sides of people who will claim that Mac or PC is better.
Apple Macintosh or Personal Computer are two different companies, which
both developed a very good system. They are both very successful, so there is
no way that someone can say one is better than the other. It is you choice wether
to use Mac or PC.

COMPUTER AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS
While reading catalogs or choosing computer in a store, and when talking with
someone who knows a lot about computers, we can notice a lot of different
words which are common in computer language.

Let’s take an example which we can find in magazines, television and internet:

Desktop computer:

Motherboard Asus P5KC
Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2,50 GHz, 6MB
Memory 2GB DDR3 1333 MHz
Hard drive 750GB, 7200rpm, SATA2, 32Mb
DVD-recordable drive 20x/DVDRW+/-, DUAL, SATA
Video card GeForce EN9600GT 512MB DDR3
Case Chieftec BH-01B-B-SL, 550W Low noise
Sound card

- Motherboard



Just as any mother is the best to nourish and knows how to take the complete
care of her baby; in a computer device the motherboard plays the just right role
of supplying the necessary components for the perfect functioning of the system.

Since motherboard is the most important circuit board of any computer you need
to know how to find out the best motherboard for your system.

Some good motherboards

When you are going to buy the best motherboard
for your system price is very vital.

You can choose either the board with great
graphics or you can prefer concrete functioning
rather than graphics quality. When the priority is
the great performance of the motherboard with
satisfactory graphics, the Asus motherboard of the
‘M2A-VM’ is good also available at the affordable
price of seventy dollars.
With this you have the opportunity of using the good quality AMD processor
though not the most recent AM2+. From this board you can get the six aboard
channel audio, DDR2-800 till 8GB, ten USB ports, and incorporated ATI Radeon
can give consent to twin monitors. For AMD motherboards, Asus won’t
dishearten you as they always keep the promise of the best performance for the
high quality graphics card; memory as well as CPU is fast.

And for such good performance you can get ‘Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe’. The
220 dollars priced board has compact features of double PCI-E slots, six PCI-E
x1 ports, ten USB ports, DDR2-1066 of up to 8 gigabytes, HD audio and many
more. When you are looking for motherboards for some lesser price around 180
dollars ‘Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5’ is also wonderful. The features found are
six USB ports, two PCI-E slots, DDR2 1066 of up to sixteen gigabytes, six USB
ports, and also six SATA ports.
For the best motherboard the ‘Asus Maximus Extreme’ is a great choice when
you are willing to pay the high price for motherboard. The functioning of the
powerful CPUs from Intel is greatly supported by the motherboard from Asus.
It has the features of SLI, processors of Intel Extreme, six USB ports, 8GB of
DDR2-1333 and six connections for SATA. Other proficient motherboards are of
Gigabyte Model GA-G31M-S2L at 65 dollars or less, the Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6
for at 199 dollars, Biostar TForce TF7050-M2 available for 80 dollars and apart
from these you can easily find lots more varieties of motherboards when you are
searching for the motherboards on the internet.

What should you look for in your motherboard?



The main elements that make up the motherboard are the CPU or the processor,
the socket for the motherboard, bus speed, chipset, system memory, bus speed,
peripherals like printer, keyboard, mouse etc and you must get the motherboard
which is compatible for supporting all the components well. So selecting the best
motherboard can be a perplexing task. So it is better to get the proper ideas
about the different motherboards and read about the reviews which can be a
good guide for buying.

- Processor (CPU)
One of the most important components in our system provides us with speed for
managing all the processes. We need to choose between AMD and Intel
processor. These two companies are selling
the best processors on the market.
____________________________________

Typically it will say the brand, model and
speed of the processor in the spec sheet, but
the marketing information may only list its
speed rating. This makes it very difficult to
determine how good a machine is. They even
work different on the different computers.

If you look for processor which is cheap and old, but it will run the internet or your
Microsoft Office Word program then choose from these:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ and higher (Socket AM2)
AMD Phenom X3 8450 and higher
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 to E4700
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 and lower
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 and higher
Intel Pentium E5200
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2200 to E2220

If you look for middle processors with which your work will be fast and sufficient
choose between these:

AMD Phenom X4 9650 and higher
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 and higher
Intel Core 2 Duo E8100 to E8600
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 to Q6700
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 to Q9550



But if you have some serious work to do on computer or play games which take a
lots of processors speed then look for these:

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 and Higher
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650

- Memory (RAM)
Also a very important component, it sends the
message to the processor how to manage the
orders which we gave to computer.
_____________________________________

There is never enough RAM. How much you
need is relevant. If you play games which take
a lot of ram or other memory consuming
processes then you need a lot of it. Minimum
amount is 1GB, middle 2GB and the best is
from 4GB above.
The type is also important. DDR2 and now DDR3 are the most common
nowdays. Here are some RAM-s from slowest to fastest:

DDR2 400 MHz or PC2-3200
DDR2 667 MHz or PC2-5300/PC2-5400
DDR3 1333 MHz or PC3-10600/PC3-10666
DDR3 1600 MHz or PC3-12800

The speed also very important. Why would we need a big capacity if it wouldn’t
fill up enough fast. Memory can be upgraded very easily so do not bother buying
too much or too expensive.

- Hard drive



When choosing one there is only to look after speed and capacity. For normal
work you need at least 250GB of space and in terms of speed there are hard
drives running with 7200rpm and some with higher performance at 10000rpm.
Most use ATA or IDE connection with computer.
____________________________________

So what you want to get?

Word Processing: 160+ GB, 7200rpm
Web Surfing: 160+ GB, 7200rpm
Light Gaming: 250+ GB. 7200 rpm
Heavy Gaming: 360+ GB, 7200 rpm
Digital Music: 500+ GB, 7200 rpm
Graphics Editing: 500+ GB, 7200 rpm
Digital Video: 750+ GB, 7200 rpm

If you look from this perspective: common
mp3 song uses 5mb os space, common
video from 700mb to 1,5GB.
ATA and IDE are quite similar, their only difference is that the ATA drive is easier
to install, and has less cables.

- Optical drives (CD/DVD)
Todays best buy is a multi-format DVD burner
which supports +R/RW and –R/RW. Its speed
should be at least 16× and it should support
dual or double layer media writing. If you
don’t need DVD recorder than choose CD-
RW/DVD combo drive with at least 24×
speed.
____________________________________

The major difference between the drives is
how much space they can handle. CD has 700MB of space, DVD 4,7GB and
BlueRay the newest format will have a lot more space but is currently very
expensive. Here are also two ways of connection to the computer with SATA and
IDE connection. The only limit with writing DVD-s or CD-s is in speed, but if your
don’t use the burner all the time than don’t mind taking a bit slower writer.

- Video card



The computer needs addition of value for enhanced performance so that
accomplishment of our task becomes much faster. Upgrading the RAM is not a
difficult task and this does not quite require any professional help. Upgrading the
computer memory is easy especially with most of the primary memory used
these days being DDR or DDR2, though there are other options available too. If
you learn how to install DDR or DDR2 modes then it is helpful in learning
upgrading the RAM and it is cost effective also. Also both the processes give a
better idea about the internal part of the computer. You can have more than 2048
MB of memory which is quite common nowadays.

Buying the new RAM

You can use the tools of antistatic wrist strap;
screwdriver of Large Phillips and with some medium
standard of expertise you can easily complete the
task within one hour.

If you already know the configuration of your
computer then you shall know how much RAM is
present in your system. Otherwise you can know it
whiles the machine starts up as it will appear at the
screen or even from the BIOS. While you are
purchasing the new RAM best quality and
compatibility, both are the important factors for your system and you can learn
about those through some simple research from the internet.

RAM slot and installation

After you are ready with the new RAM now you will have to install it to your
motherboard. You will have to cut off any electric connections to the system.
Locating the RAM slot on the motherboard is easy. It is always advisable to study
your motherboard manual provided by the manufacturer as it will be the best
guide to locate the slot.
Usually you can put the new RAM in the empty module but if the slots are
occupied you will have to remove the old. You will see that the slots have clips on
both the ends which lock the RAM. Such clips for locking include an aperture
which is known as groove. You shall slide the RAM unit amid the groove and the
memory shall be laid in the opening. But the lock clips will still remain open.
Actually till now the RAM is just positioned at the entrance and for the full
insertion you will have to tactfully apply some uniform force with the fingers at
both sides. The process of installation will be complete when you will not be able
to see the gold colored connectors at the bottom of the memory unit and the
catch clip will close by the side of the unit ends.

Concluding steps



Now without putting the cabinet back start the computer to see whether the new
added amount of memory is being displayed. If any error is found like
unrecognizing of the new RAM or locking of the system then again disconnect to
recheck the steps for installation of the memory. Start again the machine to see
the results. If the problem persist you must call for some professional support.

- Cases
You may choose from many shapes and colors of cases nowdays. You should
buy one which can help you get some modern look to your room.
_______________________________________

In case that you will use overclocking for
getting better results and more sufficient
frequencies from CPU than you should look after
a case which provides some cooling and a good
ventilation.

- Sound card
There is a sound card mounted on your
motherboards but if you are looking for a better quality of sound or even record
sounds you should buy a better sound card.
_________________________________________

If you want a nice sound from Dolby surround
system with 5.1 system of speakers than you should
look for a better sound card. Choose one with 6
entrances.

- Laptop

Laptop computers are basically an alternative to desktop computers. They have
larger screens, are more powerful, have faster processors and are portable. The
best thing about any laptop is this portability element. You can carry it anywhere;



it is just like a walking desktop computer. Smaller versions of laptops are the
notebooks and they are easier to carry around. Today there are many laptops
available in the market and you will have to be precise in exactly what you want.
If you can do without the newest cutting edge techies then do away with them.
They are an added jargon if you are not going to use them. But one thing that
you need to keep in mind is that you will not have a choice of getting the parts
you want. Unlike a desktop computer, laptops are compact and have only those
things which the manufacturer is willing to supply you. Therefore it is a rule that
when you buy a laptop, get one from a branded company. This will ensure that
the parts inside are not fake or of poor quality. Usually every brand has different
laptops depending on the combination of the processor speed and RAM. It is
best to select you processor size and then see which other options you want.
Intel processors are the best in this regard and you must get Intel for your laptop.
1.
Pricing for this will be around and above of twelve hundred dollars and be ready
to spend more. Moving on to the screen size, you will have to choose that for
yourselve. It depends on how much strain your eyes can take; anything lower
than a fifteen inch screen is not recommended. Get a 1GB memory as it will be
the best to run everything from Windows Vista to Windows XP. You can go for a
RAM of lower size but your laptop will become incredibly slow and these basics
will help make it work faster. The hard drive is another issue that you should look
at. If your work requires you to store a lot of data then a big hard drive is a
necessity.
However, if your work is mostly internet based with not much physical storing of
data involved then a lower hard disk will be fine. But make sure that it is a
minimum of 40GB to start with. Other than this DVD’s will do all the other
storage.
2.
Another must have is a DVD writer. Your work may not involve writing much stuff
but you might require writing at some point and then not having a writer will cost
you much pain. So get a writer, even if additional cost is involved, and say thanks
to you. Other accessories like a Bluetooth port or a wireless port is worth having.
If you need them for your work then get them otherwise keep them, you can use
them at any time. But, your laptop will surely cost a minimum of thousand dollars
if you want a decent one. Laptops are available for six hundred dollars also but
they will not be so great and so efficient. However it is entirely dependant on the
type of work you are going to do in it. So, keeping these considerations in mind
get the laptop which suits your work and purpose.

Special things at laptops

Laptops have the same components as desktop computers, we only need to look
after some components:



- Battery
If you go on the road where is no electricity
you need a good battery so that your laptop
will work without it.

- Modem, PC-CARD, web card

You need at least one of this components so
your computer can be connected to the internet.

- Weight
If you are planning to carry your laptop around in
a backpack you should look after the weight of
the laptop.

OTHER COMPONENTS AND HARDWARE

Printer
We divide printers in two ways of working:
Ink Jet is often used at home because it represents a cheaper way to print.
Laser printer is used at companies because it is faster and it manages to get
better quality, but it is also a lot expensive.

Resolution is mesaured in dots
per inch. So the quality of the
colour pictures will depend on
the printers resolution, so it is
very important that if you are
buying one that it produces
4800×1200DPI for size A4.



Speed is dependent from the picture, colorful pictures are printed slower than
black and white text. Also Laser printers are a lot faster.

You need to think about the frequency of use. Because the less expensive
printers use a less expensive ink. So think carefuly. If you print 100+ pages per
month you should consider a expensive and better printer.

Monitor
LCD buying guide,
As you decide about getting some brand new computer set or even when you
are trying to change your old computer set think on the subject of latest LCD
monitors as they are of great advantage. Also the LCD screens look much more
sleek and gorgeous than the desktop screens. It is true that deciding is easier
task than carrying out the decision.

Best buy now days is a LCD monitor. Prices are
lowering, magnetic radiation is lower, its size is
smaller than the older CRT monitors, it uses less
energy and it is better for your eyes etc. A lot of
reasons why to buy LCD.
You have to think about the price, brand, quality
and many other relevant points. There are
different kinds of LCD monitors and each is
different from one another giving separate
performances.

You have to consider the different aspects like the
specifications which will help you in the nature of
your work like viewing movies, playing computer
games, doing project works etc. Since you are
going to pay your hard earned money you need to assess all the considerable
aspects before investing on the machine. You must study the reviews of the
available brands before actually buying them. This will give you an idea of the
product and its positive and negative sides.
When choosing the wright monitor you must consider some specifications:

The monitor of the computer is a very essential part and the type of your work is
a major deciding factor for buying the LCD monitor for your computer.

For professional people doing graphical art works, Photoshop works or the
photographers the specifications needed is quite high for getting a better work
quality. They will require widescreen at the screen size of twenty inches coming
with the display resolution of minimum 1600×1200, the higher the better and the



connectivity is DVI. If you are buying for normal usage you can buy the LCD
screen which is sized between seventeen to twenty inches; has VGA/ DVI
connectivity; 1280×1024 of natural resolution; 8ms of reaction time; and the ratio
for contrast is 450:1to 500:1. On the other hand when you are thinking of buying
the device for great gaming and watching movies you will have to get some
higher specifications like the presence of widescreen otherwise the movies will
be shown with portions cut off; the screen having DVI connectivity must be as a
minimum of nineteen inches with a high resolution or at least 1600×1200 or
minimum 1280×1024 and the time for response at lesser than 8ms.

In short words:
1. Contrast ratio:
It means that the monitor will have deeper black and white color.

2. Viewing angles:
LCD monitors produces a small shade, which can be seen if we look it from a
different angles, so if you are not looking straight into a monitor this is a thing to
consider.

3. Response time:
For serious gamers this is essential, a few milliseconds can make a difference
when playing an online game.
Also consider the connectors: look what kind of connector you have on your
graphic card. HMDI and Display port are quite common now days.

4. Aspect ratio:
The standard wide and height is measured in inchs. Aspect ratio is ratio of how
the picture is displayed. Standard proportion is 4:3 but newer HD movies are
filmed in 16:9 ratio.

5. Luminance:
Measuring the brightness of the monitor is important also, measure of 200-250 or
ever more is consider to be a good buy.

6. Resolution:
Resolution tells us how many pixels can be displayed at once. The bigger the
resolution is better the details of the picture will be.

Choosing the size is your choice. Bigger it is, more expensive it is. For film
enthusiasts we recommend at least 30'' for maximum comfort when watching
movies.
Here are some standard sizes with resolution:

14-15": 1024x768 (XGA)
17-19": 1280x1024 (SXGA)



20"+: 1600x1200 (UXGA)
17" (Widescreen): 1280x800 (WXGA)
19" (Widescreen): 1440x900 (WXGA+)
20" (Widescreen): 1680x1050 (WSXGA+)
24" (Widescreen): 1920x1200 (WUXGA)
30" (Widescreen): 2560x1600

Where should you buy it? There are many online stores which provide you save
purchase and quick delivery. Not only that you don't need to go to the store to
buy it but there are a lot cheaper offers on the internet.

Best companies that sells LCD monitors are: Samsung, HP, Acer...

Profound idea of the specifications

If you can’t understand why the specifications are necessary you can read
further. The screen sizes mentioned are important as if your screen has a big
size then you can get an enhanced view of either the movies or games or the
web pages along which the resolution of the screen is related. The widescreen
will not cut the pictures from borders. The native resolution will allow you a
natural quality and detailed picture. The connectivity provides connections to
other parts of the computer. DVI connectivity is better for the latest machines.
The brighter the computer it becomes visually better. The normal use requires
more than 200 cd/m2. Response time is for the refreshing time required by the
monitor that should not be high and the contrast ratio tells about the variation in
range among darkest and brightest.

Keyboard
Find out what you want on you keyboard? Maybe some extra buttons or
shortcuts or even a mini LCD monitor.
Today we can find also a different kind
of keyboards: ergonomic, they are
suppose to be better for our hands, try
one in your nearest computer store.

Price often shows the quality of the
component. But do not buy what you
don’t really need.

Also watch out that your keyboard is
compatitable with your system trough
USB or other connectors.



Mouse
Buy an optical or laser mice. For those who are in fore
some serious gaming i would suggest a laser mice, for
others optical because it is less expensive but enough good
that you wont see the difference

Compare prices, and the number of buttons is your choice.

Speakers
Speakers will provide you with quality sound so it is smart to test some before
you buy them.
Choose what you need. High quality movie sounds can be
much more fun with 5.1 sound system, others should look
for 2.1 systems which are less expensive.

You should decide how much power and quality you really
need.

Software
When buying computer you definitely need some software to run it. You need an
operation system. Vista from Microsoft is a good choice but it is also expensive.
Maybe you should try Linux which is free to use, but you should know a lot about
computers because it is a bit different.
Beside the operating system we need also programs for music, video, text
writers etc. Today there is a lot of free programs on the internet so this expense
can be avoided.
They are named: open source programs.
You can find them on your favorite web search page www.google.com
For instance: an expensive program Microsoft Office has an open source
program which is very similar to it: Open Office.

Buying: where? How?
Now we know what we want to have and how much money will we spend for the
new system.



Now it is time to choose between web providers which are selling the system
which we want.
Here is a very good advice: LOOK THE COMPETITION.

Internet is a very good tool to compare prices in different stores with just
a few clicks. Choose the one which has the best price and the best terms of
buying (post price and guarantee). Take your time and don’t rush.
Buy in web stores which have reputation and read forums for and
troubles that other users may have.
But you can also go to your nearest computer store but there you wont
have such good control over the competition.

Should i buy guarantee? Sure, in case if you don’t know a lot about computers.

For any information regarding this manual please contact us at:
howtobuycomputer@gmail.com

This manual should not be copied without the permission of our team, for that
matter please contact us.

Please see our offer on http://howtobuycomputer.net and our forum
http://howtobuycomputer.phpbb3now.com/ for further assistance.

Thank you for reading,

Yours sincerely

Team of howtobuycomputer.net


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