1 post tagged “computer hardware”

Brand choice
HPs can be very nice machines. So can a Dell, or even Gateway for that matter. The trick with any of the major brands is to avoid the lowest tier systems. These system are designed to compete on price, and price alone. Sometimes cuts will be made that shouldn't be made to make it possible to sell the system for less. As long as you go at least a notch or two above the basic level, any of the major brands should be okay. You'll pay a little more, but it's well worth it.  If you can manage it, try to buy from the vendor's small business line.  These machines are often put together much better.

Operating System
At this point, I don't yet recommend Windows Vista.  The set of things Vista will do that XP won't is not very large, and there are too many quirks.  XP has the benefit of years of incremental improvements to stability and security that Vista just can't match right out of the gate.  Additionally, I've seen a few reports that development of Vista's successor is going much more smoothly than it did for Vista, and we may see it out as early as next year.  In light of that, Vista may never get much traction.  And since you're going to run XP, make sure to avoid the 64-bit edition.  It will cost a little extra, but get the Pro version if you can afford it.  Again- make sure to compare apples to apples.  You need to account for it when comparing quotes if one system costs a little more but includes XP Pro instead of XP Home.

Memory
It's beginning to look like 4GB is where we really want to be.  Unfortunately, as it stands the OS can't use much more than 3GB, especially if you get a decent video card. This means there's not a lot of point to buying the whole 4GB right away. For now get no more than 2GB. This is the easiest thing in the world to upgrade later if you need it, and by the time you need the upgrade it won't cost as much any more. Also, 64-bit support will have improved by the time you upgrade-- perhaps enough to allow you to take full advantage of it. Microsoft is actually pushing 64-bit pretty hard.  All of their big server products require it now. I wouldn't be surprised to see the next version of Windows only come in a 64-bit version.  But since right now you're still running 32-bit, just get 2GB.

Software
Most of the software included with a new computer is just fluff. But if one machine comes with MS Office and the other doesn't, that could explain $150 price difference (maybe not justify, but at least explain). If you're a student or casual home user, Open Office is probably enough for now. The only thing I really make sure to use MS Office for is my resume. When it comes time to send that out, I want to be sure that my resume looks right to potential employers and that Open Office doesn't give it some rendering inconsistency that I'm not seeing. The point here, though, is to make sure you're comparing apples to apples.  If one quote includes some expensive software that you'll need, make sure the others do as well, or that you at least account for the difference.

Warranty
The warranty is a similar issue. I don't recommend an extended warranty for desktop computers. It's too easy to do hardware work yourself (or get a friend to do it). I just can't justify the expense for anything beyond one year. However, if you're buying a laptop you'll want to take this into account. If one laptop costs $250 more but has a three year warranty instead of just one, that's probably worth it. My wife's laptop had a motherboard fail after 15 months. Our cost to get it fixed: nothing. We had paid $368 to get a four year warranty, and with the one event the expense was justified.