Manual – Tips and advices when buying a computer howtobuyacomputer.

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Web manual
Buying a computer
_____________

Tips and advices

to a buy which you
and your wallet
wont regret.

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Manual – Tips and advices when buying a computer howtobuyacomputer.com

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 Motherboad, procesor, memory, hard drive, CD-ROM
drive, video card, case, sound card

LAPTOP
o Motherboad, procesor, 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?

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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
deciede on the new buy? Which characteristics are important? And also
very important: how much money will it take to satisfy my needs.

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

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

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

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For what will computer be used?

A lot of users do not know alot 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 ourself 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 price are proportionally.

If it will be used for playing games, graphical forming, making of videos, or other
things that need alot 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 expensier components) is not so important. Also other
components do not need to be so “good”. At your wish you must deciede 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 deciede 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 expensier computer, so it is still good
after a year or two. Why good? So programs and other tasks are performed
withouth 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 to really think about what you really need.

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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 succesful, so there is no
way that someone can say one is better than the other. It is you choise 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

Procesor 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
Motherboard manages that all the components are connected together and
working properly.

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When buying one, chosing the “right” one is not very important because
they all work in the similar way. But if we are
assembeling computer ourself, than this component
becomes very important because on it grows the
whole system. All motherboards are similar and if we
dont plan any upgrades the price of the motherboard
is not very important.
__________________________________________

In case that you will be building your own system you

must take a look which features does the motherboad
have. It must support your type of memory, video
card, processor and other components.

- 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 seeling
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 can make 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:

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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 serius work to do on computer or play games which take a
lot 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 533 MHz or PC2-4200
DDR2 667 MHz or PC2-5300/PC2-5400
DDR3 800 MHz or PC3-6400
DDR2 800 MHz or PC2-6400
DDR3 1066 MHz or PC3-8500
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 wouldnt fill
up enough fast. Memory can be upgraded very easily so do not bother buying too
much or too expensive.

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- 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 more
easy to install, and has less cables.

- Optical drives (CD/DVD)

Todays best buy is a multiformat 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. In case
you dont 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
dont use the burner all the time than dont mind taking a bit slower writer.

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- Video card
The video card market is changing very rapidly. Things to consider include
performance, the amount of memory on the card, output connectors and the
version of Direct X supported. Those looking to do any gaming should really
consider a Direct X 10 card with at least 256MB of
memory onboard.
_________________________________________

If you are a graphic designer, or sirious game player

than you need a good video card with at least of
512 MB of memory. Also if you are watching movies
on a very bit monitor bigger than 30’’ than you
should look after a higher budget video cards.
For the gamers there is a lot to invest when buying a
computer but video card is probably the most
important. If you dont have enough RAM you can’t see all the features that game
provides or even you can’t see all the frames and the game becomes hard to
play and sloppy.

eVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB

MSI GeForce 8800 GT 512M OC
eVGA e-GeForce 9800 GX2
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870
eVGA GeForce GTX 260 FTW

- Cases
You may choose from many shapes and colours 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 resoults and more sufficient
frequencies from CPU than you should look after
a case which provides some cooling and a good
ventilation.

- Sound card

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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.

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 withouth 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.

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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 expensier.

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 dependened from the

picture, colourful 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 expensier and better printer.

Monitor
Best buy nowdays 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.

When choosing the right monitor you must

consider some specifications:
Contrast ratio: it means that the monitor will
have depper black and brither white colour.

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Viewing angles: LCD monitors poduces a small shade, which can be seen if we
look it from a differend angles, so if you are not looking straight into a monitor this
is a thing to consider.
Response time: for serious gamers this is esential, a few miliseconds can make a
difference

Also consider the connectors: look what kind of connector you have on your
graphic card. HMDI and Display port are quite common nowdays.

Choosing the size is your choise. Bigger it is, more expensive it is. For film
enthusiasts we recommend at least 30’’.

Here are some standart 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

Keyboard
Find out what you want on you keyboard? Mybe some extra buttons or shortcuts
or even a mini LCD monitor. Today we
can find also a different kind of
keyboards: ergonomical, 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
dont really need.

Also watch out that your keyboard is

compatitable with your system trough
USB or other connectors.

Mouse

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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 choise.

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 expensier.

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

Software
When buying computer you definitly need some software to run it. You need an
operation system. Vista from Microsoft is a good choise but it is also expensive.
Mybe you should try Linux which is free to use, but you should know alot about
computers because it is a bit different.
Beside the operating system we need also programs for music, video, text
writers etc. Today there are 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 favourite 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.

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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 guarantie). Take your time and dont 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 guarantie? Sure, in case if you dont know alot about computers.

For any informations regardin this manual please contact us at:

howtobuycomputer@gmail.com

This manual should not be copied withouth the premission of our team, for that
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Please see our offer on http://howtobuycomputer.net and our forum

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Thank you for reading,

Yours sincerely

Team of howtobuycomputer.net

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