May 10, 2008 at 5:44 am · Filed under Geeky Stuff
It’s happened to all of us, I’m sure. You are surfing the net and maybe listening to music when all of a sudden…you click the close button on the upper right corner and it freezes. Then you don’t know if you should wait until it’s done or bash the monitor with the keyboard. Eventually, you get fed up and hit “ctrl+alt+delete” only to get an error. Okay! That’s it! I’m turning it off!
Amazing what cheap parts can do, isn’t it? It can give you an ulcer…that’s for sure. So what’s should you do? Follow the path to find your way to computer bliss.
Rule #1: Never, ever buy the best parts. They charge you way too much for a small performance boost. Instead, use that saved money for something computers always need…accessories like a printer, webcam, or external memory.
Rule #2: Know your needs. Getting parts that are way more than you’ll ever need isn’t smart. It’s a bad investment and getting parts that are not nearly as good as you need them to be is an even worse investment!
If you need an office computer, basic components are all you will need. I would recommend a Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of RAM, and Windows XP: Office. That is a solid foundation that will take care of all your needs.
If you need a multimedia computer, I would get the next step up. Getting a Pentium 4 with hyperthreading, two 512MB RAM sticks, and a multimedia management program would be ideal. Hyperthreading is great for a lot of programs used at once which always happens with music, movies, and pictures so it’s definitely something to think about.
If you want a gaming computer, then you should get the third down from “top-of-the-line”. Try a Athlon 64 3000+ or 4000+, three to four 512MB RAM sticks, and a GeForce 7800 GTX. That guarentees no errors, no crashes, and awesome performance as well as giving you the most value for your money!
For a more thorough explaination, take a look at http://www.gaming-computers-authority.com/Discount-Computer-Parts.html
Rule #3: See through the lies and make an investment you’ll be happy with. The $500 computers from Dell or Gateway are a great value, BUT they skimp on things that multimedia and gaming computers need… the RAM, Video card, Sound Card, and even the motherboard! I’d only recommend computers below $700 if they are for office computers.
Again, let me remind you that buying computer parts doesn’t have to be a pain. It’s just common sense if you follow the three rules. One…don’t buy the absolute best parts, two…don’t buy parts you don’t need, and three…make an investment you will be happy with. Now, if you want more advice and recommendations, check out the website on the bottom of this article.
Jared Strop is a avid gamer who is busy working at GameStop and webmaster of a computer gamer’s haven called http://www.gaming-computers-authority.com that has recommendations and advice about specific computer parts as well as overall buying tips.
April 11, 2008 at 9:48 pm · Filed under Geeky Stuff
How much memory should you have in your personal computer? How much is enough? How much is too much? How much is too little?
These are not easy questions to answer. The truth is, memory requirements to run basic programs over the last 20 years have gone up exponentially.
Back in the early stone ages of PCs your basic computer came with 64K of RAM. This was just about enough to run a simple basic program. To run any kind of a program that did anything useful, and there were very few of those, you had to upgrade to at least 128K and if possible 256K. Back then, circa 1984, this was a lot of memory and came with a hefty price tag of about $1 for each K of memory. So a 256K upgrade cost you about $256. Some places would give you a discount and you could walk away with your beefed up computer for about $250 in upgrade costs. And still, there was very little you could do with the darn thing.
The years went by and programs started getting developed that actually did something. Simple spreadsheet programs like Lotus for example. To run these you needed a minimum of 256K of RAM. Eventually with upgrades to the programs themselves the bottom figure for RAM rose to about 512K. This would run you a top of the line program for that time. This was roughly around 1988.
Then the 1990’s hit and things started to take off. Video games for PC’s started becoming very popular. Business software was actually becoming useful. Programs were getting bigger and so were memory requirements. Programs now required memory in the megabytes instead of kilobytes. The early Dungeons and Dragons video games, which were some of the most popular of the time, required between 4 and 16 meg of RAM to run depending on the game itself. The biggest programs of the day, which really started to become extremely useful would require 16 to 32 meg to run. Now we were seeing some big numbers.
But memory was still not cheap, though it was a lot less expensive than in the 80’s. Instead of paying $1 per kilobyte of memory you were paying about $5 for a megabyte of memory. So 32 meg would only cost you about $160 which wasn’t too bad.
But computer enhancements started taking off like wildfire. Every year memory requirements would skyrocket. By the late 1990’s it would take about 256 meg of RAM to run high end networking operations. Many computers would need 64 meg just to load the operating system itself. Memory requirements were out of control. The good news is that prices of memory dropped like lead weights. Today you can get 512 meg of DRAM for about $30. No, that’s not a misprint. Memory costs have come down so much that they are almost inconsequential. However, memory requirements are still going through the roof. A typical home PC better have at least 256 meg of RAM if it wants to just be able to crawl through start up, running your Internet connection and a few applications at the same time. Having more than 8 windows open on an XP system with less than 256 meg is suicide.
So to answer the question, how much is enough. It’s never enough and it won’t ever be enough. Software enhancements will continue to send PC memory requirements into orbit. So the best advice anyone can give you is to get as much memory as the PC will physically hold when you get it.
If you’re lucky, it will be good enough for a year.
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Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Computer Memory
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