How to Buy a Computer (Part 3)
I've been thinking about buying a new computer for the house, see Part 1 of this article. (Note: I actually bought a computer this weekend, and these are the results of my thought process in deciding what to buy.)
On to gas tank size, er, hard drive size. I am of two minds here, the conventional wisdom is to buy a hard drive that will be big enough to last for years, but they are pretty easy to add, and they keep getting cheaper and cheaper, so I think I'll get the standard size (the minimum I'll need in the short term), and then upgrade down the road. I think the same would apply to system memory, it's going to get a lot cheaper if I wait. I ultimately chose to upgrade from the 80 GB data-safe hard drive to the conventional 250 GB hard drive for $1, I thought that was a no-brainer. I already have a 120GB hard drive that I installed in my old computer, I'll just slap that into the new one to transfer all my files and add additional capacity. Since I back up the computer regularly, and I've never lost a hard drive, I think that's the best deal for me. I upgraded the RAM to 1 GB from 500 MB for another $50.
I decided that I didn't need a floppy drive, and a single combo CD-RW DVD-ROM drive was enough. I may need a DVD burner down the road, but they weren't cheap yet, the formats are still being argued about, and I can always add that. I did buy the 13 in 1 card reader, I have one in my HP Compaq laptop, and it is great for my digital camera, I just pull the memory card out of the camera and stick it right into the computer. Easiest solution yet for transferring digital photographs.
I added a TV tuner, it was a pretty expensive option (at $150 discount if you leave it out it is more than the 19" LCD monitor). But I've started to get interested in video, and I bought a super-nice 20" wide-screen LCD monitor a couple of months ago, I think it would be cool to be able to watch and capture TV on the computer. I didn't delete the monitor option either, when I was at El Paso I had a dual monitor setup and it is extremely productive, although now probably one will have the TV running full time. I also went ahead and included the standard modem, just in case I need to send or receive a fax. And I ordered the basic wired mouse and keyboard, the wireless just doesn't do anything for me unless you are working on a laptop.
On to software. More decisions next time.
On to gas tank size, er, hard drive size. I am of two minds here, the conventional wisdom is to buy a hard drive that will be big enough to last for years, but they are pretty easy to add, and they keep getting cheaper and cheaper, so I think I'll get the standard size (the minimum I'll need in the short term), and then upgrade down the road. I think the same would apply to system memory, it's going to get a lot cheaper if I wait. I ultimately chose to upgrade from the 80 GB data-safe hard drive to the conventional 250 GB hard drive for $1, I thought that was a no-brainer. I already have a 120GB hard drive that I installed in my old computer, I'll just slap that into the new one to transfer all my files and add additional capacity. Since I back up the computer regularly, and I've never lost a hard drive, I think that's the best deal for me. I upgraded the RAM to 1 GB from 500 MB for another $50.
I decided that I didn't need a floppy drive, and a single combo CD-RW DVD-ROM drive was enough. I may need a DVD burner down the road, but they weren't cheap yet, the formats are still being argued about, and I can always add that. I did buy the 13 in 1 card reader, I have one in my HP Compaq laptop, and it is great for my digital camera, I just pull the memory card out of the camera and stick it right into the computer. Easiest solution yet for transferring digital photographs.
I added a TV tuner, it was a pretty expensive option (at $150 discount if you leave it out it is more than the 19" LCD monitor). But I've started to get interested in video, and I bought a super-nice 20" wide-screen LCD monitor a couple of months ago, I think it would be cool to be able to watch and capture TV on the computer. I didn't delete the monitor option either, when I was at El Paso I had a dual monitor setup and it is extremely productive, although now probably one will have the TV running full time. I also went ahead and included the standard modem, just in case I need to send or receive a fax. And I ordered the basic wired mouse and keyboard, the wireless just doesn't do anything for me unless you are working on a laptop.
On to software. More decisions next time.
Labels: Blog
posted by drewc4 at
10:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home