Step 1: Know what you want before you get it.
Sit down with a piece of paper and a pen and figure out exactly what you want to use your computer for. When you finally decide, don’t go too cheap. My favorite example of this is my younger brother. He had a really nice top of the line pentium III a few years ago. He builds his boxes himself and used to sell them to make some extra money. A good friend of his comes over and sees how well games run on his box and wants my brother to build one for him. The friend knew exactly what he was looking for in a computer. However, his mantra was “Save Money”. My brother tried to use some common sense on the guy but it was all to no avail. “Save Money” won out. So my brother builds the box and built him a pretty nice one too. A month later his friend came back and complained that his box wasn’t as good as my brothers and somehow he had been ripped off. My brother reminded him that he needed to “Save Money!”.
If you want a gaming rig you need to invest more than the normal guy does. If you are not a gamer and as long as you are not into heavy graphics work on your home computer, you don’t need the fastest CPU or video card on the market. If you run a small home office and your idea of gaming quality is Hoyle Card games, you can survive just fine on a Pentium 200. Fast computers were made specifically for gamers (consumer side). Who cares whether Word opens up at 1.4 seconds or 1.4 minutes? It works just as well either way.
Step 2: Proprietory or Non-Proprietory? That is the question.
I prefer to build my own rig. Not only do I know what I’ve got, I can upgrade anytime I wish and know the rig inside and out. But., if you know exactly what you want and you want to go on the cheaper side, then find a company that puts out quality hardware. Dell is pretty good. You may like someone else. The only thing you need to remember is that if you are buying with the idea of upgrading later, than go non-proprietory. The other way is not worth the headache. Or heartache for that matter. Proprietory computers are not easy to upgrade and at times can be expensive (and what about that restore disk?). If I were to go with a company rig I would buy exactly what I need at the time knowing that eventually I would buy another new one when my needs change. My recommendation is this: Never buy a proprietary computer with the idea of upgrading.
Step 3: Know your OS
Windows isn’t the only OS out there. It is the most popular, for good reason. But for you purists, there is Linux. Its kernal is derived from Unix and it has been in the international community for a long time. Its free to download if you know how to compile and I am told that it is very stable, more so than Windows typically. Also some companies have their own flavor of Linux that you can buy for around $30. Did I mention that its free? It is worthy to note that the EU wants to change it from open source so they can control it better in order to SELL it and make a profit. They also want it to be the official OS of the EU. They probably wouldn’t mind you buying it either. They wouldn’t mind being a monopoly. The downside to Linux is that there is not a lot of software written for it, as opposed to Windows. If it weren’t for Intel and IBM, Linux would have all but disappeared years ago.
There is also Macintosh. Mac always had superior graphics over the PC. In some cases Mac is also faster. The interface always reminded me of Win 3.1. The new Mac kernal is also based on Unix. Unfortunately, Mac is very proprietory. Try going to the store and looking for Mac parts. They are quite expensive too. They shot themselves in the foot long ago. They have the same software problem as Linux.
Theres GEM. According to their website the author wasn’t in when opportunity came calling and his wife had no idea what was going on. Bill Gates and Paul Allen were next on the list. Whoever said better late than never didn’t know what he was talking about! But you can download it for free. Isn’t free where its at?
As a side note there was also a company called BeOS. I went to their website. Their OS cost $60 and would run with a pentium II 350 as long as the video and sound card were made by Diamond. Last I heard they were suing Microsoft.
Theres Linspire (formally Lindows). I was intrigued when their advertisement which said they would run any software (especially gaming) that ran on Windows. When I went to their website I found that to be false. They also charge a premium for a yearly download fee if you need fixes. Microsoft is free. But for you MS haters this could be your new messiah. A Linux platform that is easy to load and does run some Windows software. Its also cheaper than Microsoft, $50. That is at least until you realize that you will be paying a yearly fee for all your critical downloads. $110. But hey, its NOT Microsoft!
Lastly, there’s Microsoft. I freely admit that I am a Microsoft fan. I run Win XP on my computer and Win 98 on my wife’s. I also have legal copies of every OS they put on the market. Are they perfect? Are you kidding? Look at Win ME. I call it “the search for more money”. Microsoft should apologize for that one. I bought it, installed it, it didn’t like many of my games, and I reformatted 60 days later. It was a hybrid whose registry was a cross between Win 98 and XP. I still have a copy in my collection, but I refuse to ever run it again. But I do like XP. I just wish it didn’t have so much bloatware in it. It loads up at one gig and it loads everything. Problem is that I don’t like EVERYTHING! Take MSN Explorer for example. It reminds me of something a thirteen year old valley girl would want to use. Or maybe Barbi and the Stardust collection. Either way I don’t like it. It cuts off about a quarter of your screen with items you really don’t need. You have a download manager you can’t disable. You know, its frustration central. I also don’t like MSN Messenger. To Microsoft’s credit I don’t like “anyone’s messenger”! These things are just more bloatware to me. I called Microsoft and complained. I was told that generally everyone likes Windows that way, the general population wants everything to load up. Did you know that you can’t uninstall MSN Messenger if you use MSN as your ISP? If you do, you can’t log on to the internet! But I solved that problem real fast. I cancelled MSN. Now I only get that pesky little messenger when I check my e-mail. I even uninstalled MSN Explorer. Ahhh…the simple things in life. By the way, Microsoft had been my ISP for eight years. Be that as it may, I still like XP. It is my operating system of choice.
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