|
|
 |
||||||||
|
Frequently Asked Questions
With computers you get what you pay for, problem being is that they quickly become out dated. The first step is to decide what you need the computer do. If it is to run Office programmes then a fairly low specified machine will do the job perfectly well. If it is for playing games or using very graphic intensive software then you will need more power. If you know how to upgrade a machine then it can make sense to purchase what was the top level machine six months ago as the cost will be substancially lower and upgrade to todays top of the range machine six months down the line. This is covered in our build it guide, essentially you need: a case, a motherboard, a processor, memory, a graphics card, a floppy drive, a cd-rom, a hard drive, a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, a cooler for the cpu and an operating system. Typical additions would include: a sound card, a modem, a network card, a CDRW, a DVD, and other software. An operating system such as Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP. Other likely software would be an office suite, a web browser, antivirus software etc. OEM stands for "Original Equipment Manufacturer" essentially this means that we can supply equipment that is meant for wholesale rather than retail and so does not come in shrink wrapped boxes with instructions. It does mean that it is substancially cheaper than retail products. The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the computers brain. There are two main manufacturers AMD and Intel. Both compete directly with each other and drive up the speed of the cpu. Be aware that the choice of CPU you make will determine the type of motherboard you buy. Everything in a computer is connected in some way to the motherboard and so it is probably the most important part of a computer. There are a wide variety of manufacturers. Things to look out for would be the number of spare slots for fitting additional cards, the type of memory is it DDR, Rambus or SDRAM and the Front Side Bus speed the higher the better, currently 266 is the norm. Most machines will come with 128mb minimum, the price of memory has fallen dramatically over the past year or so and so many people are upgrading or requesting 256mb or more. People who use graphic intensive programmes or play a lot of games will want as much as they can get. There can be a problem of installing more than 256mb on the Windows 98 operating system, it simply does not recognise it. A hard drive stores all the data and programmes you load onto the machine. An operating system for example will take up to 500mb, Microsoft Office could take a further 800mb. The lowest sized hard drive generally available today is 20gb with most people opting for 40gb. The latest drives are now over 100gb. Wil will need at least one of these, the CD will simply allow you to load programmes onto your machine or play music cds through the PC. The CDRW allows you to do the above as well as write data to the cd, very useful for taking backup information or passing photos to family members. A DVD drive will play cds and dvds. DVDs can hold much more data than cds however from a computing point of view they are not widely used. They are generally used for movie playback. You can also get a DVDW which enables you to both play DVDs and write to them, these are currently very expensive. Without the graphics card you would not see anything on the screen. For office work then a basic card will suffice however if you are again using graphics programmes or games then a much more powerful graphics is required. Graphics cards can come with others features such as television cards or dual head cards which enable you to connect two monitors at the same time giving you a much greater screen area. They can also allow you to connect up a video camera which enables you to download your home movies onto the computer. We have put together a simple set of instructions which walk you through the process of building a PC. We can also build the system for you, please contact us (0870 7460893) for further details.
|
||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
