Computer Components

Systemboard Motherboard

Buying Guide For PCs

Personal Computers more commonly known as PCs, which you can keep it at home for your personal use, for your personal work such as checking and sending your emails, or may be do some office work and many more reasons. It is helpful to everybody, its use is not limited to any age, any gender, and any profession. The capabilities of the PC has changed a lot since its origin which has been defined as “an electronic machine that could manipulate data according to a list of instructions”, according to Wikipedia.

Picking a PC is not that easy until you have a proper knowledge about the product, different companies in the market claim to be selling the best product, making things worse and confusing you. Depending on your needs, PC vendors allow you to customize and up-grade, the base models according to your requirements. Vendors give many options, for memory, for extra storage, softwares to be installed, and many other things and this makes it really difficult to purchase a PC. The guide given here can be of great help to you and may solve your problem to some extent.

IMPORTANT PARTS

Processors or CPU- Means Central Processing Unit or known as the Heart of Computer because it controls the whole machine. It executes software program instructions. Any processor can work if you have to use your PC for office productivity and basic internet tasks. But if you want more power, the dual core processors will do best for you as they help in faster multitasking and speedy performance when dealing with graphics and video applications. Well for playing games, manipulating audio and video four core processors will be a great help.

Memory- Is one the most important part of a PC used to store the currently executing program and immediately needed data. For better performance of the system and smooth running of applications, the only formula is more memory installed to your PC. It’s better to get it preinstalled while buying a PC, sometimes it proves to be worthless to buy it separately. For the new Vista as a warning, you need to have at least 1GB memory to run it properly.

Motherboards- Popularly known as systemboard or mainboard. Nobody would believe but it in itself contains one or more CPUs helping as an interface between CPU memory and input/ output peripheral circuits.

Graphic Cards- It has got many names, video card, graphic adapter or video adapter, it does the job of processing and rendering the graphics from the computer to the computer display. For games, graphics and other multimedia you necessarily need to have a graphic card.

Hard Drive- Hard Drives stores programs and data even when the machine is not working. In case you want to store digital images and multimedia files, it is like, the bigger the better. Most of the PCs these days have 200GB to 500GB but if you are regularly working with big databases, spreadsheets digital photos, music or video files one should have more than 750GB capacities.

Monitor- Technically known as Visual Display Unit (VDU) is a device that displays images and data generated by a computer. Don’t just go by the huge and beautiful displays keep in mind the resolution. There should be a minimum resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels to get better display. Then it comes to the screen size, it should be around 19- to 22- LCD, or you can even go for a digital one.

Removable Storage- All PCs require a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM to read CDs and DVDs. You can enjoy movies, songs by just inserting CDs or DVDs. It can also help you with data storage, as you can transfer important data to CDs.

Communications- The new PCs come with dial-up internet access or Ethernet for broadband access, which helps with the internet connections. There is either a LAN card attached or external adapter.

Sound- This refers to the sound system or speakers. The sound systems are sufficient, but if you want a surround sound, you can upgrade with Dolby 5.1 support with a decent set speakers with subwoofers.

Keyboards and Mouse- The keyboard and the mouse accompany every PC, usually a 102-key keyboard and two-button mouse with a scroll wheel. Some new computers even have the feature of wireless keyboards and mouse.

Some more things, which should be taken care of, are:

Warranty- A one year warranty is more than sufficient as a two or three-year warranty can add up to the cost of the PC.

Avoid Additional Softwares- Don’t get installed additional softwares which are of no use to you. MS Office, Operating system and an Anti- Virus are the basics required to run a PC. If you have to buy more look out for bundle packages so you can save more.

Upgrading- Upgrade at the time of purchase as it costs less rather than getting installed new things later.

With the buying guide, you might have made up your mind and understood what to look out for while purchasing a PC. There are many brands available in the market such as- HCL, hp, Lenovo, Sony, Apple, Compaq, Zenith and many more. But I would suggest take your time and go for the best

About the Author

Vinnit Alex is a well known author and has written articles on Laptops, Computer store, Acer Laptops, online shop and many other subjects.

How can I avoid systemboard failure on a laptop?

Of the 3 laptops i've owned each had a system/motherboard failure after 9 months. When fixed, they have failed again about 9 months later. Some were cheap makes others v.expensive and reliable (e.g. Toshiba). What could causes this? How can i protect the laptops better?
asdfasdfasdfasdf
I always have top virus protection on my computer because i know that my computers always muck up and I am only a 'regular' user - I don't download videos or games, etc.

in my experience they clog with dust and fry .... keep them cleaned out every few months ...

.

HP System board (motherboard), 443777-001