Sunday, October 26, 2008

How To Choose A PC That Is Right For You

By Tim Banks

It is already understood that the computing needs of different individuals also vary, and the type of computers that can handle such demands must be selected carefully. How do you choose a PC that is right for you?

Here is an easy to understand scenario: compare a student and a professional PC gamer. If you are thinking about which types of PC fits which, then you can expect significant differences between the two.

Why exactly does a student need a PC anyway? Take into consideration the various activities that your average college student would be doing, so you can easily get how PC functionality matters. For sure, a student needs to be typing and printing a lot of reports, essays, and assignments. More often than not, a PC for a university student is more like a typewriter or word processor.

If the student is in architecture and engineering, there are specific needs, but the computing power remains the same more or less. Often, the student would have thousands of saved files on his or her personal computer, and maybe some software like electronic encyclopedias installed. With this in mind, we are simply talking about space.

Now, if we are talking about space, then we are talking about hard disk space here- the lowest is 80, then there are those that reach 300 now. So that's fixed- how about computing power? A student will not need a computer with extreme computing power or clocked speeds exceed 1.5 GHz- what would be the point? For video cards, it is the same- a regular video card with 512 MB will do. If the student plays some games, that baseline is also sufficient for playing. However, as for the gamer, it is another whole different thing.

A gamer would be using the personal computer in two ways- for work and for leisure. The leisure part would be the one that would tax the computer most, because it would be running algorithmic engines non-stop, playing multimedia and receiving input from the user at the same time.

Speaking of hard disk space, a gamer would need more space that a mere 300 GB, simply because of the software and files that need to be saved. In actuality, hard drives with large disk space can be very expensive, which is why some gamers install more than one hard disk on their PC. There are some games that can consume 5 GB of space or more, jus to have them installed, and when the game is being played, more memory will be needed as well.

When thinking about a processor that is powerful enough for the gamer, the basics simply would not do. Intel Skulltrail is one that is highly recommended for these purposes. - 15634

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