What to look for when buying a new computer.

The Components:

The Hard Drive - Many choices exist when looking for a hard drive for you system. There are two main interface technologies that you will have to consider. SCSI and IDE. SCSI is more prominent in Servers and high end workstations while IDE has found its niche in the home computer market. Typically most motherboards today have built in IDE ports to connect a hard drive to your system. With the price of hard drive today, it really isn't worth considering anything under a 8 Gig drive. Besides, with the size of many of today's applications, you will need the extra space. It now is very common to see a hard drive in access of 30 gig. Plenty of room for your data and applications.

 
IDE - Back in the days of the Intel 80486 CPU the drive interface of choice was that of IDE. It allowed for two drives of up to 520 Megs in size. It had an average transfer rate of approximately 8 mb/second.

EIDE - When 520 Megs started to become too small the IDE standard was upgraded to something called Enhanced IDE (EIDE). This new format allowed for drive capacities of 2 Gig and higher at a transfer rate of approximately 18 mb/second. A much needed improvement.

Ultra DMA or Ultra ATA/33- In attempt to keep up with the transfer rate of SCSI (which has typically been much faster than IDE) a new standard was created. Ultra DMA (the next step in the evolution of IDE) supports a transfer rate of up to 33.3 mb/second. Like its predecessor it supports up to 4 drives.

Ultra DMA or ATA/66 - These new drives offer a burst transfer rate of up to 66 mb/second. But in order to use it, your motherboard will have to have a controller card to support it. It is backward compatible so these drives will work with Ultra DMA or ATA controllers, just not at the same high speed. These drives also use a different cable than a standard IDE cable. While a standard IDE cable is a 40-pin, 40-wire cable, this new cable is a 40-pin, 80-wire cable. They are not interchangeable.

Ultra DMA/100 or ATA/100 - This is the latest in IDE technology. It is only offered in the i815E chipset and offers a burst transfer mode of up to 100mb/second. In order to use it the Bios, Chip Set and Hard drive all need to support it, and you'll need the same 40-pin, 80-wire IDE cable.

Ultra SCSI or SCSI II - With a transfer rate of approximately 20mb/second, SCSI found its place in network servers or very high end workstations. It has always supported higher capacity drives and never suffered from the speed limitations of IDE. Another very large advantage of the SCSI standard was its ability to support up to 7 devices on the same "chain" both internally and externally.

Ultra Wide SCSI - This was the next step in the generation of the SCSI disk controller. With a transfer rate of up to 40 mb/second you can see why this has become popular in network servers. It also increased the number of drives you could attach to the same chain to 14.

Ultra 2 SCSI - The latest in SCSI technology is similar to Ultra Wide SCSI but has increased the transfer rate up to 80 mb/second.

 Price differences between SCSI and IDE have kept the two technologies each in their own little niche. IDE is the primary choice in the home computer market, while SCSI has a strong hold on the Server market. One important note is the fact that the two technologies can reside in the same system without any problems.

Graphics Cards - You want to stick with a decent, name brand Graphics card. Since you spend most of your time staring at the output of your graphics display card on your monitor, the two should be of good quality. You'll want a minimum of a 64 bit, PCI graphics card. If you are considering a Pentium II or III system, go with an AGP, or Advanced Graphics Port, card. A normal PCI graphics card has a 33 MHz bus speed to the rest of the system (as do all PCI ports). An AGP port has a 66 MHz bus speed to the rest of the system for much faster screen updates and video reads and writes; overall, a much better configuration. You may also find that today's graphics cards come with a Fan over it's main "CPU". These cards need one due to the heat generated from them.
 

AGP - Advanced Graphic Port adds a high speed "highway" from the graphics card to your systems memory. This allows for better graphics performance. A normal PCI graphics card will communicate with the rest of the system at 132 MB/s (megabytes per second) while the AGP graphics port can communicate at 533 MB/s. As you can see it has a much greater potential than PCI.

Video Memory - The amount and type of video memory your system has will effect many different elements of your system's performance. The more memory generally means that you will get deeper color depths at a larger display size. Typical results of a 2 Meg card would be something like the following (all providing your graphics card will support it):
 

32 bit Color at 640 X 480 - or billions of colors.
24 bit Color at 800 X 600 - or millions of colors.
16 bit Color at 1024 X 768 - 65,000 colors.
256 Colors at 1280 X 1024.

These results will vary from card to card. It is also important to note that your monitor must support these higher resolutions or none of it will matter. The higher the video memory, the more color you will be able to get at a higher resolution. For example, on an 8 Meg video card you would get the following:
 

32 bit Color up to 1280 X 1024 - or billions of colors.
24 bit Color at 1600 X 1024 - or millions of colors.
16 bit Color at 1600 X 1200 - 65,000 colors.

Remember that these results will vary depending on your video card and monitor. The type of memory your graphics card has is just as important. A DRAM graphics card is not at fast as a VRAM or WRAM graphics card. This means screen redraws will be faster on a card that has VRAM memory than one that is DRAM based. You may also see EDO DRAM based cards. These are just an improvement on the speed of standard DRAM cards. There are also SGRAM cards which is just another type of memory and are faster than EDO based boards. You will now also find DDR or Double DRAM video cards on the market. These cards are yet another improvement in speed effectively doubling the nominal bandwidth to and from memory. If you have a choice, you should choose a DDR video Card.

You may also notice a RAMDAC speed listing in the specs of a video card. This specification measures how fast your computer can get an image from its memory and on to your screen. The faster the RAMDAC, the better off you are.

3D Acceleration - These days, most cards (if not all) are designed with 3D in mind. While their capabilities vary, unless you are a serious gamer, or need a high end graphical workstation, most cards will do. If you're serious about which card is the best in 3D, I would suggest reading the Graphics section found on www.tomshardware.com. He gives a great, unbiased, look at the best and worst in 3D graphics card.

All-in-One Cards - More and more graphic card manufacturers are offering all-in-one cards, or cards that have video in and out, along with TV tuners built in. These offer a great way to capture some of your favorite home videos to present on the web or just to get onto CD. Again, rather than redo what has already been done, I'll point you to a great source for information on these cards: Tom's Hardware guide.

Memory - The amount and type of memory in your system can make a big difference in your system's performance. While 128 Megs should be enough for most people, you still might want to consider 256 Megs. Especially if you plan on running Windows 2000. It is important to know what kind of memory is in your system as well. Upgrading in the future will be much easier if you know what is in your system to start with.
 

SIMMS - Some Pentium systems will have SIMMs, or Single Inline Memory Modules, installed in pairs. Thus if the system has 32 megabytes of memory, it will have two 16 Meg SIMMs installed. In general, you will find a total of 4 SIMM slots on the motherboard (some systems will have 6 slots but a majority of them seem to have only 4). This is important to consider when thinking about future upgrades. If you want to upgrade your system and you already have two 16 Meg SIMMs installed, you have only two slots to add memory to. So if you choose to add 8 Megs more to get your system to 40 Megs, you will install two 4 Meg SIMMs, using up space for future expansion. If you decide to upgrade your memory again you will have to remove two of the existing SIMMs to do so. There are also several types of 72 pin SIMMs. Standard Dram SIMMs, EDO SIMMs, and ECC SIMMs are found in most systems. ECC or Error Correcting memory are popular for network servers but seldom found in a home system (they are not needed in a home system). EDO SIMMS, or Extended Data Out, are the most popular in most Pentium systems. They are a bit faster than standard Dram SIMMs. If you plan to add memory to your system, check the motherboard manual that came with it to determine what you will need. Many motherboards will require a SIMM of at least a certain speed. Generally 70ns (nano seconds) or faster are recommended. This number reflects how fast the system can access the memory. Pentium systems need to access the memory at a faster rate then older 486 based systems.

DIMMS - Most systems shipping today will have DIMM slots, or Dual Inline Memory Module. Unlike SIMMS, these do not need to be installed in pairs. Most systems will have 3 DIMM slots total. I would recommend, if you are going with a Pentium II system, that you have a single 128 Meg DIMM installed to allow for two more slots for future memory upgrades. DIMMs usually, but not always (so check), are made of SDRAM. SDRAM is another technology that increases the speed of the memory. While a standard EDO SIMM has a speed of 60 or 70 nano seconds, a typical SDRAM DIMM will have a speed of 15 nano seconds. Much faster to support a more demanding system. Some motherboards that will include both DIMM and SIMM slots on it. However, you generally can not mix the two in a system. Because of the drastic speed differences between the two technologies, you can't have SIMMs and DIMMs both in use in the same system. You'll have to choose one or the other so choose the DIMMS.

RAMBUS - RAMBUS memory is yet another development in the search for faster memory. Intel seems to be pushing this technology very heavily (especially since they helped develop it and are a major share holder in one of the company that makes it). It is supposed to be capable of a data transfer rate of 1.6 Gbytes per second. Intel's i820, i840, and new i850 chipsets offer support for it, but Intel is having alot of problems thus far with it (the i820 that is). The price of these memory modules has been dropping but they still are not cheap. It still seems to be a "wait and see" game with this technology. I still have to say... avoid it.

Motherboard - The motherboard is the heart and soul of your computer system. It is responsible for keeping all the different components together and talking to each other. When picking out a system, pay close attention to who makes the motherboard. Generally you want to stick with a "name brand" motherboard company. One with updates available via their web site is also very useful if you ever have to upgrade your systems BIOS. My personal favorite are Asus brand Motherboards. Other good companies are (but not limited to): Abit, Intel, Micronics, Shuttle, Ocean, and Super Micro.

BIOS - At the heart of your system will be its BIOS. A BIOS is what keeps all of your system communicating with itself. It determines what hard drive you have installed; if there is a 3.5 inch floppy drive; what kind of memory is installed; and many other important parts of your system. While the average user will very rarely enter into the system's BIOS to make changes, it is important to know how. My personal favorite is the Award BIOS. It is used with most, if not all, Asus motherboards. I find it to be the most user friendly system to read and understand. Two other popular types of BIOS's are AMI, or American Megatrends Inc., and Phoenix. At some point after purchasing your new computer, you may have to do a BIOS upgrade. Knowing how to do so would be very important.

Chip set - The type of chip set your computer uses will determine what that system has for capabilities. In Pentium III systems you will most likely see the Intel i815E chip set, however others do exist from other companies such as SIS and VIA. In older Pentium systems the most popular chip set was the Intel 430 TX. You may also see the SIS 5582 or the VIA Apollo 590MVP3. These different chip sets determine what your system can do, such as power management features, type of memory, type of Cpu, etc. Dual Pentium II systems will most likely use an Intel GX chip set. These days the two most popular are the Intel i815E and the Via Apollo KT133. (A Pentium III CPU based system will use the Intel chipset while an AMD CPU based system will use the Via chip set.)

 
BX Chip set - This chip set is now on the older side as far as a chip set goes. It supports bus speeds of 100 MHz. You may be hard pressed to find a motherboard that has this chip set on it. It is a very reliable chip set though, and still would be my first choice, but I doubt you could find a vendor to supply you with one(?).

i815E - This is Intel's latest chipset. It is meant to be a replacement for the BX chip set and overall looks ok. It is designed with a Socket 370 for either a Celeron CPU or a FCPGA Pentium III.  It supports up 512 megs of ram, has onboard audio as well as video (however the video can be over ridden with an AGP card), AGP 4X, and supports CPU speeds from 450 MHz to over 900 MHz. It provides a 133 MHz, front side bus and supports Ultra DMA/100. Be aware that this chipset has no support for ISA slots.

i810 - This is another of Intel's chipsets. This one incorporates 3D onboard video as well as an AMR slot. An AMR slot (which looks like a very small ISA slot) is a slot specifically designed to hold a "Audio-Modem-Riser". You'll find ARM slots on i820, i820, and i840 based motherboards.

i820 - This was a bit of screw-up by Intel. It was supposed to offer 4x AGP support as well as RAMBUS memory support. I wouldn't touch these motherboards. Intel has recalled all of these motherboards due to a problem with its memory controller.

i840 - Designated as a "workstation motherboard", this one seems to be a improvement over the i820. It has some nice features to it, however with a price tag that is approximately $100.00 higher than the i820, and it's need for RAMBUS ram, it may not be worth touching these boards either.

i850 - The latest from Intel, this chipset is designed with Multi Media in mind. It has Dual Rambus channels and supports the new 423 pin socketed Pentium IV CPU. Be aware that this new motherboard/chip set requires a new power supply to run it so the case also has to be new.

Via Apollo KT133 -  This chipset manufacturer is the major competitor to Intel. Aimed at the AMD Socket A and Duron processors, it provides a 200 MHz Front Side Bus, 4X AGP Support, PC133 memory, and ATA/66 support. Via also has the KT133A version of this chipset that extends the front side bus to 266 MHz and includes ATA/100 support.

Via Apollo KT266 - This latest chipset includes support for DDR266 and a 266 MHz front side bus. This allows a peak memory bandwidth of 2.1 GB per second. It is also a Socket A supported chip set.

Via Apollo KX133 - This older chip set was first introduced to support the AMD Slot A Athlon series of CPU's. With a 200 MHz front side bus, 4X AGP support and PC133 memory support, this chipset gave/gives Intel a run for it's money. It also added support for ATA/66.

Ziff Socket Motherboards - (Socket 7)This older style "ZIF" (Zero Insertion Force) motherboard supports only Pentium CPU's (both AMD and Intel). These motherboards are getting harder and harder to find.

Socket 370 Motherboards - This newer "ZIF" socketed motherboard supports both Celeron and FCPGA Pentium III CPU's. It looks very similar to the older Pentium motherboards and is much cheaper than Slot I, Pentium II/III motherboards.

Slot I Motherboards - This motherboard supports only Pentium II and III CPU's. With its "stand-up" CPU slot, it looks very different then the older Pentium motherboards and costs more money.

Slot A Motherboards - Slot A is what AMD has developed to support their first generation Athlon processors. It is functionally, very similar to the Slot I Motherboards of Intel, but the two are not cross compatible.

Socket A Motherboards - (Also known as Socket 462)With Support for either the Duron or the newer Athlon processors this KT133 chipset motherboard more closely resembles a Ziff socketed Motherboard than a Slot A or Slot I motherboard.

Socket 423 Motherboards - This is the latest from Intel. With Pentium IV support, this 850 chip set motherboard is just starting to hit the market. At this point, systems based on this motherboard will be rather expensive as they require Rambus ram and a new power supply/case.

Expansion Slots - There are several types of expansion slots on a motherboard. Each different but all provide the ability to add extra components to your computer system. To get an idea of what they look like, check out the picture (click on the link at the beginning of this paragraph).
 

ISA - These older slots are 16 bit expansions slots. They "talk" to the motherboard at 8 MHz. We are slowly starting to see these go away in lieu of PCI slots. Many motherboard manufacturers will include one for older expansion cards.

EISA - Found in many older Servers these expansion slots could "talk" to the motherboard faster than ISA slots (16 MHz). It is rare to find these types of slots on newer motherboards. The major drawback to this type of expansion slots was that often you would have to run a "configuration utility", or program to add expansion cards.

PCI - These slots are the most commonly found in motherboards today. They "talk" to the motherboard at 33 MHz. They offer a drastic improvement over ISA or EISA expansion slots.

AGP- Strictly reserved for Video cards (Advanced Graphics Port), these are the standard graphics port in all new systems. They "talk" to the motherboard at 66 MHz.

AMR - Audio Modem Riser slot. Designed to allow lower cost sound and modem cards to be integrated into motherboards. You have to wonder if these slots will survive?

CNR - Communication and Network Riser card. Found on i815 chipset motherboards is another attempt to lower the cost of adding both network as well as modem cards to a system.

Sound Card - The number one priority to consider when looking at a sound card, is that it is Sound Blaster compatible. 99% of all programs that use audio will support a Sound Blaster card. So it is no surprise that it is the card I recommend. To be specific, the Sound Blaster 128. Be aware that the 128 does not mean 128 bit, but means 128 wave table voices. It is a 32 bit PCI card. Another choice to consider is the Sound Blaster Live. With dedicated Midi ports on a daughter card, it opens up new possibilities with any Midi Keyboard. There are a few other decent sound cards out there that you might also want to consider such as (but not limited to) Ensonic or Yamaha. Both make good sound cards, but for the least amount of hassles, stick with the Sound Blaster.

Joystick Port - If you are into playing games you will want to also add a good joystick to your system. It will connect in through your Sound card (most have them built in). If you are looking for the ultimate in Game Controllers, look into the Thrustmaster line. They will run you over $100.00 but are excellent. Microsoft's Force Feedback is another excellent choice if you don't mind spending the money. If the game supports it, the joystick will react to the situation in the game (if you are firing a machine gun - the joystick will vibrate as if you were really firing one). If you want good quality but don't want to spend the money, my favorite is the Microsoft Sidewinder Pro. You can usually find it for around $35.00 to $45.00. If you are any kind of game player you'll want to avoid the $8.00 to $15.00 range of joysticks. Their response and control are just not there.

Modems - Most likely you will want to connect to the internet and this is why your modem choice should be a wise one. My personal recommendation is the 3Com/U.S. Robotics modem, however there are other decent brands out there.

X2 vs. 56K Technology (V.90) - The latest speed advancements in modems have come about by what used to be two separate technologies. Now finally made into a standard, the V.90 technology has been released. What this technology offers is a higher connection speed. However, be aware that even though name implies that you will connect at 56K, you will never achieve a connection at this rate. Typical connection speeds will be in the 40K range and are dependent on phone line quality and your local phone company's switch.

Internal vs. External - If you are buying your system with a modem there is not much to think about. It will already be set up and ready to go. If you've ever added one to a system you know about the difficulties that can be involved. Internal modems will generally give you the option of connecting it to your sound card to use your computer as your phone or answering machine. This will allow you to use your computer as an answering machine or voice mail system if you'd like. Be aware, some audio files (.wav) can use up a lot of your systems hard drive if you are not careful.

CPU - or Central Processing Unit is the main "brain" of your computer. My personal recommendation is to stick with an genuine Intel chip, however, most of the reviews don't seem to find any problems with a Cyrix or AMD chips. These days the speed of these processors have topped the 1GHz mark.
 

Slot 1 Pentium - A slot 1 CPU is a long "ISA" looking slot that a Pentium II or III sits into. This stand up CPU was invented because Intel claimed that they could not fit the Pentium II or III into the same size space as the old standard Pentium's socket. I would guess that this was more of a ploy by Intel to make it more difficult for the other chip makers.

FCPGA Pentium III - This is the latest in CPU "styles" out today. It is a reversion back to the old Socket 7 slot of the original Pentium (with small differences - they are not compatible). This CPU requires a Socket 370 motherboard which is also the same socket that the Celeron CPU uses.

Celeron - The Celeron CPU was an attempt by Intel to give people a lower cost CPU alternative to that of the Slot I Pentium II and III's. It requires a Socket 370 motherboard and early versions of this chip eliminated the onboard CPU cache. Today all of the Celeron processors have some type of cache and are a good, cheaper alternative to the higher priced Pentium II or III's.

Athlon - This is AMD's entry into the Pentium II and III class of CPU's. A good chip that can compete with Intel head to head. This CPU can be found at speeds up to and exceeding 1 GHz. The first generation of these CPU's closely resembling the Slot 1 Pentium, these older Athlon chips are now being replaced by a newer design (called "Thunderbird") much similar to the FCPGA Pentium III. These newer Athlon CPU's fit into a Socket A motherboard.

Duron - This is AMD's answer to the Celeron. This "light" version CPU outperforms the Celeron and costs less. It also requires a Socket A based Motherboard.

Bus Speed - The bus speed of your system is directly proportional to your CPU's speed. To understand what this means check out the following table (note: this table is not complete - it is just to give you a rough outline):
 

* = the motherboard must support the 75 MHz bus speed to use it.

(The bus speed directly effects the overall performance of your system. For example a Pentium 133 MHz system can out perform a Pentium 150 MHz system just because of the bus speed.)

100 MHz bus speed - Intel's 350 MHz Pentium CPU's and up (II and III's) using a BX motherboard chipset will use the 100 MHz bus speed. Today the BX is considered to be the most stable chipset going.

133 MHz bus speed - With Intel's new i815E chipset and with Via Apollo's MVP3 chipset the system bus runs at 133 MHz. While this only adds a minor performance boost, every little bit does help.

200 MHz bus speed - this is what has put AMD on the map (so to speak). It has helped AMD outperform Intel in head to head competition.

MMX - MMX adds an extra 57 instructions to the Pentium chip. Designed specifically for multimedia. Realize that the program itself has to be written to take advantage of the extra instruction in order to do any good. More and more software is being developed with it in mind. Bottom line, you want it in your CPU. These days, all CPU's have it.

Alpha - Another option, not for the average consumer, is the Digital Alpha chip. With speeds up to and above 500 MHz these are some of the fastest CPU's around. Consider this only if you know what you are doing.

O.S. - The Operating System you choose will determine just how you interface with you computer. Most systems shipped today for home use, will ship with Microsoft's Windows ME pre installed. For home use this is probably the best choice. In the business world, more and more, computers are shipping with Windows 2000. There are some real differences between these two O.S.'s so make sure you know what you are getting yourself into. Also be aware that these two are not your only choices. While not recommended for a new user, you can always try out one of several different flavors of Linux.
 

Win95 - Released in 1995 (as the name implies), this Operating System was a drastic improvement to Microsoft's previous products, Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups. It is best suited for home use and offers excellent backward compatibility with older DOS based programs. If you like playing older games, you'll want Windows 95.
 

Win95A - Shortly after its release, several holes where found in Windows 95 and Microsoft released an upgrade package. This option package, or Service Pack, added some additional security and functionality to Windows 95. If you are buying a new computer you will most likely never see either Win95 or Win95A.

Win95B - This upgrade to Windows 95 took the form of Windows 95 B, or OSR2 (original service release 2). It fixed a few holes and made some subtle changes to Windows 95's functionality. Unless you look very closely, you may not even be able to tell the difference.

Win95C (I.E. 4.0 interface) - This is what Microsoft is in trouble over (Government wise). They have taken the interface of Windows 95 and incorporated it with their Internet Explorer interface. This give you the ability to "subscribe" to web sites and have information "pushed" down to your computer. You can install I.E. 4.0 to your windows 95 machine and you will get this new look and feel, but be warned. It may not be all that easy to remove it once you have.
 

Windows 98 - The next in Microsoft's line of desktop O.S.'s. While I hate the Internet Explorer interface that comes with 98, you can attempt to turn it off. I say attempt because it's not all that easy to get rid of that I.E. look. I have also found that it tends to lose some of its settings from time to time, reverting back to its "web look".

Windows 98 Release 2 - This added only a bit of functionality to the original Windows 98. It has more driver support but as a "pay per release" it doesn't add all that much. In my opinion, it should have been a free upgrade.

Windows Millennium (ME)- This is the next generation of Windows 98. It is supposed to add more stability and add more support for multimedia. What I don't like is the way that it tries to hide some of the systems settings to help protect the operating system.

Windows NT - Version 4.0 added a Windows 95 look and feel to Microsoft's business line of Operating systems. A much needed improvement. Designed with more "security" in mind (Windows 95 has next to none), it is an excellent choice for the workplace. If DOS compatibility is one of your main concerns, you need not look into NT. While Windows 95 still is a shell sitting on top of DOS (7.0), Windows NT emulates DOS and does not have the same compatibility level. You will find many older games will not work with NT because of this. NT adds security, a better multi-user interface, and several other components that make it a great choice for business. Consider what you want to do with your system before you go to NT.

Windows 2000 - The latest in Microsoft O.S.'s, it is probably their best release yet. Designed more for business, this powerful OS has eliminated a ton of system reboots. The only problem thus far is that a lot of multimedia devices don't run on it but it (due to lack of drivers) but it is very stable. Once the driver support increases, this should be a great OS.

Linux - A Unix clone and a very powerful O.S. probably not the best choice for most people. It lacks the ease of setup that you get from the Microsoft products listed above and is not for everyone. Chances are if you are considering Linux, I can't tell you anything that you don't already know about it.

Monitors - Since you will spend most of the time interacting with your computer by staring at your monitor, be careful to pick out a good one. The basic rule of thumb here is select the largest display size you can afford. If you can afford the 17" monitor, you will not regret spending that little extra money up front. (Of course if you can afford a 19" or 20" monitor, go right ahead.) You also need to remember that the size of a monitor is not necessarily the size of the viewable picture. A 17" monitor will typically have a viewable image size of only 15.9" or 16".

Dot Pitch - The actual distance between pixels on the monitor. You should consider nothing above .28 (It's measured in millimeters). It helps determine how sharp an image on the monitor will appear. Some monitors, such as those with a Sony Picture Tube, will have a different rating called Aperture Grill. Essentially this is similar to dot pitch but is a slightly different technology. All though not always a hard and fast rule, the smaller the dot pitch (or aperture grill), the sharper the picture will be.

Resolution - This determines how many lines across and down your monitor will support. Typically the resolution you use will depend on the size of the monitor you choose. If you have a 15" Monitor you will probably settle on a resolution of 800 X 600. The maximum that this monitor will be able to do will vary, however, will typically be around 1024 X 768. A typical 17" monitor will be capable of 1280 X 1024. Some will allow higher resolutions (such as 1600 X 1280) but tend to be a bit higher priced. If you have very detailed graphics work to be done, you might want to consider a monitor capable of these higher resolutions. Typical applications warranting the higher resolution would be desktop publishing or CAD.

Refresh Rate - The refresh rate of a monitor, determines how often the monitors screen is updated, in Hertz, each second. The monitor should be capable of a refresh rate of 72hz at what ever resolution you will normally use. If this monitor is to be used in a setting that has fluorescent lighting, the refresh rate becomes critical. Below 72 Hz a monitor in fluorescent lights will flicker. Not everyone will be able to see this flicker, but most will. The rule of thumb here, is to not accept a monitor that can not do a refresh rate of at least 70 Hz anyway.

Generally, you'll want to see a monitor before you buy it. Sometimes this may mean going to a local computer show or store to check them out, but it is well worth it. You should also avoid many of the "No-Name" monitors on the market. Most will probably leave you very dissatisfied. Stick to the big names in Monitors. My personal favorites are Sony, ViewSonic, or Mitsubishi, however there are several other good monitor makers out there.

CD-ROM - The speed of CD-ROM'S today are getting up to speeds of 50 X. If you plan on reading a lot of information directly from CD then the speed differences will be important. Most applications are not even written to access the information any higher than 4 X. With the cost of CD-ROM drives today, it makes no sense to buy a slower CD-ROM drive. For a few dollars more you can step up to 32 X CD-ROM drive, so you should. If your budget allows, you might want to step up to a DVD drive instead. A Standard CD-ROM can hold a capacity of 650 Megs of information while a DVD disk can hold up to 8 Gigs of information. You will have a choice of either an IDE or SCSI CD ROM drive. Remember, if you plan on a SCSI CD-ROM drive, you will need a SCSI controller as well which will add to your overall cost.

CDR Drive - If you plan on storing a lot of data, consider a CD Writer as well. It will allow you to save information to CD saving valuable hard drive space. You have several choices when considering a Writable CD. There are also CD re-writable drives. The disks for these tend to be more expensive but do give you the ability to write to the same CD more than once. I first questioned the ability of an IDE device to handle the data flow necessary to write a CD however it seems that this has changed with the newer CD Mastering Software and Ultra DMA. People I know with IDE based writers seem to be having no trouble writing CD's.

DVD Drive - Poised to replace CD-ROM technology, DVD are creeping their way into the home computer market. With a storage capacity of 8 Gig, you can see why it may take over for the CD-ROM. Some games ship with multiple CD's such as Cyan's Riven which comes on 5 CD's. This requires changing CD's regularly and would be eliminated if this game was put on to one DVD Disc. A DVD Disc can hold an entire 2 hour (plus) length movie with 5 audio tracks embedded into it. What you need to keep in mind if you decide on a DVD Drive is that there are three generations of the DVD standard out. First generation DVD drives can not read CDR written disks while second and third generation DVD drives can. Keep this in mind if you have a CDR Drive or a friend with one.

DVD RAM Drives - These new Writable DVD Drives have one major problem right now. There is no Standard. Hollywood is worried about copyright infringement. You have several of the leading manufacturers out there making drives but with inconsistent capacities. Pioneer has 4.7 Gig format, Sony a 3 Gig version, while NEC has a 5.2 Gig version. It seems that the jury is still out on these drives. Once they come up with some kind of standard, these will be hot... but only if they can keep the price of the media down. Presently a blank DVD disk sells for $35.00 in lots of 10.

USB (Universal Serial Bus) - These ports are designed to take over for the standard serial ports found on all systems. You can now get keyboards, mice, monitors, joysticks and many other types of devices that take advantage of the USB ports. They add the functionality of being able to daisy chain multiple devices to your system (127 devices to be exact) and you don't have to turn you system off to attach these devices. You also should note that Windows 95 original and version A do not support it, while Windows 95 B and above do. Keep this is mind if you try saving some money by not purchasing your O.S. with your system.

FireWire or IEEE 1394 - This is the latest in High speed connections. Many of today's Camcorders are coming with an interface to allow you to hook directly up to your home pc through a special "FireWire or IEEE 1394" port. This allows you to transfer large amounts of data, very quickly. If you're into video, you may want to look closer into this.
 

Ethernet Cards - There are many different brands of Ethernet cards out there from many different manufacturers. The problem with this is that they all are not created equally. While you can find some cheap Ethernet cards (a PCI based 10/100 card for $13.00) it might be wise to avoid them. Often times you'll run into problems with a cheaper Ethernet card.

10 Mb cards - These Ethernet cards run at 10 megabit speeds, or "Standard Ethernet". This is what most people think of when they consider networking their houses. These cards can be either ISA or PCI.

10/100 MB cards - These Ethernet cards run at either 10 or 100 megabit speeds and are considered (in the 100 megabit mode) to be "Fast Ethernet". With the price difference between these two types of cards, often times it makes sense to go with this type for the little extra money it will cost.

If you are considering going with a "Cable Modem" in your house, be aware that your computer will need an Ethernet card. While the cable modem will only support 10 megabit, there is no harm in going with the 10/100 card. The card will just run at the 10 megabit speed instead of  100.

Bottom Line (almost anyway):

Always remember; computer systems change on a regular basis. Keeping up is hard to do. Use the above as a guideline only.

This page was written and is maintained by Kevin Slate with help from Cindy Legare.
All flames/comments/suggestions should be directed towards me.