| Mr. Techie's Hardware Advice |
| CPU's |
| What exactly is a CPU? It is a central processing unit. It may help to think of it as the central calulator of your computer. It is also at the same time the road signs, telling people (the little bits in your computer) "Keyboard info to gate a! Screen refresh activate! Instruct code 0f32e5c ascii 77!" You get the idea. Almost all data goes thru the cpu. (What a headache!) Anyways, quite obviously, the faster it is, the faster your computer is. But then again, when it comes to purchasing one, there is a list of names to choose from - and the highest MHZ or GHZ is hardly ever the best (see the Gigahertz Game for an explanation.) Anyway, my greatest recommendation is that you pick AMD Athlon. There are tons of brands - some outdated, i.e. 8088, 8086, 286, 386, 486, Pentium 1, Pentium 2 - some that are out and out crap - i.e. the Pentium 4 - and some that are execptionally good - the Pentium 3, the Athlon, the Celeron, etc. Again, I highly recommend AMD Athlon XP 2600. Not the fastest rated, but it is definitely cheaper, less glitchy, and less problematic than the 'faster' but moreover way more expensive Pentium 4. |
| RAM |
| RAM, yes Random Access Memory, NOT to be confused with hard-drive space. RAM is much more important than CPU, but most people who hear this really overdo it. Standard computers have a 4 gigabyte capacity, but for the average user, one gigabyte is plenty. I would recommend for the hard drive gamer that plays very graphic intense games, i.e. modern day first person shooters - 2 gigabytes. If you have a home network - i.e. you have a computer for each kid room, one or two in the parent's room, and a server (see my networking advice page, coming within at least 2 months) - I would say 3 gigabytes at best. But never 4 gigabytes, unless it is in a major business computer. Spend it on a better CPU or something instead. Also, be sure to check the speed of the RAM. Its better to have 512 megabytes of super-fast ram than to have 1.5 gigabytes of reeeeeeeaaaalllly slow ram. |
| Mice |
| That's right. Mice. There are plenty of kinds: some have a wheel in the center, some are optical, and some are wireless, which leaves plenty of combinations. My recommendation - Optical mouse with the wheel in the center. If you want, add wireless to the options. Without wireless abilities, it costs about $20 - $40. You can get a good mouse, that isn't name brand, for as little as $20. Going for a popular name brand isn't wise. Anyways, a state-of-the-art wireless optical wheel mouse costs $30 at Wal-mart. Why the optical importance? If you have one, you probably already know. If you don't, get one. Ever notice how the ball and mechanics beneath the mouse get grody and may even go skweak skweak skweak? [8-)] Then the mouse starts not to move right, etc.? Optical mouse use a laser, so they will glide easily on any non-reflective surface. |
| Graphics |
| If you are anything of a gamer, you need nice graphics. What do you get for a video card is a simple choice: either GEforce 4 or GEforce 5 (if they have even come out with it yet) and make sure it comes with at least 128 megabytes of video ram. The GEforce 4 may cost as much as $100, but trust me, it rocks. These babies can do anything graphical. They even have a 3-D accelerator chip inside of them. |
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| Hard Drive |
| Well not much to say in this section. The hard drive stores all your data so it isn't lost when the computer shuts down. While many people worry about hard drive space, it is also quite important to note speed. For a normal work computer, 60 GB is plenty. But if you are a hard-drive :) gamer, you may want as much as 200 GB. Remember, get a fast hard drive. |