Ricardo's Home Page - Starting From the Beginning

Ricardo's Home Page

Starting From the Beginning

Of course the first thing you need is a personal computer.
If you don't have one you can find some words of advise in here.

Buying your first PC.

So you are trying to buy your first PC and you are a bit lost.
Don't be so "proud" of it because you are not alone.
Even those experts in the business can feel a bit confused sometimes.
The PC market is moving every day.
Every day you can find new equipment, new software, new prices (always going down)...
With such a panorama what should be the right PC to buy?
To be honest, I don't know for sure!
Anyway, as anything else, you should try to exercise some common sense.

Get the best you can for your money.

Easy, isn't it.
Easy to say, but how can you do it?
Let's see.

Buy a new PC, not an old one.

By an "old PC" I mean anything that you are not the first owner.
As I told you before, the computer industry is moving very fast.
A six month old PC is missing some features of the brand new one's.
In a six month time, a today new PC will be a six month old PC an a today six month old PC will be a one year old one, i.e. you probably find it obsolete.
So, give yourself some rest and buy a new PC.

Don't get bankrupted because of it.

Although the PC's are changing every day, novelty is expensive, as with everything else.
Don't try to buy, or wait for, the last improvement, unless you have a very good compelling reason to do it.
For instance, I'm writing this in a Pentium 200Mhz.
Two months ago, when I bough it, I could have bought a Pentium 300Mhz but it would increase the price in about USD$500.
By the time you read this, the wiser decision could be a 266Mhz or 300Mhz level CPU, or even more...
Don't follow your feature maniac neighbour just because he keeps telling you he has the last word in equipment.
The difference in price probably won't pay of.

How can I tell a PC from the other

By their specifications of course.
And what are the best specifications ?
That's the toughest part.
I can't tell you exactly what are the rigth specifications because it depends on how you intend to use your new PC (besides accessing the Internet of course) and the time you are actually buying it.
You should take your time and compare several PC specifications and prices and make you decision only after that.
I've prepared a grid with some items you should take into account to help you out in your quest.
You should not rush into the first PC you see, but you should not take to long do make a decision either.
If you take too long, the first equipment you saw may have changed their prices or specifications in the mean while.

Avoid, avoid, avoid...

Although very difficult to say exactly what to buy, I can tell you some things you should not.

Avoid the so called "Win Modems".
A modem is a peace of equipment that is supposed to receive data from the computer and send it through the telephone line to another modem connected to another computer as a stream of bytes.
This is basically an interface between the electrical signals inside your PC and the signals appropriated to use over a telephone connection (and a little bit more, of course).
To achieve the current levels of performance most modems have a special purpose, intelligent device - a DSP - to twist and shift the data so that it can be sent.
This is of course an expensive component of your modem.
A WinModem is a modem without a DSP, making it much cheaper than a "real" model.
The drawback is that, to achieve the same level of speed, you have to install a software that makes the same twist and shift that the DSP was supposed to.
The problem is that software is stilling precious CPU cycles to your PC main CPU delaying all the processing time of the HTML pages, images, javascripts and so on.

Avoid the 56Kbps modems
At the present time there is still some confusion about the standards to apply to this technology.
So, most ISP's are waiting until things settle down.
You can find it difficult to use it at full power.
Most of the telephonic infrastructure is not suitable to be used with such a sensitive technology so, most probably, you end up connecting at a much lower speed.

Prefer a ready to go system.

If you are new at the subject you should avoid to get caught in a "what do I do now" situation.
So, the best option should be a completely assembled, installed, ready to go system.
If you are going to access the Internet, don't forget to ask for a system with a modem already installed and if possible with all the software already configured to work with you ISP (Internet Service Provider).
Don't forget that when a sales person tells you that a peace of software or hardware is easy to install or configure what he really mean is that it is a breeze for an expert but it can be really annoying if you are not sure about what you are doing an something goes wrong (and sometimes it does).

Be sure you know how it works.

In the mean time be sure to ask your local store seller all the questions you need to get all the things working when you are back at home.
Ask him to make you a demonstration.
Be sure you take you notebook and pencil and don't be afraid of taking notes of everything.
Ask him to show you in your own PC - not in a demonstration machine already installed in the store - how to connect it and all the steps until you are "surfing" the Internet.
Keep taking notes.
This will also make sure everything is working smoothly.
After that you can always chose to ask that someone from the store is going to install the equipment and test it at your home.

Last update:
1999/04/03

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Prepared by:
Ricardo Lindengrün