If all you want to do is surf the web, read email and edit basic documents, you can pick up a PC that will do the job for under £300 these days, so there's never been a better time to buy.
Of course, there's always more you can do and more you can spend, so it's important to know exactly what you're going to use your PC for and spec it accordingly before you set off to buy: otherwise you'll end up either unequipped, or paying for upgrades that you don't need.
1. Deciding what you want
What activity do you use your PC for the most?
* If you are only going to be using email and office apps, there's no point going for the fastest processors or latest graphics cards.
* Same goes for web browsing.
* If you're going to be playing lots of games, make sure the graphics card is up to spec. 'Integrated' graphics cards will struggle with the latest games, and just because a graphics card is DirectX 10 compatible doesn't mean that it can run 3D games well.
What are 'integrated' components?
* If a PC's graphics processor is a chip soldered onto on the motherboard, it's considered 'integrated'. If it's on a separate card slotted horizontally into an upgrade port, it's known as 'discrete'.
* Watch out for new PCs with integrated graphics, they may not have a 16x PCI Express port for upgrading later.
* Don't be fooled by phrases such as 'Turbocache' or 'Hypermemory'. They don't mean speed, they mean your graphics chip is using main system memory to store games info – which means less performance all round.
* Integrated sound cards are fine though. Just remember that if you want extras such as Dolby Digital or optical out for watching movies, you may have to add a discrete one.
Where will you keep your PC?
* There are many value PCs which are well-designed and quiet these days. You don't have to settle for a noisy, bland box any more.
What specifications should I look out for?
* Your new PC should definitely support PCI Express, preferably PCI Express 2.0.
* Try to avoid a PC that uses DDR3 as it's expensive to upgrade later.
* Check out reviews for every major component – the CPU, graphics card and RAM particularly – to ensure that it's not an inferior part being sold at a high price.
What CPU should I get?
* Don't just look for familiar Intel or AMD brands – a low powered CPU will hold back the whole system.
* Currently, Intel's Core 2 Duo is the best CPU on the market. Go for a quad core if you can afford it. They're better for future proofing, but you'll only notice the performance difference in HD movies right now
* Watch out for older models of Intel chips though. Core Duos, Pentium Ds and so on are not the same.
* Intel's Celeron processors are far less powerful than Pentiums and Core 2 Duos, but are cheaper.
* AMD produces two types of CPU, the Phenom and the Athlon 64. Phenoms offer good value for money, but need louder cooling than Intel's Pentiums.
What operating system should I choose?
* Windows Vista comes in several different types, but so long as you avoid Vista Basic they're broadly similar. The best ones to get are Home Premium or Ultimate, as these have all the media centre features that you need
* Most PCs are sold with a 32-bit version of Windows, which is fine. You might want to think about upgrading to the 64-bit version if you run memory-intensive games.
Your comments (1) Click to add a new comment
vlkie
July 29th
1. What about emphasising the need for a proper installation disk from the operating system manufacturer? The rebuild disk offered by many suppliers just trashes any data you have on the hard drive if you get a problem that demands that the OS is re-installed.
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