Essay/Term paper: Get informed! - buying the right computer

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Information Technology

Get Informed! - Buying The Right Computer


Buying the right computer can be complicating. Because of this many
people are detoured from using or purchasing a very beneficial machine. Some
people have questions about memory, Windows95, and choosing the best system to
purchase. Hopefully, I can clear up some of this terms and inform you on what
hardware is available.

How much memory do you really need? As much as you can get. Due to
todays sloppy programmers, you can't have too much memory. Today's software is
about 50 percent wasted code. That means that there is a bunch of memory being
used by your computer to do absolutely nothing. It's not like in the past when
a programmer had to get a program to run under 512K. Programmers think you have
unlimited memory. As a result, the programmers don't worry about how much
memory they use. When writing a program, programmers use compilers like Visual
C++. When they use prewritten routines from compilers, it adds a lot of useless
data. Instead of removing this useless data, the lazy programmer leaves it.
Not only does this effect you memory, it also effects how much hard drive space
you need. The bigger the program, the more space it takes to save physically.
I wouldn't suggest buying anything under a 2 geg hard drive. Why? Because by
the time you load you system (Windows95, DOS) and other software; your hard
drive is already filled up. How are you going to save your document you wrote
in WordPerfect when your hard drive is full? It's usually cheaper in the long
run to buy the biggest hard drive available. Plus, you always want to have room
for your games. After all, who wants to spend their whole life working?

As far as processors, I suggest the Cryrix 6x686 166+. It's the best
processor for the buck. It's one of the fastest. The processor costs about
$300 cheaper then the Pentium version. Its got plenty of processing power to
play those high graphic 3D games and make your Internet browser fly. It's also
a necessity for programs like Auto Cad 3D and Adobe Photoshop.

For video, I suggest at least a 2 meg, Mpeg3 compatible video card. The
best all around video card I think is the Maxtor Millennium 3D. It comes in
2meg, 4meg, and 8meg cards. The 4meg card runs around $230.00. You can't beat
that. The reason you want the most memory on your video card that you can
afford is the more memory you have, the faster the graphics and more colors you
can display. The memory on a video card is used for loading up screen pages in
advance before they're on your screen. For example, when you're watching a AVI
or Mpeg movie. The computer has already loaded four screens of that movie
before the computer needs it. This means you don't wait for it to load. A sign
of not having enough video memory is when you're watching a AVI movie, you might
see flicker or the movie stalls. This is because you're waiting for the
computer to load the images up.

Windows 95. Is all the hype true? NO! Windows 95 has a lot of bugs in
it. Most of the problems I've seen are in the installing part. When you go to
install new hardware or software, you don't have complete control of what your
computer does. Windows 95 wants to make all the decisions for you.
Unfortunately, most of the time it doesn't make the right decisions. There are
ways to get around this, it just takes a little patience. The biggest problem
I've had is taking out software and hardware. Windows deletes all the drivers
and the programs, but never cleans out the main system file. This means the
program is gone but your system thinks it's still there. This can give you a
lot of errors and, in some cases, cause your computer to crash. There is
thankfully, software being written right now to solve this problem. Whether or
not you like Windows 95, Microsoft has cornered the market and most software
written today is for Windows 95. I personally think Windows 95 could be a great
system if Microsoft would take the time to fix all the bugs and minor
irritations instead of spending there time trying figure out a new way to scam
the PC user, like Making Windows 97.

Hopefully, I haven't confused you. Instead, I hope I have cleared some
things up for you. My best advice, to soon-to-be computer owners, is to take
your time in buying your system. Do some research. Don't believe all the hype.
Computer salesmen don't make money helping you out. They make money selling
you a computer for the most profit.