Knowledge Is Power: How To Buy A Computer :: essays research papers

Knowledge is Power How To Buy A ComputerBuying a personal computer can be as difficult as get a car. No matter howmuch one investigates, how many dealers a person visits, and how much bargaininga person has done on the price, he still may not be really certain that he hasgotten a good deal. There are good reasons for this uncertainty. Computerschange at much faster rate than any other kind of product. A two-year-old carwill always get a person where he wants to go, only when a two-year-old computer maybe completely inadequate for his needs. Also, the average person is nottechnically savvy enough to make an informed last on the best processor to deprave, the rightly size for a hard drive, or how much memory he or she really needs.Just because buying a computer can be confusing does not mean one should throwup his hands and put himself at the mercy of about salesman who may not know muchmore than he does. If one would follow a few basic guidelines, he could beassured of make a w ise purchase decision.A computer has only one purpose to run programs. Some programs require morecomputing power than others. In order to figure out how powerful a computer theconsumer needs, therefore, a person must first determine which programs he wantsto run. For many buyers, this creates a business. They cannot buy a computeruntil they know what they want to do with it, but they cannot really know allof the uses there are for a computer until they own one. This problem is not astough as it seems, however. The consumer should go to his local computer store,and look at the software thats functional. Most programs explain their minimumhardware requirements right on the box. After looking at a few packages, itshould be pretty clear to the consumer that any mid-range system will run 99% ofthe available software. A person should only need a top-of-the-line system forprofessional applications such as graphic design, video production, orengineering. Software tends to lag tardily har dware, because its written toreach the widest possible audience. A program that only works on the fastestPentium Pro system has very limited sales potential, so most programs written in1985 work just fine on a fast 486, or an entry-level Pentium system. Moreimportantly, very few programs are optimized to come upon advantage of a Pentiumspower. That means that even if the consumer pays a large premium for the fastest