Want to buy a new computer

comping_cat

Im wanting to go and buy a new computer, but im afraid i know so little about what i actually need the shops really do see me coming!!!
What im wanting to know is what i should be asking for when i go in. I mainly use the computer for the internet, i do download the odd song and i store lots of photos!!!!
Any help would be greatly appriciated!!!!

MercilessKiller

1gb of DDR
minimum of 2.4ghz P4 or AMD Athlon 2600 processor
min 80gb Hard Drive space

There the only specs you need to be concerned about for the use. You'll be able to get something to do what you need very cheap actually its the low end spec that would suit you.. though make sure you have 1gb ram just for windows vista in a few years or watever...

PierceUK

i agree with mercilesskiller, althought 1GB of RAM might be hard to find in the shops normally 512MB is what they offer, although to upgrade will set you back as little as £40. so dont worry too much about that!

comping_cat

Thanks both, could someone just explain to me what is the RAM, ghz and whats the hard drive? Im guessing the hard drive is how much space is on the computer, is that right?

amcluesent

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.2GHz CPU
320Gb disk drive
512Mb of RAM
16xDVD Writer
Memory card reader for your camera
PCI Express graphics (eg. 7600GT Graphics Card)
19in TFT monitor (1280*1024 resolution)

amcluesent

>spec of a particular PC<

Spec for a reasonable PC. If you want to dig into the bargain bucket, just get the first PC you see for £299.

>i store lots of photos!<

Why buy anything less than 320Mb??

marksward

my 5 megapixel camera results in an average 1.7mb file size per picture. they soon add up! For using picures I'd recommend an external drive to back up onto. DVD soon becomes a pain once your collection grows more than 4gig.

comping_cat

Thanks everyone, got a lot more info now to take to the shops, when i went to Comet, they were definatly trying to get me to buy something a lot more powerful and expensive!!!!!!

MercilessKiller

amcluesent wrote:

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.2GHz CPU
320Gb disk drive
512Mb of RAM
16xDVD Writer
Memory card reader for your camera
PCI Express graphics (eg. 7600GT Graphics Card)
19in TFT monitor (1280*1024 resolution)

Catowen: Please ignore the above spec's and ignore the user completly.

That spec is a rather medium to high one designed for high usage such as gaming and video editing etc....

For example a PCI-E Graphics card is an expensive good graphics card designed for gaming. You don't need that at all. The TFT monitor is another thing that you may not need.. thats down to personal preference i SUPPOSE.

as for 320gb of hard drive space.. LOL.. you dont even need half of that

So ignore him and take what I said in my post before

comping_cat

Sorry, another question, but how can i tell how much hard drive i have on my current computer? Ive found out that i only have 128.0 RAM, so can see why i need more (this computer is not good!!!) but would like to see the difference in hard drive as well!!!! Like you are saying, im sure i dont need loads, but would be handy to see what i actually have now!!!

MercilessKiller

catowen wrote:

Sorry, another question, but how can i tell how much hard drive i have on my current computer? Ive found out that i only have 128.0 RAM, so can see why i need more (this computer is not good!!!) but would like to see the difference in hard drive as well!!!! Like you are saying, im sure i dont need loads, but would be handy to see what i actually have now!!!

Start > MyComputer > right mouse click the drive called "C:\" and then click properties.

That tells you your used space, free space and total capacity.

Due to speed differencees it will now be quicker accessing your files.. though you wont see much other performance enhancements. Its just as time goes on program's eat away at more memory on your hard drive so you have to ensure you have enough for the future

128mb is attrocious! Especially if you're running windowsXP