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Which PC system do you recommend? you might ask. As for me, I like the one I custom-built myself. One of the PCs I built several years ago is still running great without any problem. The advantages of custom-built PCs (also often referred as "white boxes") have over the brand name PCs (Dell, HP, Gateway, etc...)are: You decide what to put in the box to suit your needs. You have the flexibility of picking your own motherboard, CPU, hard drive, video cards...etc., and your own choice of the system case style and color.  Another big advantage of custom-built PCs is the ease of upgrading. 

With brand name PCs, you might need to order proprietary parts from manufacturers and can be costly. However, not everybody is that technically inclined or have the time to build a computer him or herself.

Unlike general consumer electronics such as TVs and Hi-Fi stereos where brand names are mostly associated with quality. However when considering the quality of a computer, brand name parts are more important than a brand name computer as a whole. Of course, brand name computers do have their advantages: they enjoy the economic of scales, therefore they can possibly offer lower prices and standardized support.

Today's PCs are quite powerful, any entry-level PCs will suit the needs for school and office work.  You can get a very good PC for less than $1000. The most important criteria is what you will do with your PC most the time. Is it for serious game playing or just for office work?  I believe today's consumers are smarter than ever before. With the convenience of online shopping, you can do some comparison shopping and research.  Please keep in mind that when comparing computer systems, make sure you compare them at the component level. You get what you pay for. Here are two of my favorite on-line computer stores: TigerDirect.com and the Dell Home Computer Store if you are a Dell fan. Often times you can find great deals on eBay and uBid online auction too.

To save you some sales tax money, I recommend to buy your computer online with out of state companies. Just make sure you check out their sales tax policy first. For example, TigerDirect.com won't charge you sales tax if you live outside of Florida, North Carolina, and Illinois. For big ticket items, the saving from sales tax should be enough to cover the shipping charge and still have some change left, especially if you live in some high sales tax region such as California.

What to look for in desktop PCs -

Personal computers have gone through many changes, mainly based on the processor which is the brain of the computer.   Before the 80286 processor, there are 80880 and 80886 processors.  Subsequently, there are 80386, 80486, Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III and the latest Pentium 4 based processors. These processors are developed by Intel.  AMD is another computer processor producer which makes the Duron and Athlon processors. They are the equivalent to Intel's Celeron and Pentium 4 processors.  

What make PCs so popular is the low cost and the availability of software programs. Sure, the Mac users might make fun of the Windows' blue screen of death, but with the latest Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems, PCs are lot more stable and easy of use than before. If you are looking for bargain and inexpensive software programs, PCs still can't be beaten. 

also know as the central processing unit (CPU), is the most important component in a computer.  Basically, when it comes to the choice of processors, you can either go with Intel's Celeron and Pentium 4 or AMD's Duron and Athlon. When running with Windows XP, Pentium 4 and Athlon are faster than Celeron and Duron, and so they cost more. The processor's clock speed is measured in megahertz (MHz), millions of cycles per second, or gigahertz (Ghz), billions of cycles per second. Unless you need the maximum performance from you PC - typically for 3D games, video editing or engineering application, the midrange athlons and Pentium 4s offer the best value. As for the difference between Athlon and Pentium 4, the athlon performs better than Pentium 4 at the same clock speed and delivers more speed per dollar overall. The Pentium 4 currently runs some multimedia application faster. The best strategy in choosing which CPU is to perform comparison shopping. Mix and match to see which offers the best value for you.

To learn about the latest PC processors, you can visit Intel and AMD's websites.

Another important aspect in what to look is memory or RAM (Random Access Memory).  Nowadays memory is cheap, but price varies from different vendors. Comparison shopping is the key. Do not settle for less than 256MB if you want to run Windows XP.  There are different types of memory chips.  Used in many Pentium 4 PCs, the Rambus (RDRAM) memory costs significantly more than other type of RAMs. However, Pentium 4 PCs based on Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) don't perform as well as the RDRAM based P4 systems.  The AMD Athlon systems support either SDRAM or the slightly faster Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM.

Hard Drive

Hard drives come in different flavors: IDE, SCSI and the latest Serial ATA interface.  SCSI hard drives are generally faster and more expensive. They are mostly used in Servers.  IDE hard drive are commonly use in desktop PCs. They cost less and offer pretty good performance. The two specifications to watch are capacity and rotational speed. A 20GB hard drive has enough capacity for most applications, but with hard drive price so low these days, you can get double or triple that capacity for just a little extra and we all tend to fill up the hard drive quickly with games, music and video. As for speed, I suggest you don't want to settle for less than 7,200rpm hard drives, even though the 5,400rpm ones cost a little less.

When it comes to video options for your PC, there are many choices available. Prices range from less than $100 to more than $300.  Gamers usually need the fastest and latest 3D video card they can afford. There are two leaders in the video card business you might have already known about: Nvidia and ATI. Video cards now come with 128MB or more of memory.  Gamers should look for at least a 4X as opposed to a 2X, AGP (accelerated graphics port) and support for 3D graphics. There are 8X AGP video cards available now. The newest standard will be PCI Express. If video game is not your primary use of the PC, any regular video card will do the job just fine. If you use a LCD monitor, get a card with a digital visual interface (DVI) for the best image quality. Other feature you might consider: built-in TV turner if you want to watch TV on your monitor; a TV-out connector will enable you to hook you PC to your TV and and a TV-in connector enables you to capture video from a camcorder or other source. 

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are now getting more popular and a great alternative to the standard cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors. LCDs are much thinner which save valuable desktop space. They also consume much less electricity. LCDs best suit for office use as their display quality still can't match with CRT monitors in game playing. LCDs are still quite expensive as compare with the regular CRT monitors, but the prices are coming down fast. If you want to upgrade your PC, I definitely recommend a LCD monitor in the shopping list.

Today the PC's sound system is so good, that it can be a good alternative to the stand-alone stereo hi-fi system. One consideration is whether to pay a little extra for a speaker set that includes the subwoofer, which produces high-powered bass sound. Or you can go with the five-piece speaker system which capable of delivering the "surround sound" experience. To equally match the speaker system, you need a good quality sound card.  Creative Lab is the well known manufacturer of quality sound cards. Its Environmental Audio extensions (EAX) technology enables the creation of "listening environments" tailored to the geometry of a room. And the Aureal 3D (A3D) technology that matches the apparent location of sounds with the position of objects on the screen is a must for serious PC gamers. 

The CD-R/RW is a standard set up in a PC system today. It can almost replace the floppy drive and most certainly replace the regular CD-ROM drive. Some CD-R/RW drives can also read DVDs. The most desired set up is to have a CD-R/RW drive and a DVD drive installed.  As separate CD-R/RW and DVD drives allow you to rip music and copy CDs. With the DVD-RAM drive, you now can make your own DVDs. However, these drives are still quite expensive, but the price is gradually falling.

If you have the budget, a wireless keyboard and mouse will enhance your computing experience. They look good on your desk without the dangling cords. Logitch makes excellent wireless keyboards and mice so does Microsoft. For better control and precision, an optical mouse is a must. It's also available in wireless form.

You need a modem to connect to the Internet via a phone line. But to set up a home network or a broadband connection you need a network card installed. Both of these two items are very cheap these days. Even you don't use dialup for Internet Access Guide, it's still good to have as a backup in case your DSL or cable modem is down.

Most large PC makers like Dell offer good after-purchase support. Warranty service varies and may consist of a year of unlimited telephone support and onsite service. Smaller firms may ask you to send in the system or carry it to a service depot. For non technical users, longer than one year warranty service is available for extra charge. PC systems have a longer useful life than the computers of just a few years ago, so it's worth the extra charge and repair.

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