What kind of specifications do I need for a computer? Here are some guidelines so you'll know what to tell your computer vendor.
Before we start
The following guide will help you decide what specifications for a regular desktop computer (sometimes called "workstations,") will be applicable for your business. If you're looking for a "Server" computer, we'll discuss that in another article. This guide also applies to Windows-compatible computers. If you're looking for Macintosh branded computers, we'll also be discussing that in another article.
Processor and motherboard
Your computer's processor (or CPU) is the heart of your computer, and largely dictates how fast your system runs. The two major manufacturers of desktop processors, Intel and AMD, manufactures for high- and low-end use. For high-end use, there's the Intel Pentium 4 and the AMD Athlon processors. For low-end use, there's the Intel Celeron and the AMD Duron processors. Low end processors are fine for regular office tasks such as word processing, spreadsheets, and simple databases and accounting. For handling lots of programs at a time, complex image, video, or audio editing, you'll need a high-end processor. Speed is measured at Megahertz (GHz), and most processors start out at 1.8GHz. The faster the speed, the better.
Memory and storage
Your computer's memory (or RAM) takes care of holding all running programs at once. The more memory you have, the more programs you can run at the same time without slowing down your computer. For older operating systems such as Windows 98 or ME, 128MB (megabytes) is fine. For newer operating systems like Windows 2000 or XP, you'll need at least 256MB of RAM. For high-end use, have at least 512MB installed.
Your computer's storage, which includes your hard disk and CD or DVD drives, is where you put or get data (such as documents, spreadsheets, pictures, audio, or video), and programs which are not running. Hard disk capacity is measured in Gigabytes (GB), one GB equal to roughly 1 billion letters or numbers (or around 250,000 pages of text). Get at least 40GB, which will let you store data for the next couple of years. On the other hand, if you're working with a lot of photos, movies, or videos, you can go up to a 250GB hard disk depending on your budget.
You will usually be asked what kind of optical drive you need. These drives are used to install programs that you buy, or save data to blank CDs or DVDs (much like your floppy disk). For data storage, CDs hold around 650MB to 800MB of data (around 500 floppy disks), and DVDs hold about 4.7GB to 8GB of data (around 7 to 10 CDs). For basic use, get a CD writer (or CD-RW) which lets you read and write CDs for backup. If you have a lot of data, or are intending to create DVDs, get a DVD writer.
There's more!
Graphics card, display, ports, and connectivity will be discussed on part 3 of this article coming soon.
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