ASK THE GEEK ON CALL

Hello, this is the first installment for this blog. As time goes on I hope to help the every day Joe perform computer maintenance, repair and upgrade their personal computers without the cost or help of a computer technician!!
The first area that I am going to get into is knowing what to look for when you purchase a new computer, I am going to keep it simple folks, just follow the following list of items and you should have no problems or questions when you decided to invest in your first PC!!!
1) Memory is:

The capacity for storing information on an electronic device such as a PC, camera, or printer. In a PC, memory is the "holding place" for instructions and data that can be quickly accessed by the microprocessor. Also known as ram, folks simply put its just a chalk board that your PC takes notes on and stores the notes until they are no longer needed.
2)Processor is:

The control unit and brains of a computer or printer; where most calculations take place. The higher the megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz), the more powerful the device, in other words folks this is the heart of your PC the stronger the better, actually in this case it would be faster retrieval of information stored on your PC.

3)The hard drive is: The main disk used for storing and retrieving information inside a PC. The bigger the better, because today's software programs take up a lot of space, and if your hard drive is small this will slow down the performance of your PC.
4)What is it that you plan to do with your PC, play games, surf the web, organize your business, organize your movies and photos?

You may get flustered with the technical jargon that you find on a web site or the packaging found on the side of a box or web page that looks a lot like this:


General Features

Operating system Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium

Processor Intel Pentium Dual-Core Processor E2160 (2)

Memory 2048MB

Memory speed PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM

Total memory slots 2 DIMM

Maximum memory expansion Expandable to 2GB

Graphics Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with 64MB

TV and entertainment experience N/A

PCI expansion 2 PCI slots (1 available), 1 PCI Express (x16), 1 PCI Express (x1)

Hard disk drive(s) 300GB 7200RPM SATA [gigabyte is defined as 1,000,000,000 bytes, accessible capacity may vary]

Primary CD/DVD drive SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology

Secondary CD/DVD drive N/A

Communications Integrated 10/100Base T-network interface

Sound card High Definition Audio

Speakers 6 speaker configurable

Front-side bus (processor dependent) 800MHz Front Side Bus

Power supply N/A

I/O ports Front panel 15-in-1 memory card reader, 6 USB 2.0 ports (2 Front, 4 Back),Headphone; Microphone (Front);2 PS/2; LAN; Microphone/Line-in/Line-out; VGA-out (Back)

Software - full versions Photosmart Essential to manage your digital photos; Roxio Creator featuring LightScribe Technology: Edit, burn and archive data to to DVDs and CDs; muvee autoProducer Basic: Automatically create professional looking home videos videos and burn to DVD; Roxio MyDVD Basic: Make movies and slideshows and burn to DVD or CD; Microsoft Works 8: Includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database and calendar; Adobe Reader 8.0: Read and print PDF files; HP Total Care Advisor: Customizable desktop tool provides support, system health and shopping information

Software - introductory versions Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 Trial: 60-day trial version(14) Norton Internet Security 2007: Protect your PC out of the box (60 days of complimentary live updates)

Trial Internet service Easy sign-up to major dial-up and broadband Internet Service Providers:(16) - AOL Basic Dial-Up (offer included) - AOL Dial-Up Advantage (offer included) - AOL High Speed (offer included) - MSN dial-up (offer included) - NetZero Dial-Up (offer included) - NetZero Accelerated Dial-Up (offer included) - EarthLink dial-up (offer included) - EarthLink High Speed (offer included) - High Speed Internet Services Comparison Shopping

Dimensions 16.77 x 6.67 x 14.85 in

Basic warranty One year of hardware parts and labor coverage, 90 day software toll-free phone assistance
Make affordable, silkscreen-quality disc labels without a printer with Lightscribe technology

Find out more about Intel Core Duo processors.

Confusing uh?!!

But I want you to just remember that what is the most important features that concern your purchase are the "MEMORY" the "HARD DRIVE" and the "PROCESSOR", why only these 3 items? Well that is because those 3 items really do dictate just how well your PC perform!!! But wait, if you remember, in step 4 I asked you what you planned to do with your PC? Well than step 5 of your evaluation is related to step 4 of your purchasing decision.
5)Digital media card reader is like a floppy drive, its used for digital camaras, and so forth, folks its a slot where you put that little sd card that you bought for extra storage for your camara, your mp3 player, even your cell phone, it allows you to transfer the stored data to your PC!!
5a) Graphics card, is it intergrated or not? Why is this important? Because if you purchase a PC and plan to play games on your PC than you want the best card you can buy. With that being said let me explain what intergrated means, simply put its a chip attached to your mother board(the main circuit board inside your PC,its what the processor is attached to, its the arteries of your PC), this means that upgrading it in the future is a big pain in the butt, if you can. My suggestion is to purchase a PC that has a graphics card that fits into an "AGP" slot on the mother board or a "PCI" slot on the mother board. The "AGP" and the "PCI" slot cards have on board ram and the higher the better!!! Just like your memory!!!! The integrated video card is something that you would do best to by a PC with the best specs this way you shouldn't have any problems with any games or other software performing like you want and expect, the best way to find out if you are getting the best is to contact the manufacturer, tell them your plans for the type of games or software that you plan to run on your PC. This will assure that you have the proper video card in your PC from the get go. I say this because a lot of companies are starting to use intergrated graphics instead of graphics cards, why? Its cheaper to produce!!
6) Sound card is:
An expansion card for a PC that allows playback and recording of sound, such as from a WAV or MIDI file or an audio CD in a CD-ROM drive. I can only say that if you plan on making music or using your PC to DJ then you may want to spend a little more cash for the best card available at the time, most PC's come with a sound card that is very sufficient for just about anything you choose to do these days.
Well now I truly hope that this will help you by that PC that will give you everything you want out of it and more. UNTIL NEXT TIME JUST REMEMBER TO ASK THE GEEK!!!!