Computers and Internet « Jowanna’s Weblog

I Want it Now … I Want it Fast … I want it Cheap!

This blog is dedicated to Rey. Your questions made me take of my business hat for a minute and put on my old dusty geek hat!

Facebook, YouTube, webcams, and other social network tools have forced many of my family and friends to become more technology-aware or shall I say – more technologically traumatized. After the receipt of a few emails and calls from my loved ones, I decided to share some basic tips on the area that causes the most grief – purchasing a personal computer (PC). Everyone wants a computer that does everything … fast. Many people share the misconception that the more memory a computer have, the faster it would run … it’s not that simple. Below I give a bird’s eye view of some things you want to consider when buying that real fast machine that does everything with a shoe string budget.

Processing Speed

The processing speed or the clock speed is one of the factors that determine how fast your computer runs. It measures the clock speed of your computer. A traditional processor has a single core. This means the processor orders, executes and finds somewhere to store them in cache. A dual core processor runs faster because you have two processors working at the same time.

We’ll use Wal-Mart as an example. They have many cashier stations. Some self-serving, others limit the amount of items you may have and some are full-service. Let say you have one cashier station open and there are ten customers in line. The customers will be the instructions that are in order. The cashier represents the processor. He or she takes each instruction (customer) one at a time, executes the instruction (rings up the items) and puts them in a bag set up in the bagging station (cache – the temporary holding place). He or she may then transfer the bag to your cart or give you the “these bags ain’t gonna move themselves” look.

Now if you open up two cashier stations, then you have two cashiers working at the same time.

Recommendations: I would recommend a dual core processor. There are other numbers I can throw behind that but then it will make your eyes glaze over!

Random Access Memory (RAM)

The RAM is the place a computer stores things so that it can be accessed when it needs it. Think of RAM as the temporary holding place. The computer can retrieve program and data from this place rather quickly. The only thing is that once the computer is turned off, this storage area clears. Have you ever noticed that it may take a long time to run a program the first time, but after that initial time, you can access it quickly?

In terms of our cashier example, we can think two areas of RAM. The bag holding station is one area. The holding station eventually fills up and the cashier has to place the bags in the cart. The cart can be considered temporary storage … I guess the customers mode of transport can also. The cart has a bigger RAM than the holding station and the car has a bigger RAM than the cart. Regardless of the size of the “RAM” the groceries do not stay in any of these temporary storage areas forever … unless you are like my children who occasional leaves oh let’s say milk or meat in the car and then we “discover” it later … after a hot, hot day.

Recommendations: I would recommend at least 1 GB. Just remember it does not matter how much RAM you have if you only have one sloowww cashier (processor).

Hard Drive

Your hard drive is your permanent storage. I mentioned that your computer loses recollection of anything in RAM once it is turned off. For you men out there, the hard drive is your girlfriend/mother/wife’s long-term memory. And yes most things from our short-term memory are transferred to our long-term memory! Have you ever downloaded a document from the Internet? Usually it asks you if you want to open it or save it. If you just open it, it is in a temporary holding place but if you choose to save it, then it is permanently stored on your computer.

Back to our example – you drive home with a car full of groceries. If you are like some lucky people, you call your indentured servants (hubby and kids) and have them transfer the groceries to the pantry. Think of the pantry as your permanent storage place. I have a small pantry while I know some friends with pantries that are as big as a small bedroom.

Recommendations: I will recommend at least 300 GB. I recommend getting an external hard drive too. I have this cute red drive (500 GB) that fits in my purse. I can use it on any computer to access the files on it (as long as the other computer has compatible software). This reminds me – remember that programs take up hard drive space and you do not want to use more than 80% of the hard drive space at anytime – bad things happen.

Video Card

I am not going to spend too much time here and believe me; the audience that this blog is intended for is NOT interested in hearing a detailed explanation … all you will hear is the garbled noise of Charlie Brown’s teacher talking!

Two things are important – chipset and memory. The chipset is a group of circuits that work together that are sold as one product. The memory is that thing we have been talking about – the storage. Were you as genius as I was – years ago when I bought my first laser printer (ignorantly snubbing my nose at ink jet printers), only to realize that I could not print all my neat graphics because I did not have enough memory … ah yes I have many first-hand stories like this that I could share.

Know there are different kinds of video cards. A VGA card normally uses the computer’s processor to execute video operations. A video capture card can read videos from TVs, VCRs and analog camcorders to the computer for editing or movie making. The quality of your video card determines the display size, format, and motion speed of your video. A 3D graphic accelerator card is a special card that increases the speed of three-dimensional movements … OK you had enough? Me to …

Recommendations: most IBM-compatibles come with decent graphic cards. Of course when it comes to graphics nobody beats a Mac – which is a different conversation. If you are a serious gamer – you are NOT looking at my blog for graphic advice. If you are … get some rest you have been gaming too hard.

Final Thoughts

Just know that memory or hard drive space does not decide everything. So when a salesperson is selling you on expandable memory, you need to consider how fast your computer will perform, the amount of hard drive space you have to add additional programs and what you plan to do with the computer. If you want to share videos or games, you want to get a pretty good video card. Ultimately, you can get an idea of what you need by looking at the requirements for the software you plan to add to your system.

But for most of my friends, I hope this gives you an idea of what to tell your sales person. For instance, you may want to mention that you plan to use the computer for your business, store images, make flyers or home movies. A great salesperson should be able to take it from there.

Jowanna Daley, MCP, MCSD, PMP
Independent Small Business Consultant and Microsoft Partner

References

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-dual-core-processor.htm

http://www.computer-adviser.com/computer-video-cards.html

http://www.pickyguide.com/computers_and_software/graphics_cards_guide.html