What to Buy

I am frequently asked what to look for in a computer.  Here is what I currently recommend and then some of the why behind the recommendations.

Manufacturers:  Pretty much any "name brand", IBM, HP, Compaq, Sony, Dell, Gateway
CPU:  AMD64 or AMD64x2 preferred if you have the money the new Intel Duo or Quad CPUs are the current performance leaders.  Stay away from Sempron and Celeron, these are low end CPUs and deliver lower performance.
Memory: 512MB or 1GB or better preferred, 2GB for Windows Vista (3GB maximum unless you plan on running the 64 bit version).
Hard Drive:  80GB or better - You'll be hard pressed to find a desktop system with a drive smaller than 200GB.
Monitor:  17" LCD, widescreen preferred.

Now for some of the why.

Memory is the biggest bang for the buck upgrade that you can do for a computer.  I highly recommend Crucial Memory.  You can go to Crucial's web site and it will walk you through finding the right memory for your computer.  You select the manufacturer and then your model and it will show you the memory you can use.  The more memory you have the better your computer will operate.  Computers running Windows 95 or 98 will not benefit from more than 256MB of RAM.  The minimum requirements are 128MB RAM.  As one of my instructors previously said, "That means it will boot with 128MB of RAM", it doesn't mean that it is going to be fun.  All 32 bit versions of Windows, everything before Vista and the 32 bit version of Vista, have issues addressing more than 3GB or RAM.  If you install more than 3GB you may not be able to access it, another way to put it, money wasted.

Hard Drive space really depends on what you are going to do with your computer.  The three main things that take up large amounts of space are movies, music, and pictures.  If you are not going to be storing a lot of any of those on your computer then 80GB will be fine.  If you are planning on storing a lot of pictures you will need a little more space, 120GB, every digital picture that my family has taken, 7,852, since March of 1999 only takes up 6.8GB.  If you plan on storing a lot of movies or music you should look at 200GB or better.  I have converted my entire CD collection to MP3s, 25,880 files, and they take up 127GB.  I have converted some of my DVDs so I can watch the on the computer and not tie up my optical drive.  The 15 DVDs I currently have on my drive take up 80GB of space.  That should give you a general idea of how much space you may need.

The monitor is personal choice on whether you want an LCD, aka flat panel, or CRT.  LCDs take less power, don't weigh as much, and lets face it look cool.  CRTs are more flexible but are much heavier and draw more power.

LCD panels have what is called native resolution.  In native resolution one dot on the screen equals one dot that needs to be displayed.  If you change the resolution the LCD needs to adapt and you may have two dots on the screen equaling one dot that needs to be displayed, this can cause things to look distorted.  The other option is to put the image in a frame, kind of like letter box movies on a TV, to have the resolution match the display.  The higher the resolution the harder your video must work to keep the monitor supplied with information, this can cause some games to slow down.  Another possible issue is that some LCDs do not refresh quickly.  This can cause images to look blurred when in motion, which is why gamers have just recently started moving to LCD panels.  A refresh rate of 12ms (milliseconds) or better is normally considered to be okay for gaming.  I am currently using a Dell 2005FPW.  I play games and it works well, but at times I prefer my old 21" Viewsonic that I gave to my son.  Bringing up another point, a 15" LCD is actually 15" of viewable space, a 15" CRT is normally 14" of viewable space.

CRTs main advantage is that they are more flexible than the LCDs when it comes to displaying information.  A CRT is not locked into a specific resolution, so there is no quality difference at different resolutions.  A CRT is much heavier, my 20" LCD might weight 20 pounds, my 21" CRT is about 80 pounds and takes about four times the room front to back.  CRTs have no issues keeping up with fast moving data.  They do have an issue with florescent lighting.  AC power changes 60 times a second.  If your monitor refreshes at 60Hz then you may or may not notice a flicker on the screen, you may also get head aches and eye strain.  If you can change your refresh rate to 75Hz, provided your monitor supports it, this should go away.

Printers

A lot of people think they want a printer, only to purchase a printer and rarely use it.  If you are looking into purchasing a printer to print your digital pictures I highly recommend against it.

Printers are sold using razor blade marketing.  Razor blade marketing sells you the razor at a loss and then makes up the difference every time you have to purchase new blades, so the razor is cheap, the blades are expensive.  This is the case with most printers.  You can purchase a printer for less than the cost of the ink that goes in it.  So, now you're thinking I'll buy a printer and when it runs out of ink I'll just go buy a new one and sell or give away my old one.  While that sounds like a great idea most manufacturers give you "starter" ink cartridges when you purchase a new printer.  "Starter" cartridges contain less ink than the replacements.

Now, on to printing your digital pictures.   If figure out the actual cost involved it will cost you more money to print your pictures than it will to pay someone else to print them for you.  I'm going to use HP's least expensive printer, the HP Deskjet 3930, as my example printer.  This is just a random selection and is not meant to target HP as all manufacturers have the same issues.  The cost of the HP Deskjet 3930 is $39.99, dirt cheap.  Replacement cartridges are $14.99 for black and $17.99 for color.  When you buy the printer it doesn't come with everything you need, you still have to purchase a cable to connect it to your computer, $19.99 for a  six foot cable and $24.99 for a nine foot cable.  Probably not a good idea to spring for the extended warranty on this item, $29.99 for two years, $34.99 for three years.  So, you get your cheap,  $59.98 for just the printer and cable, printer home.  Here is HP's cost per page calculator for their printers.  Maybe we should have bought those extra cartridges, the black cartridge is good for 150 pages, the color is good for 140.  So we go back to the store and buy one of each bringing our new total to $92.96.  Whoops, forget the paper.  You're going to want your pictures on Kodak paper right?  Kodak paper is $.30 a sheet for an 8 1/2" by 11" sheet, new total is now 122.95.  Now, you can print one 8x10 or two cropped 5x7 or three 4x6 pictures per page and you get to cut them yourself.  So, a 5x7 picture is going to cost you $.15 for paper plus ink and you get to cut it out yourself, if you make a mistake you get to print it again and the price doubles.

Here is what I suggest, have someone else print your pictures, the advantages are lower cost and less frustration.  Here are some sites that you can upload your pictures to and they will print them out for you and send them to you at very reasonable rates.  I have only used Snapfish and the Kodak Gallery (when it was Ofoto).  Most of these sites also allow you to share your pictures on line with friends and family.

Snapfish - $.09 photos, first 20 free (already less than your cost for paper.)

Kodak Gallery - previously Ofoto, first 20 free $.15 for 4x6 (Just what you pay for paper)

Walmart - $.09 photos

Walgreens - Requires free account, $.10 photos when you order 30

Winkflash - $.08 for first time orders up to 75 prints, must use this link, $.12 after.

Shutterfly - $.12

Dotphoto - $.08 until December 31st

That should give you a good idea of why you should let someone else print your digital pictures.