When selecting a computer, it is important to consider what it will be used for. Most people these days spend time on the internet, reading emails, working with documents, and doing basic photo or video editing.
If you are going to be doing more intensive work, or if gaming will play a major part in your computer usage, then you may want to check out their gaming, media editing, and workstation pages.
Since extremely high performance is not needed for the tasks most people do, it more important to focus on price/performance ratio, features, and aesthetics. Here is some more detailed information on each of these categories:
Price/Performance ratio: Even though top notch performance is not needed in an everyday computer, you still want to get the best value you can. This means looking for items that are only a small amount over the price of lower end models, and for which the next step up would command a significant financial outlay.
Another way of putting that is that you want to get the item which offers the most performance or size per dollar. This can be hard to judge sometimes on CPUs and video cards, but it is easy to check on memory (RAM) and hard drives.
Features: Most computer users do not need exotic hardware like a physics card or TV tuner, but there are items that almost everyone can use. You want to make sure you do not leave out any features which might want or need, but avoid ones that you do not plan to use (so that you are not wasting money).
Here are some examples of common devices that people find useful in or with a computer: CD/DVD burner, memory card reader, system restore disc, uninterruptable power supply. There are also a whole host of external peripherals like webcams that can be purchased separately, so do not forget to budget for those as well.
The newer dual core CPU does enjoy a fair advantage in a few categories. Dual Processor systems tend to be very noisy, and do not have a very wide selection of motherboards. The dual core systems are much cooler and quieter, and enjoy a widely supported array of motherboards to choose from.
It is also important to have a hearty amount of RAM in your photo/video editing computer. Depending on the size of the files you are working with, you might even end up using whatever the maximum limits of your motherboard allows.
Hard drive selection often comes down to a blend of speed and size, with many users selecting an ultra fast hard drive for their OS and current working files, and a larger, slower drive for mass data storage.
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