How to Buy Computer Hardware

"If your computer makes you money, then spend money on it" Buy the most powerful system on the market, add more RAM and upgrade the monitor and hard drive. If your budget is limited, then balance current needs, budget, and future needs and formulate a plan for what to buy now and what can be added without throwing anything away.

If you are buying your first computer, most likely you will consider that system under powered in six to 12 months and will want to upgrade. If you have a computer at work and purchase one for the home office, you will underestimate how much you will work on it and which programs you will use etc. To be satisfied with your computer purchase you should KNOW what you want to get out of your hardware now. Unfortunately you NEVER know what you will want in a year or two, or what your software will require. To maximize your investment, define clearly what you want to get out of your system, learn the order in which you should buy your system, and plan to replace your system in 18 to 24 months. You can minimize this if you buy in a logical order. Your circumstances need to be treated uniquely, but the general order will hold for most users.

1. BUY BACKWARDS
   Define clearly what you want to get out of your system. If you need presentation quality printouts buy the printer first, then buy the software to get the results you want. Only then are you ready to buy the hardware to run the software.

   If you play games, buy the monitor first, then the game software, and then the hardware to make that run as you would like (fast hard drive, RAM, video card).

2. BUY FOR THE NEAR TERM
   Don't look at what you might need next year or the year after. Buy the hardware and software to meet your needs now and all but ignore the future.

   Many people expect yesterday's hardware to run today's software. Remember how quickly the 286 was outdated? Note the MINIMUM hardware requirements for today's software. A 486/25 is underpowered to run today's desk top publishers and operating systems. A Pentium is recommended on many new games.

3. BUY THE CASE
   A tower with at least three large (5-1/4") bays, and two small (3-1/2") bays that you can access from the outside. It should have a 250W power supply and hold at least two hard drives. This configuration allows for two floppy drives, a CD drive, a tape back up and one additional device. It should accept 'standard' motherboards (no built in ports, and normal mounting screw hole locations). For easy access, service, expandability, and heat dissipation from the CPU, the larger the better.

4. BUY QUALITY INTERFACE PARTS
   The monitor, keyboard, printer, software and mouse/trackball. These will get the most direct use and spending money on these items is well worth it. When you upgrade, you will not need to replace these items. If you upgrade these, you are throwing something away to do it so avoid this if at all possible. Don't skimp on your comfort because if the system is not comfortable to use, you'll avoid your computer.

5. BUY THE POWER
   The motherboard, CPU, RAM and hard drive will probably be upgraded regardless of what you buy now, so don't feel the need to over spend. When the hard drive gets too small, (hard drives fill up very quickly) simply add another one. When you need more RAM, add to what you already have. If the CPU gets too slow, replace the chip. If the motherboard proves inadequate, replace it and your CPU.
   • Motherboard
     The motherboards generally have standard mounting holes, so one can easily replace another with some notable name brand exceptions. This upgrade is the least friendly of the lot and is generally not recommended. Most salespeople say this is an option, (technically it is) but I would rather overspend here and not have to upgrade. When it comes time to retire this system, give it to the kids and buy a new high powered system. If you decide to upgrade make certain your motherboard will fit in your case.

   • CPU
     The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is where all the work is done. Buy the fastest CPU you can afford. You can under buy and upgrade later if the motherboard allows this upgrade, however, this is fairly expensive and you throw away the old CPU.

   • RAM
     Random Access Memory (RAM) comes in a variety of sizes and shapes. Make sure you buy what fits on your motherboard. If the motherboard has four slots for RAM, and you buy four megabytes, try to get it on one unit. This allows you to add memory without having to throw out what you already have.

     If you buy four 1-meg units, all four slots are full. To add RAM, you need to empty one slot, throw away what is in there now, and add a four meg unit. This only brings you to seven megabytes of memory (4+1+1+1). However, if you originally bought one 4-meg unit, you have three empty slots, so you can add another 4-meg unit, and your total is eight meg (4+4). This also allows for future expansion without throwing anything away. If your budget is tight, you can skimp on RAM with wise use of your space.

   • Hard Drives
     Most newer computer systems can support up to four separate hard drives. This allows you to initially skimp on hard drive space. Consider a minimum of 540 MB to start ($0.35 /meg). Prices of hard drives are on an upside down bell curve - - size across the bottom, and cost per megabyte up the side. The trick is get the best value at the time (the bottom of the curve). Currently (Spring 96) that is about 1000 to 2000 MB ($0.20 to 0.25 /meg). When you out grow it, add another one.

6. BUY THE ACCESSORIES
   Video card, sound card, CD, controller cards, modem, etc. All these accessories offer hundreds of choices, from very cheap and barely functional, to expensive and truly cool. The costs add up quickly, but are controllable. The table below shows typical mail order prices and capability of these components.

   Price Comparison (Early '97)

   Item		Low End		High End
   Video card	$20	256k 16 colors	$350	4MB 16 Million colors
   Sound card	$30	8 Bit	$400	All kinds of cool stuff
   Speakers	$10	Makes noise	$300	Surround Sound
   CD	$40	Single speed	$1000	Masters your own
   In/Out card	$10	Game and printer ports	$100	High Speed
   Modem	$25	2400 Baud	$200	33.6 Fax, Voice
   Hard drive card	$30	2 IDE Drives	$350	SCSI Master
   Printer	$200	9 pin dot matrix	$1400	12 PPM, 4 MB RAM
   Scanner	$100	hand held B&W	$1400	Single pass w/ software
   Cost	$465	for low end	$5,500	for high end

   
   
   

   The differences in prices and capabilities are tremendous and you can easily escalate the cost of your system. If you cannot afford what you want, buy something functional within your budget. When you do upgrade and throw out the replaced component, your loss is minimal. Be careful not to go too low, because you will be forced to upgrade earlier than expected. A comfortable range is about 4 to 6 times the low cost. This gets reasonably useful components without spending too much money on a throwaway component.

   A caution to people who have a price target, but are not buying because they are waiting for better equipment for the same money next month. As soon as you buy that "dream system" your comparison changes. Now you will be saying, 'How much is this system today?'. Generally you lose 5-10% before the first month is over, making it difficult to remain excited about this dream system, when it is losing value faster than you are paying for it. Be aware of this from the start and it won't hurt so much.

   Keeping in mind this purchasing plan, and protecting your upgrade ability, will extend the life of your investment. Even by following this advice, your system may still need to be upgraded every 12 to 18 months (adding memory, upgrading cards etc.) and replaced outright in four years (due to greater demands by software).

Ben Davies | "The Computer Guy"
Computer Service...in Plain English!

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bdavies@mlcu.com