What’s to know when buying a computer?

Portable (Notebooks, laptops): they gain in mobility, they lose on the ergonomic aspect, they tend to be more expensive and less efficient from the energy point of view that a PC. Its durability is less problematic and costly and update.

PC (desktop): gain in ergonomics, energy efficiency and plasticity, i.e., accept new elements of internal hardware for updating. Now before we begin, we must consider what use we will give to the computer. There are differences between Gaming PCs for work tasks, to surf the Internet, listen to music, watch videos, etc.

Three options:

If you choose the option video games, we have to keep in mind that the processor and video card should be powerful, the monitor should be large and with good resolution, usually the PC for this option is recommended, although there are very powerful laptops in the market, but at a very high cost.

If we choose to work or household tasks, as well as surfing the internet, you do not need a powerful computer, but guide us to have a good RAM, a bigger hard drive, plenty of ports, and disk drives. It is very important to focus on comfort and ergonomics rather than solely on the technical conditions: it is important to check the position to remain so long in front of the PC and this requires the choice of screen, mouse and keyboard, being PC offers the most options in this regard.

If we choose to store lots of portable audiovisual material is preferable. The most important items are a large hard drive and high connectivity (USB ports, HDMI output media, SD card slot, bluetooth, wi-fi), a good reader of CD – DVD – Blu ray (use resist reading and intensive) writing. The screen should not necessarily be very large, but if you must have a good resolution.

Operating System??

Windows is the most ideal operating system for the average user, searching for a more complete experience and is willing to pay more money, Apple Mac OS is right, it is more convenient to use than Windows and is very intuitive. For users with more computer knowledge has numerous Linux distributions, some are very easy to use and also free.

How to know if the components are good?

Technical Approach:

Keep in mind that a computer is a set of components, and performance is obtained from the combination of them, the better are those components, better performance is expected (in theory, because it also depends on the software running). Basically, the components that we need to see are: microprocessor, RAM, Hard Drive.

Microprocessor (CPU)

It is certainly the most difficult to explain and the most deceptive, because no longer enough to compare the speed with which it works to know if a CPU is better than another. Then we will give brief information to take into account when analyzing a microprocessor.

– Just as the computer has a RAM memory, microprocessors also feature an integrated memory called CACHE. This memory is used to store information and is often faster than the RAM access, so whenever you can access the microprocessor CACHE RAM instead of saving time. But more does not mean better performance CACHE depends on which programs run.

– Previously, single-core processors had that processed all tasks, architecture begin to change until the introduction of multiple cores, each called CORE, ranging from 2 to 4 depending on the model. That means that each can execute tasks in parallel, eliminating long waiting time programs when the processor was very busy. This, coupled with greater CACHE favors the processor order tasks in several operations (or threads) to run simultaneously.

– The working speed of the processor (or more formally called frequency), measured in some form how fast it can process instructions. The unit of measure is in hertz (Hz), 1 Hertz is one cycle per second process, but today are used as multiples Megahertz (MHz) and gigahertz (GHz). Example processor working at 2GHz may perform 2,000,000 cycles / second.

In multi-core processors, the speed shown in the CPU corresponds to the speed of each core, but the speed should only consider if also value other performance characteristics.

RAM

It seems obvious that the greater number have, the greater the benefit. However it depends on other factors as the type of memory, i.e., the memory technology is in continuous progress. Today, DDR3 and DDR4 are called the third and fourth generation of a type of memory used double transmission, exceeding speed and efficiency over previous models. The reports also work at a rate: the unit for measuring the speed MHZ, which must adapt to the working speed and the rest of the system is limited by that motherboard can support. The higher this number, the access time to memory will be less (time elapsed from when a request is made to the memory and displays the result).

It also depends on the operating system you are using. Whether it is a 32-bit system does not recognize more than 3GB, if we use a 64-bit system is recognized up to the amount that supports the motherboard. How much memory to buy? This depends on the type of program you want to run a method is to look at the recommended software requirements.

Hard Drive

The general rule is, the more the better space, but we also have to consider other technical issues that affect the performance of a disk. The disk speed is measured in revolutions: the more speed the faster the disk and are usually 5400 rpm to 15000 rpm.

The connection, often usually see IDE or SATA. The first is the old connection, even though it is still used, as to the second there are two versions, SATA I and SATA II: the latter is the most convenient as it doubles the transfer. If you want more speed you must find a small hard disk with many revolutions, taking into account that the more revolutions per minute have will be more expensive.

Solid disks

These are called SSD. These discs are made with solid state memory, and are similar to the pendrive, but faster and with SATA II connection. They are smaller; they do not generate noise and heat. These advantages are invaluable because they allow laptops make it thinner and lighter.