by Jane.PH

Created on: August 24, 2008   Last Updated: August 26, 2008

Acquiring a computer is considered an investment. And perhaps, just like any other investments, the procurement of which should be well thought of before you shed your pocket of that hard-earned money.

Not every single individual who has or buys a computer know in the first place what computer specifications they are after, let alone know what these specifications mean or its impact to the over-all performance of this new age machine. Most consumers are simply relying on what the sales person advices them of what a good computer unit is. Others would look at the bottom line where the currency symbol is, while some would depend on what catalogues or brochures say.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself and guide you in knowing what want or what is what before buying a computer.

WHAT KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF A COMPUTER SHOULD I FOCUS ON?

Intel Core Duo Processor 2.5GHz, 3GB memory, 250 GB SATA, 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro... What? These are like the common description you will find next to a computer system on display or when surfing the web looking for a computer to purchase online. But, do they mean anything to the common non-technical-I-am-just-a-simple-computer-user individual? For the non-techies, these specifications don't mean a thing. Unless you are dead-serious in understanding what you are investing on, you would do an in-depth research on what these stuffs are.

The important factors to research on are processor, hard drive space, memory, graphics card, optical drives, ports and expansion slots.

The PROCESSOR dictates the computer's speed and power. Most computers now have processors that come in gigahertz. Anything less than that would not guarantee you the performance you may be after (unless you plan to use MS-DOS, Lotus 1-2-3, and those other primitive softwares). You can choose from single core, dual core and multi processors. Dual core would give you a faster system compared to a single core processor, as multi processor would guarantee you the best performance of them all. But that would depend on what applications you plan to run and what type of computer user you are.

The HARD DRIVE is your computer's storage and the one that you would mostly have interaction and knowledge of. You might notice wordings like SATA or PATA on computer specifications that is the hard drive more specifically how it is connected internally to your computer. The one thing you should be particular about when choosing your hard drive is its capacity. Most hard drives

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