Knowledge Is Power: How To Buy A Computer :: essays research papers

Knowledge is Power How To spoil A Com entraperBuying a personal figurer send packing be as difficult as buying a political machine. No matter how over a good deal one investigates, how many dealers a person visits, and how often bargaininga person has done on the price, he chill out may not be unfeignedly certain that he hasgotten a good deal. There are good reasons for this uncertainty. Computerschange at much faster rate than any other kind of product. A two-year-old carwill always get a person where he wants to go, merely a two-year-old computer maybe completely inadequate for his needs. Also, the ordinary person is nottechnically savvy enough to make an sure decision on the best processor tobuy, the right size for a hard drive, or how much memory he or she really needs.Just because buying a computer can be misidentify does not mean one should throwup his hands and put himself at the mercy of some salesman who may not neck muchmore than he does. If one would follow a fewer sanctioned guidelines, he could beassured of making a wise bribe decision.A computer has only one purpose to pack programs. slightly programs require morecomputing power than others. In order to enter out how powerful a computer theconsumer needs, therefore, a person essential first determine which programs he wantsto run. For many buyers, this creates a job. They cannot buy a computeruntil they know what they want to do with it, but they cannot really know allof the uses there are for a computer until they own one. This problem is not astough as it seems, however. The consumer should go to his local computer store,and look at the software thats available. Most programs explain their minimum ironware requirements right on the box. After looking at a few packages, itshould be pretty clear to the consumer that any mid-range strategy will run 99% ofthe available software. A person should only need a top-of-the-line system forprofessional applications such as graphic desig n, video production, orengineering. Software tends to lag behind hardware, because its written toreach the widest possible audience. A program that only works on the fastestPentium Pro system has very limited sales potential, so most programs written in1985 work just fine on a fast 486, or an entry-level Pentium system. Moreimportantly, very few programs are optimized to take advantage of a Pentiumspower. That means that even if the consumer pays a large premium for the fastest