Buying Desktop

One of my friend wanted to buy a powerful computer and in India you have lot of options to customize it. But painful part to how to get a good deal.

Few most important components of an assembled machine.

Processor, Motherboard, RAM, Hard Disk, Monitor, DVD Drive, Key board, Mouse, Speakers.

Now this is not to educate you how to assemble or something of that sort... but thought it will be helpful to share my research saving you some trips to shops,( save some GAS : Go Green ) and couple of phone calls.

Take a piece of paper , wait.. use Notepad if possible ( save Paper : Go Green )

Processor:
Choosing right processor is the key for any powerful machine. I am big fan of AMD but india Intel is the leader ( I think so ). So first thing was comparing processors on Intel.com ( Intel processors ), Also you can search within intel.com. One important thing I found that Intel does have Bulk prices given for processors ( Prices in $$ , but you know the conversion..right ) . This will give you idea on the price of the processor.

Mother board:
Once you finalize the processor , you can check the compatible motherboard on Intel website itself. Prices are not given here, so you can get an idea from Nehru Place Delhi prices .

RAM:
One thing most of first time buyer doesn't understand is RAM prices, why 1 GB RAM has so many different price. So answer is 2 important characteristics of RAM. RAM are either DDR1 ( out-dated ) , DDR2 ( most home PCs uses this as of date ) , DDR3 ( a little high end ). So try to go for DDR2 RAM or higher. RAM also have different speed. Its like tires designed for designed for different speed. Common RAM speed are 800MHz , 1033 MHz, 1333MHz. Check If what your motherboard support and buy the highest speed RAM (i.e Motherboard supports 1033 and 1333MHz , then buy 1333MHz speed RAM )

Another aspect is how much of RAM enough. I will suggest check how much of the maximum RAM is supported by Motherboard and buy a minimum half of it. ( i.e. Mother board supports 8 GB , buy 4 GB ). Also check how many memory slots motherboard supports , try to book half of it to be able to scale in future (i.e. Motherboard support 4 slot , book only 2 for the time being ).

Hard Disk:
There are basically 2 different technologies in hard disk ( IDE and SATA ) for home desktops. IDE is not mostly outdated so go for SATA as it can scale a lot.

Monitor
There was nothing complicated except that do you need LCD ( sleek one ) or TV style monitor. Size is upto you, 15 inch or bigger is good. Make sure its adjustable and support good resolution. To enjoy a High Definition movie , 1980x1080 is the best resolution, but anything higher than 1200x1024 is good I think.

Video RAM:
This is another kind of RAM and usually most of the motherboard does have some amount of Video RAM in-build like 128MB-256MB , but you might have to buy additional Video RAM in case you are into gaming. Check the game requirements online which you want to play on your PC.

DVD Drive:
22x , 24x are good speed for DVD buring.

Keyboard:
This was a surprise for me. Most of the key-boards are PS2 and lot of motherboards doesn;t have a PS2 inlet these days. So make sure you buy USB based Keyboard.

Mouse:
Same thing applies to mouse also.. PS2 vs USB.
Also one important thing is that size of the mouse. Don't buy to small of a mouse ( like for laptops ) .. your hand will be twisted while using it and you will feel the pain sooner or later). My recommendation.. buy full size mouse

Other things:
Speakers : Upto to you
Cabinet : Upto to you

What next:
Now you have done your home work of what you need. Start making some calls.

I bought it from CTC , Surana Computers : suranacomputers@hotmail.com . Tell my name 'Sandeep' , you might get a additional discount :)

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