If your computer runs slowly overall,a new processor can potentially improve the performance.The motherboard and the processor work as a team and most motherboards work with only a short list of processors.Motherboard is the big circuit board inside the case that every thing plugs into.The capabilities of the motherboard you have determine the processor you can use, the type amount of memory you can have ,the video card type and more.A computer that uses an old processor is probably an old computer with other old components.The hard disk is probably small,and the memory insufficient for today's programmes.It is cheaper to buy a whole new computer than to upgrade individual parts on it.
There are two kinds of processors you can buy: Replacement processors and Upgrade processors.Replacement processors are "regular"processors,the same type you would buy if you were creating a whole new system.Your system is a good candidate for a replacement processor if your motherboard's manual indicates that it can accept a faster processor than what you currently have."Upgrade processors"are designed to work with a variety of motherboards and to replace a variety of existing processors.These typically double or even trible the speed(in MHz)of your current system.
Lack of adequate memory is one of the most common reasons a computer runs slow.When there is not enough memory ,windows relies heavily on virtual memory which is slow and inefficient.
Memory Types:-When you want to purchase memory be sure to know what kind of memory your system needs.The memory sold these days are of two types:-SIMMs(Single Inline Memory Modules) and DIMMs(Dual Inline Memory Modules).Newer the system more likely it uses DIMMs.
SIMMs are found in 486 and some pentium systems.SIMMs come in 72-pin or 30-pin sizes,72-pin being the most common.It comes in three varieties
1) True parity memory:- This memory is for systems that require parity memory.Many older 486 systems require true parity.Look for a 36 in the specifications for parity memory.,as in 16X36-60ns.
2) Fast page mode(FPM)memory.FPM is generic memory.It works in just about any system that requires non-parity memory and doesnot mention anything about EDO.Look for a 32 in the specifications for this,as in 16X32-60ns.
3)Extended out(EDO) memory.:-This is a newer,better kind of non-parity memory.Many of the pentium class systems use it.Most of the systems currently being sold use 168-pin dual inline memory modules(DIMMs).One variety,called S-DRAM DIMM,is the latest rage because it is faster and better than SIMM.You can find DIMM in PentiumII and Pentium III systems. YOu can buy memory modules in various denominations ranging from 256K(1/4 of MB)to 128 MB and higher.You need to make sure when choosing a denomination that your motherboard supports it and that you are not mixing denominations in a memory bank.Each DIMM slot is a bank unto itself,so you have not to worry with DIMMs;but most SIMM slots work in pairs and you must have the same denomination in each slot of pair. RAM also comes in different speeds,measured in nanoseconds(ns).A lower number is faster and faster is better.Most RAM you buy today is 60 ns,but you can buy 70 or 80 ns at a discount.
Determining the memory you need:-To determine what kind of memory to buy you need to know two things. 1)What open memory slots you have on your motherboard.
2)What type,speed,and denomination your motherboard accepts.
Hard disks are distinguished from one another in several ways: the interface they use,their capacity and how quickly they can read and write data.
Chosing an interface:-Your current hard disk is probably an IDE of some variety.These drives offer decent performance at a very good price,and they run on almost any computer.Your computer has built in support for four IDE devices, so you can probably add another IDE drive without buying anything extra.The most common types of IDE-compatible drives are EIDE(E stands for enhanced) and ATA-2,There is also a new IDE type,UltraDMA(UDMA)IDE which offers improved performance over other types of IDE drives.
you can also get SCSI(Small Computer Systems Interface) hard disks.These hook up to SCSI interface cards, so if you don't already have a SCSI interface card in your system,you need to buy one if you want to use a SCSI hard disk.SCSI hard disks are usually more expensive than IDE drives and are considered superior.
When chosing a new hard disk capacity always overestimate.you can buy anything from 1.2 GB to 100 G.B or more.In additiontn to capacity you also need to consider the physical size of the drive to fit in the space available in your computer.
Hard disks have two critical measurements.
1) Average access time:-It is the time it takes for the drive head to reach and read the average bit of data.It is measured in milliseconds(ms).The lower the number the faster the drive.A decent speed is 10ms.
2)Data transfer rate:- This measurement refers to how quickly data moves from the hard disk to memory.The higher the number the fater the rate.Look for adata transfer rate of 11 to 16 megabytes per second.Popular brands in hard disk include Maxtor,Western,Digital,Seagate,Quantum,and JTS.
Repartitioning the hard disk:-this is not necessary to correct system problems.The only reason to repartitionthe hard disk is to allocate the space on the hard disk in a different way.
Reformatting:-If you repartition,you also need to reformat.If you don't repartition,reformatting is optional.Formatting adrive wipes every thing from it:programmes,data,system files,startup files and so on.It provides a truely clean slate on which to reinstall,guaranteeing that the files that were causing the problem are eradicated.Reformatting is suggested in the following cases.
you just repartitioned your drive.In this case you must reformat.
Most of what is on your hard disk is junk you want to get rid of.
You already tried a cleal install in which you did not format and you are still experiencing problems.
You suspect your computer has a virus.
If you are running low on hard disk space following methods of streamlining will help.
Uninstalling unwanted programmes.
Removing Windows Components(word pad,Paint,Hyper Terminal,accessaries-calculator,any one or more.)
Deleting unwanted Data files.
(Remember not to delete files with the following extensions)
.exe,.com.bat(used for Programme)
.dll,.bin,.dat,.ocx(Helper files for programmes)
.sys,.ini,.inf(configuration or system files)
You can safely delete files with following extensions.
Screen size:-This refers to the diameter of the screen which range from 14 inches to 21 inches.When you see the listed size you may see two sizes like 17-inch(15.9-inch viewable);so while comparing the sizes of two monitors,compare the viewable size of the two,which really matters.
Maximum Resolution:-A monitor's maximum resolution refers to the maximum number of seperate dots it can display horizontally and vertically.Many small monitors can display up to 1024X768---that is 1024 dots across and 768 dots down.Larger monitors display much higher resolutions;the better quality the monitor,the higher its maximum resolution
Monitor Technology:-Your video display is made up of tiny dots.The dot pitch is the measurementof how close together the dots lie.A dot pitch of .28 is considered the min.adequate amount.Lower dot pitch is better.Higher dot pitch makes the picture less crisp.
The most common kind of monitor is called dot trio shadow mask.These monitors deliver clean edges and sharp diagonals which is important for showing text on screen.
Another kind of monitor has an aperture grille rather than dots.Their performance is measured in stripe pitch rather than dot pitch.Look for a stripe pitch of .25 or less.These monitors have superior brightness and contrast,but their poorer diagonals make them less well suited for diplaying text.
A third kind of monitor is a slot mask>It combines the attributes of a shadow mask and a aperture grille.It uses a .25mm mask with eleptically shaped phosphors.
The final kind of monitors,LCD, is mostly found on laptop computers..Some manufacturers are beginning to use LCD in large desktop monitors with stunning results.These monitors can be nearly flat and the displays are beautiful.
Interlacing and Refresh rate.To understand these factors we need to know abit about how monitors work.The screen is made up of tiny dots that contain particles that glow when alight hits them.A light gun(or a set of three guns:blue,red and green) moves very quickly over the monitor,dot by dot,making each dot glow with the appropriate color.Without being refreshed by the ligght gun,the particles in each dot fade quickly,so the light gun must refresh each particle hundreds of times per second.The rate at whichthe particles are refreshed with the light gun is the refresh rate.Some times the display appears flickering as a result of low refresh rate.
On some cheaper monitors ,the light gun simply cannot keep up;to compensate,the manufacturers use a scheme caled interlacingto keep the display readable.With interlacing,the light gun scans alternate horizontal lines, rather than every line, on each pass, so the gun can make twice the no. of passes in a given amount of time.Because the horizontal lines are so close together our eye cannot pick up that evry alternate line is not refreshed.
The best monitors are ones capable of non-interlaced operation and a high refresh rate.Look for a monitor with a maximum refresh rate of atleast 85KHz.
Other Monitor Features.:-Here are some extras which are oprional in a monitor.but are nice.
speakers
USB connectors
calibration controls to match printer out put to screen image color.
Clean back
Footprint:-If the space from back to front is an issue,go for a monitor with a shorter deapth.
CD-ROM drives come with speeds of 16x,24x, 24/32x and so on.The "x" here refers to the speed of CD_ROM drive originally manufactured.The speed is the speed of CD-ROM drive at which it is capable of reading information from the disc.Some time the manufacturers mention two speeds such as 24/32x which means it can read the data near the center of the disc at 32x.The outer part of the disc is read at a much slower speed (for example 16x).Though for playing games more speed may be necessary, it is probably not worth springing for a drive faster than 24x.Most soft ware in the stores today requires only an 8x or 16x CD-ROM drive.
CD Interfaces:-When CD-ROM drives first came in the market, the most popular models were SCSI(Small Computer System Interface) drives.You have to insert this special SCSI interface card into the computer's expansion slots in addition to buying the CD-ROM drive.There were improvements and the CD-ROM drive came with SCSI card i.e. you have not to buy and set up SCSI card seperately.
However the dominant type of interface today for CD-ROM drive is IDE.This is the same interface your computer's hard drives hook into,so it is already there in place -nothing extra to buy.Most motherboards let you have four IDE drives,so unless you have four seperate hard disks already,you probably have an open IDE connector.
DVD:-DVD drives are like super CD-ROM drives .They can read not only regular CDs but also special DVD disks,which can hold as much as 8.5 gigabytes.That is 133 minutes of video- an entire full-length movie.Newer DVD drives available today can also function as regular CD-ROM drives;so you can replace your computer's old CD-ROM drive with DVD.
What are CD-R and CD-RW:-CD-R is recordable CD-ROM drive which act just like regular CD-ROM drive except you can create your own CD-ROMs with them.CD-RW stands for CD-rewritable.With CD-R you can record to a disk only once.However with CD-RW you can record multiple times on the same disk.CD-RW drives also can perform like CD-R drives.If you are going to buy a DVD or CD-rewritable drive,go with a brand name.
A Modem is required to get online.Modems may be internal or external.Some may prefer to have internal modems as external modems require additional space.However external modems are less prone to problems caused by address conflicts because the serial port (COM1 or COM2) built into the system has a preassigned address.To assign a serial port to an internal modem, you some times have to set jumpers on it or run special software ,and it doesnot always work well.
The current standard for modems is 56KV.90. Almost all modems available in the stores today support this standard
Three technologies dominate the printer market: dot matrix,inkjet and laser.
Dot matrix:-The low end printer technology is dot matrix.It works by striking the paper with a series of little pins against a ribbon(like a type writer ribbon).In many ways ,a dot matrix printer is like an automated type writer except that instead of letter-shaped hammers, agroup of small pins changes position to form each letter.Dot matrix printers are nearly obsolete.
Inkjet:-Inkjet printers are the current favorite for home and office use because they are inexpensive, produce nearly laser quality output ,print fairly quickly and can print in color.
Laser:-They are very popular in business because of their razor-sharp text output and fast ,quiet operation.With a laser printer you are struck with black and white output only unless you want to spend much more on a color model.Upgrading laser printer technology is not simple matter of revising the ink delivery system by adding some extra cartridges, as it is for inkjet printers. The innards of a color laser printer are completely different than those of a black and white one.
Hybrid Printers:-These are printers combined with other devices such as a fax machine,a copier,a scanner and so on.These multifunction devices seem like a great value but the units may not work properly.ie. though the parts may not be unreliable but when the scanner goes out it is apt to take the printerwith it which is not the case if they are in seperate boxes.
Printing speed:-The printer's speed depends the technology it employs.Dot matrix is the slowest,followed by ink jet,with laser at the top of the speed.Speed varies from 8ppm (page per min)to 24 ppm on an average.The advertised speed is the max. speed and so the actual speed may be slow.This speed is the speed at which the printer can print in theary,if it doesnot have to process any graphics or wait for the computer to send data.In reality ,whenever you print a page that contains fonts that are not resident in the printer, or graphics,you have to wait for the page to print.
Print quality:-Print quality on a dot-matrix printer is not measured very precisely.Printers are either 9 pin (out put near letter quality) or 24 pin (in which the output is called letter quality. On inkjet and laser printers the quality is measured in dots per inch(dpi).The higher the number,the finer the quality of the image.In most cases you have to worry about dpi only for the sake of graphics quality;text looks good no matter how many dpi you have.Common quality of low budget laser printers have 600 dpi. most inkjet printers have 720x720 resolution.On inkjet printers dpi is given in two seperate measurements vertical and horizontal.i.e 1440x720vertical resolution is 1440 and horizontal resolution is 720.Howver you will not notice any difference from 720x720 resolution except that print out looks slightly better
Color quality:-Nearly all the inkjet printers sold today are color capable and nearly all laser printers are not.
Printer memory:-Printer memory serves different functions depending on what printer it is. On dot-matrix and ink-jet printers,the printer prints one line at a time on the page,as the paper moves through it.Therefore ,the printer needs only enough memory to hold one line at a time.That is not much.Any additional memory the printer has serves as a buffer.When the computer tells the printer what to print on the upcoming line before the printer finishes the current line,the extra information waits in the buffer. In contrast ,the memory in a laser printer is very important.A laser printer composes the entire page in its memory and then it spits it onto the paper in one pass..Consequently,the printer needs enough memory to hold the entire page.You should have atleast 1MB of printer memory in a laser and more is better.
Paper handling:-A good printer shold be able to accept atleast 100 sheets in its paper tray.Models with two paper trays (one plain and other letter head) are also available.
Ink toner and other consumables:-Dot-matrix printers and their replacement ribbons are inexpensive.However ,it is becoming difficult to find them in the market. Although ink-jet printers are cheap,the ink cartrdges for them can be rather expensive.Some of the best ink-jet printers use four seperate ink cartridges(one for each of the threee colors thatr make up all other colora and one for back ink.Ther are other models having two cartridges ;one color and one black cartridge.both cartridges can be loaded in the printer at the same time. Laser printers must periodically have their toner cartridges replaced (some times other parts such as the drum).These parts are expensive up to $200 in some cases,but they need not be replaced very often.
A scanner digitises pictures so you can use them in computers.Some scanners also come with Optical Character Recognition(OCR)software,which allows you to scan text and translate the picture of the text into real text in aword processor;but in practice OCR software makes so many mistakes that it is not worth going in for such type of scanners.The resolution of a scanner's scanned image is measured in dots per inch, or dpi, just like printer output.(min 300 dpi).
Scan quality:-Scanners come in black and white and color model;however color models dominate the market.The quality of the scanner is expressed as a number of bits.(ranging from 30 bit to 33 or 36 bit or more).
Scanner interface:-Some scanners come with their own interface cards;others require you to have a SCSI card.A third category attaches to your parallel port,which means you don't need an extra interface card.It provides a pass-through for your printer,so you can connect your scanner and printer at the same time to share the port. If your system has a USB port,consider a USB interface for your scanner.
The different models of keyboards fall in to following categories.
Those with extra keys
Those with unusual shapes to prevent wrist problems.
Microsoft Natural Keyboard.This has some special Windows keys that open menus with a touch of a key;but the best part is that the keyboard is split slightly so your hands can come in at a natural angle to type.
What is the overall best brand and model available today,regardless of price?What features make it the best?.Get this information
Which features of that best model can I do without?
Which alternate models offer the features I care about without the features I don't need? Again ,get this information.
Of the products from question 3 which can I afford?
If the answer to question 4 is "none of them",go back to question 2 and try to reduce the list of features I care about until you can find a product you can afford.
