SOME SUGGESTIONS TO GET YOUR BEST COMPANION (THE COMPUTER):-

  As we are engineering students the computer became an inevitable. For a few it could be a dearest. Hence we should choose ours as best based on our needs. For a few this may look childish, as they are familiar with all these. And I'm sure that this will help few of my friends to choose their machine.

Now at first we've to decide on whether we are going to buy a laptop or a desktop. The qualities of them are as below,

Desktop,
The major advantages that we can found in desktop,
• Very low cost/performance, i.e., more performance at low cost. 

• Spares are easy to replace at low cost, that we can make it on our own. 

• Best product for careless geeks. 

• Last but not least, we can have our hands on practical with a little care.

And some disadvantages,
• Its bulkiness. 

• Consumes more power that is at least about 3 times a normal lap top’s power.

For laptop,

 Advantages,
 • The frank feature is its portable size, hence you can have it with you always. 

 • Very less power.

 • Good for our eyes that a desktop with CRT screen can’t ensure. 

 • You can work with your battery when no external power is available.

 • Many products are bundled with features like WiFi, Blue tooth, IR and so on. 

 Disadvantages,
 • High cost, we can have the performance at about half of the cost by choosing a desktop. 

 • Some produces much heat that you can’t have it in your lap.

 • Spares are very costly to replace. 

 • Suites for care full users only.

  After deciding the type of product you going to own, we have to consider about the important  thing, the configuration of our machine. The configuration means the specifications of  components that our computer going to have. And not with much jargons, here I suggest some  basic things. The things you have to consider are,

• Processor 

• Motherboard 

• Main memory 

• Sec Memory

• Other general components.

PROCESSOR:-

 No need to explain about this in detail, as we studied it in our last sem.
 The thing that most of us not aware is that, there are two architectures that occupied the common desktop systems. They are,
• Intel, the company that is dominating the Indian market. 

• AMD, another good company but not familiar in our company.

  INTEL:-
    As already mentioned, Intel is the name comes from our mouth when we ask a processor.Intel   has a dandy performance, but still we have to pay much.

    There are varieties of Intel processor available now such as dual core, core 2 duo and so on. In   the dual core and core 2 duo itself there are number of types, that differs from others in clock       speed, cache size etc. And except some dual cores all are 64-bit CPU's.

  AMD:-
    This offers the processors with a reasonable cost and enough performance. And for your             information, this is the first company that introduced the 64-bit architecture in desktop                 system.
    I heard people saying that AMD heats up much and not suitable for our climate. I think its           absurd, AMD processors has a reasonable clock speed and wont get heated up much as                     processors like Intel's P4 do.
    And now you have to decide which architecture you have to choose,

    • If your field is programming and you are sure that you wont work much with bulky                     softwares like Auto CAD, ANSYS, then choosing AMD's Athlon 4000+ or Intel's Dual core is a       wise choice.

    • Or, if you are going to work with bulkier softwares often or you are a severe gamer then you     can opt for any core2 Duo's Intel or AMD's 5000+ is good.

      Then you can ask for what the rest of the processors are?, Of course they are good, but we          cannot use it completely. Hence for our usage, I think the above processors are good for our   purpose.

Next we move onto the important component, THE MOTHERBOARD,

  Since there are two basic types of processor architectures available, we are having motherboards based on the architecture. Hence we cannot use the motherboard of one architecture to the other kind of processor.

 There are hefty numbers of motherboards available for both the architectures. As far as I know we have to consider the following factors of the motherboards,

• First of all, check whether the socket of your motherboard supports the upgrade of your processor, which you may need in the future.

• Then consider about the main memory support, if you want the system for now means then choose a board that supports DDR2, and DDR3 motherboard area also available. The latter is faster than the former.

• Think about the on board graphics memory. It should be at least 128MB for reasonable graphics performance.

Then the important aspect, the MAIN MEMORY,

• Now days DDR3 RAMs are also available. Which are little costlier than DDR2, but the prices of DDR3 is keep on decreasing. Hence it is wise to opt for a DDR3.

• Further beware of the company of RAM you are buying. Never go for the cheaper company, because they will cheat you in one way or another. As I know, you can buy Corsair, Transcend or some reputed companies like that. And never choose a company like Dynet, who is cheating by over clocking.

• Opt for the company who can provide you a more warranty.

Then the SECONDARY MEMORY,

• This is based on your needs, if you want to have more movies and data just chose one of 250GB or more, and know that hard disks below this capacity will cost nearer to the one suggested here.

• And be sure about the manufacturer.

 I don’t want to say much basic things by saying about the other component like monitors, mouse and all.

 And, friends it’s based on my knowledge and has more possibility of errors. If anyone encounters any errors please change it.

 

By,

R.Kannan.