The first step to purchasing a computer is to decide what is the main purpose a user will need the computer to do. Most home computers are used for writing papers for classes, surfing the World Wide Web, or just to play computer games. Knowing how the computer will be used will help in determining what the minimum requirements need to be. A buyer must have an idea of what the minimum requirements they will need for their computer. Knowing how the computer will be used will help with the decision on the type of processor, amount of memory, and the size of hard drive that will be needed. An additional area to look at is the ability to create a compact disc, CD, or digital versatile disc, DVD.

Select the correct processor chip based on what the primary use of the computer will be. For the Windows operating system there are three commonly used types of processors. Intel and Am

In selecting the hard drive a home user should look at two very important areas. The first thing to look at is the speed of the drive, which is measured in revolutions per minute. The speed at which you can read and write data to a hard drive is based, partially, on the speed in which the hard drive platters spin. Currently there are four common hard drive speeds available, 5400 RPM, 7200 RPM, and 10,000 RPM. The second, and just as important, is the size of the hard drive. The size is referring to how much storage space is available, and not the dimensions. The storage space on hard drives today is measured in gigabytes. The most common size used in computers today is 40-80GB, but they can also be found with 320 GB and higher.

The next step that needs to be taken is deciding how the much money can the buyer afford to spend for their purchase. Depending on the users needs, expect to spend between $600 for an entry-level desktop computer to $3,000 or more for a high-end computer. Most users do not need to buy the biggest, fastest or most powerful computer system, but should buy the best system they can afford.

The type of random access memory, RAM, for the computer is another important issue to consider. RAM is available in five different flavors, three of which are used in the most current systems. SDRAM is the cheapest solution for most computer applications such as word processing, E-mail, and surfing the Web. For users planning to use the computer for multimedia applications like image and sound dev

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