Last week, Chris forwarded me the following question. I responded with what I thought was an intelligent answer. I asked the questioner if I could use it my blog and she said sure. It’s a common question, and I get it all the time, so I figured everyone could use this sage advise.

Problem is, I’m wrong. Here’s the question and my (largely) unedited answer. Next blog, I’ll write the real answer.

Hi Chris,

I love Lockergnome and you! [Note from Elliot: She didn't know who I was at the time.:-)] I have learned so much from your site, newsletters
and especially forums. I’ve only been computing and online just over 3 years
and am getting by okay thanks to you.

I need a new computer and would like some advice as to what to get. I live in
Canada and want to spend about $1000 or so. [Elliot: That means US$755.89 This stupid isolated American - I'm talking about me here - did the math backward and originally thought she could spend US$1300. I'm an idiot...]

I guess my question would be how big a processor, Pentium or any of the others
offered? Hard drive size, second drive? I want to be able to make CDs and am
not sure if it’s CD-RW that I want? Possibly a DVD burner. I have read
something about combo drives? I know I should get 512MB RAM. What about the
sound and video cards? Do I really need extra of them or are the standard
installs okay? (I don’t play games online, just cards.) I see a lot of new
computers don’t have a floppy drive - do I need one? Can I transfer the programs
I have gotten for free or paid for online to the new computer? What do I need to do
that, Norton Ghost? It will be WinXP and I use Win98.
I’m sure there are other questions I should ask but am drawing a blank.

I know you are super busy but I would really appreciate it if you could take
the time to respond and help me out.

Keep up the great work, Thank you, Wendy, Brantford (home of Wayne Gretzky), Ontario, Canada.

Here was my answer:

Hi Wendy,

This kind of question is asked a lot. But just by the fact that you are
asking, I know what kind of computer you need. I say this because there are
3 types of computer users: gamers, professional/scientific types, and all
the rest of us. The first two need the fastest and best, and they already
know what they need. It’s the rest of us that aren’t sure.

If you are using the computer for Internet access and business purposes,
like using Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, the irony is that you
don’t need a fast computer. Gamers need the fastest because they need
high-resolution and fast graphics. Scientific types often need to do
simulations and number-crunching and also need fast, fast, fast.

So, as for speed and graphics, you don’t really need more than 2GHz with
“shared graphics memory”. My wife still uses a 133MHz laptop computer
running Win95 for email, Internet surfing, and word processing. But since
Microsoft continues to bloat the operating system and office applications, I
don’t dare upgrade it to even Win98, let alone WinXP. So, 2GHz is safe and
cheap.

Where you don’t want to skimp is with the Other Stuff. You want at least a
combination CD-RW/DVD drive, if not a DVD-RW. Floppies are Out, writable
CDs are In (in 5 years, CDs will be Out and writable DVDs will be In, but
worry about that later.) Also, as you mentioned 512MB of memory is necessary
because of software bloat. Back in the Old Days, 2MB were enough. But
because software are so big, and because WinXP lets you run lots of programs
at a time, 512MB is a must.

Get a nice monitor. 19″ with a sharp display, or 17″ LCD. I have another
166MHz computer at home and I use a 17″ Sony monitor and it doesn’t feel old
at all. But put a cheap monitor on your computer and the computer will feel
cheap.

Finally, don’t skimp on the hard drive. 60GB minimum, 7200RPM (rotation
speed of the disk) if you can. A fast disk drive can do more to make you
computer feel snappy than the GHz of the computer. You may have to settle
for 5400RPM, but that’s OK. Lots of laptops use 4800RPM drives and you can
feel the sluggishness, even with a 3GHz processor.

So, you see the pattern. You don’t need a fast processor, but try to
surround your computer with good peripherals because that’s how you will
think about your computer.

Since lower-end computers have very little margins for the companies that
make them, you don’t have to shop too hard. Just go into a big store like
BestBuy or CompUSA and buy one. If you have a strong constitution, consider
buying used.

Now, here comes the hard part: setting up your new computer. I recommend
not using Ghost. Especially if you are moving from Win98 to WinXP. There
are a couple reasons for this: 1) some software gets installed differently
for Win98 than for WinXP. 2) you want to clean your drive of all the junk
and old dll files every year or so. This is a good time to do it.

Write down all the software that you have installed. If you got it from the
Internet as shareware, this would be a good time to grab updated versions.
Reinstall the software as you need to. You might find that you no long need
certain software.

The real hard part is copying all your data. Most people use the My
Documents folder to keep everything in, but some applications put your data
inside the application folders. Other applications, like Microsoft Outlook
put the email files in the Local Settings folder under Documents and
Settings (in WinXP and Win2000). What I do for email, is that I start over,
but copy my old email files to a folder I create inside My Documents so that
I have access to old email. But the whole Outlook thing is a story onto
itself.

I looked at the Dell Web page, and for US$900, you can get a Dimension 4600
with a 17″ LCD monitor. This is more computer than you need, but it will
keep you happy for two years, at least. Get speakers with a subwoofer for
$40 more if you are going to be listening to audio CDs or MP3s. Get the
2-year in-house service plan for $99 more and get an optical mouse. But,
you can look at the refurbished systems and save some money.

I hope this helps!

Ok, so that was my answer. And what I wrote is all true. But it’s not really the right answer to her question. Stay tuned…

(I’d also bet that every reader will have a slightly different opinion and a favorite vendor. Let’s hear them!)

Feel free to ask Elliot the Architect anything about how computer hardware works.