Buying a Computer

Buying a computer can be an ordeal. It’s scary! Every year, there are fresh terms, different options, and spanking-new technology. Stuff that was the latest and greatest with last year’s computer is outdated and no longer available. It changes that fast.

Now there are two things you can do to avoid the ordeal. The first is to go into denial, visit some huge, impersonal store, buy the computer-in-a-box, and pray that you have exactly what you need. The second thing you can do is bone up on what’s important and what you need in a computer.

Even though all the good stuff inside a computer is essentially invisible, examining the individual parts that deal with the stuff you can't see is key to understanding how the whole thing works.

This microscope-to-the-parts strategy makes sense for economic as well as explanatory reasons. You buy a computer as a collection of parts, even if you pay one price and get one big box. One reason is that not all computers are the same, a fact that should be obvious as soon as you pull out your credit card. You can buy a brand new (though technologically old) computer for barely more than $100 today, or you can pay fifty times more. Even though you might not notice a difference between them when you run Microsoft Word—scary as it sounds, that's often true for reasons you'll understand before you finish this article.

Manufacturers and retailers can easily justify the difference. One machine can handle some tasks (obviously other than running Word) more adroitly than the other. The underlying reason for this difference is a matter of the component parts from which the two machines are made.

Electronic devices, whether computers, digital cameras, or portable radios, are all built from tiny electronic parts such as resistors, capacitors, transistors, and integrated circuits. Each of these changes the flow of electronics in some small, simple way, and figuring out how to connect them together to accomplish some tiny task is how electrical engineers earn their salaries. But combine these tiny assemblies together at the next level (another task for engineers), and the result is a module or computer component with a definite, defined task. Each is a subassembly like the various parts of a car or refrigerator. A car has a motor, wheels, steering system, doors, and windows. A refrigerator has a motor, a compressor, cooling coils, a box, doors, and insulation. Similarly, every computer is built from an array of components, such as a microprocessor, power supply, and flashing lights. Each of these individual components has a well-defined function. For example, in your car, the motor, transmission, axle, and wheels make the car move along the highway, providing the motive function. In the refrigerator, the motor, compressor, and coils make up the cooling function. Of course, the car has other functions in addition to its motive function. For example, the body, windows, and seats provide a passenger-carrying function, much as a refrigerator has a food-holding function. Although at first thought such secondary functions might seem incidental to the overall concept of the car or refrigerator, these functions are actually essential parts that help define what a car or refrigerator is. After all, you wouldn't have much of a car if it couldn't go anywhere or hold people. Nor would a refrigerator be as useful if it couldn't keep cool or hold food.

Electronic devices, whether computers, digital cameras, or portable radios, are all built from tiny electronic parts such as resistors, capacitors, transistors, and integrated circuits. Each of these changes the flow of electronics in some small, simple way, and figuring out how to connect them together to accomplish some tiny task is how electrical engineers earn their salaries. But combine these tiny assemblies together at the next level (another task for engineers), and the result is a module or computer component with a definite, defined task. Each is a subassembly like the various parts of a car or refrigerator. A car has a motor, wheels, steering system, doors, and windows. A refrigerator has a motor, a compressor, cooling coils, a box, doors, and insulation. Similarly, every computer is built from an array of components, such as a microprocessor, power supply, and flashing lights. Each of these individual components has a well-defined function. For example, in your car, the motor, transmission, axle, and wheels make the car move along the highway, providing the motive function. In the refrigerator, the motor, compressor, and coils make up the cooling function. Of course, the car has other functions in addition to its motive function. For example, the body, windows, and seats provide a passenger-carrying function, much as a refrigerator has a food-holding function. Although at first thought such secondary functions might seem incidental to the overall concept of the car or refrigerator, these functions are actually essential parts that help define what a car or refrigerator is. After all, you wouldn't have much of a car if it couldn't go anywhere or hold people. Nor would a refrigerator be as useful if it couldn't keep cool or hold food.

Similarly, the computer has several functions that define what it is and what it does. Although some of the functions might seem incidental to the concept of a computer as a thinking (or calculating) machine, all are essential for making a modern computer the useful device that it is. The typical modern personal computer has four major functions. These include thinking, communicating, remembering, and listening and monitoring, all tied together by an electronic and mechanical infrastructure . Of course, this division is somewhat arbitrary. Some people might, for example, combine thinking and remembering, and others (say people who sell security software) might add additional functions, such as security. Each of these functions requires one or more hardware components to carry it out.

The biggest mistake people make in buying a computer is shopping for price rather than service. Although lots of places can sell you the cheapest computer in the galaxy, don’t expect them to offer much after-sale support.

The second-biggest mistake is shopping for hardware before shopping for software, including shopping for brand-name computers.

Decide what you want the computer to do.The number-one reason to buy a computer now is “to do the Internet.” With your computer, you can exchange e-mail, browse the Web, view news and sports, entertain yourself, chat, shop, trade stocks, mind your finances, or just plain goof off. Money isn’t the main thing that keeps people from finally buying a new computer. No, it’s the rapid advancement of technology that instills hesitation. Computer technology speeds forward like a rocket sled on a frozen lake. A computer you buy today is guaranteed to be obsolete in three years, a dinosaur in five years, and nearly useless in ten.

Find the software that can get you the result you want.

Shop for service and support.

Before buying a computer you should know about computer hardware.