Buying Your First Computer
By Mark Erickson
Published: Aug 4, 2007
Author's Website: http://www.NorseCodeTechnologies.com
Ready to buy your first computer? Looking for some guidance? Technology always has something more powerful coming. Don't let that hold you back, though.
There are endless configurations in the Windows world; more confusing for beginners. With Macs, you get what Apple builds and you can expect to pay more.
If you are surfing the Internet or performing simple chores like word processing, you won't require much power; a low-end Windows or Mac machine with a minimum of 512 megabytes of memory in either should be fine.
If you expect to play cutting-edge games or do video editing, you need horsepower. For a Windows machine, get a Pentium 4 processor at 3 GHz or more; a GB or two of memory, along with a minimum 128 MB video card. With video editing, I'd go for a hard drive with 250 GB or more. When buying an Apple, you'll want one with specs similar to the Windows machine.
Your machine will probably run for years, becoming obsolete before it dies. The more money you put in upfront, the longer it will be usable.
