What kind of computer should I buy? How much memory?
470211
DO NOT buy the 400 dollar bargain machines!!!!!!!!!\n\nI do in-home technical support and too often the clients that purchase these machines complain that they run just like the old one in about 6 months.  The bargain PC's are great if you know how to upgrade the machine yourself and plan on doing so later.  If you dont know how to work on a PC then do yourself the favor of shelling out another 300 dollars to get the next model up.\n\nDual Channel is a Memory technology.  If you dont plan on gaming or doing any high powered video editing, you dont really need it.\n\nlook for the following:\n\nprocessor: 2.5GHz Pentium 4 and up, OR 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon and up.  You will not notice a difference between AMD and Intel processors.  They will function exactly the same. Typically, AMD processor machines are 20-50 dollars cheaper (or the same price with more bells and whistles) than a comparable Pentium machine.\n\nRAM (Memory): AT LEAST 512MB... try for higher if possible.\n\nHard Drive (storage space):  80GB and up.\n\nVideo Card: any video card made by intel is total junk!  If the machine advertises an intergrated intel video processor take it with a grain of salt.  integrated video processors use the computer's RAM which saps performance from your machine.  Try to find a PC with an Nvidia or ATI video card of some kind.  Most people will tell you that if you dont game this isnt necessary... Im telling you that youll sacrifice a bit of speed.  Remember, you can always install an Nvidia or ATI card later on fairly cheap and easy.\n\nCD/DVD burner:  standard these days.  most computers will come with them.  Just make sure that if you want to COPY CD's and DVD's that you have CD/DVD BURNER and a DVD READER drive.
895250
That will run XP easily enough although it won't be very punchy.\n\nAn extra 256Mb of RAM (cheap as chips from Crucial / Kingston) will help no end.\n\nAs long as you are paying no more than 150 GBP for it then it is a good buy.
590856
Here's a quick cost breakdown to help you decide:\n\nMemory upgrade:  Your system most likely takes PC133 SDRAM.\n\n2 x 512MB modules at $75.00 each =  $150.00***\nhttp://www.buymemory.com\n\n***Careful, not all P3 1GHz machines accept 512MB modules, ask about compatibility before you buy.\n\nNew hard drive:  7200RPM ATA 80GB-100GB about $50-$60\n(Any online source with good customer service)\n\nTotal upgrade = $200-$210\n\nOR\n\nNew P4 2.8GHz or higher with 512MB RAM and 80GB drive or larger for around $400 (sometimes with flat panel monitor for about $450)\n\nUpgrading will definitely help your PC, however, you'll grow out of even that in a hurry with graphic design.  I highly recommend a new PC to preserver your sanity and save you money in the long run.  You'll want a large hard drive, but can always buy a seperate drive for storage later, they're getting cheaper each week it seems.\n\nSometimes it's more expensive to upgrade memory during the PC purchase instead of ordering somewhere online.
742499
I would look for something with at least a gigabite of ram. and a 120 gig hard drive.\nthat would be a great laptop.
622551
I am buying now a "custom built" one with these specs\n-LGA MB\n-3.0 GB dual\n-4 GB 600 bus ram\n-250 GB x 2 HDD\n-256 SVGA Express\n\nand it costs me 1800$
911465
I would go with....\nProcessor: AMD Athlon 3800+ (Get AM2 motherboard and chip)\nRAM: 1 Gig\nVideoCard: For what you are doing, a Radeon X1200 or so.\nHarddrive: 80 gigs should do it.\n\nHonestly, if you don't know what to put in the computer, I think you shouldn't be starting this kind of business.  Also, check on the legality of renting computers with video games installed on them....
1166297
Well this is a question that is hard to answer from a technical point of view. All manufacturers are in a race now.\n\nHere are some guidelines:\n1- Never get a PC with less than 512 MB of RAM. Future OS won;t work well on it like Windows Vista and others.\n\n2- A hard disk of 80GB or more is the most convenient for Desktops.\n\n3- Make sure the graphics card is at least 128MB\n\n4-Processor speed/type is very dependent on what your gonna do. If no games go with a Celeron(Intel) or a Sempron(AMD). For gaming and heavy calculations... then Pentium(Intel) or Athlon(AMD). Other processors are available but u get the point.\n\nAs for the price a lot of manufacturers give you all these specs at a price may be lower than your budget.\n\nDell usually has the lowest prices. HP/Compaq(Which i have) usually comes second. Sony is the highest in price yet the most prefered for multimedia.\nBurning CDs and DVDs can be done by selecting the drive that supports that. Just make sure you select it in your configuration\n\nHope this is helpfull for you
146
Weight and dimensions are important if you're planning to travel with the laptop. Get something with at least 512 mb of RAM, built-in wireless, and CD/DVD burner.  Dell is a good brand, and has an easy to use site where you can build a custom laptop.
1028547
Brand is not really important, mostly down to personal choice.  Minimum specs all depend on the type of game you want to play.  These days I'd recommend at least a gig of ram, a video card with at least 256mb memory, sound card is not all that important (unless 5.1 sound is important to you)
435276
If your home/office use is nothing more than surfing the internet and using office applications, then more or less any pc made within the last 4/5 years will be able to do that. You do not need to spend large amounts of money unless you plan to do photo/video editing, gaming, multimedia tasks, or lots of things at once.\nIf you need to carry the computer about, a laptop is recommended.\nA good basic spec is a desktop processor of 2.5ghz or more, or a mobile processor of 1.5ghz or more. 256mb RAM is a good idea, and a hard drive of 40gb is probably the minimum.\nOther components can be whatever you like
95378
As you have said, u don't need to do too much and want to spend less, i feel it should be perfectly ok for you to get a 256 MB pen-drive. \n\nA 256 MB drive should be inexpensive enough and you can do most of your work with it. It will be able to store few hundred good quality photos, or thousands of documents or a combination of various types of data. \n\nTo get an estimate of memory, just right click any file that you feel is representative of your need, and see its properties. It will be shown (in most of the cases) in some KB or may be few MB. So you can have an idea as to how much you really need. \n\nHope this info is useful to you.
1000165
For your needs look for loadsa memory and lots of hard drives.\nLook at the DELL website, I dont use a dell, I dont work for dell I only suggest them because some of their machines are cheap and would do what you want.\nAs much RAM as you can afford.\nAs much Hard drive space as you can afford.\nIf you think about it, machines 5 years ago did what you want to do so the latest CPU is not that important.
856476
first, what are you getting a computer for?  if you will be getting it just for emails & internet,  get the entry level computers.  if you are getting it for gaming or technical use,  get a computer w/ at least 1 gb of memory,  120gb of hard disk, combo drive cd/dvd rw & a good video card w/ lots of video memory.  you can get at lest a 17" lcd screen to save on desktop space.
213877
A megabyte is 1024 kilobytes. RAM is random access memory. Everything you do on your computer goes through RAM. 256MB is the bare minimum for most modern operating systems. You can buy 128MB modules, but for a few bucks more you can gat 256MB modules. Price is dependent on the system. Is it a PC or Mac? Laptop or desktop? What brand? Do you have any open memory slots? What type/speed of memory? If you go to my link, you can do a memory search.
522062
for windows XP or server 2003 AT LEAST 32MB... I suggest 64MB.  If you plan on doing any gaming at all I suggest 128MB.\n\nOn Linux, refer to your versions specification requirements as each version can vary.  In general, 32MB for most GUI interfaces, 8MB for most command line interfaces.
562992
Well that depends on your budget and if you want a desktop or laptop.  I think the cheapest thing you can do is to purchase an off-the-shelf system and then add what you need to it if it does not have everything you want.  Rule #1, never go with a Sempron or Celeron processor, I don't care what you're doing, they're slow for the even most basic tasks.  Rule #2 is slightly harder to avoid and that is never get an integrated graphics chip and again, I don't care what you're doing, integrated graphics are not only slow they also steal from your primary memory.  Rule #3, don't listen to a word the sales people tell you, chances are they don't know about the product they are selling and are poorly informed on how to help you decide what is best for you, fortunately, you have me.  But, you probably knew a good deal of this already, being young and all.  Rule #4 is to try to find one with at least 1GB of memory, however it may not be possible at lower price points and it may end up being cheaper to purchase more memory and install it yourself.\n\nI took the liberty of looking up some desktops under $500 (I'm assuming a limited budget) and the only one with 1GB of memory is this Acer Aspire which has a 200GB SATA hard drive and not too bad for being $500.  The only problems I see are that it claims nVidia graphics and my assumption on this matter is that they mean the Geforce 6100 IGP which isn't horrible but isn't that great either, it will run older games like Doom 3 fine but not games like FEAR or GRAW.  If you need to upgrade the graphics in that (since it has a PCIe x16 slot), go with a Geforce 7600GS or 7600GT depending on your budget.  But all in all that PC should suit your needs quite nicely, provided you don't do heavy gaming or multitasking (like me).  Here's the link, http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Acer-Aspire-trade-Desktop-PC-AST160-UA3402-/sem/rpsm/oid/149055/catOid/-12962/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do\n\nIf you're looking for a laptop, options become narrower and prices go up significantly.  I'm not saying this is the cheapest laptop with the features to look for but if you want one with 1GB of memory, a large hard drive at 100GB (which is large for a laptop) and a dedicated 128MB Geforce 7400 Go graphics card and an Intel Core duo processor at 1.83GHz you will end up spending nearly $1400, http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/149457/originURLEncoded/http%253A%252F%252Fwww.circuitcity.com%252Frpsm%252FcatOid%252F-12963%252FNtk%252FAll%252FNtt%252Ftv%252520tuner%252Frpem%252Fccd%252Fcategorylist.do/rpem/ccd/productDetailSpecification.do#tabs\n\nRule #5 is to buy an AMD processor whenever possible, in some cases it is not like with the laptop.  I would rather get an Intel processor + dedicated graphics than an AMD processor with integrated graphics.  I think I covered everything, good luck with your choice.
250453
Seems liek your buying aPc instead of a laptop....well u defintly need at least 1 Gb of Ram in  it...other than that i would personally advice you to go for an intel dual core processor they are the latest processors and the most effective. if you store or download a lot of media files you would need at least 160 gb of memory . Dell computers are one of the best  i think. they have reallygud monitors too.. if you get a dell it will mostly come with a monitor so that shouldnt be a problem. other than that  windows media centre home edition is a gud operating system,  if you are  gamer u SHOULD give very much importance to graphiv card. i would advice you to get a Nvidia Geforce card they come in different prices  depends on how much you would really use them. i have listed below the site to dell & a few other brands. how this would help you. Best of Luck..!!! :D