Today computers have become a necessity in every home. More and more
middle income households are now owning a computer now. That is why there
are many different branded PCs at different prices. It has become a tough
decision to choose the right computer. If you do not know the different
components in the computer and their functions, it becomes even more
difficult to choose. In this article let us see the various components in
a computer to help you in your choosing the right computer for you.

CPU (Central Processing Unit)

Most of the computers have Pentium Processors. Pentium processors are very
popular CPUs. Pentium Processors are manufactured by Intel.

Other than Pentium, Intel also manufactures Celeron processors. AMD
manufactures Athlon processors.

If you want to save money then go for Celeron processors. If you want
higher performance then choose Pentium processors.

Pentium processors come in 2.6 GHz, 2.8 GHz, 3.0 GHz and above while
Celeron processors come in 950 MHz to 2.80 MHz speed.

RAM (Random Access Memory)

There are many types of RAM namely DDR and SDRAM. The type of RAM you
choose depends on the motherboard you choose and what your motherboard
supports.

Get a RAM as big as possible. 256MB of RAM is the minimum RAM required for
a decent computer. But it is recommended that you go for atleast 512MB RAM
or even higher if possible.

Motherboard

Intel, Asus and Mercury are some of the motherboard brands. Generally
computer buyers overlook on motherboards. This is wrong. A good quality
motherboard will provide an efficient and faster computer.

The Chipset of a motherboard is very important. Intel’s 845 and 915G
chipsets can take in Pentium processors. Likewise nVidia’s nForce 4SLI
chipset takes AMD’s Athelon 64 and Athelon 64 FX processors.

Hard Disk

Harddisks with 7200RPM speed are available. Harddisks with 40GB, 80GB,
120GB storage capacity are available. 80GB harddisk capacity is suitable
for home as well as office use.

HardDisks come in two types of interfaces. EIDE or SATA among which SATA
interface is better.

Graphics Card

Graphics card is integrated inside the motherboard. Unlike before the
graphics card and the motherboard are now integrated. Intel’s Extreme
Graphics, Graphics Media Accelerator 900 are popular. If you go for nVidia
motherboard then Riva TNT2 graphics card is better.

Sound Card

Like graphics card, sound cards are also integrated in the motherboard.
Many motherboards come with Ac97 Audio cards.

CD Drives

Until 2004 the sale of CDROM drives was good. All computers came with 48x
or 52x CD drives.

But sales of CD Writers took over CDROM drives in late 2004. From 2005 it
is DVD writers and the combo drives that can handle both CDs and DVDs. So
choose either combo drives that can read and write CDs and read DVDs or go
for DVD Writers.

Monitor

15″ and 17″ monitors are very popular. The CRT monitors occupy more space
on the table and consume more power. Where as the flat LCD panel monitors
occupy less space and consume less power. So choose a LCD monitor

KeyBoard

A simple keyboard is usually sufficient. You may also try multimedia
keyboards or Internet keyboards. But most computer users usually do not
use these additional short cut keys provided in these new keyboards.

Membrane keys or mechanical type keys are available. Of these Mechanical
keys are more durable.

Mouse

Optical mouse is better than the ordinary mouse. The ball inside the ordinary mouse tends to gather dust and therefore the optical mouse is better to use.

Others

If you are an audio buff then you can buy good speakers, earphone and head set.

Try to get integrated network interface card and modem if you will be using networking or dialup internet.