 |
The following are a few questions to ask the salesperson when looking to by a new PC. If your salesperson doesn't know the answer, tries to change the subject, or the answers aren't in accordance to the answers below, you may want to start shopping somewhere else.
Question: Are
they an Authorized dealer by the manufacture?
Answer:
If they are not authorized you may be buying gray market (see note below)
which may hinder warranty and service to your part.
Question:
All computers are made of several components. A brand name
on the computer doesn't tell you who made the parts inside. Who makes the
components, for instance the motherboard, sound card, or video card?
Answer:
Stick to top grade parts such as ASUS, Creative Labs, and ATI.
Question:
Is the case proprietary or does it use standard form factor?
Answer:
If it's a proprietary case you it may not be able to use standard parts
for upgrades or repairs which means a higher cost to replace items.
Question:
What is the wattage of the power supply?
Answer:
At least 500 watts should be used
Question:
What is the access speed of the RAM?
Answer:
The lower the Nanoseconds the better. The CPU
talks to the RAM millions of times per second. If the RAM is even a
tiny bit slower the difference may seem small. But multiply that by
millions and you'll see a difference.
Question:
Who makes the video card?
Answer:
ATI, ELSA, Peak, Leadtek, ASUS-are some of the best in
the industry. Generic off-brand cards won't perform as well and
can cause many software problems and conflicts. REMEMBER, just
because it says Geforce doesn't mean the card is good. A good video
card is crucial to a good computer.
Question:
Is the video card integrated or an actual card?
Answer: The
video is the fastest changing area of the computer. There is no problem in
buying a computer with a video on board as long as there is an expansion
slot. Most of "branded" PC's don't
have such a port, therefore precluding any chance of future up-gradability.
Question:
Who makes the monitor?
Answer:
Again stick with good name brand like AOC,
Samsung, avoid unheard brands or cheap deals in supermarkets !!!!. "You
get what you pay for"
Question:
What is the dot pitch and refresh rate?
Answer: Dot
Pitch is a measurement of the space between pixels (dots) on the monitor,
it improves as it's measurement gets lower. Example a .25 is much
better than a .27. Refresh rate is the measurement of the frequency
(basically the speed) that your monitor "re-draws" the screen. If
your refresh rate gets much lower than 72-75mhz you will see flickers. You'll
want higher for large resolutions like 1024x768 and above.
NOTE: Please remember to ask if the company is an Authorized Dealer for the Products they sell. Watch out for GREY MARKET or incredibly cheap deals on "ebay" or computer fairs ... most of the time there is no come back !!!!
 |
|