Gaming Computers - Should You Build It or Buy It?

Writen by Nicholas Spriggs

Gaming computers come in all shapes, sizes, and prices. The gaming industry is growing every year and has become big business, so the need for gaming computers has grown along with it. As computer games become increasingly detailed and graphics oriented, the demand for faster and more powerful hardware has become more of a necessity than an option.

With the increased demand comes a higher price tag. That being said, if you are in the market for a gaming computer, read on as we take a look at your options for buying the perfect gaming computer for you and how you can save yourself some cash.

When buying a gaming computer or any computer for that matter it is important to determine how much you are willing to spend and how good of performance you want.

Gaming computers can range in price from $600 to $7,000+ and come with a variety of options. But whether you buy a low-end gaming computer or a high-end gaming computer there are ways to save yourself some money.

You basically have three options when it comes to buying a gaming computer. You can buy a pre-built computer right of the shelf, or internet. You can have someone build your gaming computer to your liking, with the hardware that you choose. Or you can build it yourself. All three of these are viable options, and of course each have their upside and downside.

Buying a pre-built, of the shelf computer is by far the the fastest and easiest route to take. When buying a gaming computer this way you will have access to tech support in case you run into problems with your system. Your computer should also be covered by the warranty for a certain amount of time if something was to break. There are however a few downsides to buying a pre-built computer. You will almost certainly pay more for less. Also you will be extremely limited in choices on the hardware that you want.

You can save yourself some money by having someone build your gaming computer for you. Going this route will provide for greater flexibility in your choices on hardware and can have your gaming computer customized to your specifications. Having a computer built for you will take longer than buying a pre-built one and all though it will be cheaper than buying a pre-built computer, will still be more expensive than your third option, building your own.

Most people think that building their own computer is far to difficult and complicated, and in reality it is a lot easier than they think. All though it does require a little knowledge on how to do this, this information can easily be obtained online. This option will take you the longest time to complete but can be very rewarding. Buying your hardware and assembling your own gaming computer can save you a lot of money and you can build it with whatever hardware you like. Of course there is some downsides to this option as well. You will not have any tech support or warranty, except through the individual hardware companies. Even with this downside, having built your computer from scratch, should help in solving most of your tech problems on your own.

Which ever option that you choose, make sure you do your research and are not overpaying for a gaming computer that you could have for a lot less.

Nicholas Spriggs at desktop-computer-guide.com is dedicated to providing up to date and acurate information in the computer and technology field. For more information on building your computer check us out at build your own computer.

Computer Memory - How Much Is Enough?

Writen by Michael Russell

How much memory should you have in your personal computer? How much is enough? How much is too much? How much is too little?

These are not easy questions to answer. The truth is, memory requirements to run basic programs over the last 20 years have gone up exponentially.

Back in the early stone ages of PCs your basic computer came with 64K of RAM. This was just about enough to run a simple basic program. To run any kind of a program that did anything useful, and there were very few of those, you had to upgrade to at least 128K and if possible 256K. Back then, circa 1984, this was a lot of memory and came with a hefty price tag of about $1 for each K of memory. So a 256K upgrade cost you about $256. Some places would give you a discount and you could walk away with your beefed up computer for about $250 in upgrade costs. And still, there was very little you could do with the darn thing.

The years went by and programs started getting developed that actually did something. Simple spreadsheet programs like Lotus for example. To run these you needed a minimum of 256K of RAM. Eventually with upgrades to the programs themselves the bottom figure for RAM rose to about 512K. This would run you a top of the line program for that time. This was roughly around 1988.

Then the 1990’s hit and things started to take off. Video games for PC’s started becoming very popular. Business software was actually becoming useful. Programs were getting bigger and so were memory requirements. Programs now required memory in the megabytes instead of kilobytes. The early Dungeons and Dragons video games, which were some of the most popular of the time, required between 4 and 16 meg of RAM to run depending on the game itself. The biggest programs of the day, which really started to become extremely useful would require 16 to 32 meg to run. Now we were seeing some big numbers.

But memory was still not cheap, though it was a lot less expensive than in the 80’s. Instead of paying $1 per kilobyte of memory you were paying about $5 for a megabyte of memory. So 32 meg would only cost you about $160 which wasn’t too bad.

But computer enhancements started taking off like wildfire. Every year memory requirements would skyrocket. By the late 1990’s it would take about 256 meg of RAM to run high end networking operations. Many computers would need 64 meg just to load the operating system itself. Memory requirements were out of control. The good news is that prices of memory dropped like lead weights. Today you can get 512 meg of DRAM for about $30. No, that’s not a misprint. Memory costs have come down so much that they are almost inconsequential. However, memory requirements are still going through the roof. A typical home PC better have at least 256 meg of RAM if it wants to just be able to crawl through start up, running your Internet connection and a few applications at the same time. Having more than 8 windows open on an XP system with less than 256 meg is suicide.

So to answer the question, how much is enough. It’s never enough and it won’t ever be enough. Software enhancements will continue to send PC memory requirements into orbit. So the best advice anyone can give you is to get as much memory as the PC will physically hold when you get it.

If you’re lucky, it will be good enough for a year.

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Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Computer Memory

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The Types Of Computer Memory

Writen by Robert Thatcher

How can a computer be such an amazing gadget? To many people they just can’t be so amazed on how computers have changed the way we live. Computers can now be found in many sizes and shapes. Almost every home appliance seems to have their own mini computer located somewhere. From cars to buildings to almost every gadget there is, most of the time each one has a computer working to make them run and change the very way we live life.

First and foremost, the most important component of the computer is its processor. It is considered the heart of the computer that does all the calculating and processing. But with all that calculating and processing, the computer won’t be such a remarkable gadget if not for its amazing memory. Computer memory makes it possible to retain important information on a computer. Such data can be used again and again and retrieved when a certain stored data is needed. Without the computer memory, the processor will have no facility where to store its important calculations and processes, thereby making them useless.

There are different types of computer memory tasked to store different types of data. They also have different capabilities and specialties when it comes to storing necessary data inside the computer. The best known computer memory is the RAM, otherwise known as Random Access Memory. It is called random access because any stored data can be accessed directly if you know the exact row and column that intersect a certain memory cell. In this type of computer memory, data can be accessed in any order. RAM’s exact opposite is called SAM or Serial Access Memory, which stores data in a series of memory cells that can only be accessed in order. It operates much like a cassette tape where you have to go through other memory cells before accessing the data that you are looking for.

Other types of computer memory include the ROM or Read Only Memory. ROM is an integrated circuit already programmed with specific data that cannot be modified or changed, hence the name “Read Only”. There is also another type of computer memory called Virtual Memory. This type of memory is a common component in most operating systems and desktops. It helps the computers RAM to be freed up with unused applications to make way for loading current applications being used. It works simply by checking for data stored in RAM not being used recently and have it stored in the computer’s hard disk, thereby freeing valuable space in RAM for loading other applications. A virtual memory will make a computer think that it has almost unlimited RAM inside it.

Another type of computer memory that has made computers process tasks faster is what is called cache memory. Cache memory works simply by having current applications, calculations and processes stored in its memory instead of directly to the main storage area. When a certain process is in need of data previously used, it first will try to access the cache memory if such data is stored there before accessing the central memory storage area. This frees up the computer from looking for the data in a larger and bigger memory storage area and makes data extraction faster. Computer memory is in a constant state of development as more and more technologies are being developed. Who knows, maybe in the near future computer memory might also be fit for human consumption.

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides computer memory resources on http://www.yourcomputermemory.info.

Types of Monitors

Writen by Ihab Sarsour

A cathode ray tube or CRT, is traditionally used in most computer monitors and the advent of plasma screens, LCD , DLP, OLED displays, and other technologies. As a result of CRT technology, computer monitors continue to be referred to as “The Tube”.A CRT works by moving an electron beam back and forth across the back of the screen. Each time the beam makes a pass across the screen, it lights up phosphor dots on the inside of the glass tube, thereby illuminating the active portions of the screen. By drawing many such lines from the top to the bottom of the screen, it creates an entire screenful of images.

A Liquid crystal display (LCD) is a thin, flat display device made up of any number of color or monochrome pixels arrayed in front of a light source or reflector. It uses very small amounts of electric power, and is therefore suitable for use in battery-powered electronic devices.

A plasma display is an emissive flat panel display where light is created by phosphors excited by a plasma discharge between two flat panels of glass. The gas discharge contains no mercury a mixture of noble gases (neon and xenon) is used instead. This gas mixture is inert and entirely harmless.

The glass panels seem to be vacuum sealed, because when they are broken the plasma breaks up, seemingly from the addition of air to the space.

Surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) is a flat-panel, high-resolution display. Some SEDs have a diagonal measurement exceeding one meter (approximately 40 inches).
The SED consists of an array of electron emitters and a layer of phosphor, separated by a small space from which all the air has been evacuated. Each electron emitter represents one pixel. The SED requires no electron-beam focusing, and operates at a much lower voltage than a CRT. The brightness and contrast compare favorably with high-end CRTs. Prototype electron emitters have been developed with diameters of a few nanometers. SED technology can offer unprecedented image resolution.

Digital Light Processing (DLP) is a technology used in projectors and video projectors. In DLP projectors, the image is created by microscopically small mirrors laid out in a matrix on a semiconductor chip, known as a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD). Each mirror represents one pixel in the projected image. The number of mirrors corresponds to the resolution of the projected image: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×720, and 1920×1080 (HDTV) matrices are some common DMD sizes. These mirrors can be repositioned rapidly to reflect light either through the lens or on to a heat sink .

An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is a thin-film light-emitting diode(LED) in which the emissive layer is an organic compound OLED technology is intended primarily as picture elements in practical display devices. These devices promise to be much less costly to fabricate than traditional LCD displays. When the emissive electroluminescent layer is polymeric, varying amounts of OLEDs can be deposited in rows and columns on a screen using simple “printing” methods to create a graphical color display, for use as computer displays, portable system screens, and in advertising and information board applications. OLED may also be used in lighting devices. OLEDs are available as distributed sources while the inorganic LEDs are point sources of light.

Ihab Sarsour
Want to know more about computer hardware? Check it out at:
Computer Hardware

http://www.easycomputerway.com

Why Should You Buy Ergonomic Computer Keyboard

Writen by Kenson Goo

Your might be wondering why you should spend so much money in buying a so called ergonomic computer keyboard rather than straight flat standard computer keyboard that cause you a lot less money. Well, sometimes shopping for a computer keyboard is equal to shopping for a new car. Mostly, you don’t know how crappy your car / computer keyboard is until you try out a better car or ergonomic computer keyboard. There are couple of reasons why you should buy ergonomic computer keyboard instead of straight standard keyboard if you have to work all the time using your computer in the office or at home.

First of all is the result of research won’t lie. Over the past few years, there are many ergonomic scientists or engineers have been working together to analyze and study how human operates the computer keyboards and possible hurts that human got after typing on computer keyboard for long time. Because of this research and study, these specialists have come out a special design computer keyboard that they think can maximize productivity by minimizing operator fatigue and discomfort. For example, Microsoft has her own group of ergonomic scientists in researching and developing her line of ergonomic computer keyboards and mouse products that first to be used on Microsoft employees and see how they feel about the computer keyboards and mouse, then the scientists and engineers will make improvements depend on users’ comments. Hence, ergonomic keyboards are the result of hundreds or thousands of hours of research and study on how human operates computer keyboard and what can be done to create a better computer keyboard for all of us to use.

Secondly, you got to believe that your hands are not flat. When you are typing on a regular standard keyboard, you have to watch carefully how your hands are positioning in order for you to type on the standard keyboard. You will notice that, you have to bend your both your right and left hands a little bit and make them sit on the middle on the computer keyboard. Believe it or not, if you have positioning your hands like that for quite a while, your shoulders going to get hurt. Hence, this is why ergonomic computer keyboard is invented. Ergonomic computer keyboard allows you to lay your hands comfortably on it without you have to bend your hands to fit into the keyboard instead the computer keyboard is designed to fix your hands.

In a nutshell, the standard flat computer keyboard is designed without studying how human operates computer keyboard. It is designed so that you and I have to adjust our hands to fit the computer keyboard. On the other hand, ergonomic computer keyboard is designed so that the keyboard itself fits our hands and the ways we operate compute keyboard. Neverhtless, one advice for you if you are looking for ergonomic computer keyboard is to look around and try out different ergonomic computer keyboard that suit you the most before you decide which one to buy. This is because sometime the design of ergonomic computer keyboard might doesn’t suit what you need. I would recommend you to shop around at http://www.compkeyboard.com for the best computer keyboard advices and offers.

Wireless Computer Network Rentals: The New Technology Trend

Writen by John Beagle

Consider the convenience and added benefits of renting today’s wireless technology.

Wireless networks have a big advantage over wired networks, especially for short term projects where the internet and rental computers, printers and projectors are deployed.

Wireless networks are easier and faster to setup than wired networks. Wireless devices add flexibility and save time. With wireless you can move your laptops, projectors and printers around and still maintain connectivity. Best of all, you don’t have to run cat5 wires to routers, computers, printers and switches.

Here are some of the wireless products that are commonly rented for company projects:

Wireless Router Rentals

A wireless router is a networking device that connects computers to the internet. With a router you can share an internet connection between multiple computers on the network. Note: The internet cable needs to be connected directly into the wireless router.

Rent Wireless Access Point (WAP)

A wireless access point is a networking device that allows wireless-equipped computers and other devices to communicate with a wired network. A WAP may also be used to expand the range of an existing wireless network.

Rent Wireless Adapters

A wireless adapter is a device that adds wireless network functionality to a computer or laptop. There are three types of wireless adapters. PCI Adapters are for desktop computers. As the name suggests, they can be installed in an available PCI slot. PCMCIA Adapters, also known as PC Cards, are for notebooks. Installation is as simple as pushing the card into an available PCMCIA slot. Lastly, there are USB Adapters. These adapters are compatible with desktop and notebook computers.

Rent Wireless Print Servers

A wireless print server connects a printer to the wireless network, allowing any computer on the network to wirelessly access the printer at any time.

Rent Wireless Projectors

A wireless projector allows a computer user to wirelessly connect and display the computer video on a screen. All you need is a wireless adapter in your computer or notebook and the software that comes with the projector. Today’s advanced wireless projectors allow one computer to connect to multiple projectors AND multiple computers to connect to a single projector.

If you want to have a really impressive presentation, consider renting two or more wireless projectors. Bring your multimedia presentation to the next level by putting on multiple unique screens of your data and video presentation. For example: have animation on one screen and data on another!

Another benefit of wireless projectors is having the ability to have multiple presenters displaying their presentations right from their own wireless laptop or computer. Consider a corporate meeting with presentations from finance, operations, sales and marketing managers.

Wireless projectors are available from 1800 Lumen and 800×600 resolution to 3000 Lumen and 1024×768 resolution.

For more information on the current wireless projector rentals visit: Wireless Projector Rental Info

For more information on other products available for rent visit: Rentacomputer.com/ or Call 800-736-8772

John Beagle is a writer for Xponex Web and Media Services. For more infomation visit our website: Xponex.com/

DVR’s

Writen by Max Bellamy

DVR is a term heard quite frequently these days. What exactly is DVR? DVR stands for digital video recording. Compared to conventionally used devices like tape recorders, VCRs, or time lapse recorders, the DVR is entirely digital and provides many features that are required for high quality data storage and retrieval. It is no wonder that this technology has found many applications in various fields.

Instead of recording data on tapes, DVRs convert data into MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 format and stores it on a hard disk. A typical DVR consists of a device that stores data that forms the hardware and software in the form of a service that provides programming information and the ability to encode varying data streams derived from single or diverse input devices.

DVR has touched many fields including television, surveillance and monitoring, motion pictures and logistics to name a few. DVRs are commonly used in television to pause a live TV show, revert back a few seconds for an instant replay. It even lets you skip thorough unwanted commercials. In these cases, a DVR records directly to a hard disk drive.

The advantage of DVR is storage and retrieval. Images, motion pictures and related data are converted into digital format and stored. The retrieval is quite easy and there is no loss of quality or data. There are essentially two types of DVRs. One is platform dependent like the ones that use personal computers. A variant of this is platform independent that are commonly referred to as stand alone DVRs. The former gets data from a device such as a camera and then handles the information and passes it on to the storage device located on the PC.

Stand-alone DVR is an all in one system consisting of a cabinet and vital sub devices such as circuit boards, power supply, CPU and all DVR related components. Usually, one board encompasses all this. The software is embedded inside an integrated circuit chip. Stand-alone systems are less complicated and are quite easy to use. The hardware-software configuration ensures optimal performance and eliminates the possibility of conflict between hardware and software.

Platform based DVRs often come with more advanced features and can be upgraded, and\or modified. As add on devices can be changed, DVRs can deliver customized performance depending on the environment. These devices are often used in the banking, retail and transport sectors among others. However, due to the addition of hardware, device conflicts can arise adversely affecting the whole system.

DVRs are also available to enhance your TV viewing pleasure. These DVRs allow you to record up to 4 programs simultaneously. One can also view up to two programs at a time. With this technology, one can pause a live broadcast, replay, sequence and even skip commercials. Unlike VCRs where the amount of programming that can be recorded is limited, a DVR can store up to 20 hours or more of television programming depending on the storage capacity.

DVR has become a mini revolution. In homes, people are now controlling what they view. In offices, storage of thousands of hours of digital high quality surveillance data is at hand and faster data acquisition, transfer and retrieval. In the future, DVR will employ many new people, and many new areas including monitoring pollution levels, weather watch, etc. will be explored.

DVR provides detailed information about DVR, DVR reviews, DVR cards, DVR software and more. DVR is the sister site of CD Copier Software.

Lapping It Up

Writen by Alan Jason Smith

The idea of a laptop, or portable, computer was first conceived by Alan Kay, who worked for Xerox, at its Research Center in Palo Alto CA. He called it a Dynabook. He wasn’t the first to offer a completed laptop computer for public consumption, however. That honor went to Grid System’s William Moggridge in 1979. His brand new concept was housed in a magnesium case that was die cast. Its bubble memory was a total of 340 kilobytes. The laptop also had a luminescent folding graphics display screen.

A vastly improved laptop computer was the 1983 brainchild of Gavilan computer. Their latest version offered DOS as well as their very own Gavilan operating system, 64 kilobytes of RAM, was expandable to twice that, an 8088 microprocessor, a touchpad mouse and even a printer. The laptop and printer together weighed a hefty 15 pounds, although the laptop was a reasonable 9 pound weight.

In 1984 Apple got into the laptop act, premiering its Apple llc. Although notebook size, it was still at the high end of the comfort scale, weighing in at 12 pounds. And, as always at the start of an electronic revolution it wasn’t cheap - retailing for $3500. The Apple llc had an 8088 microprocessor, 256 kilobytes of memory (certainly tiny by today’s standard but a massive step up at that time), two floppy drives ( 3 1/2″, not 5 1/4′), space for the installation of an internal modem (not part of the original packaging), and both parallel and serial ports. It even included its own applications for telephone and address book, word processing, appointments, and calculations. It earned rave reviews and the age of the laptop was born.

Soon after IBM and its shadow, Toshiba jumped on board the laptop bandwagon.

Today’s laptops of course are far more advanced, less expensive, and smaller than these early versions. But when you’re looking for your own laptop many of the features offered by these pioneers are still the ones you’re going to want to research for your laptop purchase today. Here’s what you’ll need to compare before you make your laptop purchase:

Microprocessor - This is the brain of your laptop, the part that tells the other parts to get going and do their job. The best microprocessors now available are Pentium, the latest a Pentium IV. A step down from Pentium are the Celeron and AMD versions. Which product you choose determines the speed of your laptop. Pentium is the best and therefore the fastest. Much depends on the use you’ll be making of your laptop.

Operating System - this group of instructions, preprogrammed, dictates functions to the microprocessor. Power and security variances are determined by your choice of operating system.

RAM and VRAM - Random access memory (V is for video), should be a minimum of 126 MB to accommodate today’s software programs.

Disk drives - The newest laptop versions will have DVD or CD drives and no floppy drive. They hold more, weigh less and last longer. Remember, however, that you may have backed up your old PC with oodles of disks. If that’s the case, rather than back up all over again you may want to purchase an external floppy drive for your laptop.

Modem - While some laptops offer external modems, the easiest to use is one with want an internal 56k modem.

Alan Jason Smith is the owner of http://www.tkcicomputers.com which is a great place to find computer links, resources and articles. For more information go to: http://www.tkcicomputers.com.

ฉ Copyright 2005

The Importance of Ergonomic Products

Writen by Vinodh Pushparaj

Interestingly, ergonomics though sounds to be a modern and trendy phenomenon, its principles are based on primitive life style. It is a known fact that earlier generations did not have to face a whole lot of medical complications that our generation is facing. Some of the factors that contribute to these medical complications are associated with our poor work conditions and our unhealthy life style which our forefathers and mothers instinctively avoided. We are running short of that life saving instinct. They knew how and how not an action is to be performed, when and when not something can be done easily. They were attuned to nature and to their own bodily nature. They were sensitive to the bodily cues and were able to modify their actions and hence lead a healthy life.

However there is a wide new awakening in this area in the form of Ergonomics. The word Ergonomics finds its root in Greek. “Ergon” in Greek means work and “nomoi” means law or rule. So ergonomics means law of work. Ergonomics is a branch of science that deals with the design of objects, systems and environment. Though can be mislead by the etymological meaning of the word, it is not limited to work but generally physical actions including sports and leisure activities of human beings. Ergonomics is not a stand-alone branch of science like many other branches science. Ergonomics relies on the principles of many other branches of science including, psychology of human beings, anatomy and physiology and also on results of cultural studies. Ergonomics seeks to produce a job environment that will help people to operate in their optimum levels and increase efficiency by increasing comfort in work and reducing fatigue. For example, a 6 feet tall individual cannot be comfortable in a low car where he or she has to place himself or herself in unnatural bodily postures that will result in fatigue that would even undermine the safety measures. This means that a car has to be designed to accommodate a six feet tall individual to drive comfortably without straining oneself.

Studies have proved that ergonomically designed products reduce stress at work places. This applies especially to people who work in the IT industry. Many psychological disorders have been associated with people who work in poor IT environments. This has lead to an in depth study on how to reduce the anomalies, which in turn has lead to the booming market of ergonomically designed IT products. Some of the computer accessories that are designed using ergonomic principles include, vertical mouse, ergonomic keyboard, adjustable computer furniture and the list extends.

While it is good to choose ergonomically designed products for your use, you have to be careful in choosing a genuine product. Because, there are lot of products that markup their price at an exorbitant rates in the name of ergonomic products. It may not be necessarily so – ergonomic product need not necessarily look too different from the one’s that are already in use. We often wrongly associate ergonomic products with fancy looking products on which the product manufacturers thrive.

For some the best ergonomic products in the market today you can visit the dedicated e-store at http://www.ergo-items.com. Ergonomic computer products for the office including ergonomic keyboards, ergo arm-rest, ergo mouse-cursor support, ergo stickers. The website also has many Computer safety ergonomic products for the workstation.

3 Simple Ways To Save A Bunch Of Money When Buying A New Computer!

Writen by Kris Bickell

Looking to buy a new computer?

Overwhelmed by all of the options available to you?

Stressed by the high cost of computers today?

For most people, buying a new computer does not have to be as stressful as buying a new car. Nor does it have to be as expensive. If you’re like most people, and you have a limited budget for buying a computer, then you need to try to get as much computer for your money as possible.

Here are 3 simple ways anyone can save money when buying a new computer:

1) Shop around for best deal.

Sounds pretty obvious. But many people don’t realize they don’t need the fastest, most expensive computer with the most “extras”. In fact, if you are already using an older computer, even the least expensive new computer will be a big upgrade. If you don’t know a lot about computers, you can learn a lot by shopping around. Ask lots of questions, compare prices, compare features, then find the best price. Shop at your local electronics store, and look for the best deals online. You’ll be surprised at how much money you can save by shopping around!

2) Install your own “extras”

Many computers you will find in a store have a lot of extra software already installed. While this is convenient, it is not always the best way for you to save money. Also, while many of these extras sound good, you don’t always need them. You can often find better deals by shopping around separately for your own software extras (such as a word processor, anti-virus, popup blocker, spyware removal, games, etc). And some of these you can get for free. So before you buy the “fully loaded” computer, ask yourself if you really need all the extras, then shop around to see if you can buy a scaled down computer - and get the extras yourself for much less!

3) Don’t buy extended warranty

If you are not a computer “techie”, the extended warranties offered by the computer retailers often sound like a good idea. After all, who wants to be bothered paying for service on a computer after you buy it. But keep in mind that most computers come with a warranty, and most computer problems will either happen at the beginning (when you still have the warranty in effect) or much later (when it might be cheaper to buy a new computer). Technology changes very quickly these days. So consider whether or not it’s worth the inflated price of the extended warranty. And, if you really feel you need the extended warranty, then ask to purchase it at a lower price. Not all retailers will negotiate on the warranty, but some will. And whether you buy the extended warranty or not, make sure you back up all your files periodically, just in case!

If you have an unlimited budget, consider yourself lucky. And if you do business on the computer, make sure you get what you need, while trying to keep the price down. At any price, buying something that does not fit your needs is not a good deal.

Hope you find these tips helpful, and happy computer shopping!

About The Author

Kris Bickell is the owner of Hi-Speed-Internet.com, a helpful site for consumers comparing high speed internet services. For information on high speed DSL, Cable, and Wireless Internet, visit: http://www.Hi-Speed-Internet.com, and sign up for the free email course “5 Simple Ways To Increase Your Computer Speed”. ฉ 2005 Hi-Speed-Internet.com