CyberGuide
Dr. Tim Rhodus
Department of Horticulture and Crop Science
The Ohio State University
e-mail: Rhodus.1@osu.edu
Purchasing a computer these days is very similar to buying a house. Those who know how to translate, "3BR, 2BA, LR, DR, FR, WBFP, AC, W/D" into, "3 bedroom, 2 baths, living room, dining room, family rom, wood burning fireplace, air conditioning, washer, and dryer will have little trouble finding the kind of house that best matches their needs. The same is true with computers. Understanding the main components of a typical system and the available options enables you to compare different systems and find the one that is going to be the most useful, provide the most flexibility, and do so at the most affordable cost. First, there are two major types of computer systems to choose from, IBM and IBM-compatible or Apple Macintosh. The differences between the two can be measured in some cases objectively but there are also many subjective differences. Personally, I use both types of systems at work and at home. For some things, I prefer the IBM but for others, the Mac is better. (I will return to this topic in a future column, but for now, let's focus on the main components that are common to all systems.)
One of the most critical components affecting the performance of your new system is the central processing unit (CPU) which either directly or indirectly handles all activities that occur in your computer. However, because of rapidly advancing technology in this area (the speed of processors has been doubling about every two years since 1985), any system you buy becomes somewhat limited in about four years. The fastest processors on the market today are the Intel Pentium chip used in IBM computers and the Motorola PowerPC chip used in Macintosh systems. Some of the less expensive IBM systems are being sold with an Intel 486DX2 or DX4 chip and some Macintosh systems house a Motorola 68040 chip. While the cost difference amounts to only $200 to $300, the performance differences are noticeable. In addition, buying 1993 technology in 1995 will be considerably out of date in 1997. While four year old tractors and even forty year old tractors can perform admirably, information processing technology has a much shorter useful life.
After the processor, I feel the most important components are the monitor and video graphics card. For someone who is working on a computer all day, the quality of the image on the screen and the physical size of the screen make all the difference in the world. The higher the resolution of the monitor (which is determined by the video card) the crisper the text and graphics on the screen and the less likely you are to suffer from eyestrain. The best choice today is super VGA for IBM systems and 16 bit color for Macintosh.
When looking at the size of the monitor, it is important to recognize that most programs today are very cluttered with menu and button bars. Buying a monitor that is smaller than 17 inches (diagonal) leaves only enough space on the screen to see approximately a third of a page of text or 15 rows of a spreadsheet. This will result in more time spent scrolling around in a document and lower productivity.
The next two items to consider are the hard drive and RAM memory. The hard drive is used to store your software (operating system and application programs) and any documents or files that your create. Ten years ago, we thought that a 20 Megabyte (MB) drive was all you would need for everything. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending upon your view, today's software requires considerably more disk space. Consequently, most business systems are equipped with a 500 MB or larger hard drive. Don't buy a system with any less that 500 MB. Sooner or later, you will fill up the hard drive and regret that you didn't spend the extra $300 to get another 300 megabytes of storage. Likewise, RAM memory is something that you can never have too much of. This resource is used to hold the software instructions, the data you are processing, and all intermediate calculations. If you are running more than one program at a time, then your system will need approximately twice as much RAM to do everything and if you want to create large graphic files, databases, or spreadsheets, then extra RAM is definitely needed. The one thing that you want to avoid is the classic, "Out of Memory" error that occurs when you exceed your system limits. Adequate system configuration for most users would be 8 MB of RAM. Those who are going to use their system for desktop publishing will probably need 20 to 40 MB.
Finally, there are some real advantages to consider including a CD ROM drive. These drives are capable of reading both computer and audio CD disks. Some software programs today come on a CD disk and installing them on your hard drive is a real pleasure because there is only one disk to install versus the 15 to 30 3.5" disks that are being sent with some programs. Additionally, there are some tremendous resources available on CD-ROM such as: phone directories for the entire US, detailed maps for cities, states, and counties plus the ability to route a trip to any destination; and comprehensive collections of digitized clip art.
For further information, pick up a few issues of the various computer magazines at a bookstore. Every issue seems to present some type of comparison article between different software or hardware items. With just a little reading and discussing your needs with a computer salesperson, you will quickly find that the mystery of this new technology is really not that difficult to master.
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