Holiday Shopping, Round 3

by Bob Seidel

OK Holiday Shoppers - time for Round 3! This time let's cover PCs and related items - what you really have been waiting for all these weeks, right?

If you want to buy a PC for YFOR (Your Friend Or Relative), the prices are certainly good these days. Of course, it's beyond the scope of this column to go into all the details, but PC are mostly made of the same parts these days and there is really very little basic difference between manufacturers, except at the high end. Shop for the features you want.

Processor: pick one - anything you can buy these days is far overkill for almost all requirements except advanced photo editing or video editing. The sweet spot these days is 2.4 to 2.8 GHZ. RAM: get a minimum of 256MB, preferably 512MB or even 1GB. Watch out for anything that says "shared memory" or "shared RAM" - this means that the main RAM is shared with the video card and this can impact performance, and mark a low-end unit. Hard Drive: pick one - again, the sizes these days are far higher than what most people will ever use. 60GB is probably the minimum you can buy, with 80GB or 120GB being common. Ports: almost all PCs these days have plenty of USB 2.0 and Firewire ports - not an issue.

If I were you, I would put my money into the display. CRT displays are almost gone, and a 17" LCD is getting to be the mainstream standard. If you have the extra money, a 19" LCD sure is nice. You also might want to specialize the audio, getting a full surround (5.1 or 6.1) system and appropriate speakers. If you plan to play DVDs, this is almost a must.

If you get a DVD writer, make sure it supports both the DVD- (minus) and DVD+ (plus) formats. Most of the newer DVD drives do this - seeing only one or the other is another indicator of an older or low-end model. Make sure you get at least a CD writer (CD-RW) for backups. Most DVD writers also write CDs.

Choosing Windows XP Home or Professional: take what the model offers and don't worry about it. XP Home is fine for all home use and most small businesses. As a simple guide: if you don't have a client/server network, you don't need XP Pro.

A word about custom built PCs: Online PC vendors, such as Dell or Gateway, have specialized in custom built PCs for years and have it down pat. Recently, I have seen local electronics stores (where you used to be able to just go in and buy a packaged system) now doing this also. The experiences of some of my clients would guide you to stay away. There are delivery and quality problems, and the waits are often longer than stated. Dell, for example, ships so fast that it almost seems as if they anticipated your order.

So, don't sweat the PC purchase. Almost anything you can buy these days will be great, and it can always be upgraded or added to if needed.

Other PC related gifts: I think a UPS (uninterruptible power supply or sometimes called a battery backup) is a great and thoughtful gift. You can get one for around $50 and if YFOR's power is like mine, it will glitch about once a week. A UPS will save reboots and more importantly save data.

An external USB hard drive makes a thoughtful gift for backups and data storage. 120GB and higher are the current sizes.

If YFOR travels around a lot or needs to transfer data from office to home, one of those little USB flash drives makes a nice gift. But I would get a minimum of a 128MB unit - anything smaller is just too small. Of course, the bigger the better.

Less expensive gifts: How about a stack of blank CDs or DVDs? A new keyboard or mouse - the mouse should be the type without the rolling ball and wireless is nice. Photo memory card readers (USB attached) make nice gifts. Or, perhaps a USB hub (get only USB 2.0).

Next week: what NOT to buy!

Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his web site at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.