I periodically like to report on the state of PC equipment and make recommendations about which components to buy. The PC world has been very stable for quite a long time now, and I expect this trend to continue. The effect on the consumer is that prices continue to drop and that the compelling need to replace your old PC just because its too slow is lessening.
The battle between Intel and AMD processor chips continues. The reviews I read generally give both the performance and the price vs. performance edge to AMD. But Intel is now launching some new processors, so the seesaw may tip the other way again for a while. In either case, today's processors are generally far faster than you need for any standard home or small office use. The price sweet spot (best performance for the price) is usually 1 or 2 processor speeds below the current manufacturer's high-end processor - the price for the lower speed microprocessor can be 1/2 the price of the leading edge. You can buy lower speed processors, but they are not all that much cheaper and that may cause you to replace the PC sooner.
Memory (RAM) remains inexpensive, although prices may start to inch up again in the near future. The minimum for a new PC these days (especially running Windows XP) would be 256MB (megabytes) with 512 MB recommended. What a contrast to my first IBM PC that had a 4.7Mhz processor and 64KB (kilobytes) of RAM! For best performance, I recommend DDR (double data rate) RAM over SDRAM or RAMBUS. DDR is now available for both Intel and AMD systems.
Rewriteable CD (CD-RW) drives have become the standard. For only a few dollars more than a read-only CD-ROM, you can get write your own music and data CDs and perhaps more important, CD backup is the best backup method right now. I would not buy a system today without a CD-RW. The standard speed is 16X/10X/40X (writes at 16X speed, re-writes at 10X speed, and reads at 40X speed) and the leading edge is 24X/10X/40X. These CD-RW drives are so fast that you don't need a second CD-ROM only drive, unless you do a lot of copying of full CDs, which few people do.
Display adapters, in terms of on board memory and processor speed, have far exceeded any normal home or business requirement. Get the cheapest you can, as long as it has a minimum of 32MB of RAM on the display (video) adapter card. Only look for faster speeds if you are a gamester.
Monitors (displays) are also relatively inexpensive these days. I would not buy anything less than a 17" monitor, and would consider a 19" unit. Make sure you get a flat screen display. You should be able to get an excellent 17" monitor for less than $200. If you want to spend about $350, I would recommend a 15" flat LCD panel display - they are just gorgeous! I have seen recent prices for flat panel LCD displays as low as $200.
When you order your new PC, make sure you get a standard 10/100 Ethernet (local network) card in it. These are very inexpensive these days ($20 or so) and will enable you to connect to Road Runner or DSL in the future. It's far cheaper to order it now than to get someone like me to come over the put one in!
Now, as far as sound and DVD goes, you have to make a decision here. If you want to play DVD movies on your PC, you of course need a DVD player, and you should probably invest in a sound system with a 5.1 channel sound card and a six speaker (counting subwoofer) system. If you don't want to play DVDs or are not a gamer, a basic sound system should be fine. You can always upgrade the sound system (or add a DVD) if necessary.
Happy shopping!
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).