Why This Blog?

I decided that there are too many people still in the world that just don't know computers. We techies feel that technology is easy and often can't understand why people just don't dive in and learn computers like we did.

The truth is the world is not composed of people like us. I have created this blog in attempt to make technology easy for the people that just don't understand computers. Many can surf the web but don't have a basic from the ground up understanding of their computers. Since I cannot know exactly where each person is starting I have chosen to start at the very beginning for just about any user. My goal is to teach everyone basically what I know about computers and how to do most of the things that I do with my own personal computer.

In short it is my hope to get people past the fear they have of messing up their own computer. Once you are past this point you will discover there is a whole new set of possibilities open to you.

How to Find a Good Monitor

You are not going to find the single best monitor for everyone. It just won't happen. What you can hope to find is the single best monitor for you. But what can make one monitor better than the other?

I am sure you already know that size can make one monitor better or more expensive than another. After all a 20" monitor should not cost as much as a 26" right? Most computer monitors that you will be looking at will be a flat panel LCD monitor so that is what we will be focusing one here.

Resolution
There are a few things by which to compare monitors, size, resolution, aspect ratio, contrast, response time and quality. Let's start with resolution. Resolution almost exclusively states the size of a monitor now. This should not be confused with dpi (Dots per inch).1920x1200 is larger than 1280x1048. You should also make sure that your video card can display the native resolution of the monitor. This is the resolution your monitor will look best in. Also make sure that you have a the correct connection on your video card for this monitor. White connector = DVI and blue = SVGA. If you followed my advise you should at least have a DVI and be okay purchasing any new monitor.

Contrast
Contrast is another important aspect to consider. Contrast is measured by a ratio. (1800:1) The first number represents the whitest white and the lowest number represents the darkest dark. The bigger the difference between the two the better the contrast and the better the monitor is.

Viewing Angle
This best viewing angle for all LCDs is directly at your monitor. If you imagined a line from one side of the screen to the other directly from the middle then a perpendicular line from the line would be the best angle from which to view it. The point at which you change that angle from and the picture degrades in quality is effectivly the viewing angle. That might mean contrast was less, brightness, color or anything else that difines the image.

Response Time
Response time is most important for movie enthusaist or gamers. Response time is how fast a pixle can change color. For instance from white to black or vice versa. The slower the rate the more you will see what is called ghosting. This is where the image a moment ago is still visiable within the tenths of seconds. It can be noticable and really annoying with action films and games The lower the number the better the monitor in this category.

Other Considerations.
Remember there may be other things that matter to you. Take your time and look in a store. See them in action. Ask the sales associate to pop in an action movie with high resolution. Wach for what I have mentioned above. Take note of any monitor that stands out to you. Look for reviews online for that monitor. Go to places like www.tigerdirect.com, www.newegg.com or cnet.com. (I get no money for advertising they are just sites that I use) Or you could ask someone like my company to give you a quote. We have a wholesaler and might be able to get it to you cheaper than what you find else where.(www.netrage.org) We don't advertise things for sale but that does not mean that we can't get it for you.

(Buying a New Computer Part – 5) Reading the Reviews

Now you that you may have determined what internals you want in your PC how you determine the best brand and model. Here I have to recommend www.cnet.com. They are the best technology review site I have found yet. Read the editor reviews and the customer reviews. Then go to places like Amazon, and www.newegg.com and see if you can read some more reviews from the customers on the computer you are interested in. Look at both the positives and negatives. One person may have rated it low because of a rare bad experience. Another may have not been happy with a feature that you don’t care about. Weigh these carefully and you should be able to narrow down what model.

One last bit of advice. I recommend being very careful about purchasing from big name electronic retailers. Often I have found they are over-priced and seldom are competitive. Make sure you take the time to shop around and find the best deal. If you buy online be careful. There are a lot of good and bad sites out there. Check to see what their ratings are with Google and other price comparison sites. Make sure you know the return policy and they have an 1800 to call in case there is a problem. You really do not want to be waiting a day for a response and then get the wrong answer. Also, be sure that they have your computer in stock. Nothing is more annoying than making a purchase and then finding out you might have to wait several weeks for it to come.

(Buying a New Computer Part-4) Understanding all Those Fancy Words and Numbers

Image via Wikipedia

Now the next part is to determine what makes a good machine. This can be very difficult so let me give you a few basics. Do not buy a computer that has less than 2GB of RAM if it is going to have Vista installed. Also if you plan to upgrade find out what the max memory is for that system. Each system (depending on the motherboard) will have a different amount of maximum memory. Don’t bother thinking about upgrading a 32bit system past 4Gb it won’t be able to use it anyway. Buying a Mac is a good choice for a lot of people especially now. However, that and Linux will be saved for another day. Vista is not as bad as some would make it. However, I would recommend a video card with at least 256mb, a dual core duo of about 2.3 GHz. I also would recommend nothing less than 80GB for a hard drive with 7200rpm. I guess now I will have to explain what all this means.

MB = Megabyte = amount of storage same with GB = Gigabyte
GHz = Gigahertz = basically speed

The best way I have found to describe this is to imagine your computer is your cubicle at work. The Filing cabinet is where all the files are kept. The Filing cabinet would be what your hard drive is. The GB is the amount of room you have in that cabinet. The RPM is how fast you can get a file. The desk where you work on all your papers is like your RAM. The more RAM you have the bigger desk you have and the more you can have out at one time. Now the processor is how fast you can read it all those papers and fill them out. A dual core is almost the same as having two of you read at the same time. Dual Core Duo = 2 chips with 2 cores each = that makes 4 cores. That is like having four of you reading and filling out paper work at the same time. Now that is almost true because it will depend on how well the software you have will take advantage of having four of you. Now for the video card, I do not have a good analogy for this one. I will keep it simple the more MB the better the card. Now understand this is a basic guide there are a lot of other metrics that determine what is best. This is only meant to get new people closer to understanding their purchase. There are two types of lots of different processors. They can all be split in two different categories. Those two are 32bit and 64bit.

32bit systems have been around for a while. They are slowly disappearing off the market and will probably in the next few years be gone all together. 32bit systems will not be able to read more than about 3.6Gb of RAM. 64bit systems are newer. They can handle 16.4 million terabytes for RAM. Something you will not reach in this computers lifetime. So in the office example above I would say that 1bit would be like being able to read one word at a time. 32bit means you can read 32 words at the same time. 64bit means that you will be able to read 64 words for each “you” there is. That would equal 64 words times 4 if you had a dual core duo. That makes it 256 words at one time.

(Buying a New Computer Part -3) About Desktops

Image by Private Pestilence (in your pants) (ClintJCL) via Flickr

Now about the desktop, price will likely drive your choice. You always have trade off. If you were a gamer and looking for an affordable computer than you will probably be looking in the $700 – $800 range. The more recent the game and the longer you want to game on it the more it will cost. I recommend that you get a box you can upgrade. This means get a larger size box, and one that has a couple of expansion slots in the back and the front. They will look something like long narrow metal slots in the back. In the Front they will typically be 5 ¼” blank plates the size of a DVD drive or the 3 ½” blank plates the size of the old 2.44MB HD2 floppy disks. In the picture if you look at the computer on the right you will see the these slots on the bottom half of the computer.

Many people think of a large and bulky desktop when they think about desktops. This no longer has to be true. Desktop computers can be as small as a cigar box. In fact there have people who really did put a full computer inside of a cigar box but that is for another time. Yes they can also be those huge towers. The smaller you choose the more difficult it will be to upgrade and the more expensive the computer. Consider your options carefully.

(Buying a New Computer Part – 2) Laptop or Desktop?

Image via Wikipedia

The third question is what type of computer do you want? Is it going to be a laptop or a desktop? This is an important decision because it will drive the price of your computer. You must realize that no matter the situation, spec for spec the laptop will be more expensive. I cannot think of a single instance where this has not been true. The key to this is to determine if you want a laptop first. If you don’t want or need the laptop the desktop is the obvious choice. Let me say that if you plan to have a gaming system do not buy a laptop.

Yes you can run some of the latest games on a laptop but there are few things that will be problematic. One the expense will be considerably greater due to the fact you will have to purchase a high performance laptop. Second, you will run through you battery very fast causing the whole mobility thing to be virtually ineffective. If you have to plug your laptop in frequently, there is little reason to pay for the “mobility.” Third, and last is that upgrading is nearly impossible. The only thing you really can upgrade in a laptop is memory and even that is limited. So you might be asking why you should even want a laptop.

There are many advantages for buying a laptop. Portability is a major factor. Being able to access the internet where you are is nice. Some laptops have the option of buying cellular service so that wherever you can use your cell phone you can use the internet. In some cases for some phones and special plans you can actually tether your phone to your computer. This would allow you to use your cell phone to connect to the internet. Being able to do work anywhere is also nice. You must consider though if you really need it. Many times people will purchase things they do not need just because it sounded good in the brochure. Don’t fall victim to buying more than you need it will cause you to waste a lot of money.

If you want a lot of mobility and don’t need a lot of power then you might want to consider a netbook. I have never liked these computers until my partner purchased one for our company. Truthfully this was a good option for the business. It was small, we could load all the diagnostic software we needed and it was affordable. Surprisingly it has run remarkably well. I currently have Office 2007 Pro Suite installed with XP and there is very little problems with it. Yes it is a little slow when starting MS Word or Excel but over all it performs nicely. The disadvantage is the screen size so you might want to get a keyboard, Mouse and Monitor for home use. If you need the power and want to load the latest apps for years to come, buy a more substantial laptop. Netbooks will not have the power you seek. Oh and one more thing. If you plan to leave the Laptop plugged 90% of the time you will ruin your battery to the point where it is no longer usable and will need to remain plugged in all the time. Under normal use batteries last about three years.

Youv'e Got Your Computer Now What

Ok so you have your computer and your are thinking what do I do now? If you bought a laptop its easy. Plug it in for a while and let that battery charge up. You can log in right away and follow the standard prompts and questions. They should be simple questions like, what time zone are you in, how do you plan to use this computer biz, home or both. before you know it you are in your new system.

If you have a desktop you have a few more steps. First you have to connect everything. There should be a diagram in the box explaining all this with pretty pictures. If you did not get there here is what you do. In the back of your computer you have lots of ports in different shapes and colors.

First plug in the power cord. One side in the wall and the other usually somewhere near the top backside. The picture on the right is a decent example. It is the three prong socket on the top right hand of the picture.

The next thing is your video cable. Now make sure that the color matches the port. If you have a blue cable it should go into the blue VGA port. If it is a white connection at the end of the cable then this is DVI. This means that you will have a sharper more clear image. Nothing should be forced only a snug fit.

Next if you have speakers you will want to plug those in and then look for the small cable with the green tip. On the back of your computer there will be three or four small round ports usually, and will be the size of a headphone jack. Match the color with the green port. Red will be for the mic. If you don't have a mic don't worry. You will not need it to operate your computer.

The only thing left are all those small square ports. These are called USB ports. You can plug many different things into these. Primarily your keyboard and mouse might fit into this.

If the end of your keyboard and mouse cables are purple and green then they are P/S2. You have to be very careful with these. Force them in the wrong way you will bend the connector and make your mouse and keyboard useless. Make sure to line them up right before you put them in. Again do not force it just a snug fitting.

Now you should have everything connected. Next time we will talk about drivers and making sure you have everything ready to go and even on what to uninstall.

Other Articles for consideration

I really want to write articles that you want. Below are just some ideas. Mention one of the ideas below or feel free to put down your own suggestion. Something breaks on your computer or you just get stumped ask me!

When you get your new computer chances are there is a lot of things that you don’t need are installed. This can really slow down your computer and waste space.
How to speed the startup of your computer
Why is my computer slowing down?
What are good anti-viruses and why
What about not buying Windows? (Careful “they” might be listening.)
Netbooks revisited worth a second look?
Why buy a Dell?
How to find reviews on great products?
How to upgrade the memory for your system?
Replacing a failed hard drive
Putting your old hard drive in a new system
How to mirror drives so if one fails you do not loose everything
How come when I am typing Outlook, Excel, or Word will freeze and then continue?
Take a look again. Many of you beginner users only choose to use the default software on your system. What you don’t know is that you have the power to choose.
How do I lock my kids out of the computer?

(Buying a New Computer Part-1) Figuring Out Your Needs

Image by aranarth via Flickr

Are you looking at purchasing a new computer? Here is a basic guide to help you get started.

The first question you should ask is what do you plan to use this computer for? There are a few basic categories that you should consider.

Business

Home (surfing the net looking at the occasional document),

Gaming

General family use.

Visualize yourself and the other people that will be using this system, what programs they will be using on the computer. List out all those applications, whatever dominates that list will be what category that you buy around. If you plan to use this for business then you need to make sure your system meets at least the minimum requirements for the business applications that you will use. Ask the IT guy at your work what they are or look on the back, bottom or very top of your software box for that.

Question two: how long do you intend to use this computer? More accurately, how long do you intend to load or upgrade programs on this computer? The longer you want to keep new software on your machine the more money you will be spending to get a more top end computer.