what pc

[pie2000]

i want to upgrade my pc but don't know enough about computers to be able to confidently buy what i need. I don't need anything flash - just something that is faster and more reliable than the dinosaur i've currently got. can anyone tell me what sort of things i need to consider when buying?

[vehelpfulguy]

if you have an old PC it is very difficult to upgrade it without changing almost everything.

The problem is that the main two components to upgrade would be the CPU and the memory.

Both these components plug into the motherboard, but an old motherboard cannnot take an up-to-date CPU or modern memory.

So you will have to replace the motherboard as well.

It may be better to consider buying a new system unit (the main PC unit) as this will be easier and possibly even cheaper.

Many companies, such as Novatech, can sell you just the system unit, and you can use your existing screen, keyboard, mouse, speakers etc

[vehelpfulguy]

One other option is to buy a barebones system, see here

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/barebones.h tml

A barebones system usually consists of a case, motherboard, CPU and memory, all built and tested for you.

You would need to add a hard disk and CD & DVD writer/player which you may already have, and then install Windows.

[fo3nix]

As vehelpfulguy suggests, don't go down the upgrading route, just buy a new one (this may be entirely what you are intending anyway).

If you want to play any games on it (except for simpler ones like solitaire...), then make sure it has a dedicated graphics card and not some built-in one.

Make sure it has 1GB RAM or more. 1GB should suffice though.

Make sure the hard drive is at least 80GB or so. This shouldn't be hard at all.

Get the best processor you can afford, in your price range.

[pie2000]

thank you both - i was intending to buy a brand new computer and donate this one to a museum! I think you've over estimated my knowledge of pcs however- i'm not sure what you mean by a processor - is that a pentium? I know about the hard drive but what is the RAM bit? my current pc has a cd writer but it's not very good - what should i be looking for?

[fo3nix]

Your computer stores everything on the hard drive, which is a mechanical device that is like lots and lots of LP's stacked up. It's very slow though, so in order to speed things up, you also have RAM, which is memory on microchips. So what happens is that when you turn your computer on it copies bits of Windows that it needs into RAM. When you open a program like Word, it puts that into RAM. When you open a letter you've written, it grabs that from the hard drive and puts it into RAM so you can work on it and it'll all work faster. When you save the file, it saves it back to the hard drive again.

The problem with RAM is that it's 'volatile' memory. This doesn't mean it may explode, but that it loses its memory when the electric goes off. This is why if you're writing a letter and you haven't saved it yet and the computer crashes or the electric goes off, you lose what you've typed -- it's still just in RAM, and so it disappears.

More RAM means more programs and stuff can be put there at once. Things run smoother. 1GB is a good amount to have right now; XP works well with 512MB, and better with 1GB.

Because the hard drive actually stores everything, and the RAM is only a temporary thing, your hard drive is always far larger than RAM -- hence why I say go for 80GB or more.

The processor is the brains of the unit that conducts everything. The faster the clock speed rating, the better. Typically about 3GHz or so right now. Pentium is one name, but there are many different kinds. Pentium 4 is the current one, but it's quite old now. Pentium D is similar but is like having two brains on one chip. Same for the Core Duo and Core2 Duo processors.

All that above processors are by Intel though. AMD is another manufacturer that makes good chips (totally compatible with Intel's), and they're called Athlon typically. Again, the AthlonX2 processors is like the PentiumD -- two brains on one chip.

[pie2000]

thanks for the advice - you've been v helpful