“BUYING A DESKTOP PERSONAL COMPUTER TO MATCH YOUR NEEDS”

Presentation by Phil Goff

Computers & Technology Group Chairman Phil Goff opened the meeting at 9:30am. Executive committee members in attendance were Phil Goff, Dick Curry, Floyd Skelton, Jack Bevis, Dick Chaffee, Frank Crua, Lo McCarley, Vic Moore and Chris Satterthwaite. Total attendance was 46.

It should be noted that Floyd Skelton has rejoined the Board of Directors.

Phil announced that our treasurer was absent due to a broken arm.

Dues were collected again today. This question will be reconsidered on a month-to-month basis as the needs of the treasury develop. A new microphone was procured in time for today’s meting.

The volunteers for this meeting were: Refreshments Tom Bates; Coffee Masters Chris Satterthwaite and Vic Moore; Setup Chairman Lo McCarley with Bob Brady, Dick Chaffee, John Ringer and Norm McRae assisting.  

Phil then gave his featured presentation, entitled “ Buying a Desktop Personal Computer”. My write up of his presentation follows.

This comprehensive presentation, consisting of 35 slides, discussed types of desktop computers, their features and where to buy them. It pointed out which specifications are important and which are not. It did not get into Laptops or Macs. Phil did not go into brand selection at all, commenting that people have good and bad experiences with all brands. The full presentation is available on the website.

Ergonomics. Where will you put your PC? What shape works best for you? Most common these days is the mini-tower. Small computers can be just as powerful as large ones.  Small cases do limit the number of drives and the internal expansion capability of the machine. The plus side is they occupy less space.

What type of user are you? Phil defined three types and the price including a monitor you should expect to pay:

Limited User: email, some word processing, on line shopping. $500 +.
Moderate User: add, store digital photos, burn disks, download from the net. $600-$800
Power User. Add, slideshows, edit videos, external hard drives, multiple programs running at the same time. May have video games for the grandchildren. $1000+.

Phil presented two charts listing CPU chip prices for AMD and INTEL. The low end being Celeron and Sempron for Limited Users, mid range for Moderate Users- Pentium or Althion 64. Power Users should get a dual core processor. His advice is to look at the processor and its cost when buying a PC to get a feel for the level of the unit.
Other features:                                                                                                  

Limited Users. 512MB minimum RAM for Vista. One DVD-R/W Drive. Video integrated into the mother board normally works fine. Get a 80GB or larger Hard Drive. 4 USB connections.    
Moderate User. 1GB minimum RAM for Vista. 2GB for video editing etc. One DVD-R/W Drive. Integrated video ok.  160GB Hard Drive probably with an external HD for backup. 4 USB connections with 2 of them on the front.
Power User. RAM same as moderate. One DVD-R/W Drive is OK but it is nice to have two. Get a video card with at least 128mb of RAM. Think 200BG or larger, probably 320GB and an external back up unit. 6 USB connections and a Fire wire port for connection to a video camera.
Monitor. Minimum 17 inch LCD. Currently available for $125. Don’t buy a CRT.
Printer. Inkjets are fine but ink usage is expensive. Phil said that he uses a black and white Laser printer for 95% of his printing. He said that they are cheap to buy and operate (<$100).He only uses an inkjet when color is needed.

Phil presented 2 slides of closing thoughts starting with the suggestion that you can probably save some money by staying with XP. Then came a list of possible sources and finally a list of the basic decisions that you must make before going shopping.

Phil said that he prepared the presentation using Open Office (free from Sun) rather than power point and found that it worked very well.  

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Presentation Materials:

Buying a Desktop Computer (pdf)

Computer and Technology
Group Meeting Highlights

 February 15, 2007

By Jack Bevis (Branch 116), CTG Secretary/Web Correspondent