Since we are in the silly season and no, I'm not referring to the election but the holiday gift buying season, I thought I'd cover a question that often comes up, what to do and what to look for when buying a new PC. Obviously, if you are reading this, you already own or have access to a PC. Unfortunately, online advice usually centers on brands as opposed to considerations in making the purchase.

Start by deciding how much you wish to spend. Have some idea of price range with consideration for planned uses as well. If you are trying to help others, try to get some idea of what they intend to do with the PC and then guide them with regard to price.

A first time buyer should probably consider a full system with monitor, printer and even a scanner given the low price of scanners today. All the more so since most PCs come with a fax modem and without a scanner, you cannot use the PC for purposes of faxing an external document.

Decide the minimum requirements you have for a new system and then try to match those features to systems in your price range. Make a list of desired features; it makes it easier to compare and to determine what a system with those features will cost. Check computer magazines to stay informed about current technology and features.

Once you've determined a price range and need, the single most important thing to do is "shop." Check your newspaper for supplements from local retailers, look at what's available in your price range. Many newspapers have particular days when they emphasize ads of a certain type so check for the "computer" ad days.

Another terrific source is MicroTimes, a free periodical, loaded with ads that fully describe systems, features and prices. MicroTimes is distributed at a number of outlets throughout the country, usually independent computer shops.

MicroTimes is free at local outlets or you can get a paid subscription and when you are buying a new PC, it's a small investment. Check them out at their website. They have readers worldwide and I personally found them to be an excellent source of information for the comparison shopper. MicroTimes is my bible when I'm in the market for a new PC.

Also check out Computer Shopper, it's not free but it is available at most newsstands and they have a terrific online site. Both magazines contain an abundance of ads that make comparison-shopping easy because they place a lot of ads for a number of similar systems in one place.

What Should You Be Seeking

You always want the most bang for the buck, the most system for the money you wish to spend.

The sub $1000 market has been ruled lately by AMD. Until recently, they offered the most high-powered systems in that price range. Intel released the Celeron chip to compete in this range. The first Celerons were slow but the new versions have 128K of L2 Cache and they are much faster. For most uses, word processing, databases and the average applications, most sub $1000 systems can handle the chore.

Nonetheless, these systems usually are only good buys at below $1000. As you move above $1000, you begin to move into the range of Pentium III and, now, Pentium IV systems. Most of the Pentium III systems now come with 256K of on die cache and because the cache is on die it runs at the speed of the processor. These systems usually have more components which optimize the system for speed. Also, if you are into games or have uses which are graphic intensive, you should be looking at the more powerful systems as the sub $1000 systems might not be able to handle the load.

If you are thinking of a Pentium IV system, wait a bit. First, the prices on those systems will be coming down shortly. Second, most of the Pentium IV systems aren't much faster than the high end Pentium IIIs for which you'd pay far less. Also, current Pentium IV systems are only being released with Rambus memory. Despite all the hype about Rambus and its ability to take advantage of the higher bus speeds in Pentium IV systems, thus far, the additional gain has been minimal and practically unnoticeable in normal applications.

Shortly, Pentium IV systems with DDR (Double Data Rate) SDRAM should become available. These systems should be considerably less expensive than the Rambus systems by several hundred dollars. Currently, it's not even certain if Intel will be supporting Rambus memory in the future. Hence, if you are thinking about a new system but your current system is not giving you any trouble and is handling your needs, wait a bit for things to settle down.

What You Should Consider

Many systems come with the entire setup stored on a single recovery CD. This has some advantages and some disadvantages. The primary advantage, you can easily restore your entire original setup, exactly as it came from the factory. The primary disadvantage, it is an all or nothing situation.

If you must restore a corrupted driver, most of these recovery disks don't have a method for restoring only one component. A single corrupted driver requires you to do a full recovery, reinstalling the entire original setup. Worse, the recovery routine often erases everything on your hard disk. Unless your data is backed up, you lose everything.

In my opinion, users should look for a system that includes the operating system on a CD with individual applications and drivers on their own disks or, at the very least, a system that allows for the individual restoration from a combined setup disk. Some systems do come with a recovery CD as well as the necessary driver disks. Being able to let the system find and restore corrupted drivers or reinstall individual devices is a Windows 95/98 and Millennium feature and the all or nothing scenario disables it.

Finally, if Internet access is important to you, you should be considering much faster systems today. In the past, the Internet was the great equalizer. All systems great and small were separated only by the speed of their modem and the quality of phone lines.

However, broadband access is becoming much more widely available, that's access through high-speed phone lines, cable and satellite. Phone companies are already linking with cable companies for the purpose of providing broadband, high-speed access. This will place greater demands on systems and should be a consideration if this is important to you.

Another consideration is memory. Don't get less than 128MB of RAM and if you are planning on running an MS Office Suite with Millennium or the upcoming consumer edition of Windows 2000, currently in beta tests, possibly available in the last quarter of 2001, by all means, give consideration to 256MB of RAM. Memory prices are low again and this is the time to make that investment. It will be well worth it. Memory is as important to system speed and ability to run multiple applications as the speed of the processor. If you have a choice between a 1GHZ system or more with 128MB of RAM or an 800MHZ system with 256MB of RAM, the dollars make more sense going for the less powerful processor and the increased memory.

Another consideration should definitely be a CD-RW drive. There simply is no more convenient method of backup or for archiving information today than using one of these drives. With CD-R disks costing a dollar or less for some disks that can store as much as 700MB of information and CD-RW (Re-Writeable) disks that can usually be found for around $2 these drives are very cost effective and an excellent investment.

Don't fall into the trap of feeling your system is obsolete the moment you buy it. As long as it can handle the applications you normally run and do the things you want it to do and is not having any hardware problems the system is not obsolete. Don't buy "scared" of obsolescence, buy as much machine as you can afford and if you need to sacrifice because of budgetary considerations, go for a slightly less powerful processor and don't scrimp on memory.

The pace of change is rapid but if you buy right, you will have a system which should handle most of your needs and most of what comes your way for at least three years and maybe longer depending on your needs. The key is to check what seems to be the most current technology and buy as close to those parameters as possible.

I'm not recommending products here but the information I've included should help you make a more informed choice when choosing which system is right for you.

Have a Happy Holiday.