PC Buying Information

Sorry this page is out of date, we are not currently updating it due to other time comittments.

Read at your own risk.

Lowball Prices for Stuff

Local computer stores (Ottawa, Canada)

Last significant update 1999 Sept 13

Sorry this list is out of date, we are not currently updating it.

Note that we do not sell PCs or represent any particular company.

The following is presented to help you better understand the purchase of a PC.

This information is what I would tell you, if you asked me a "What do I need to know about getting a PC?".

Talk about a big open question. This page is my answer: When buying a PC it is important to keep in mind the following realities:

They will get faster

They will get cheaper

The new computer you buy today will be considered "obsolete" in less than 4 years. Accept it.

New developments the past months (July-Aug):

Pentium III -- Now at 600MHz

Celeron with level 2 cache now faster, 433Mz, but not faster than "real" Pentium II at same speed..

Ultra ATA/66 IDE drives and interfaces now appearing

Jumperless motherboards and all PCI motherboards available. Look for BX chipset.

4x AGP Video Cards / Motherboads appearing (was 2x AGP)

RAM is quite cheap (in summer it was almost $1/MB). Now back around around $2.00/MB

New PC100 100MHz SDRAM for Pentium II BX motherboards. Recommended.

56K V.90 modems standard now, nothing new here (Cable and xDSL modems getting popular)

DVD Drives more popular (replacing CD-ROM drives)

USB ports on all new systems.

What kind of computer do we use: ( New system purchased in July 1999 )

Pentium II 400 MHz MMX CPU (slot 1)

Abit BE6 motherboard (USB, Ultra ATA/66 IDE, ATX, Jumperless board supports all Slot 1 procesors)

128 MB SDRAM (3 DIMM slots, 1 filled)

9 GB Ultra ATA/66 IDE Hard Drive (Quantum)

Still using my 15" monitor (DIGITAL)

40X CD/DVD ROM Drive

ATI All-In-Wonder 128 (TV In/Out, DVD, etc.)

Yamaha 4416 CDR drive

Windows 95C (With CD & Manual)

Logitech Scroll Mouse PS/2

Black PS/2 Keyboard 104 key Toshiba (surplus)

Elan Vital tower case (no tools required).

SoundBlaster 64 AWE sound card (I'm not a big sound buff)

Speakers: Realistic Minimus 7's connected to a Receiver

ACER 56K Voice/FAX/Modem. (Currently using Cable Modem)

Canon BJC-4100 colour printer.

Used my P100 CPU in old 386 case with a surplus $35 Pentium Motherboard, 16MB RAM and 500MB surplus disk. Mono VGA 14" monitor. Runs as proxy server and home lighting control system.

Recommendation

My recommendation is based on what I feel is your best value at this time. (See disclaimer at end)

I have included "more" and "less" categories to give you an idea where it stands.

All include, 3.5" Floppy, keyboard, mouse, 2 Serial/1 Enhanced Parallel and USB ports, Mid Tower Case & Power supply, Windows 98 CD or NT4 Workstation

Less Recommended More Celeron 433 / K6 350 MMX Pentium III 450 Pentium III 600 Slot1 or Super7 MB (USB) ATX, BX Motherboard (USB) ATX, BX Motherboard, USB ports on board 64 MB SDRAM DIMM 128 MB PC 100 SDRAM DIMM 256 MB PC100 SDRAM DIMM 6.0 GB Hard Disk 9.0 GB Hard Disk 18.0 GB Hard Disk, SCSI 40X CD-ROM 40X CD/DVD-ROM 40X CD/DVD-ROM Drive and CDR Drive SB Sound Card 64 Voice Sound Card AWE 128 Voice Sound Card with AWE / Live 4MB PCI Video Card Video Card 8MB (2x AGP, 3D) 16MB Video Card (4x AGP, 3D) (VRAM) 56 Kbps FAX/MODEM 56K bps v.90 Voice/FAX/MODEM 56Kbps v.90 DSDV/Speaker/Voice/FAX/MODEM 15" Monitor .28dp NI 17" Monitor .26dp NI 19" Monitor .25 dp NI 1 year warranty 2 year warranty 3 year warranty $1500-2000 $2000-2500 $2500-3000

Ask if all manuals are included

Ask if media is included (Disks and/or CD-ROMs)

Ask who does the service. How long does it take? Service On-site or do you bring it in?

Ask about phone support. Local call or 800 number?

Ask how many slots mother board has for RAM. What is maximum RAM supported?

Ask about Green PC (Energy Saving) features, Auto/Soft-Off

Ask about their return policy. Full refund or Credit?

How well they treat you? Do you get same service if you buy a box of floppys vs. say, a printer?

Ask about their warranty. Is it labour AND parts for the warranty period? Some say 5 years but only 2 years are for parts, labour costs almost nothing to them, but parts do cost them. Be careful of sneaky places that do this.

PRINTER.You will need a printer. For casual printing I recommend an InkJet, they are cheap ($200), quiet and use plain paper. Cheap (3) colour seems to be the same price as Black and White. (You can't seem to get a B&W only InkJet anymore) Ask how much new ink cartridges cost ($30!). It's sort of a free razor, replacement blades deal, but it still is not bad for casual printing, unless you go crazy printing stuff from the Web. If you plan to do a lot of printing, get a black and white "laser class" printer for $300 and up. Ask how much the toner is for a "laser class" printer and how many pages you can expect it to print.

You will also need a parallel cable to connect your printer ($10). There seems to be some new IEEE printer cable available, same connectors and everything, but 3 times the price. To me it's not worth $30, even with gold plated pins.

CD-ROM drives are not a big a deal anymore. The real descision now is whether to get a CD/DVD drive. But do get a CD-ROM drive, just like a 3.5" drive, you will need it to load software and they are pretty cheap. 36X is minimum you can get now. Note that the maximum rate is at outer edge, most CDs are not filled up to the outer edge. So you wont get the maximum speeds in normal use.

USB. Universal Serial Bus. This is the new connection standard for all sorts of peripherals. It will replace, serial, parallel, keyboard, monitor and other connections. There are starting to be more devices that can be actually purchased (thank the iMac) like digital cameras, scanners, joysticks, mice, etc. USB connections allow multiple (up to 127) devices to be connected to a system. You wont have to juggle ports or run out of serial connections. The connectors are a bit like modular phone connections, no screws to fiddle with, just click them together. Make sure your new system has it.

MOTHERBOARD. This is the most important part of your system. If you get a cheap motherboard it may not be very expandable in terms of memory, processor and other features (like USB). There are two ways to look at things. 1) Cheap way: don't spend much now and replace the entire motherboard and CPU when you need more power. Do not buy the top of the line, buy middle range, later (1-2 years) replacement will cost what you would have paid for top of the line when first purchased. 2) A bit more expensive way: Buy a higher end motherboard and CPU with room for expansion. This will stretch your system obsolescence out. Still have to upgrade sometime though.

To summarize: 1) Pay less now, upgrade more sooner 2) Pay more now, upgrade less later. Either way you still end up having to upgrade. Don't buy the cutting edge CPU, buy the motherboard that allows you to use faster components later.(e.g. BX motherboard supporting 600+MHz, but start with a 433 Celeron processor and PC 100 RAM, say 64MB, later you can add more PC100 RAM, say 128-256MB and a faster 700MHz CPU when the price comes down)

Important parts of motherboard:

CPU Slot -- Socket 7 (Pentium/AMD/Cyrix), Slot 1 (Pentium II/Celeron), Slot 2 (Pentium Xeon)

RAM Slots -- Minimum 2 SDRAM slots (3 or 4 prefered) also support for PC100 RAM

Card Slots -- Minimum 4 PCI, 1 ISA, (5 and 2 prefered), 1 AGP Video Slot

ATX. ATX means the ports are all soldered to motherboard and does not use wires going to connectors. ATS also allows soft-off/on features. ATX is the way to go (requires ATX case)

RAM. Get PC100 168 pin SDRAM. This is the latest RAM and works with new 100 MHz motherboards, it also works on older 66MHz systems. The price difference is negligible. You may want ECC version of this RAM, it is error correcting and costs more. The difference is that "regular" RAM will stop your system if it detects a parity error in the RAM. ECC is able to detect and correct the error so your system wont hang. I say get regular if trying to save, I do. RAM errors are rare, normally your software will crash your system most of the time and ECC will not change that. Mission critical systems should be ECC.

ASK OTHERS. Don't believe everything you are told, hear or read (this includes us). Check other sources as well.

Average Complete PC Computer Prices

XT 8086 (640K/20MB) $Free

AT 286 (1MB/40MB) $10

386 (4MB/80MB) $50

486 (8MB/200MB and up) $100

Pentium 586 (16MB/1GB +) $200-400

Pentium II/AMD Super 7 (32MB/2GB+) $500-1500

Pentium III (128MB/6GB+) $1500-5000



The fastest computer always seems to be about $5000. Even the XT was, in 1980

Computers tend to drop in price by half every 2 years. $4000, $2000, $1000, $500

When buying a computer, small details make the difference between an average computer and a better one with the newer technology and expandability that will extend its life. These differences usually only increase your purchase price by 10% ($200-300). It is usually worth it. Educate yourself, it is a wise investment.

Warning: Do not read any computer ads AFTER you buy a system. The price drops can make you sick

Be sure to use your computer. The value of a computer is savings of time and knowledge gained.

Time=Money. This is why the faster machines cost more. They save you more time.



Buy it, Use It, Enjoy it.

Disclaimer:

Recommending a computer is a moving target, prices keep dropping, new features come out. Any recommendation will not be accurate in a few months. Other people may give you different opinions. I encourage you to get information from several places (see below). That will even out the biases.

For those who think I left stuff out, yes I did. It is a challenge to condense everything about computer purchasing into a few pages. What did I leave out? CD-Recordable, DVD, MO drives, Optical disks, LS 120MB and HiFD 200 MB 3.5" Floppy drives, ZIP drives, Cable/ASDL modems, SCSI, FireWire, Video, Chipsets, Cyrix and AMD chips and other stuff. I also left out Macs.

Other Info

Here is another site with more info about buying PCs. Read another opinion.

Back to WHYFOR Industries Top