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A Writer At Heart |
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Aureo P. Castro's Written Works |
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Other Web Sites By The Author
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If you're in the market for a new computer for your home, it pays to always keep one step ahead of technology. This is so you can avoid the threat of obsolescence that can abruptly render your equipment a worthless piece of junk. I present here three trends that you should pay attention to so you can avoid the obsolescence pitfall. The first trend I want you to consider is the rapid decline in the use of the CRT monitor in favor of the LCD monitor. When buying a new computer system for your home, think twice about buying a CRT monitor for your display needs. I am shamelessly in favor of the LCD monitor and you can call me an LCD monitor freak. I have been using computers for more than 20 years and I consider the advent of the LCD monitor a blessing for computer users. To be sure no one solution is perfect and the LCD monitor belongs in that category. It has its own shortcomings but I think in the end, the LCD monitor comes out ahead of the CRT monitor. LCD’s biggest advantage is in the savings in electricity cost that you can use for the LCD monitor to pay for itself. The second is the smaller footprint that the LCD monitor uses as compared to the CRT monitor. Your work area will considerably be more pleasant when you get rid of the bulky CRT monitor. Thirdly, there is considerably less danger for kids to use the LCD monitor than the CRT monitor. An LCD monitor does not explode into small glass-like pieces when it accidentally falls on the floor. Lastly, the LCD monitor does use a huge amount of energy and does not emit a lot of heat and its material and construction is less prone to failure than the CRT monitor. The next trend I want you to think about is the movement in the hardware sector away from the AGP technology for the display adapter in favor of the PCI-E technology. If you go to a computer store, you will notice that there is less and less of the AGP cards available and more and more of the PCI-E cards being offered for sale. What now if your motherboard does not have any PCI-E slot available. You have just reached what I call the upgrade dead end and your computer will not be able to take advantage of the speed offered by the new PCI-E cards. This is truer if you happen to be a gaming enthusiast who wants to extract all the speed that you can get from your graphics card. So the next time you buy a computer system check the motherboard and make sure it has PCI-E slots available so you can have more options as to the speed of the video adapter you can use. For your information, the old PCI, AGP and the new PCI-E cards and slots are all incompatible with one another so one style adapter will not fit into the other style slot. AGP is on the way out so having a slot for it in your motherboard is just a waste of money so buy a motherboard that has the new PCI-E and old PCI in it. The last trend I want to talk about is the advent of the new Microsoft Vista operating system. I haven’t really tried using this OS in my computer but I would assume that it would require a lot more computer resources than the old XP. So if you intend to switch to the OS in the future, make sure that your hardware resources would be able to support the system requirements of the new OS. Here is one tip that may prove useful. Don’t ever believe that the new OS will perform well if you just provide it with the so-called minimum system requirements. The minimum system requirements trap is a sales gimmick that you should not fall prey into. It is just meant to increase sales and should never be used by the intelligent computer user. Instead use the recommended system requirements as the minimum and add some more depending on the applications you plan to use in your computer. Remember my golden rule of computer upgrade is not to have to upgrade later because you have accurately figured out at the time of purchase the resources you will need two or three years ahead. By carefully
considering the above three trends when you buy your next computer system,
you will less likely fall into the trap of obsolescence and be able to
weather the onslaught of the very fast turnover in developments in
computer technology. You will have a great advantage if you can add a few
more years in the service life of your computer system. This can save you
money that you can use for other purposes like enjoying your life. Being a
wise investor means having more not less money in the end. |
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Three Trends To Consider When Buying A New Computer. Three trends that can make or break your next computer purchase. A Few Ideas On Solving Computer Problems. It pays to have enough know-how to solve simple computer failures. Savvy Home Computer Buying. A better way of buying your next home computer. A Cheap CD Player For Your Kid's Room. Useful concepts, tools and commands for effectively using the Red Hat Linux operating system. |
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Copyright 2008 Aureo P. Castro Email: [email protected] |
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