SYSTEM BUYING GUIDE

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There are so many different computer components out there today, and the market for computers moves at an extremely fast rate. You may be a computer expert or a first time user. Either way it doesn't matter, there will most likely always be something to do with computers that you are unsure about. What we are attempting to do is to make your understanding of the products easier by providing some basic information about each item. This information should help you decide firstly if you need the product, and secondly if you need a powerful or moderate version. Follow the links on the left to find out more about each component

PROCESSOR:

The processor/CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the brain of your computer. The CPU is a piece of etched silicon that does some very powerful things. It co-ordinates the real work of your computer, telling all the peripheral devices what to do and how to act. The speed of a processor works in megahertz (MHz). One thousand megahertz is equal to one gigahertz (GHz). Therefore a 3.2ghz Intel processor will run at 3200mhz.

Many people believe that the faster the processor, the faster the PC will be. When choosing your processor speed, rather than throwing all your eggs in one basket and spending your budget straight away, choose a more balanced system:

Example 1:

Intel Pentium 4 3.0ghz with 512mb DDR memory and a well balanced motherboard.

Example 2:

Intel Pentium 4 2.8ghz with 1024mb DDR memory and a well balanced motherboard.

Which computer will be faster? Although we haven't conducted tests, for gaming or demanding use we would go for example number 2. It may (Jan 04) work out to be a cheaper option, but having double the amount of RAM will allow for more programs to be open at once, better stability for gaming and a more responsive computer.

Dual core processors:

From June 2005 we can now offer computers based on the dual core Intel Pentium D processor. Dual core processors, for example the Intel Pentium D 820, are designed to give a high performance using applications that support multi-threading. Besides the Microsoft Windows XP operating itself, which supports multi-threading, as of June 2005 there are not a huge collection of applications that support multi-threading. The main applications that support multi-threading are high end professional video editing packages, and a few games. If you're going to be doing lots of multi-tasking, for example, running lots of programs at once, the Intel Pentium D Processor is the one for you. Otherwise, if you are looking for speed in running one or two applications, or a gaming machine, you're best off choosing the 5xx/6xx processors or an AMD Athlon 64 processor respectively.

See also: Hyper Threading Technology (HTT)

THE BIG QUESTION:

What is the difference between AMD and Intel? Which processor route should I choose?

The answer - there is no real answer. Each processor available has its advantages and disadvantages. We can only offer you our advice, in which we will try our best not to include any bias.

Firstly, you have to decide whether you are looking for a performance computer, a basic computer for general use, or an extremely powerful computer.

I want a performance computer
I want a basic computer
I want an extremely powerful computer

I want a performance computer

You have two options - an Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon 64.

Intel Pentium processors have a higher clock speed than Athlon 64 processors. They also have a large cache and they make use of a technology called Hyper Threading Technology. This generally means that Intel Pentium processors are very good at number crunching, encoding videos and all round multi-tasking. The type of customer (based on our own findings) who generally chooses and Intel Pentium processor will be looking for a computer for video editing, photo editing and number crunching tasks.

AMD Athlon 64 processors have a slightly lower clock speed than Intel processors. They have a large cache and make use of Hyper Transport Technology. The type of customer (based on our own findings) who generally chooses and AMD Athlon64 processor will be looking for a computer for gaming, movies and home entertainment.

Nevertheless, both processors will perform all the tasks mentioned here to a very competitive extent. You will find that the more people you ask about processors, the more confused you will become. This is because you will hear so many different conflicting stories as to which processor to choose. The only real way to decide which processor is best for your needs would be to search the internet yourself for reviews on the processors around your subject area. For example, if you want to play Doom 3 on your computer, search for processor reviews on Doom 3.

I want a basic computer

You have two options - an Intel Celeron or AMD Sempron.

An Intel Celeron Processor will have a higher clock speed than an AMD Sempron processor and a large Front Side Bus. The type of customer who generally chooses an Intel Celeron processor (based on our own findings) will be looking for a computer for internet usage, emails, office and light gaming.

An AMD Sempron processor has a low clockspeed compared to the Intel Celeron processor and a smaller cache. However, these two processors perform very closely to each other. Have a look at this review. The type of customer who generally chooses an AMD Sempron processor (based on our own findings) will be looking for a computer for internet usage, emails, light gaming and light photo editing.

I want an extremely powerful computer

You have two options - an Intel Pentium Extreme Edition or an AMD Athlon 64 FX.

An Intel Pentium Extreme Edition processor has a fast clockspeed, a "super-sized" Front Side Bus, and Hyper Threading technology. This processor will be able to handle anything you throw at it. The type of customer who generally chooses an Intel Pentium Extreme Edition processor will be an extreme gamer or professional business man/woman, looking for a computer to aid his/her business, which is usually in video or imagery.

An AMD Athlon 64 FX processor has a slower clockspeed than an Intel Pentium Extreme Edition processor, but a "super-sized" cache and Hyper Transport technology. The type of customer who generally chooses and AMD Athlon 64 FX processor is an extreme gaming enthusiast.

Needless to say, both these processors will perform every task with ease, and we can not pick out one processor over the other. Have a look at this review here to help you make your mind up.

MEMORY (RAM):

RAM (Random Access Memory) is vital to a computer system. The more RAM your computer has, the more information that can be processed simultaneously. All your programs, games and applications that are currently in use are stored in your RAM, and so the more RAM you have inside your computer, the more applications you can run.

Memory Brand:

Our memory is fully tested. Unless otherwise specified, the memory chips are manufactured by a major memory manufacturer (i.e. Samsung, Infineon etc) and are of a low latency. Unfortunately though, we cannot guarantee what chips of memory you will receive or the brand that it may be, but we can guarantee that the memory will be of a very good quality.

How should you determine your RAM requirements? As time passes by applications are getting more powerful, which usually means that they will require more RAM.

In order to work out your RAM requirements we recommend that you gather all of your applications together and check their minimum RAM requirements. Then simply make sure you purchase enough to cover everything - and don't forget to give yourself a bit extra to make your computer future-proof as well!

Besides the amount of memory you can have in a computer, you can also choose to have faster memory. Faster memory will communicate with your CPU quicker and allow for an even better performance.

MOTHERBOARD:

The motherboard, like it suggest in its name, is the mother of all boards in a computer. Just about every component in a computer system will somehow connect to the motherboard. It is therefore important to make sure that your computer has a powerful and reliable motherboard. Our computers systems always use motherboards from the top manufacturers, some of which include ASUS, Foxconn and ECS. Motherboards have several features built into them, which include controllers, chips, buses and so on. We have included a few definitions of individual parts of a motherboard to help you along your way:

PCI PORTS:

Motherboards have a number of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) ports. You put items such as the modem, network card, USB card, TV card etc into these ports.

USB PORTS:

USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports are ports on your computer that allow you to connect peripherals such as the printer, scanner, webcam, external cable modem, mobile phone, portable hard disk and much more to your computer quickly and fast. It is therefore recommended to have a large amount of USB ports so in the future you can add components quickly and easily.

AGP PORT:

An AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) port is where you connect your graphics card to. An PCI EXPRESS port is the fastest currently available.

IDE PORT:

An IDE port is what you would connect your optical drives, or hard drives to. Each IDE cable has 2 connectors for connecting a device.

SERIAL ATA (SATA) (Serial - Advanced Technology Attachment)

SATA is a serial interface. The speed of the interface for the current phase is ATA 150, ultimately being envisioned to rise to 600 megabytes/sec (ATA 600). Existing ATA drives use a 64 bit wide bus to communicate with the IDE drive. To do so requires a wide, flexible ribbon cable. One of the main problems with the ribbon cable is that, with multiple disk drives (HDD's, CD, and DVD), the Ribbon cables begin to block the airflow through the chassis, impeding cooling. SATA solves this problem by replacing the ribbon cables with thin cables containing two differential cable pairs. In addition, SATA promises a higher speed interface for the future. Another reason for the SATA is that it reduces the number of traces on the motherboard as the connector has significantly fewer pins than the parallel ATA. With Serial-ATA there is no master/slave configuration, and therefore you can easily and hassle free add or remove hard drives. Additionally, with a Serial ATA card you can add additional hard drives. This breaks the barrier of only being able to add 4 IDE devices with parallel ATA. You could, if you needed the storage, have say 4 hard drives as well as a CD writer, DVD writer and DVD ROM.

HYPER THREADING TECHNOLOGY:

Hyper threading technology brings increased performance to computer users in two ways: using multithreaded software or using software in a multitasking environment. Software applications that have been written to use multiple pieces of code called “threads” view the Pentium 4 processors with HT Technology as two processors. HT Technology allows the processor to work on two separate threads at the same time rather than one at a time. In addition, applications can benefit in a multitasking environment - operating two or more different software programs at the same time when run under operating systems such as Windows XP. Both ways add up to extra performance and less waiting for the computer user.

HARD DRIVES:

The hard drive is where all the information on your computer is stored.

Our hard drives are branded either Maxtor, Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi or Samsung. We cannot guarantee which brand of hard drive you will receive on your new computer, but as you can see, we only use leading brands.

To decide what size hard drive you will need, you need to consider that for example an 80GB hard drive is 81,920 megabytes. Confused? Data in volume is called bytes:

1,024 Byte = 1 Kilobyte (KB)
1,024 Kilobyte (KB) = 1 Megabyte (MB)
1,073,741,824 Bytes = 1 Gigabyte (GB)
1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1,024 Megabyte (MB)

To safely install Windows XP on your computer you need approximately 5 gigabytes of space. A massive computer game may take up 1 gigabyte of space, but usually games only take up a few hundred megabytes.

Most programs range from 5 to 500 megabytes, and therefore the average computer user will struggle to use up 80gigabytes of hard drive space. However, if you download movie clips, music and install lots of games, you may find you will need a 120gb or larger hard drive to cope with everything.

RPM:

RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) is the speed that your hard drive rotates. The more revolutions per minute a hard drive rotates, the more data it can copy/move within the given period of time. A 7200rpm hard drive can copy/move data faster than a 5400rpm hard drive.

OPTICAL DRIVES (CD/DVD DRIVES):

Optical drives are vital to the majority of computers these days. The majority of people use optical drives to write data to CD's and DVD's. For information on what each optical drive can do, please see below:

CD Writer

A CD Writer/CD ROM is an optical drive which allows you to read, write and re-write data onto a compact disc. For example if the speed of a CD Writer is 52 x 32 x 52 this means that you can read CD's at 52 speed, re-write CD's at 32 speed and write CD's at 52 speed.

DVD ROM

A DVD ROM/CD ROM is an optical drive which allows you to read both CD's and DVD's. If you do not have a DVD drive in your computer you will not be able to watch DVD movies, or read DVD's.

DVD Writer

A DVD Writer is an optical drive that can read DVD's, write DVD's and re-write DVD's. It can also read CD's, write CD's and re-write CD's. There are several types of DVD Writer available, some of which can read and write the DVD-RAM format and the + and - format. Some DVD Writers can also burn a label of the DVD itself using the laser. This technology is called Lightscribe. For this to be possible a special DVD must be used (which can be obtained from most major high street retailers). For further information see http://www.lightscribe.com/.

Graphics Card:

A graphics card is vital to a computer. Although most people know what the purpose of a graphics card is, you can still easily get caught out when choosing the right graphics card for your system. Not only do you need to look our for a graphics card with a decent amount of memory, you also need to look for a graphics card with a powerful GPU (graphics processing unit). You can also choose to have two graphics cards in your computer. This enables gaming enthusiasts to have up to double the power when matching two identical graphics cards which means an ultimate gaming experience!

When searching for the right graphics card for you, just like when you are looking for a new computer, you will be looking for a powerful processor and a large amount of RAM. For example:

• 256mb RADEON 9200

• 128mb RADEON 9800

• 256mb RADEON 9800 PRO

Which is best? The RADEON 9800 PRO is the best, followed by the 9800 and then the 9200. Even though the RADEON 9800 only has half the memory of the RADEON 9200, the GPU on the 9800 is much more powerful, and in a gaming experience the game will be more realistic and more responsive. It will be a totally different experience.

DVI:

DVI (Digital video Interface) is a digital connector for a digital monitor - the future

of all monitors eventually. A graphics card with DVI enables users to choose whether they want to connect a normal monitor to it, or a digital monitor through the DVI connector. It is especially good for the latest digital TFT monitors.

SOUND CARD:

In order for your computer to produce sound, it will need to have a sound card/sound device installed. The onboard sound is usually enough for most computer users, but if you are:

• a serious gamer

• a musician

• a music/film editor

• a serious music lover

• someone who already has surround speakers

It might be worthwhile purchasing a creative soundcard. Otherwise, you will probably be fine with the onboard sound, in that you will not notice a difference in sound quality

NETWORK CARD:

A network card (usually onboard) allows you to do the following (and more...):

• Network a computer

• Connect to the internet via broadband

• Connect a laptop or other device to a computer

MEMORY CARD READER:

A memory card reader is a device that allows you to connect flash memory and other such memory to a computer for fast access and modification. If you have a digital camera you may wish to purchase a memory card reader to transfer your photos quickly and without having to use a program to do so

At present, our 57 in 1 memory card readers can read the following media types:

• MS Slot: MS, MS MagicGate, MS PRO, MS PRO(MG), Extreme MS PRO, Extreme III MS PRO, HS MS Pro, HS MS MG Pro, MS Duo, MS Duo(MG), MS PRO Duo, MS PRO DUO(MG), HS MS Pro Duo, HS MS MG Pro Duo, MS Select, MS Pro Ultra II, MS Pro Duo Ultra II, MS ROM, M2 (Micro MS)*

• CF Slot: CF Type I, CF Type II, Hitachi Microdrive, IBM Microdrive, Magicstor, EXTREME CF, Extreme III CF, ULTRA CF, ULTRA II CF, ULTRA-X CF, HS-CF

• SD Slot: SD, Extreme SD, Extreme III SD, ULTRA SD, ULTRA II SD, ULTRA II SD plus, SD ELITE PRO, Mini-SD*, MMC, MMC Plus, MMC* mobile, RS MMC*, RSMMC* mobile, HS MMC, HS RS* MMC, DV-RS-MMC, T-Flash*, C-Flash*, MMC Micro*, Micro SD*

• SM Slot: SMSMC, SSFDC, SM RAM, XD, M XD type, H XD type

• USB Slot: USB 2.0 / 1.1 devices

* Need Adapter

Features:

• Complies with 480Mbps Universal Serial Bus specification Ver. 2.0

• Complies with USB Storage Class specification Ver.1.0(Bulk only protocol).

• Support Plug & Play and Hot-Swap.

• Support slot-to-slot read/write operation.

• Support auto-detecting slot with card inserted.

• High efficiency Card interface hardware engine for data transfer.

This specification is subject to change without notice.

POWER SUPPLY (PSU):

A PSU is the Power Supply Unit for your computer. The average PSU nowadays ranges from 350W up to and above 600W. If you are ordering a powerful computer, for example a processor of 3.2ghz or above, we seriously recommend you choose an ultra quiet power supply unit with advanced CPU cooling fan. They may add a small amount to you order, but it will make your computer super quiet instead of fairly noisy.

Each component in your computer uses a proportion of your power supply's power output capabilities. As a rough guide, the following components use:

  As you can see, the minimum power supply you should have in a computer is approximately 350W from doing a little maths, but if you're willing to spend that little bit extra, you can get a more powerful power supply with an ultra quiet cooling system. We recommend our dual rail power supplies for optimal power

Firewire: (also known as "IEEE" or "1394"):

Firewire is a 1995 Macintosh/IBM PC serial bus interface standard offering high-speed communications. Firewire can transfer data between a computer and its peripherals at 400 Mbps

Firewire is most commonly used for camcorders, external hard drives, and networking. Firewire is faster than USB 2.0 over sustained throughput. A firewire card is only required if you currently use a firewire device, or you plan to purchase a device that requires firewire in the coming future

SPEAKERS:

Using our website you can select several types of speaker starting from a standard pair of speakers through to deluxe 7.1 speakers systems

What is 2.1, 5.1, 7.1 etc?

Standard speakers and 2.0 speakers consist of two speakers to cover the left and right sides

2.1 speakers consist of two speakers and a sub-woofer (for bass) that adds a little extra quality to your computing experience

5.1 speakers consist of five speakers and a sub-woofer (for bass). Having five speakers allows for a front left, front right, rear left, rear right and a center speaker in addition to the sub-woofer, and this enhances the sound dramatically. Providing the product that you are playing supports surround sound, you can experience sound in a much more realistic mode. For example, when playing games you can hear what's going on behind you so there's less chance you'll get caught out if your enemy is creeping up on you

7.1 speakers consist of seven speakers and a sub-woofer (for bass), allowing for the ultimate sound experience. In addition to the center, front and rear left and right speakers, you will also have a side right and a side left speaker. For further information and a diagram