Buying Advice

Whether its a complete system or a single component, buying for a computer can be tricky. Everything you buy has to be compatible with everything else and of course it has to fit into the motherboard. PantherProducts is offering advice on which components are best for which jobs and also where you can save yourself a bit of money. There are also times when you may need to splash out a little bit and future proof your machine. It is of course only advice and we hope it helps you along. Nobody has a perfect time with computer equipment and different people have had different experiences with different components and opinions vary widely. We will try to be as un biased as possible.

PantherProducts has articles on Buying a complete system from scratch and buying certain individual components, from Graphics cards to Hard Disks.

Advice on Buying a Complete System - Buying a complete system should really be the easiest thing to buy unless you are building it yourself. Most PC's from a reputable company will come with everything you will need, the main thing to decide is what CPU you want your machine to be based around. The CPU is the main brain of the machine and so an important piece. Most people rate there machine by the speed and model of there CPU, while this is really an inaccurate way of telling how "fast" a computer is, its the most widely used way of doing it. This section concentrates on which CPU you want to to base your computer around.    

Advice on Buying a Graphics Card - Buying a graphics card can be more of a tricky business especially if you are looking at top of the range accelerators. some of these little cards can cost more than a cheap system so you really want to get the correct ones. Choosing a graphics card brings on many decisions as so many cards are out there at the moment and they all boast some great feature that the others have not got. Don't want anything flashy? maybe you still need some advice on your options and how to get your cards because buying older cards is not easy. Do you want a 3D card? maybe you think you don't but is it worth the risk and the cost of an upgrade? 

Advice on Buying a Motherboard - If your in a position where you have to buy a new motherboard there are many factors you have to consider. Its all right thinking that you have seen a motherboard that you like and has all the features you like or seems like the right price if you haven't thought it all through. At some point every piece of equipment your computer uses has to send a signal through the motherboard, That means everything that goes into to the motherboard has to fit. Maybe in compatibility issues but certainly in physical ones, everything has to work with the motherboard. Taking the CPU for instance each CPU has its own slot or socket type. If the motherboard you select is the wrong type then you have no way of making the system work without changing the board or the CPU. More time should be taken when deciding which motherboard to choose than anything else. 

Advice on Buying a Hard Disk (coming soon) - Compared to some of the other components covered in these articles, buying a Hard Disk or Hard Drive should be relatively easy. There are only a few things to consider but they still need checking. These things are the size of the drive, the speed of the drive in rpm, the interface type and the transfer rate e.g. DMA33/66. It may be easy but getting the wrong one could mean a major system slow down, constant annoyance of not enough space or even a drive that wont fit into the computer. 

CD, DVD or CDRW (coming soon) - Any up to date machine no a days has to have some sort of CD reader. The only decision for you to make here is which type would be best for you. Will it be the basic CD drive cheap and cheerful. Maybe you don't watch DVD's on your computer but will a DVD still better for you? You may not be interested in back up CD's for your current games, or making your own CD collection, but still would a re-writer be the best option for you?

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