For the pass few
years I have been bombarded with so many tech questions from my friends and
other people. Questions like, what type of computer should I buy? How much
should a computer cost? What’s the best computer system there is? Or what
operating system should I use? And almost as frequent as I am asked with this
questions I always answer “I depends…” and they just go silent, I think that’s
because they were expecting that I would reply with a straight answer for their
inquiries. I think most consumers nowadays subscribe to the “one size fits all”
mentality and sad to say there is no such thing especially with your tech
needs.
And
because of that, I decided to write a simple guide on computers. And I hope
this series of articles would enlighten all of you who have the same questions
in mind.
“What processor should I buy?”
This
is probably one of the first things that you should answer before buying or
building a new PC. Contrary to popular belief, a builder of a system or buyer of
a new PC should always thing of the processor first and then the other
components like the Motherboard and not the other way around. Why is that so?
Well if you buy the motherboard first, you might end up buying only a CPU that
will be compatible with your Motherboard’s Front-Side Bus (FSB), FSB is the
transfer rate between the CPU and the other components in the system [I will be
discussing FSB in my later articles regarding the Motherboard]. If you buy the
Processor first and the motherboard later you can be sure that you’ll be able
to maximize the CPU that you’ll be using for your new system.
Now, as to what
type of CPU you will need, you should first ask your self “what will I do with
my new PC?” We should always keep in mind that the CPU should be able to handle
all the types of programs and the operating system that we will be using. If
you think that you’ll only be using the PC for internet browsing, e-mailing,
chatting and word processing then you won’t need a high-end CPU for your PC
like Pentium or the AMD 64 or any Dual Core CPUs out in the market. Because if
you do, then you’ll only be using your high-end CPU at about 30% of it’s
potential (and that’s just a waste of money). What you need is a good low-end
to mid-range CPU like AMD’s Sempron series or Intel’s Celeron. But if you’ll be
using the PC for graphics design, hard-core gaming and video editing, then you
will need all the processing power you can get. In this case, I would strongly
recommend that you get a high-end CPU for your rig like Intel’s Pentium Extreme
Edition or Core DUO or AMD’s Athlon FX series and Athlon X2.
CPU’s power are
measured by Hertz, this means that the bigger the Hz rating is, the better the
chip’s performance will be, but do make sure that the chip you’ll be buying is
compatible with your Motherboard. Look at the FSB requirement and the slot type
of the chip first before choosing your motherboard. 1GHz to about 1.6 GHz is
enough for ordinary users and about 2GHz to 3GHz for those gamers and graphic
artists and video editors who need all the processing power they can get.
Now, I would
like to add that they are different types of CPUs out in the market as of
today. There are classifications based on the “bit” of the CPU. But don’t fret
this is not that complicated or technical, I will explain them to you in
layman’s terms.
The first and
probably the most common type of CPU according to their “bit” rate is the 32
Bit CPUs, these type of chips are the most usual type used for your garden
variety PC in offices (one’s the staff’s and secretaries use) and at home.
Examples of this 32 bit chips are the low-end to mid-range CPUs that I have
mentioned earlier. These 32 bit chips can run 16 bit (most commonly used by
DOS-based programs) and 32 bit programs (commonly used by most programs
available out in the market right now) but, they cannot run 64 bit programs and
operating systems. Which brings us to our next type of chips, that 64 bit
chips, basically 64 bit chips are backwards compatible with 32 and 16 bit
programs, which means that you can still run a 32 bit operating system on them.
But I do not recommend that you do this because you will not be able to
maximize your CPU’s potential and thus, will definitely be a waste of money. 64
bit chips should be ran with 64 bit edition operating systems like Microsoft’s
Windows XP 64 bit edition so that you can take advantage of the true power of
64 bit chips.
The next type of
chips that I will be discussing is the dual-core CPUs, as the name implies
these chips have not 1 but 2 cores or processors in one package, the adage “two
heads are better than one” applies here. It basically has to cores, one 32 bit
and one 64 bit. These two cores work simultaneously to give the system a better
processing power. The 32 bit core handles the 32 and 16 bit programs that are
running, while the 64 bit core works on the 64 bit programs, thus, making a
dual-core chip based system a lot better than a single core system. This type
of chip is really good because it has two cores in it but, the downside is that
they are quite more expensive than that of a single core.
Now, if you
think dual-cores are cool and mean, think again, there is another type of chip
out there and it is being developed by AMD the chip that I am referring to is
the Quad-core chips. But I think these chips are not yet deployed in the
market.
I hope, you did
understand the “bit” factor in chips. Now, let me tackle what brand you should
buy. Well, on this question, it is really just a matter of choice and
preference and budget. There are two choices, one is Intel and the other is
AMD. If you ask me I’d go for the cheaper and with the better performance of
the two (AMD). But, if you do have the money to spend then buy an Intel chip
for your PC.
Oh and one more
thing when you’re looking for a chip and you are looking at an AMD chip that
says something like Sempron 2200+, this does not mean that it runs at 2200+ MHz
this only means that the chip you are looking at has the processing power or
performance that is equal to a 2.2Ghz Celeron or something like that.
One more thing that I’d like to address is
the issue of over-clocking. Now, some people think that they should overclock
(the process of running a chip on a higher clock rate than its default speed,
for example a Sempron 2200+ has a stock speed of 1.5 GHz, after you over clock
it, it can go to about 1.6GHz or so) to maximize their chip’s power, well this
is not really a wise decision, yeah you can get more power from your chip but
please remember that chips do heat up and heat is not a good thing. When chips
are over clocked and they heat up the whole system does become unstable and it
can eventually shorten your chip’s life to about 33% or worst meltdown and
damage the whole system.
There, that’s
basically all the things you will need to know about chips. One word of advice
though, before buying a chip ask around, and need reviews regarding the chip.
Measure the pros and cons and measure them well. Okay then, happy chip hunting!
