Nowadays desktop PC come with wide variety of options. To select the best desktop PC configuration one can go for the fixed configuration in the market or get the system customized with wide variety of choices and get the specification they want.
With so many options and possibilities, one needs to narrow the field and decide what is the main priority and consider what you want to use the desktop PC for. If you are an avid or a professional photographer then you might need a PC with good graphics card and with an extra RAM. If your purpose is media collection, then you will probably need your desktop PC to be tailored towards playback and media sharing.
Here are some of the guidelines to select best desktop PC configuration:
Choose the right processor according to your needs
If you need to do daily tasks using 3D animation tools and other software then you might need a computer with high processing speeds and quad core processors. If your daily purpose is only for browsing, email and MS Office softwares then you will probably need a Core2, Intel Dual Core or an AMD processor. If your processing needs are high then look for cache memory of at least 2MB and a processing speed of 2.2 GHz.
RAM memory
The new Desktop PC usually come with 1GB RAM which is adequate. But if the budget permits then one can go for a minimum of 2GB RAM. In case you are getting your PC configured then it is better to get as much as RAM possible. With 4GB RAM, your desktop PC with Windows Vista will run smoothly.
Graphics Card
The video card aka graphics card creates and manages the images that are displayed on the screen. There are onboard video cards which are built-in to the system and share the RAM of system whereas the separate ones have their own RAM and are plugged externally enhancing the performance. Nowadays, computers usually come with separate graphics card. For general purpose, 256MB RAM would suffice but for the gaming freaks or if you are into graphic designing then you should probably look for cards with 512MB RAM. In general, a high definition (HD) graphics card is a must for viewing movies and other media.
Hard Disk Drive
As the storage needs have been constantly increasing, more and more space is needed. The main storage device of a computer is the hard disk. The capacity of the hard drive is measured in Gigabytes (GB) or Terabytes ( 1TBÂ = 1024GB). One can also buy external hard drive later on. Usually a 320GB hard drive space is good.
In general, desktop PCs come in three main categories: Compact PCs, All-in-one PCs and classic tower’s which are further categorized into mainstream, budget and performance. These categories come with different price range and performance categories.
Compact PCs are small in size and give good computing power. Most of the compact PCs are equipped with an integrated video card.
All-in-one PCs are self contained and the size of the screens are usually between 18 inches to 27 inches. Many such small All-in-one PCs offer perks like touchscreen, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, WIFI connectivity, Bluetooth and support mutlti-touch gestures