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So I guess the next thing to talk about would be graphics cards, now there are literally hundreds out there, different manufacturers, different models and different chipsets but again it’s the numbers game and sadly, as with everything, the more it costs the better it is. Prices start from around £20 and rocket up to around £400 so choosing the right one could be crucial. Spend too little and you’ll be left wanting, spend too much and buyer’s remorse will set in… First of all you need to decide what sort of games you’d like to play, if you just like simple puzzle games like Zuma, Bejeweled or Puzzle Quest then a £20 graphics card will be fine but if you want to get into some hardcore first person shooters like Bioshock, Fallout 3 or Crysis then you have to start around the £150 mark to get anything decent. One of the biggest games ever sold is The Sims franchise of PC games, a lot of parents when buying PC’s for the kids who like to play this game (and believe me LOTS of under 16’s play this game) fall into the trap of thinking just any PC will play it. Sure Sims, the first in the series, was only a 2D game meaning it didn’t really need a lot of power to play it. Then when Sims 2 was released everyone who was playing Sims 1 couldn’t play it due to it needing almost 3 times the graphical power! So if you’re buying a family computer then you all need to sit down and discuss what you’d like to use the PC for. Being able to play the top flight games is what can easily double the cost of a PC.

One of the biggest arguments with graphics cards is ATI or NVidia – the 2 leading GPU (graphics processing unit) manufacturers, there’s really not a huge amount in it, there are arguments for both sides. You just have to do a little research into what’s recommended at the time I’ve had ATI 9800 pro then an NVidia 8800GT and now I have an ATI 4890 so not really any bias I just bought the best at the time. The numbers involved can get quite complicated; take these for example Sparkle NVidia GeForce 8400GS 512MB PCI-E @ £22.94 and this one Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB PCI-E 2.0 @ £103.44, both are 512 Megabyte cards so why the huge price difference? Well as I said it’s the numbers game so I’ll try and break it down for you.

There are key things to look for when buying a graphics card:

1) Interface type

2) Clock speed

3) Ramdac clock speed

4) API support

5) Video memory installed

6) Video output

7) Max resolution details

8 ) Max monitors supported

Without getting too complicated I’d say the above would be the best items to compare as I feel they are the most common denominators in all graphics cards.

1) Interface type: all modern computers use PCI-E (peripheral component interconnect express) this is a motherboard level interconnecting port and is much quicker at handling data then the older AGP (accelerated or advanced graphics port) PCI-E 1 = each ‘lane’ can handle 250 megabytes of data, PCI-E 2.0 = 500 megabytes of data and in turn PCI-3 (when its released) claims to be able to shift a whole gigabyte.

2) Clock speed: basically clock speed refers to rate in cycles per second for the frequency of the clock in any synchronous circuit. For example a graphics card that has a clock speed of 200 MHz will be able to perform 200,000,000 cycles per second, this is the aspect most ‘Overclockers’ will look at, pushing to get more cycles per second will increase performance.

3) Ramdac clock speed: this is how quickly the digital to analogue converter pushes the graphics output from the card, this will govern how many refresh rates are supported and at what resolution. So again the higher the number here will determine how quickly the image gets to the screen and in turn how big that image can be.

4) API support: this basically outlines which Direct X support the card will conform too which handles things like video editing, blending, rendering plus other accelerated processing. Direct X is Microsoft’s unification programme for both gaming and multimedia. Direct X 9.0c is still (probably) the most widespread, Direct X 10 is used by a lot of gamers and now that Direct X 11 was released July this year only the most hardened of ‘hardware chasers’ will currently be using it.

5) Video memory installed: this tells you the amount and type of RAM on the card 128MB, 256MB, 512MB all the way up to 2GIG nowadays for amount and the GDDRx (graphics double data rate) refers to version of RAM, stick with the higher the better again.

6) Video output: simple one this it’s the maximum resolution achievable – how many pixels can be displayed.

7) Max resolution details: I’ve included this as it often differs to the above dependant on connection used. VGA (video graphics array) is the most common connection and will give a standard signal whereas DVI (digital visual interface) and HDMI (high definition multimedia interface) can often give not only a crisper picture but also a higher resolution so check the connections you have to achieve the best picture possible.

8 ) Max monitors supported: no prizes for guessing what this means! Lots of designers will use 2, 3 or even 4 monitors I’ve also know gamers to do the same so its handy to know.

So back to my original graphics card comparison here are the specs for both cards:

Sparkle NVidia GeForce 8400GS 512MB PCI-E @ £22. (approx)

Interface type: PCI-E

Clock speed: 450MHz

Ramdac clock speed: 400MHz

API support: OpenGL 2.0, DirectX 10

Video memory installed: 512MB DDR2

Video output: 2048×1536

Max resolution details: VGA/S-Video /DVI-I all formats = 2048×1536

Max monitors supported: 2

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB PCI-E 2.0 @ £103.00 (approx)

Interface type: PCI-E 2.0

Clock speed: 750MHz

Ramdac clock speed: 400MHz

API support: Direct x 10.1

Video memory installed: 512MB GDDR5

Video output: 2560 x 1600

Max resolution details: DVI: 2560 x 1600/VGA: 2048 x 1536

Max monitors supported: 2

So as you can see from the above specs, you see why the ATI card is so much more expensive. It’s defiantly more of a gaming card than just a display adapter; feel I should re-iterate at this point no bias whatsoever has been implemented in the above guide. Find a great range of different cards here

So you’re looking to buy a new PC but worried about what a CPU is or how much RAM you’ll need? Well I’m going to try and break it down for you into more friendly terms. I feel that a lot of high street stores try to squeeze every last penny out of people in order for their figures to look good

“…would you like an extended warranty with that sir…”

“…not really I live alone and the laptop will never leave the house, it’s simply a replacement for my current desktop that I’ve had for 4 years…”

“…but what if you were to spill a drink on it sir or to leave a pen on the keyboard and shut the lid…”

“…sigh, please let me just buy it and be on my way…”

We’ve all been there right? So what do you need to know when buying a PC? Well first of all I’d start by looking at the CPU (central processing unit) or processor for short. This is kind of the brain of the unit! The speed of this device is measured in gigahertz or GHz for short. The best way to determine if the processor will be fast or not is simple;  the higher the gigahertz the faster the ‘brain’ will function. A lot of processors out there have something called ‘Dual Core’, ‘Triple Core’ or even ‘Quad Core’.  This is easiest explained as the amount of processors inside the CPU and each ‘Core’ will have a gigahertz rating and again the higher the number the faster it will be.  Allow me to provide an example:    An Intel Pentium Dual Core processor, model number E2220, has 2 processors each with a 2.4GHz (2×2.4GHz) rating where as an E8400 model has 2 processors each with a 3.0GHz (2×3.0GHz) rating, so looking at the figures the E8400 model will be considerably quicker. Simple! Then just apply that to the 3 and 4 processor model. As a side note I think I should mention that a ‘Quad Core’ processor each with a core speed of 2.33GHz will be much quicker than the E8400 example as it has 4×2.33GHz processors – common sense I know, I just wanted to make sure you were still with me and didn’t have a nosebleed!  There’s no point in going for a superfast CPU if all you want to do is use the internet and use Microsoft Office. If you’re not doing anything that requires a lot of ‘umph’ so to speak, which is normally anything heavily graphics based like gaming or photo/video editing, then a low GHz processor will be just fine – use this general rule of thumb with all PC hardware. Applying this principle means you can now get good entry level laptops for £400 which would be more than adequate for general all round use. A smart shopper may even find something for the £300 mark – but just remember entry level laptops are exactly that and the higher the numbers the higher the price – but the faster it will go.

The next thing I would consider is the RAM (random-access memory). Take this to be the heart of the PC. There are quite a few different types of RAM on the market – some now more used than others.  The key thing about RAM is that it is measured in megabytes and gigabytes so again the higher the number the quicker it will be. We used to buy RAM in lots of different sizes but nowadays the most common form is 1 Gigabyte sticks so again the higher the gigabytes of memory the faster it will perform. You may see some computers displaying 512 megabytes of RAM; this is where it can get a little confusing – a ‘Gigabyte’ is more than a ‘Megabyte’ and without printing a list of exactly what the numbers refer to this is the simplest way to explain it.  I  don’t want you falling asleep now… A computer with 2 Gigabytes of memory is about average these days, 4 Gigabytes of memory will mean your computer will run nice and quick (as long as you’ve read about CPU’s). You can go above 4 Gigabytes but your PC may not be able to use it all, dependant on which Operating System you have but that’s a whole other conversation.

As I mentioned earlier if you’re not doing anything intense that’s all you need to know! The rest is just common sense – I mean you must know yourself what you’d like to use it for. If you’re into your photography maybe it should have a card reader but just make sure it will read the particular card that goes into your camera. Maybe you’d like the ability to plug your laptop into a flat panel (LCD) TV so make sure it has the correct connectors both on the TV and on the laptop – usually a VGA (video graphics array) or a HDMI (high definition multimedia interface).

If you’d like to know about other hardware devices i.e. graphics cards & sound cards etc there will be more overviews to follow.