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What do you look for in a new computer?

Buying a new computer can be an overwhelming process.  However, purchasing a computer based upon price or brand name can result in a computer that does not meet your needs.  Inexpensive desktops and laptops advertised in the newspaper are generally very slow.  They often involve AMD Processors (CPU) with AMD integrated Display Adapters (GPU).  Following are the specifications required to purchase a fast and affordable computer.

Motherboard, Processor and Bus Type

Processor is Core i7 (4.8 to 6.4 GT/s), Core i5 (2.5 to 5 GT/s) or Xeon (100 MHz to 6.4 GT/s) not Core i3 (1066 MHz to 5 GT/s), Intel Core 2, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core, Intel Celeron or Intel Pentium.  Processor is Intel Core iSeries Second Generation 26XX, 27XX, 28XX, 29XX, 3XXX processor not 6XX, 7XX, 8XX or 9XX.  Second Generation is approximately 11.5% faster than First Generation.  Preferably XXXXK unlocked processor.  Processor Socket Type is LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA1366 or LGA2011 not LGA775.  Processor is 4 or 6 Core not 2 Core.  Processor Clock Speed is 3.0 Ghz or greater.  Processor L3 Cache is 6MB or greater.  Motherboard Chipset is preferably P67 (Premium), Z68 (Premium), X58-ICH10R (Extreme) or X79 (Extreme) not G41-ICH7 (Value), H61 (Value) or H67 (Essential). Microarchitecture is Sandy Bridge, Sandy Bridge-E or Ivy Bridge not Westmere, Nehalem or Penryn.  Bus Type is QPI (19.2 Gb/s to 25.6 Gb/s) or DMI 2.0 (20 Gb/s) not DMI 1.0 (10 Gb/s) or FSB (200 Mb/s to 5 Gb/s).  For high-end Gamer PC, motherboard supports Nvidia SLI or ATI CrossFire.

RAM

8GB to 16GB of Crucial RAM.  RAM is DDR-1333 (10.6 Gb/s) or greater not DDR3-1066 (8.5 Gb/s), DDR3-800 (6.4 Gb/s), DDR2, DDR1/SDRAM or Rambus.  Preferably DDR3-1600 (12.8 Gb/s) or greater.

Operating System

Computer officially supports use of Windows 7 and greater Operating System.  32-bit operating system when computer has 4GB or less of RAM.  64-bit operating system when computer has greater than 4GB of RAM.

Display Adapter

Nvidia Display Adapter with 512 MB or greater - preferably 1 GB or greater.  Nvidia Display Adapter and motherboard support sixteen lanes (x16).  Nvidia Display Adapter and motherboard support PCI Express 2.0 (16 Gb/s) or PCI Express 3.0 (32 Gb/s) not PCI Express 1.0 (8 Gb/s), AGP, PCI or ISA.  PCI Express 2.0/3.0 Slot is x16 not x8, x4, x2 or x1.  Nvidia Graphics Clock is 750 Mhz or greater.  Nvidia Processor Clock is 1500 Mhz or greater.  Nvidia Video Output and Monitor support use of HDMI, DVI-D Dual Link, DVI-D Single Link or DVI-I not DVI-A or VGA.

Hard Drive

Hard Drive is a Western Digital, Seagate or HP Hard Drive not Hitachi.  Hard Drive is 600 Mb/s or greater not 480 Mb/s, 300 Mb/s, etc.  Hard Drive is 7200 RPM or greater not 5400 RPM, etc.  Hard Drive is SATA3 (6 Gb/s) or SATA2 (3 Gb/s) not SATA1 (1.5 Gb/s), SCSI (40 Mb/s to 5 Gb/s) or IDE (16 Mb/s to 133 Mb/s).  Hard Drive is 500 GB or greater in capacity preferably 1 TB or greater.

Monitor

Monitor Pixel Pitch is 0.265mm or smaller (sharper picture).  Video Cabling from Computer to Monitor does not use adapters.

USB Ports

USB Ports are USB 3.0 (5 Gb/s) not USB 2.0 (60 Mb/s) or USB 1.0 (1.5 Mb/s).

Printer

Printer is a Laser Printer not an Inkjet Printer.  Printer uses a USB or Network Port not an LPT Port. 
Dot Pitch is 600 dpi or greater.

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