Jargon Buster
Audio and video ports
Many systems have a blue VGA port that's integrated to the motherboard and accessible on the back panel for connecting the PC to a CRT monitor or an analog LCD. If the system has a graphics card, the card will offer this same port, while some graphics cards will also furnish you with a white DVI connection for digital LCDs. If you want to connect your PC to your TV, you'll need a system with an S-Video port.
As with graphics, a PC can provide sound processing via an integrated chipset or a dedicated card. The latter option generally offers better sound quality and more features, as well as better performance. If you are after a completely immersive gaming or DVD-viewing experience, be sure to spring for a sound card. And if you have a digital speaker set bundled with your PC, make sure it has the appropriate digital-audio outputs, which are called S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface).
Cache
A special type of computer memory that operates at very high speed. It is similar to RAM but is much faster. It is usually used by the CPU as a storage place for processing instructions. When the computer is shut down any information held in the cache memory is lost. An area set aside in RAM or on a disk to save frequently or recently used data.
USB and FireWire
Unless you're particularly attached to an ancient printer, you need not concern yourself with legacy ports such as serial and parallel connections, though they are still being supported by the majority of today's motherboards. USB has replaced these slower ports for connecting printers and other devices such as digital cameras, MP3 players, and handhelds. Many mice and keyboards also use a USB connection instead of the old PS/2 port. At 480Mbps, the newer USB 2.0 offers 40 times the speed of USB 1.1. With so many USB devices out there, we suggest you settle for a minimum of four USB 2.0 ports, and you shouldn't have to look too hard to find six or eight, with a couple of them conveniently located on the front panel.
FireWire, also referred to as IEEE 1394 and as iLink by Sony, is another popular port for peripherals. The standard was developed by Apple and is used mostly for connecting digital-video camcorders or external hard drives. Not to be outdone by USB 2.0, FireWire recently received an upgrade that doubles the speed to 800Mbps. The two versions are referred to as FireWire 400 and FireWire 800. One FireWire port should do the trick.
Getting Online
For connecting to the Internet, it's simple. If you are stuck with dial-up service (or you just love to fax), you'll need a modem port. Sometimes referred to as an RJ-11 port, this is integrated to some motherboards and, at other times, provided by an expansion card. For broadband, you need an Ethernet port. More often than not, you'll find this integrated to the motherboard and, if not, look for it as an option listed as a network interface card or NIC. Recently, we've seen some systems that contain an integrated wireless receiver. Although your desktop will still need at least one wire (the power cord), integrated wireless functionality means that you will be able to easily add your new PC to your wireless home network.
Hard Drives
Following the proliferation of digital media content has been an increase in hard drive size. Only four or five years ago, a 20GB hard drive wasn't unusual, whereas the smallest drive you'll find on a PC sold today is 80GB. For mainstream PCs, the norm is a 80GB or 250GB drive. Power users such as DV editors who need to store large video files can opt for a 300GB or 500GB hard drive (or two). Most desktop drives spin at 7,200rpm (the faster a drive spins, the faster you can access its data), and Western Digital has come out with a 10,000rpm drive.
Most performance systems we've seen recently come with one or more SATA drives. With two or more hard drives, many power users will use a RAID 0 configuration. RAID 0 (redundant array of independent disks), also called data striping, doesn't actually offer any redundancy, but it improves performance by striping data across the drives. The PC sees the drives as one drive and can break apart portions of a file and distribute them to the different drives, which speeds the reading and writing process. A RAID 1 configuration, or disk mirroring, is less popular in desktops. It doesn't offer a performance boost, but it gives you peace of mind by copying your data to both drives simultaneously so that, if one of the drives fails, your work won't be lost.
Integrated graphics
Integrated graphics will suffice for basic computing tasks. If you aren't a gamer or a creative professional and you are looking for a computer for e-mailing friends and family, surfing the Web, and creating the occasional Word doc, you need not pony up for a dedicated graphics card. Below are some of the more popular types of integrated graphics.
Memory
The speed and the amount of memory you choose go a long way toward dictating your system's level of overall performance. For a machine running Windows Home Vista Basic Edition, 512MB is the bare minimum. Double it to 1GB, and you'll see a big difference, especially when running multiple apps concurrently or using intensive image- or video-editing applications in Windows Vista Home Premium Edition and above.
The speed of the memory is also critical. Make sure the memory is DDR2 (double data rate) SDRAM. Midrange PCs can get by with 533MHz memory, though faster 667MHz memory won't set you back too much more. Written in one of two ways, memory speed is referred to by the speed in which it communicates with the CPU (1.8GHz, for example) or by its data bandwidth (5.3GB per second or PC5300). Though faster memory is available, today's chipsets do not support anything faster than 667MHz (without overclocking).
Optical Drives
We recommend including at least a DVD writer drive in a PC at any price level. The fastest DVD burner can write to DVDs at 16X speed and rewrite to DVD RWs at 8X speed.
The DVD-recordable picture is a little complicated, with many standards supported by different groups of companies. In one corner, there is the DVD Forum, which supports the "minus" R or "dash" R format and counts among its supporters Hitachi, Panasonic, and Toshiba. In the other corner sits the DVD+RW Alliance, whose members include Dell, HP, Ricoh, and Yamaha. Some companies, such as Philips and Sony, support both formats. Lucky for you, many drives now support both formats and even yet another format, DVD-RAM, which can be useful for regular data backup.
The next generation of optical drives, Blu-ray and HD DVD, are just starting to appear. However, their current high prices and uncertainty over which format will become dominant makes it impractical to reccommend for now.
Processor
The brains of any PC is the CPU, or central processing unit. It is the single most important component, but that doesn't mean you need to rush out and splurge on the processor with the fastest clock speed. Both Intel and AMD charge a premium for their top-of-the-line CPUs. For most users, we recommend scaling back a notch or two. You'll save a lot of money, and generally speaking, you get better bang for the buck with more memory.
Storage Controller
An intelligent controller to which storage devices are attached.
