Determine your needs.

Shop around and check reviews

What more can I say. Do some research on the Internet. Find out what others are saying about the models you are researching. Check professional reviews on product like consumer reports. Get background and opinions about the manufacturer. Look at what other manufacturers have and their pricing.

What support will I need?

Do you need on-site, next-day, same-day, overnight service? Probably not for those prices. If you never use it, do you get it back? Nope. Say you buy a warranty that covers the labor, materials, shipping, etc. for 3 years for $300. If nothing breaks, you lost $300. With a lower model warranty that covers just parts and shipping, you may only pay $100-150. Computers have become so modular now that most people can replace a part using phone support. You can also take it to someone like MBros Tech and have it fixed for a lot less than that extra $150-200.

Buy from a Reputable Dealer

Again, make sure that you check out the manufacturer or reseller. You don't want to purchase something, have it go bad, then can't get help with it.

Laptop vs. Desktop Models

Do you have a need to do work/game/watch movies while you travel? If you said yes only to watching movies, then buy a portable DVD player. You probably don't need a laptop. For games, try a portable console. Laptops are more expensive than a desktop, difficult to repair, limited in upgrades, and parts are usually limited to their original manufacturer. But, if you do travel a lot, or have limited space, a laptop might be right for you. You have to weigh the cost and the benefits of space and mobility.

Warranty and Extended Service Plans

This is where most manufacturers make big profits. Computer prices are extremely competitive, so they are only priced slightly above cost. Warranties and extended service plans, for the most part, are pure profit. Think of it like insurance. You are betting something will break in a certain time period and do not want to buy a new system or cover the cost of repairs. The company is betting you won't have any problems. There are times when it is very beneficial to the consumer to purchase a warranty. Most of those times come when there is an accident; you drop something, spill your drink on it, kids knock it over, etc. This is covered in what manufacturers call consumer protection plans or accidental damage coverage. They are more expensive, but if you have small children, are prone to accidents, or have butter fingers, then it might be a good buy.

Protect Your Computer from electrical problems

“We had a power surge and my computer won't start now.” We've heard it many times. “But I was using a surge suppressor.” We've had that too. Surge suppressors only really cover spikes in the power. Think of it like a ceiling. Power has free roam below it. Above it and the suppressor shuts itself off. Brown-outs and inconsistent power can cause damage too. The best solution is a UPS with a surge suppressor. A UPS (interruptible power supply) is a battery for your computer and a voltage normalizer. It keeps a steady, consistent flow of power to your computer. Things keep running during those momentary flickers, allow you to save data if there's a power outage, and help protect the sensitive electrical components of a computer.

Intel vs. AMD

1.It's the same as PC vs. Mac, Ford vs. Chevy, Blonds vs. Brunettes. Each has a strong following. It's almost religious at times. Mostly it comes down to availability, cost and preference. Today, performance between the two chip makers is about the same. Each is trying to out-do the other and they succeed at times, but the gap is small. If your preferred systems manufacturer provides either, its a preference and price choice. If they only provide one, then you have no choice, except for another systems manufacturer. They both have good reputations for performance and reliability.

Apple vs. The PC

1.Like before in the Intel vs. AMD section. Each has a strong, almost religious following. If you do mostly office work, word processing, spreadsheets, games, etc. then I suggest the PC. If you do lots of graphically intensive projects like CGI, video and photo editing, or publishing, then the Mac seems a better choice. There's also style, which I care nothing about. My computer could look like a garbage can for all I care as long as it does what I need and is fast. Others may prefer a stylish computer. That's where Apple has lots of expertise. They make sleek, beautiful machines.

Space vs. Cost

Simple. Do you have enough space for a 17” CRT? They are usually around $100. If you like the look of a flat panel and need the space, then an LCD would better suit, though for around twice the cost. That's the main decision.

Viewing Angle

This may be important if you ever have multiple people viewing the same screen, or have a tendency to shift your seating position. CRT's usually have the greatest viewing angle of all monitors. If you stick to one place at a time, and don't shift much, then an LCD would do just fine here.

Determine the use (graphics or office/Internet)

If you do much with graphics editing or gaming, then a higher resolution CRT with a small dot pitch and faster refresh rate would be ideal. They are more expensive, but provide a better image. LCD's tend to have motion blur with fast moving objects, like in games. They also do not have the ability to show more true-to-life colors as does a CRT. Office applications do not need the higher resolution and refresh rate, so a lower-end model or LCD would suffice.

Size

Screen size is important. Don't look at the advertisement on the front of the box or on the website as to the size. Look at viewable size. A 17” CRT may only have 15.1” viewable space where a 15” LCD has 14.8” viewable Not much difference in viewable area. LCD's usually have a larger viewable area as compared to a CRT when looking at the advertised size. Using the above example, a 17” LCD may have a viewable area of 16.5”. That's almost a full inch and a half larger than the CRT.

Resolution

This is very important. Don't go out and buy the biggest monitor you can find, only to get it home and it can't do what it said it could do. Your video card may not be able to handle the large resolution it advertised. You will need to find one that will support the same resolutions as your video card. It doesn't have to have all the same resolutions, but the ones you're looking for should match. Good resolutions:

Energy Efficiency

Energy costs just keep going up. Look for a monitor with the energy star. You want to help conserve power as much as possible. LCD's use less power than CRT's. They also produce less heat.

Warranties

Warranties are not as important here. The 90 day manufacturer warranty is usually fine. That covers most defects. Monitors should last you from computer to computer, but over time, they will begin to lose their color and get blurry. But that takes many years. If you take care of your monitor, then you should get good use out of it.

RAM

Increasing the amount of RAM your computer has is a cheap, easy way to increase performance. Most people who purchased the base-model computer because of a great deal, will have only the minimum amount of RAM they need. RAM stores information close to the processor to increase data access speeds. When you don't have enough RAM, then some things in memory that are not being used at the moment must be “cached” to the hard drive to free up memory for other applications. Accessing data from the hard drive is extremely slow in comparison to RAM. The more memory you have, the more information can be stored close to the processor, thus boosting performance. - Remember to keep all your memory of the same type. They will only run as fast as the slowest chip.

Tweaks and such

We won't get much into tweaks. Most of them get to be a little technical and require registry edits or installing applications that will edit the registry. This can be very dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. The performance gains are only minimal and usually the changes have to do with the appearance of the operating system and it's stability. Be vewy, vewry careful. If you feel you want to make some of the changes, there are thousands of sites that will walk you through the many changes. There's also a program provided by Microsoft called TweakUI. Again, be very careful, follow all directions, and read all of the documentations.

Minimalism

A. KISS it. Keep it simple stupid. One problem most people have is they bog down their operating system and slow boots by having too many programs open at startup. Don't open programs or have them open at startup unless you plan to use them right at startup. Boots will be faster and you only open what you need. You wouldn't take everything out of your pantry to make dinner right? You only get out what you need to use.

B. I'm not one for all the pretty things. Scaling down the colors, transitions, etc. will help boost performance.

Keep it clean

Regularly clean out the recycle bin, temporary and Internet files, old files, unused programs, etc. Regularly defragment the hard drive. Most people won't defrag their hard drive at all much less at regular intervals like recommended. Monthly is pretty much the suggested minimum. Defrag will re-organize the files on your computer moving most used files and programs to the front of the drive. This speeds up access to those most used files and programs. You can also find some space you lost to fragmented files.

Viruses

There are many types of viruses. There are worms, trojans, backdoor, macro, etc. The levels of nastyness vary from the un-noticed, to total damage. Viruses have been used to maliciously disrupt business and damage critical data. Some send out spam for companies. Others hijack a computer to carry out devilish deeds like Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on websites or code cracking. Whatever their assigned task, viruses are a plague and need to be kept off your computers.

Spyware

It's just like it sounds. A spyware program is one that “spies” on your computer activity. The information is sent back to someone so they can match ads to your profile, capture passwords, steal credit card numbers, etc. There are some that are not considered spyware, but serve the same purpose. There's one of the largest and oldest companies on the internet that handles targeted ads. The way they get around the spyware classification is they don't send any information back to the company. What they do is store information on your computer. When you visit a site that has their ads, they look at the information and target the ad to you. If you visit lots of sites about classic cars but have never been anywhere to deal with parenting or childcare, it wouldn't make much sense to show you a diaper ad would it? They may show you one about a classic car magazine, tv show, or maybe a new oil for older cars. They also have an opt-out option, but it's hard to find. Many spyware programs come pre-packaged with other free software you download from the internet. Most of the time it comes with a program that's “cute”, but basically useless. They will even tell you they are installing it, but most people don't pay attention to it. This is a brief and somewhat specific explanation of spyware, but the term has grown to include other applications. Basically, spyware is bad.

Adware

Again, the name says it all. These nasty programs pop up ads, sometimes for no reason. Popup blockers can't usually prevent these because they are not initiated through the web browser. They also work similar to the spyware programs. They gather data (sometimes referred to as data mining) about your Internet activities and show you related ads. These are notoriously difficult to remove. Unlike viruses and most spyware (except in cases where credit card numbers are stolen), the more computers affected, the more profit. With spyware and ad targeting, they rely on you to visit one of their sites to show you an ad. Adware shows you the ad no matter where you visit. You don't even have to be on the Internet to get some ads. This is a brief and somewhat specific explanation of adware, but the term has grown to include other applications. Basically, adware, like spyware, is bad.

Hijackers

They hijack your computer, browser, or other application. Most common hijackers change your start page to go to one of their search pages. These are some of the most difficult malicious programs to remove. They earn money by sending you to their search engine when you mis-type something or when you start your browser. They display ads, from which they earn revenue. Just like adware and spyware, these can be installed along with other applications. They can also be installed just by visiting a site. The creators will sometimes create a site that looks innocent and shows you basically nothing, but when you visit the page, it automatically installs itself. This is referred to sometimes as a drive-by download. They are often times downloaded as infected files by the user. With the popularity of peer to peer file sharing applications, hijackers have seen a huge increase in infections. They rely on security vulnerabilities in browsers that allow them to do so without the user's knowledge or consent. Again, bad, very bad.

Hoaxes and Phishing

A. There are lots of hoaxes out there. You probably had a few come in through email. You may get an email or have a friend tell you about a virus they read about. The emails usually give you a description saying that you should search for a file and delete it before a certain date because the virus will launch at that date and destroy everything when the truth is it's a file found on everyone's computer and is necessary to the operation of the computer. There's also one I've seen about signing up for a do-not-call list for your cell number. The email sends you to a site to submit your cell number because beginning a certain date, the government will allow the release of cell numbers to telemarketers. What you are actually doing is submitting your cell number to a company that will sell those numbers to telemarketers. Good tip, don't listen to your friends. If you do hear something or get an email, ask someone more familiar with computers or research it on the Internet. Most often times, you will find that it's a hoax in the first few searches.

B. Phishing (pronounced fishing) is similar to hoaxes. People use email, websites, and instant messaging to “lure” you into giving up sensitive information like credit cards, phone numbers, or passwords. They usually come through email and want you to do email, fax, call, or visit a site. The do-not-call list is an example of phishing. Others is a revival of an old fax scam that says the person is so and so from some country in Africa, who has acquired millions of dollars and needs someone in the US to transfer so they don't have to give it to the government. You give them your bank account to transfer the money, and they wipe it out for you. Some have asked that the person go to the country to sign some documents and are then captured and held for ransom. Some emails come in posing as maybe your bank, ebay, paypal, or other website and ask you to verify some information or check out a new offer. You enter your username and password and they now have access to your account at that site.

Removal

Nasty little buggers, all of them. The best thing is to not get them. But if you do, then you need to get rid of them. How you ask? There's no simple answer. There are programs like Lavasoft's Adaware and PepiMK's Spybot S&D (search and destroy). These two are great applications for finding and removing most common problems. You should also have a good anti-virus program. Grisoft's AVG is a good free program. You can download all these by vising the links section of our website at www.mbrostech.com/links.html. They don't get them all though. I've used CoolWWWShredder many times and Hijackthis. Watch out. There are programs out there that disguise themselves as spyware/adware removal tools that are actually spyware and/or adware themselves. There's even an adware program that holds your computer hostage unless you buy their program. If you find out that you have something that is not being removed, or just keeps coming back. The best thing to do is to take it to someone like MBros Tech for removal. If you try to do it yourself, you may end up removing something that was needed for your computer to function properly.

Prevention

The two programs listed in the removal section are good places to start. Regular scans will help capture things early on. There's also two neat little programs in Spybot S&D; TeaTimer and SDhelper. SDhelper blocks known bad downloads in Internet Explorer and bad pages. TeaTimer sits in your system tray and allows you to choose whether to allow or block changes made to the registry. If something gets by the first defenses and wants to install itself and make changes to the registry, TeaTimer will let you deny or allow the change. It can get a little annoying if you are regularly installing and uninstalling applications. The program, we consider, is a must-have. It will also block programs from installing even if you said to do so. Say you download some application and go to install it. If it's in the know block list of Spybot, it will tell you it prevented the installation because it's a known bad product. It's kept me from doing some stupid things.

Be Smart

Download programs from reputable sources. Watch where you surf. Take the necessary precautions and beef up your security. Install preventative programs like Spybot and Adaware. Remember that emails are like that creepy guy on the corner; don't believe everything he tells you. You don't accept candy from stranger, so why accept applications from strangers. Even friends can unknowingly send you malware (a term describing all malicious software). Just be careful.