Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Always buy the best


Know what I agree 100% with this statement you should always buy the best, problem is some people delude themselves into thinking the best means the most expensive or the system albeit audio, computer, or security with the most flashing lights, bells, whistles and other useless addons. Remember the old bait and switch – often all of these extra gadgets distract you from the most important aspects of a system – any system – namely the technical specifications.

Let me use a car audio system as an example

  • System 1 – AM/FM/ Cassette, CD player with digital tuner, 50-20,000 frequency response, 100 watt per channel amp with 50 db SNR, 4 speakers and sub
  • System 2 - Colored led plate, Ipod dock, AM/FM/CD, Satellite radio, 100 -16,000 frequency response, 100 watt per channel amp with 100 db SNR, 6 speakers

Care to guess which system is best – number two may cost more but number 1 is a better quality system – most would be distracted by the gadgets of the second system.

What is I compare a Ford Expedition with a Lincoln Navigator – sure one is a for and one is a Lincoln but look at the specifications.

Now lets take a computers

  • System 1 – Vista Ultimate, 4 GB Ram, 2.50 Dual core Intel processor, 256 MB Nvida graphics card, 350 GB HD - $1000
  • System 2 – Vista Basic, 4 GB Ram, 2.5 Dual core Intel, 512 ATI Radeon graphics card, 250 GB HD - $1,200

With system 2 you are paying more and actually getting less – so remember pay attention to the specification or get someone who understands them to help you so you make sure you are always getting the best for your money.

2 comments:

mervelle said...

Hey L.. neat site..Do you build web pages? What is the best computer for someone like my mom who is a professor and an AKA and will only use it to play scrabble check email and professor stuff? She needs something user friendly. (else i'll be called constantly , lol)

Unknown said...

There was a time I used to code - built the one for my business and the original one for my church and graduate frat chapter as well as a few others but not so much these days - I can arrange to have people who do full time professionally build one if needed.

As to you question - does the school have an agreement with anyone? If so use them because you should get good pricing, if not may I suggest possibly Dell or HP in the moderate range but I will need to know far more information. Does she want a desktop or a laptop, if laptop does she want just wireless or does she want cellular option built in.

As for specifications with Vista regardless of version make sure it has at least 4GB of RAM and no less than a 250 GB HD is desktop (160 if laptop) - if Vista would suggest more than the basic preferably premium at a minimum.

Since all she is doing is playing built in games graphics is not that important however is she have investments she tracts or if there are children and grandchildren who do or may want to play games then a graphics card becomes more important and I would tend to lean toward NVidia for gaming vs ATI.

Hope that answers your question and an AKA - cool - tell her a Que said hello!

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