Happy Trails Computer Club

Good enough

CPUs these days (1.3 GHz+) are faster than anyone really needs for normal use. Things like word processing, email, surfing the Net, money management, etc. A faster CPU won't do much for normal users. (Oh, it will give you bragging rights.) More speed will start programs faster -- anywhere from fractions to a few seconds quicker. It won't make a noticeable difference in how fast most programs run. Spend your money on more and faster memory -- 512 MBytes of 400 MHz DDR RAM, for example.

With Windows XP you should get a 2.0 to 2.8 GHz CPU for everything except graphics intense use, like 3D games. For Windows 98, even 233 MHz is not all that slow -- that's what the club's eMachine has.

Manufacturers have turned CPU speeds into a horsepower race, because it's a simple number that was important when CPU speeds were 33 or 66 MHz, and it's been touted ever since. The funny thing is, bargain computers come with only 128 MB or 256 MB of memory. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but 512 MB of memory would improve performance much more than a faster processor. [more]

Of course speed does matter to people who do a lot of graphics, play the latest 3D games, or edit video. If that describes you, build a system with dual 3.2 GHz CPUs, 1 GB of 800 MHz DDR memory, dual 15,000 rpm disk drives, the latest 3-D accelerator, and have at it. The rest of us will be perfectly happy with a system that's good enough. It will also run cooler and quiter, and be more reliable.

A couple of pretty good computers

Desktop:

• CPU: 2.0 GHz Celeron or Athlon XP
• Memory: 512 MB of DDR SDRAM
• Storage: 30 GB hard drive

This CPU/Memory combination should be good enough for quite a few years before it becomes outmoded. By then, that really *razoo* machine will cost a lot less and it may be time to move on. CPU speed isn't the only thing that gets outmoded either. You'll probably want a new machine some day for some other reason than just more CPU speed.
http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s=1470&a=27191,00.asp

Notebook:

• CPU: 1.13 GHz PIII-M
• Memory: 256 MB RAM
• Storage: 30 GB hard drive,

One more note: Be sure the computer supports USB 2.0 for peripherals. That could be much more important to you than a little extra computing speed.

A performance computer

If you really want more performance, for whatever reason -- hedge against future needs -- really crisp performance -- you just *deserve* it -- whatever -- then go with a computer as powerful as the one below (unless you're a "gamer", or somebody who needs maximum performance):

• CPU: 2.8 GHz Pentium 4
• Memory: 1024 MB DDR at 400 MHz. The key word here is DDR (Double Data Rate).
• Disk Drive: 80 GB, 7200 RPM