HOW TO BECOME THE ULTIMATE COMPUTER GEEK


Everybody and his brother (and his brother's kids) have personal computers these days, so just owning a PC isn't a sign of tech geekdom it's as normal as owning a toaster or a vacuum cleaner. But what distinguishes a gadget geek from a regular Joe is the kind of computer he has how it performs, and how it's tricked out with various types of peripherals. The average Joe or Jane Consumer is happy with a $600 out-of-the-box PC they pick up at Best Buy; the ultimate computer geek spends two to three times as much on the basic unit, and then upgrades key components for better performance or more specialized needs. Since this book is all about being a high-tech major-domo, I'm going to ignore the boring mass market hardware and focus on the high-performance and specialty stuff instead. After all, that's the kind of stuff the ultimate computer geek is interested in.

Spec'ing the Perfect PC

We'll start by discussing what type of PC you might want to use as the core of your system. This implies, of course, that no out-of-the-box PC is going to do the entire job; you'll want to supplement this base unit with upgraded components and peripherals. But we'll start with the system unit itself, and go from there.

If I had my druthers, everybody and his brother (and his brother's kids) would all be using Apple computers. Not that I don't like Windows PCs; I don't dislike them, generally, it's just that I really don't like the Windows operating system. The Mac is my machine of choice, and what I recommend to anyone who'll listen.

So why am I pro-Apple and anti-Windows? It's a matter of security. The Windows operating system is notoriously exposed to all manner of viruses, spyware, hacks, and cracks. It's simply a holey operating system; if it didn't have so many holes, Microsoft wouldn't spend so much time issuing patches. I know this firsthand, because the most frequent calls to my radio show are about how to recover from spyware and virus infections on Windows machines. (I'm not exaggerating when I say that if we didn't weed out the calls out beforehand, I'd devote the entirety of every show to these same old Windows security problems.)

The Mac OS, on the other hand, is much more secure. It doesn't have near the number of holes and vulnerabilities that Windows has; you're much less likely to suffer from virus or spyware attacks if you're using a Mac. So if you want a safe computing experience, the simplest thing to do is to avoid Microsoft products. (And that includes the Internet Explorer browser, which is eminently exploitable.)

That said, I realize that 90% of you reading this book don't use a Mac, have never used a Mac, and don't intend to ever use a Mac. You work in a Windows office, share files with Windows friends, and correspond with Windows relatives; why in the world would you want to be a Mac maverick? I'm okay with that, really. Heck, I use a Windows computer, too in addition to my main Apple computer, of course. I'm comfortable dealing with the Microsoft reality.

So, assuming that you don't want to switch to a powerful Power Mac G5 (perfect for video editing) or an affordable Mac Mini (ideal for browsing the Internet and managing digital audio files), let's focus our attention on building the ultimate Windows PC. When you're aiming to be the ultimate computer geek (Windows division), what kind of specs should you look for on a new PC?

I gotta tell you, asking how to spec a new PC is a loaded question. It all depends on how you intend to use it. Let me provide some examples:

  • Surfing and emailing The vast majority of people who have PCs in their homes use them primarily to connect to the Internet that is, to surf the Web and send and receive email. These tasks really don't require a lot of power, which means you can typically get by with the lowest-priced PC you can find. Heck, even the lowest-priced PC today is overpowered for these applications. When you connect to the Internet what you really care about is connection speed, which your PC doesn't influence. You might be better off keeping an older PC and upgrading from a dial-up to a broadband connection.

  • Office applications In the pre-Internet days, most people used PCs for typical office applications writing letters and memos with a word processor, crunching numbers in a spreadsheet, preparing presentations in PowerPoint, and maybe managing your finances in Quicken or Microsoft Money. Well, sorry to tell you, but these applications don't require a lot of computing horsepower, either. Again, today's lowest-priced machines can run Word, Excel, and PowerPoint just as fast as a high-priced machine. If all you need to do is write, calculate, and present, you don't need to spring for a top-of-the-line model. A low-priced box with a decent keyboard and monitor is all you need.

  • Digital music management So if the most common computing tasks don't require a lot of computing power (in today's terms, anyway), who's buying all those $1,500 machines and why? Well, outside of simple surfing and word processing, everything else you want to do with your PC does require a little extra horsepower, in one form or another. Case in point: digital music management. Now, you don't need a super-fast microprocessor to download MP3 files from Napster, but you do need a large hard disk to store all those files. (I recommend going with at least a 100GB drive, which can hold over 3,000 hours of MP3 files much more than most folks have in their entire CD collections.) You'll also need a decent speaker system; a good 2.1-channel system (left and right speakers and a separate subwoofer) will do the trick. Since most $600 PCs don't have that much hard disk storage or a decent speaker system (if they come with speakers at all), this means buying a better system or going with a cheap system and then upgrading the hard drive and speakers.

  • Digital photo editing Digital photo editing is lot like digital music management, in that you need a big hard drive to hold all your digital picture files. In fact, if you like to take and store your photos in high-resolution format, you'll need an even bigger hard drive think 200GB, or maybe an external hard drive dedicated to photo storage. A little extra horsepower in the CPU department and a little extra memory wouldn't hurt, either, especially if you're editing large files in Photoshop. And, since the picture's the thing, investing in a larger monitor is a necessity. (A 19'' LCD is nice for photo editing.) Again, you won't find all this on a $600 PC; you'll probably spend between $1,200 and $1,500 to get all the features you need.

  • Digital movie editing Even more demanding than digital photo editing is the task of digital movie editing. You'll want to connect your Digital Video (DV) camcorder directly to your PC, which means your PC has to have a FireWire port. You'll also need a big (200GB or more), dedicated hard drive just for your digital movie files, and a big widescreen LCD monitor for viewing. You'll also want to upgrade to the fastest CPU you can afford, with at least 2GB of memory. In other words, you need the fastest, most powerful, highest-capacity PC you can afford if you want the movie editing process to be anything less than painful.

  • Playing games If there's any task more demanding than video editing, it's game playing. That's right, playing games takes more processing power than editing photos or movies. That's because today's state-of-the-art PC games require state-of-the-art processing to display their state-of-the-art graphics and game play. I'll go into more detail about gaming PCs in Part 2, "The Ultimate Gamer;" suffice to say, if you're a serious gamer, you want to buy the most powerful PC that your budget can afford.

  • Home theater use There's one final PC use that warrants mention here, and that's using your PC in your home theater system. As you'll learn in Part 9, "The Ultimate Home Theater Enthusiast," a home theater or Media Center PC can function as a CD player, DVD player, hard disk video recorder, and digital music server, all in one box. Naturally, you need a PC spec'd for all these purposes a huge hard drive, TV tuner card, and the like. You'll also want a PC that's relatively quiet, since you don't want the normally loud PC fans disturbing your TV viewing; this means investing in some sort of quiet PC design, using water cooling or some similar technology. And you'll want this PC to come with Windows XP Media Center Edition pre-installed, since it's Media Center (and its accompanying remote control unit) that you'll use to control everything from the comfort of your living room couch.

So you see why answering the "what kind of PC should I buy?" question is so tricky. Depending on what you want to do with it, you might want anything from a $600 plain-Jane machine to a $2,500 custom job. Just make sure you think through how you'll be using it before you buy, and then shop for a machine that fits your specific needs.

Of course, the PC you get out of the box isn't necessarily the PC that you'll be using. There are lots of ways to customize even a stock PC, which means upgrading peripherals and adding new components, as necessary.

Picking the Right Monitor

One of the things that helps a manufacturer get PC prices down to the $600 range is that they don't always give you a full system. In fact, most $600 PCs don't come with monitors. Which means that one of the first peripherals you'll be adding to your system is a new video display.

When it comes to computer monitors, you have two basic choices. You can go with a CRT-based unit or with an LCD display. CRT displays are big and bulky and are becoming less popular with each passing day. They're also less expensive than LCD displays, so they're still an option if you're building a budget system. For most users, however, an LCD monitor is a better choice.

LCD displays are flat-screen displays, which means you get more free desk space than with a CRT model. Early LCD displays weren't quite as accurate, color-wise, as their CRT cousins, which made them less-than-ideal for sensitive photo editing work. They were also a little slow and prone to streaking with fast-moving images, which didn't endear them to serious game players. Both of these issues have been pretty much resolved in the latest models, so it's not that hard to find accurate and fast LCD displays. Make sure you try before you buy, however, especially if you do a lot of pro-level photo editing or are a heavy gamer.

(That said, some digital photo pros and gaming geeks still swear by high-end CRT monitors, although these expensive beasts are getting harder and harder to find.)

When you're shopping for a monitor, you should look at the unit's contrast ratio, response time (for gaming), and color accuracy (for graphics editing). I prefer to actually examine the LCD I'm going to buy in person, just in case there are any dead pixels. I also recommend putting up some black text on a white screen to see how crisp the text looks; this is especially important if you do a lot of word processing or number crunching, where you're looking at small text and numbers all day.

And remember that a video display is one instance where size matters. Doing a lot of photo editing or Excel number crunching on a 14'' display is tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment; spending a few more bucks to upgrade to a 17'' or 19'' LCD is often money well-spent. (And if you're doing fancy movie editing, consider a really big widescreen model, to better reproduce the picture that others will be viewing.)

Replacing the Mouse and Keyboard

If you're still using the standard-issue mouse and keyboard that came with your PC, you're missing out on some really cool input devices. Despite what you might think, not all mice and keyboards are alike; some perform better than others, some offer unique features, and some are hip and trendy looking. You just have to know what's available and what you really want and need.

In fact, the very first change I make when I get a new PC is to replace the standard mouse and keyboard (which typically pretty much suck PC manufacturers don't spend a lot on their input devices) with something a bit better. I look for a keyboard with a nice firm feel and a good "click;" I want my mouse to feel solid, have decent accuracy, and offer a lot of one-hand control options.

And, for what it's worth, I really like cordless models. If you like to lean back and put your feet up while computing, you know how constricting it is to be tethered to your computer by the standard too-short connecting cable. When you go cordless, you can put your keyboard on your lap and your mouse on a coffee table, if that's what you want. Cordless equals more flexibility.

Cordless mice and keyboards can use either traditional RF or the newer Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth tends to cost a bit more, but I've found that it doesn't always work as well; for some reason, it's been a less-reliable technology for me. For this reason, I warn against buying Bluetooth mice and keyboards, and recommend going with standard RF models.

Beyond cordless connectivity, look for mice and keyboards with enhanced ergonomics, as well as those cool-looking (if not always useful) lights and colors. And don't limit yourself to mice and keyboards; some of the neatest input devices break the paradigm completely, letting you communicate with your computer via trackball or pen.

By the way, not that I'm on the payroll or anything, but some of the most innovative input devices come from a single company Logitech. I don't want to sound like a shill for the company, but it's hard not to be impressed by Logitech's offerings. Even the company's run-of-the-mill mice and keyboards have a better feel than most competing products, and their cutting-edge models show you what all the other manufacturers will be producing next year.

Sound Matters

Back when I was a youngster, our PCs had just one small, tinny-sounding speaker and we were glad to have it! (I also walked five miles to school every day, uphill, in the snow.) Of course, all the speaker did was bleep and bloop a little, so the fact that it sucked wasn't that big a deal.

Today, however, we expect our PC speakers to do a lot more than bleep and bloop. We use our PCs to listen to CDs and the digital music we download; we use our PCs to watch surround sound movies on DVD; and we use our PCs to play ultra-realistic games with heart-pounding sounds. And you can't do any of that or at least, not well with a tinny-sounding built-in speaker.

For that reason, multiple-speaker systems are some of the most popular add-ons for personal computers today. Ideally, you want a speaker system that sounds good when you're playing music, when you're watching movies, and when you're playing games.

Music reproduction is probably the simplest task for a speaker system. You need two speakers, right and left, and maybe a third speaker called a subwoofer for the low bass. This type of system is called a 2.1 system; the right and left speakers are the 2, the subwoofer is the 1, and the dot is a separator.

When you start talking about movies and games, you get into surround sound, which requires two or more speakers to be placed behind you. A 4.1 system has right and left front speakers, right and left rear speakers, and a subwoofer; this used to be the type of system used by high-end PC games. A 5.1 system adds a fifth speaker center front; this is the most common system for movie watching, and nowadays for cutting-edge PC games. A 6.1 system adds a center rear speaker to the mix, and a 7.1 system has the three front speakers plus two surrounds on the left and right sides and two in the rear. (Just wait; in a few years we'll be talking about 9.1 systems with two more speakers even further back in the room!)

All PC speaker systems are built around powered speakers. Unlike home audio systems that use a power amplifier (sometimes built in to a multifunction receiver) to power the speakers, your PC doesn't have a power amplifier built in. Instead, the amps are in the speakers themselves or, in some cases, in a control unit to which the speakers are connected. It's not always a truism, but in most cases more power means better sound.

If you decide on a surround sound system, make sure you have the wherewithal to run the proper cables from the front to the rear. Also make sure your PC's sound card supports multichannel sound; you'll need a card with digital outputs to feed most high-end surround sound speaker systems. Otherwise, if all you care about is music listening, a 2.1 system (with standard mini-plug analog output) should do the trick.

Essential Accessories

Beyond monitor, mouse, keyboard, and speakers, there are lots of other accessories you can add to your computer system, depending on what types of tasks you'll be performing. Computer peripherals are fun gadgets to buy, so make sure you have lots of extra room on your desktop as well as an appropriate number of open USB ports on your system unit. (That's because most external peripherals today in the Windows world, at least connect via USB.)

One of the most necessary peripherals is an external hard disk, which you can use to back up all the important programs and files on your PC's main drive. Back in the caveman days of personal computing, you could back up all your important files on a single floppy disk. But in today's world of 200+GB internal drives, you'd need literally thousands of floppies to do a full backup and that's simply not practical. Fortunately, hard drive prices have dropped to such a degree that external hard drives can be had for well under $200, and that's money very well spent. These drives connect to your PC via either USB 2.0 or FireWire (the latter being the better connection method for large data transfers), and totally automate the backup process via included backup software. Get a big enough external drive (200GB or larger) and you can copy all the files from your main drive, turning the backup drive into a mirror of your main drive. What could be easier than that?

Beyond the external hard drive, what other peripherals might you be interested in? There are lots, from webcams to drawing tablets to AM/FM radio receivers. The thing that most of these gadgets have in common is that they connect to your PC via USB. USB is a unique type of connector in that it not only transfers computer signals and data, but also passes through a small amount of electricity. That electricity is used to provide power to the USB devices you connect to your computer. So, if you connect a webcam via USB, for example, you don't have to plug the webcam in to a power outlet; the USB connection provides all the operating power it needs.

That simple fact has inspired designers the world over but particularly in Japan, for some reason to come up with all manner of devices that can feed off the USB power source. The devices don't have to be particularly useful; the only common denominator is that they don't have separate power connections, just a simple USB connector. As you'll see, manufacturers use USB power to feed everything from USB beverage warmers to USB aquariums. Most of these gizmos are fairly useless, but some actually perform a useful function and they're all pretty fun!



Leo Laporte's 2006 Gadget Guide
Leo Laportes 2006 Gadget Guide
ISBN: 0789733951
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 126

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