 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
Software Resources
Sun Open Office A freeware full office suite that has word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, and more! Don't worry about compatibility because it can even open Microsoft Word and Excel files, edit then and even save them. If you want a free office suite that really kicks, get it! For more information: http://www.openoffice.org |
 |
Mozilla Firefox A freeware web browser that has gotten rave review from PC Magazine. This is a great alternative to Internet Explorer. It has more support for some of the new web programming languages that Internet Explorer doesn't even have. This is a very well supported program. This is a must try! For more information: http://www.mozilla.org |
 |
Mozilla Thunderbird A freeware email client that is very powerful yet very simple. This program even has a built in spam filter. Try it, you will love it! For more information: http://www.mozilla.org |
 |
Symantec Products A very popular company that has a protection for about anything. They have Anti-Virus software, Firewall programs, Anti-Spam programs, and even total suites that includes all of the above. Their prices are reasonable, but the amount of support is great! They always have the latest updates and fixes. For more information: http://www.symantec.com |
 |
AVG Anti-Virus A popular freeware version of Anti-Virus software. For more information: http://www.grisoft.com |
 |
Winzip A shareware program designed to Compress and extract files of multiple formats. For more information: http://www.winzip.com |
 |
Trillian A very popular chat program that interfaces to AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, and a few more. If you are sick of your current chat program, or you have too many open at the same time. This will solve your problem! For more information: http://ceruleanstudios.com |
 |
Apple iTunes A great source to buy legal music. They have one of the best collections around. They interface great to iPods. The only problem is that they have their own proprietary format, so it makes it a little difficult to transfer to other players. If you are just playing on your own computer at home you will be golden! For more information: http://www.itunes.com |
 |
Winamp A freeware program used to play a lot of different audio and video formats, namely MP3s. For more information: http://www.winamp.com |
 |
Divx Player A freeware program used to play mostly video files. Also has the plug-in for Winamp to play different version of AVIs and MPEGs. For more information: http://www.divx.com |
 |
Hardware Advice
|
To start off, a Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the brain of the computer. This is the part that is like a calculator. The Intel Pentium 4 series is great for multi-media and performance tasks. We would also highly recommend it for CAD work, purely for the fact that it can do more calculations. Intel has made great chips for the last God only knows how long. They are usually a little pricey in comparison to the AMD chips, but if multimedia i.e. graphics and sound editing is what you are going to be doing then go with an Intel. When we buy your processor we usually also buy the motherboard from the same company for warranty purposes. Most places will give you a one year parts warranty which is pretty nice. That warranty should be good through them and not us though. For more info: http://www.intel.com |
|---|---|
|
AMD makes some of the best performing and cost effective CPUs around. We would recommend these chips to extreme gamers and general purpose computing. If you just want a computer to browse the net, listen to some music, or word processing, AMD chips are for you. Gaming you say? Yup! That's right; we have many friends that like AMD for gaming because according to PC Magazine, they work great! There have been several articles in PC Magazine proving it. These chips do not have as many calculations, but they are usually a lot more cost effective. For more info: http://www.amd.com |
|
The motherboard is like the human skeleton of the computer.
This is what ties everything together. Without a good one nothing will
work right.
Motherboards are very tricky to pick out. We highly recommend Asus and following close behind, Tyan. These two companies have been in the business a long time and they definitely know what they are doing! Asus is great for its simplicity in their manuals, with the true complexity on the board to get the job done. Asus also has great support and they are dependable boards! Tyan travels somewhere along there. It is very hard to find a good board, and it can also get very confusing. If you don't know what you are doing, you can make some serious mistakes and might loose out on another great board that would have done a better job. We will pick a board that meats your needs! When we buy your motherboard we usually also buy the CPU from the same company for warranty purposes. Most places will give you a one year parts warranty which is pretty nice. That warranty should be good through them and not us though. For more info: http://www.asus.com |
|
Random Access Memory (RAM) this is the memory on your computer
that does the thinking. This is a very important part of the computer!
We would only recommend Crucial because of their reliability and support.
We will put a different brand of RAM in the system if you really want,
but it may not work as well. RAM plays a huge part in your computers working
ability. If you get cheap generic RAM, this is what causes a lot of your
"blue screens of death." The memory crashes because it is cheaply built
and inadequate, this is why we recommend Crucial RAM.
For more info: http://www.crucial.com |
|
The graphics card is receives information from your motherboard
and sends it to your monitor. The graphics card is not as important
as some of the other parts, but it is definitely a requirement. A good
graphics card is important if you want to game, graphics, or CAD.
In regards to brads, we recommend Asus, ATI, Elsa, Hercules, PNY, and Vision Tek. The GeForce chipsets have held the market for a long time and they are great cards. Lately, most gamers seem to be really going for the ATI Radeon chipsets. The thing about video cards is that you really get what you pay for. For more info: http://www.nvidia.com For more info: http://www.ati.com |
|
Sound cards receive information from your motherboard and
send it to your speakers.
Sound cards can be inexpensive or expensive. It is all a matter of how much you want to pay. However, it is very incremental for what you pay. After a certain point, where you are doing heavy duty recording for a CD, there isn't much of a difference. There are a few things to think about though. Many motherboards today come with built-on sound cards. This means that there is actually a sound card built onto the motherboard. This is nice and convenient and most of the sound cards that are built into motherboards are of top notch quality. The only to upgrade them is if you are a really serious gamer. For an additional sound card, Creative Labs is usually the way to go. Speakers can also make big improvements. There are a lot of brands. Look for something that is about $30-150. We carry a wide variety of speakers. We can order anything really. When we build your system we can discuss speakers. For more info: http://www.creative.com |
|
A case holds all of your goodies that we have discussed here. There are basically two companies that we like Antec namely then Enlite. These are both great case companies, inexpensive ones are built poorly and can cut you because they are not even buffed. The case pictured to the left is an Antec. It is a really nice case and we sell a lot of them. They are nice and upgradeable and can take a pretty good beating. For more info: http://www.antec-inc.com |
    |
|
