Some Advice on Buying a Computer

This document is meant as some general advice suitable for ministers or congregations purchasing a new computer. Since it quotes rough prices and component specifications, it will date quickly - check that the date above is within about 3 to 6 months of your purchasing decision!! It is geared for folk buying a computer for work, rather than games playing or children's homework, though any machine with the kind of capabilities described below will do a good job of those tasks too.

This document was prepared by the Presbytery's Computers and Communications Commitee; it comes without warranty! It is intended as a starting point, rather than being a definitive guide. If you have other or more detailed questions, and the purchase is for a machine to serve the work of a congregation within the Prebytery, then send an e-mail to Presbytery Help.

First, a table of rough minimum specifications for a new machine.

Processor: brain of the machine. Does the actual work. All PC's use the same basic design (based on Intel's Pentium), but it doesn't matter if you get an AMD or a genuine Intel or whatever, as they all do the same job! In fact, as I write, the fastest is an AMD Athlon. Included in computer.

Memory: the short term memory of the machine - goes away when you switch it off. More means can work on bigger images or on several tasks at once. Easy and relatively cheap to add more later if you find a need. Included in computer.

Disk: where your programs and files --- sermons, pictures, letters --- are stored when you switch the machine off. You are unlikely to find a new machine sold with less than 10Gb, and this is loads for most common uses. Included in computer. Get as much as you can afford, as it is relatively difficult to install a second hard-drive for more capacity later.

Screen: The bigger the screen, the easier the text is to read. It is sometimes also true that you on larger screens you can make the dots smaller and get more of them on the screen - thus being able to display more lines of text or a bigger chunk of an image on the screen at one time. More lines of text, for instance, means more of the context if you are editing a sermon and trying to keep track of the flow of what is round about the paragraph you are actually typing.... When a machine is specified, there will also be mention of video memory, or screen memory. There should be at least 4Mb of this, and it can go up beyond 32Mb - the more there is, the more colours you can display at one time (pictures, especially photos, will look better), or the more dots you can get on the screen - as above. 4Mb is plenty to be useful, unless you are wanting to play lots of games!! Should be included in computer, but occasionally a stunningly cheap PC is so cheap because they've omitted a screen! (Small print, small print!)

If you have money to spare or if desk-space is at a premium, you may consider a flat panel screen (TFT) rather than a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) - the latter is like a normal TV, and the bigger the displayed image the deeper the screen has to be. Flat panel screens can be much thinner, lighter, and take up much less desk space. They are also more expensive!

Sound-card and speakers: Nice to have but not essential for an office machine. Most machines will come with a sound-card - a few of these will save money by not including speakers, which you can easily buy later. Speakers from £ 10 to £ 135!! Decent sound-cards from £ 40, if sold separate from a computer.

Modem: Essential if Internet and e-mail are wanted. The speed of the modem affects how quickly e-mail and WWW pages take to download - and so the length and cost of the phone bill.... Get at least a 56K modem. This is currently the fastest possible modem. To go faster you require a special telephone cable. Next up is ISDN, and faster still are the recently introduced ADSL or cable modem technologys (not yet available everywhere, and comparatively expensive unless heavy Internet use is anticipated). A modem should be included in the machine, or can be added later: under £ 30 for an internal 56K modem.

CD-ROM: Is how most software and clip-art is distributed these days. Unless you are planning to play games a CD-ROM is a CD-ROM is a CD-ROM - you only use it occasionally, and so the speed is essentially irrelevant. The speed is described as a multiple of the speed of the original drives: 8x, 12x, 16x, 24x, etc! Included with a new computer these days, though can get one for less than £ 30. DVD drives are larger capacity CDs - where a CD can store about 600Mb of data (enough for a CD of music), a DVD can store more than 10 times as much. This not only makes it possible to store bigger encyclopedias or games on such a disc, but you can also buy/rent movies in DVD format. DVD drives start at around £ 60.

Printer: An ink-jet printer is your best bet. Virtually all ink-jet printers sold today can print in colour: some will have the capability to print images indistinguishable from photographs, while others are more geared up for office tasks such as coloured text and clipart. Colour printers do print in black and white - and often have a special mode for printing in black and white faster and cheaper than their full-colour mode. Either get it bundled with the computer, or from under £ 60 for a colour ink-jet (around the £ 100 mark for reasonable quality print and reliability). Epson, Canon or Hewlett Packard are all good names.

The main alternative to an ink-jet is a laser printer; these provide clearer printing, though this is less of an issue now because ink-jet technology has improved a great deal. Laser printers will generally be black and white (unless you spend a lot of money), marginally more expensive to buy, but cheaper to run over the long term, and will perhaps be slightly quicker to print a page. Again, Hewlett Packard, Epson or Canon are all good names.

Scanner: This is not an essential component! You quite possibly don't need one! Why would you want one? To scan in images, which can then be manipulated and printed out: for example, scan a small cartoon for use in a service sheet or magazine, or for use on an OHP acetate in a children's address..... With a printer, a scanner can also allow your computer to be used as a simple photocopier. Main decision is: sheet fed or flat-bed? Sheet fed ones are often cheaper, and take up less desk space, but you can only scan off reasonably flat paper that you can pass through the scanner - no pictures from books.... at least, without photocopying first, which degrades quality. Sometimes bundled with the computer. Cheapest ones start at around £ 40, up to several hundred.

Backup: Though often missed out, this is a very good idea! Only occasionally included in the cost of a machine (partly because disk drives are more reliable than they used to be, and partly because in a large office environment you would centralise backup capability, rather than run it on a per machine basis). Allows critical information to be kept safe away from the computer - in case the main disk becomes corrupted, or the computer itself is stolen.... Could you function as well without: the church roll; your computerised diary; all your e-mail contacts; all your old sermons and children's addresses? Tape backup will also allow you to move large amounts of data to other computers - for example, copying church roll around, or large scans to the person doing the newsletter. A good starting point would be an Iomega ZIP drive, from around £ 80. An increasingly popular alternative is recordable CD, which has the advantage that most computers have a CD-ROM drive and can read the data easily - but is slightly more expensive to buy (prices start at £ 90) and run (the CD-RWs are more expensive than the ZIP tapes).

For a fuller discussion, see the Computer Security and Hygiene Paper, also produced by the Presbytery Computer and Communications Committee.

Software: This is probably the hardest and vaguest area! Most PCs sold these days come bundled with software. You must have the operating system (Windows, probably Windows 98, or Windows 2000 or Windows ME - Millenium Edition). Beyond that, depends what you want to do. Word-processor for letters and sermons. Database, probably, for keeping roll - make sure compatible with what the congregation already uses, if they do! Something to produce pictures. Presentation software if you ever plan to use the computer to produce presentations - for instance, Powerpoint is used on the Presbytery multimedia system. Most other things, like e-mail software and scanner software, will come with the relevant components of the system, either pre-installed when you buy it or to be added by you when you get the scanner (for instance). One reasonable way of cutting down the costs is to buy an " office bundle ", like Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office, Lotus Smartsuite, Claris Works, etc. These are collections that will normally include: word-processor, database, spreadsheet, graphics program, maybe desktop publishing program. MS Office is a full-blown professional package, MS Works is a simpler version for home use, Lotus Smartsuite and Claris Works somewhere in between. Microsoft also do a Word + Works package, which is the full-blown Office word-processor (Word) plus the cut down spreadsheet, database, etc from MS Works, aimed at people who mainly use word-processors but will need occasional access to other things.

Probably the most important consideration is making sure you can exchange information and files with other people in the congregation or elsewhere - so check what they are already using!!

Known Names: The following are some well known and reasonably reliable mail order/web based retailers.

Second Hand: You can also purchase reasonable computers very cheaply second hand. These tend to be ex-office machines which large corporations have grown out of, but which still work fine. You can get a very cheap 486 with 8Mb of RAM, screen, 0.5Gb hard-drive (no CD-ROM), and MS Works for about £ 120!! Pentiums are a little more.... For example, Second Byte (0131 467 7077) or User 2 (0131 662 9955) in Edinburgh.

Last Updated: $Date: 2002/08/28 09:36:56 $

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