Computer Specs 101
Revision History
Preface
It's been some time since the original writeup (over a year!) As with IT, without constant maintenance, things quickly become outdated and then useless but the fact of the matter is, these 101s take serious time to write-up (as they arent simply slapped together) and I've been busy as hell. I plan on updating the guide monthly when possible but it definitely need a quarterly update. This way, the guide can be refreshed with exciting new products.
Please note that while I do personally go through a lot of hardware (in busy times, up to 8 new systems a week averaging around probably two/week), I may not have personally spent extensive time dabbling with any given piece of hardware and as such, I may in fact have made a poor reccomendation (on the basis of incompatability or unomptimal configuration). As much as I tell myself otherwise, I'm still human and while every attempt has been made to limit errors. In short, use this 101 as a reference only and entirely at your own risk "insert legal jibberish here".
Some points that are applicable to the entire guide, please take note of them
Last Minute Questions
Table of Contents
This 101 is tailored to the trends I've noticed over my time here and as such, I've dedicated them to "work" and "play" (although, from time to time, other categories do pop up)
Revision History
- v1.00 Feb 2006 Initial draft
- v1.10 Apr 2007 Major rewrite (much needed!)
- v1.11 Aug 2007 Internal link fixes
- v1.110 Aug 2007 Updated $300 system (Thank you, Cromewell!)
Preface
It's been some time since the original writeup (over a year!) As with IT, without constant maintenance, things quickly become outdated and then useless but the fact of the matter is, these 101s take serious time to write-up (as they arent simply slapped together) and I've been busy as hell. I plan on updating the guide monthly when possible but it definitely need a quarterly update. This way, the guide can be refreshed with exciting new products.
Please note that while I do personally go through a lot of hardware (in busy times, up to 8 new systems a week averaging around probably two/week), I may not have personally spent extensive time dabbling with any given piece of hardware and as such, I may in fact have made a poor reccomendation (on the basis of incompatability or unomptimal configuration). As much as I tell myself otherwise, I'm still human and while every attempt has been made to limit errors. In short, use this 101 as a reference only and entirely at your own risk "insert legal jibberish here".
Some points that are applicable to the entire guide, please take note of them
- I dont include tax, shipping, insurance, customs, VAT, special deposits, ransom money etc with the prices. I simply go to the website, take note of the price and move on. This brings us to the next point....
- You may notice that when you follow the link, the price may be different than what I posted -- it happens. The prices are all effective as of the date of the post (I post the entire guide all at once, or within a day or two of each other). If there happens to be a sale or a rebate that was applicable when I originally made the post and its not on/available now ... nothin I can do about it.
- None of the systems I spec out include monitors, mice, keyboards, speakers, software, temperature gauges, lava lamps, printers, card readers, USB keys, joysticks, voodoo dolls etc. I simply spec the box. Plain and simple. If you need more (i.e., OS, keyboard etc) then please take that into consideration beforehand.
- I use Newegg simply because they have a very well laid out search interface, fast servers, standard layout, readily parsable pages. It's a coincidence that they have a large stock and decent prices (for most things). No I'm not affiliated with them (I wish I was
)
Last Minute Questions
- Hey what happened to the Canadian/UK Reccomendations? The short version is, manually building all these specs is a lot of work (making them balanced, finding good prices, etc). I dont mind that work. But, as I was going through the Canadian set of reccomendations, I realized how much of a pain in the arse non-Newegg style search engines were. Specifically, the lack of a multi-entry inclusive/exclusive search such as Newegg's Power Search or their multi-entry Advanced Search seriously reduces the usefulness of an e-store's search mechanism. This makes it an obscene amount of work for someone like me who isn't searching like their usual customer-base. UK e-stores suffer from the same. As such, I've completely dropped support for non-US reccomendations as a part of the 101 -- it's simply too much work manually loading each and every product the store has and examining it. Of course, the guide can still be used as a parts reference independent of locality.
- How do I use this? Find the category (see immediately above this for what the categories are) that most accurately describes how you intend to use your computer, then go to the appropriate section of the guide.
- I found a lower price! Yay you. Prices change all the time and I cant be here to constantly monitor and update the lists. Hopefully I will have the time to refresh this guide monthly but failing that, quarterly updates are definitely planned. Of course, to your advantage, as time passes, prices will probably drop.
- I want to ask a question about a specific specification, how can I do that? With this revision of the 101, I'm trying a new approach, each spec is it's own post so they can be individually referred to. On the right hand side of each post there is a link noting the post-number. Right click on that, select "copy shortcut" and paste that shortcut into your post so you can refer to it.
Table of Contents
This 101 is tailored to the trends I've noticed over my time here and as such, I've dedicated them to "work" and "play" (although, from time to time, other categories do pop up)
Last edited by a moderator: