COMPUTER PRINTING
Regardless of external appearance, what every computer
has in common is a set of key components whose suitability for printing
can be gauged simply by examining their specifications on paper.
This is mainly a numbers game so you don't need to be a technical
wizard to choose a suitable PC yourself. Its just a matter of looking
up the specifications on a manufacturer's website, in print advertisements
or in magazine reviews, and then comparing them with the information
in the table below. In each case, the higher the figures quoted
in a machine's specification, the more powerful it is likely to
be and the faster it will get things done.
Giga hertz (GHz) the speed at which not all processor
chips work in the same way (More
info about Giga Hertz ?)
The computer ‘thinks’ accurately compares
the speed of an AMD processor such as the Anthon 64 with a Pentium
or any other Intel processor. Neither can you directly compare PC
processors with Mac processors. However, you can use the GHz speeds
of CPUs to compare processors in the same 'family', be it Celeron,
Pentium 4, Athlon XP, Athlon 64 or whatever. (Compare
Pentiums, Celerons, AMD processors , Advance Core 2 Duo
Desktop publishing files can be huge, so it's
almost impossible to have too much disk space. Don't consider a
new computer with less than 100GB of disk storage.
Computers use RAM as workspace. Having more RAM is like having a
bigger desk, enabling you to work on several tasks at the same time.
256MB is the bare minimum, 512MB is better and 1024MB (1GB) is best
if you intend to do a lot of photographic work. (More
about Ram memory SDR Ram here , DDR
Ram, DDR2
Ram )
Most computers come with 17in screens, because
these represent a good balance between price and performance for
everyday use. While a 17in monitor is fine for casual desktop-publishing
tasks, serious work demands a larger monitor. Consider 19in or more
if you're buying a slim TFT monitor and 21 in or more for conventional
CRT monitors. In terms of how much of the screen is viewable, a
19in TFT screen is broadly equivalent to a 21in CRT device.
The speed of an optical drive is less important
than the type of drive you choose. It must be a rewritable drive
and it should, preferably, be DVD rather than CD, because a DVD
disc can store at least six times as much data. Top speed for CD
drives is x52, and the current top speed for DVD drives is x16.
The faster the drive, the quicker it can copy large files. A rewritable
DVD drive can also handle CDs, so you don't need to buy two drives.
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