Computers can vary greatly depending on the needs of the people who use them. Different people have different specifications when it comes to PC’s, so choosing the right one is not a task to be taken for granted. What should you look for in a PC that is right for you?
To be more concrete about selecting a PC, take into consideration the difference in computing needs between an avid professional computer gamer and a student. You can tell right away that there are some major discrepancies with regards to the PC’s that will be right for each individual.
Here is a question to ask: what does a student need in a computer? Put yourself in the shoes of a university student, and think about what types of work and activities you will be engaged in. A PC is more likely to function as a typewriter or word processor for the average college coed. It is already a given that you will be printing and submitting a lot of papers and reports.
If the course of the student is in the range of engineering or architecture, the computing power of the PC can be the same, but there are some specific changes. For example, he or she is likely to have hundreds to thousands of files to save, so a huge hard disk space is needed.
Now, if we are talking about space, then we are talking about hard disk space here- the lowest is 80, then there are those that reach 300 now. So that’s fixed- how about computing power? A student will not need a computer with extreme computing power or clocked speeds exceed 1.5 GHz- what would be the point? For video cards, it is the same- a regular video card with 512 MB will do. If the student plays some games, that baseline is also sufficient for playing. However, as for the gamer, it is another whole different thing.
A gamer is most likely to have a PC for two main reasons: for working and for playing. You can tell that the play aspect will be the one that expects a lot of effort on the part of the PC. Think about it: the PC must process algorithms repeatedly during game time, play sounds and videos, and receive non-stop input from the user.
In terms of the hard disk space, how much would a game fanatic need? For sure, 300 GB of disk space would not be enough, so a larger and more generous hard drive is needed. However, hard drives that can take more than 300 GB tend to be costly, so a way to get around this for gamers is to install more than one hard disk onto their PC. Think about it: installing one game may use up more than 5 GB of space alone, and a lot of virtual memory will also be needed as the game is being played.
When thinking about a processor that is powerful enough for the gamer, the basics simply would not do. Intel Skulltrail is one that is highly recommended for these purposes.