OUTER LIMITS CONSULTING
PC BUYING WORKSHEET

Windows XP XP Home XP Professional       Recommend XP Professional when 5 of more PC's in a network or when connecting to an office network  

 
CPU Celeron Pentium-4       Recommend Pentium  
  2.8GHz 3.0Ghz 3.2Ghz 3.4Ghz   Compare FSB speed  

RAM 256MB 512MB 1GB    

256MB absolute minimum
512MB recommend for most applications
1GB recommend for high end graphics applications
- compare speed and number of chips

 

Hard Drive ATA SATA SCSI     SATA is faster than ATA and less expensive than SCSI  
  5400rpm 7200rpm 10Krpm 15Krpm      
  40GB 60GB 80GB 120GB 160GB    

Desktop MiniTower Small Form Factor        

CD / DVD CD CD-RW CD/RW-DVD CD/DVD-RW      
Floppy              
Fax/Modem              

Mouse PS2 USB Scroll Optical Wireless    
Keyboard PS2 USB     Wireless    

MS-Office Basic Standard Small Business Professional      
Norton Anti-Virus              

Warranty 1 year 2 year 3 year        
  Next Day 4 hour          

Monitor 15" 17" 19"        
LCD Panel 15" 17" 19"        
  standard sharper          
  analog analog/digital