The Computer Buzz

January 7th, 2010

Nome and Paul Van Middlesworth - owners - The Computer Factory
 

What’s New in the Computer Business?

Certainly there are aspects of the “computer business” where the rate of change is stunning. Internet content, browsers and service providers are rapidly evolving and your cell phone may be obsolete long before your contract is up, but PC hardware, operating systems and applications have changed little during the past decade.

This year’s 1000-gigabyte hard drive looks and mounts just like a 10-gigabyte hard drive from 2001. You’ll need a good pair of reading glasses to distinguish between a new 4Gb DDR 3 RAM stick and a ten-year-old 64 Mb stick of S-DRAM. In 2005 we built PCs with 3.4GHz CPUs (3.4 billion cycles per second); today they don’t go quite that fast but they do have multiple cores (more than one CPU on a single chip). Optical drives, video, sound, Internet connections, motherboards and buss and interface protocols have become faster and more capable but their appearance and function have changed little.

The arts of building, upgrading and repairing PCs haven’t changed much at all. Even the various operating systems basically do things the same way. Removing viruses from infected PCs requires the same procedures whether the PC has Windows 2000, XP, Vista or Win 7. Using the Internet to download device drivers, flash bios, update applications, register software and operating systems and obtain critical updates has changed little over the years.

The hardware requirements for the majority of home and business users haven’t changed much either. They still use the Internet and perform text and graphics based applications. Even the fastest Internet service is a snap for any XP era PC. Common text and graphics applications like MS Office, Quick Books, Family Tree Maker and Photoshop are also well within the capabilities of older PCs.

Since speed has become a non-factor for the majority of users, Microsoft isn’t concerned that Win 7 and Vista are actually slower than XP. PC marketers like Dell and Compaq/HP have also abandoned the emphasis on speed. Capacity has taken the place of speed as manufacturers emphasize RAM quantity and larger hard drives.

Business and home users don’t need to worry about their PCs becoming obsolete as long as they have Windows XP. Microsoft has promised support through 2014, 2/3d’s of the worlds PCs still have it, XP runs virtually all applications new and old, and XP runs them faster than the newer operating systems. XP users do need to make sure that their older PCs have sufficient RAM for today’s applications, (1Gb is minimum, 2Gb is better), an uncorrupt installation of Windows XP and a hard drive with plenty of breathing room.

There is nothing wrong with Windows 7; it is a good, stable operating system. There is nothing wrong with XP; it too is a good, stable operating system. If you own an XP PC be sure to investigate an upgrade before you buy a new Win 7 PC. It could save you time and money.

•••••

From Paul and Nome VanMiddlesworth and all the staff at The Computer Factory, best wishes for a joyous and Happy Christmas.

(And, we think, from that really shy, but grumpy guy, Cactus Jack as well.)