By John Rickson

What goes into making a reliable desktop computer? What components are necessary and what features are just added fluff? By taking the time to understand the available desktop specs, a consumer can more easily make a good decision when purchasing a new computer.

Here are the main components that any desktop computer needs in order to function properly: the motherboard, processor, memory, graphic card, hard drive, monitor, and operating system. In addition to these there are other components that you'll need such as sound cards, communication systems, and peripherals like the keyboard and mouse. You can customize your computer based on all of these different components.

There is a range of available processors on the market now, and almost any of them will do if the user is simply interested in basic office productivity and Internet browsing. If however, the user is planning on various multimedia projects or 3D rendering programs, something more powerful will be required. In these cases a user may choose to go beyond the standard dual-core processors and try out one of the more expensive quad-core chips.

Another very important component of a desktop computer is memory. One really important type of memory is RAM. This is the memory that your computer uses to keep applications running smoothly. If you don't have enough your computer could slow to a crawl. 2GB of RAM is a good place to start if you're running Windows Vista.

It wasn't too long ago that the only people concerned with graphic and sound cards were gamers. But these days with more and more applications relying on multimedia, graphic and sounds cards are very important. Gamers will still want to make sure they have top-of-the-line cards, but the standard user can probably get by with basic cards.

There are a large number of components that go into a desktop computer, and the features here only start to scratch the surface. The good news is that the modular nature of desktop computers allows them to be customized and upgraded to meet individual needs. Not enough hard drive space? Move up from the standard 200GB model to a full terabyte. Still dealing with the original CD-ROM drive? Add a new DVD drive. The desktop specs that are considered "standard" today will likely change tomorrow. Having a desktop computer will allow a user to keep up will the trends and advancements in the industry.

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