Buying your first computer

Congratulations!

You’ve saved up money to buy your first computer and it's time to go shopping.  Before you leave the store with something that cost too much, or doesn't do what you had hoped, let's look at what makes computers different so we can pick the right one for you.

1.) First, computers, well, compute things.  They compute data and data is measured in bytes.  One byte of information is equal to only one letter on the keyboard.   If you had 1,000 bytes of data you'd 1 kilobyte (1 KB).  If you had 1,000,000 bytes, you'd have a million bytes or 1 megabyte (1 MB).  If you had 1,000,000,000 bytes you'd have a billion bytes, or 1 gigabyte (1 GB).  If you had a really powerful computer, it could have 1,000,000,000,000 bytes which is 1 billion bytes, or 1 terabyte (1 TB).

2.) Second, computers store data.   Permanent memory on the computer is data saved on the hard drive.  Most new computers hard drives are measured in gigabytes (GB) or billions of bytes, and so are most electronics.  Flash drives and IPods are measured in the GB too.  This measurement tells us how many bytes of data an electronic device can hold.

3.) Third, computers process data.  If you've ever had too many windows open on a computer, you've probably witnessed it get slow or hang up.  That's because it can't process all of the data that it's being asked to.  A computer's ability to process data can be partly measured by it's Random Access Memory (RAM).  This abbreviation is usually just referred to as "memory" in a store.  The RAM or memory of most new computers is measured in GB.

4.) Lastly, computers come in a variety of styles.   There are two basic operating systems, Microsoft Windows which is installed on most computers, and Apple.  Apple computers are unique because they only use their own software.  Both operating systems can be found on laptops or desktop style computers.