Expert: Bobbert - 1/18/2011

Question
I am a mom, preschool teacher and need to buy a new cpu.  We really use it with Microsoft office, especially powerpoint and word.  I have to use it for photo storage, video making for school, and PC games for kids.

We also use for internet and email.  What would you recommend?

Thanks,
Chris

Answer
I'm thinking that I understand your question, but just to clarify, when you say "CPU" are you specifically referring to the Central Processing Unit, the primary microprocessor within a computer system (brand names would include Intel Pentium, VIA C7, and AMD Phenom); or do you mean to refer to an actual finished computer system (brand names would include Dell Inspiron, Apple iMac, and HP Pavilion)?

If the former, I'll need to know about your existing computer, so that we can figure out which chips are specifically supported - if your hardware is rather old, I will generally suggest a new machine for economic reasons (anything over ~5 years old generally isn't worth upgrading, as you'll overpay for the processing capacity).

If the later, I'll need to know about your budget, although from the outset - unless your video making needs have specific requirements (I'll get to this in a minute) - more or less any modern machine will breeze through the Microsoft Office suite. Regarding children's software titles, this may be an issue - generally these titles are older and not maintained by their developers (in some cases the developer doesn't even exist any longer, such as Mecc), and you will often run into compatibility problems with newer multi-core systems (As well as with Windows Vista and Windows 7); so keep in mind that you may end up needing to purchase or maintain an older computer in order to run some of these legacy applications (although I always suggest users try applications they're unsure about first, before purchasing additional hardware).

Now, regarding your video creation needs, specifically how are you capturing and editing this video? Do you need analog capture and production hardware, or are you working with a camera that can output digital video? What software are you using for this purpose (such as Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere, Ulead Studio, etc)? This single need may or may not require specialized hardware and will almost certainly require more attention to hardware specifics, as you'll need to insure that your editing application is supported.

If you can get back to me with this information, I can provide more directed information regarding upgrades.

-bob