Buyer's Guide - Entry Level, October 2004

Miscellaneous Components

We have covered all of the parts necessary for building a computer with a few exceptions. Network and audio are provided by the motherboard, and there is no reason to purchase a separate card to handle those duties. A Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS might make a nice addition to the gaming system, but we have already pushed the price of the budget gaming system up far enough. We also feel that the $80 that the Audigy 2 ZS costs could be put to better use in the graphics department, as that tends to be far more of a bottleneck than the sound processing.

While it is not required, there are still instances where having a floppy drive comes in handy. Whether you want to spend the extra $10 or so is up to you, but many of us still insist on including a floppy drive in every PC. As long as you do not need to use it, you could probably care less, but for those rare occasions when you do need it, it can be a real life saver. BIOS flashing and installing hard drive controllers for XP are a couple of examples that often benefit from the presence of a floppy drive.

The last items that every computer needs are the keyboard and mouse. As before, we do not want to give a specific recommendation, as personal preference plays a large part in this area. However, we do like the Microsoft and Logitech models quite a lot. Products from both companies tend to have very good out-of-box support from Windows XP, which may not be the case with some of the other alternatives.

For the keyboard, office users might want to look into getting an ergonomic split keyboard in order to reduce the strain due to typing - most serious typists swear by them. Our one comment is that we really dislike keyboards that have the large enter key with the back slash moved elsewhere - people who have written any code or HTML can be very unhappy when certain keys are moved to the "wrong" location. If that sort of thing bothers you, remember to pay close attention to that detail when selecting a keyboard.

The only comment that we have to make about the mouse is that we really like optical mice. If you are used to an optical mouse and have to go back to an old rubber ball mouse, it can be an unpleasant experience. The precision and responsiveness of optical mice still varies, so you probably should not just get the cheapest mouse that you can find.

You can find mice and keyboards in both wired and wireless versions, and depending on your tastes, you may prefer one over the other. Wired versions are nice in that you never have to worry about batteries, but you still have to deal with the cords. Most likely, you already know what you like, so unless you are itching to try something new, you can stick with that.