Buying a new computer can be a dizzying affair. Everyone will have a word of advice about what you need, and you’ll end up confused, frustrated, or with a PC that doesn’t work for you -– not to mention your budget.

In the interests of helping you sort through the jungle of features, configurations and technologies, we present the bare necessities and explain why you need them. Anything above or beyond is up to you.

Don’t worry too much about which chip you get, but rather focus on the

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processor speed. All of today’s top chips -– AMD Duron, AMD Athlon, Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium III, or Intel Pentium 4 –- will perform well for most operating systems and applications. There is one exception: People who will be doing heavy graphical/video work on their computers might want to steer away from Celeron processors. Make sure the chip has a processing speed of at least 600MHz for basic Internet, email, word processor and spreadsheet applications. If you want to play games or DVD movies, you’ll want a 700MHz (or faster) chip.

The amount of RAM on your system will drastically affect performance. If you don’t have enough RAM, the system will churn and churn when you do anything from open an application to save a file to ALT-Tab to another window to… well, you get the idea. Today’s operating systems and software require lots of RAM, and they will only require more in the future. In other words, don’t skimp on RAM. Get at least 128MB, more if you can afford it. If you will be doing any graphics work, playing high-end games, programming, or designing Web pages or applications, get at least 512MB.

Operating systems and software use hard drive space. Get at least a 10GB hard drive. If you think you will be installing lots of programs, need to store images or graphics or will be creating lots of large files, get more.

Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, aka Windows Me, will come with lower cost systems. Windows 2000 or Windows XP comes with higher-end systems. You’ll also get a software suite, either Microsoft Works or Microsoft Office 2000. Think of Microsoft Works as "Office 2000 Light." As for Office 2000, Be careful about which version you are getting –- there are several: Office 2000 Premium, Office 2000 Professional, Office 2000 Small Business, Office 2000 Standard, and Office 2000 Developer. It’s not likely that you will need anything more than the Small Business edition. Ask what applications are included with your system to be sure you’re not buying too much.