by: Donald Lee
When you think trash, you surely don?t think about your old, trusty personal computer. But that?s exactly what will become of it when you make the inevitable move toward your next laptop or desktop. And, yes, buying a new computer is inevitable, considering the pace at which computer technology zips along. Just think?about a handful of years ago, a fast microprocessor for a laptop was at 233 MHz. Now you?re looking at about at least 2 GHz! That?s Giga, with a G.
So eventually, you will want a computer that can handle the latest software, the latest games, and the latest interactive Web sites, and then you?ll have to throw away your old computer, right? Wrong. Try selling your used computer instead. Throwing out your computer is one of the worst things you can do. For one, your computer may be useful for someone out there, even if just for scraps.
Trashed computers and other digital equipment also make up one of the fastest growing, and most dangerous, new trash ?categories? out there in your neighborhood landfall. On one hand, computers are generally bulky and made of plastic and other materials that won?t be breaking down in a landfill for the next few million years. What?s more, other materials in your old computer are highly toxic to the environment, like mercury, lead and cadmium. They?re so toxic that their actually name in the waste-management field is ?toxics.?
You don?t have to be a techie or a scientist to understand the danger in that?nor the benefits of selling your computer. On the Internet, there are a vast number of auction and classifieds sites, some better than others, where you can ?download? you computer to a worthy buyer.
Before you boot up your replacement laptop or high-performance PC, however, be sure you read and compute the following tips. These tips will help you avoid the crashes and shutdowns that befall the computer seller who doesn?t do his homework first.
Hold onto all of the operating system and software manuals that came with your old computer. This will add value to your sale, not to mention it will make you a trusted seller for offering up these helpful books to the buyer.
Erase all personal information from the hard drive. And we?re not just talking about simply putting stuff in the ?trash bin.? It?s extremely important to purge all data from your computer?s memory repository, even from invisible backup files on the hard drive. If you?re not sure how to do this, ask your IT expert at work or a techie friend for advice. You don?t want the next user to have access to your bank accounts, old e-mails, and other private info, do you?
Uninstall any application from the hard drive that you?d like to use on your next computer, keeping the installation disk and the software serial number for yourself. When it comes to software, the manufacturers made sure that you never really own software, you license it. So you don?t get free reign to keep software on multiple computers. You only get one license, so you need to bring your licensed version with you to your new computer.
Do your homework on your computer?s worth. Just like you would for a car, check around at other classifieds and auction sites to see what other people are selling your make and model for.
Be sure you want to truly get rid of old faithful. You may be able to repair your old laptop rather than buy a new $2,000 Centrino model. Or you may be able to add RAM memory and a new hard drive to your four-year-old desktop rather than invest in a new $3,000 multimedia masterpiece. In other words, do a thorough cost-analysis of what it would take to rebuild your old computer, versus what it would cost to sell it and buy a new one. And check your heart too. You might be surprised just how attached you are to your old faithful.
Once you go through these steps, you are prepared to make your move and sell, sell, sell. And then, of course, you?ll be ready to start on a whole new list of steps?for buying a new computer. But that?s a topic for another article!
About The Author
Donald Lee is the public relations manager for Buysellcommunity.com. Buysellcommunity provides free classified listing services. Buy, Sell and trade: auto, computers, household items, real estate, pets and much more.
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Misspelling On Ebay ? Use It To Your Advantage
Misspelling On Ebay ? Use It To Your Advantage
by: Thomas Haselhorst
In the ongoing quest to find great deal on eBay or even to find items you can flip, one of the interesting approaches is by looking for misspelled items. One of the most common misspellings was ?labtop? for ?laptop?. This misspelling is so common that some people listing laptops actually use the word ?labtop? in their title. Check it out.
You know the topics you are interested in. Look at how the word can be misspelled. For instance, if needlepoint is your passion, try searching for ?needlepoint? or ?needlepoint?. It is more than likely that you will find a few items under these misspellings. Even better ? for you ? these items will not have bids on them because people looking for needlepoint will not find these.
As an experiment, I went and tried this just now and found 13 items and not one of these had an eBay bid. Some were from the same eBay seller. You could watch...
Misspelling On Ebay ? Use It To Your Advantage
Laptop > Misspelling On Ebay ? Use It To Your Advantage
Access Your PC From The Road
Access Your PC From The Road
by: Jim Edwards
Have you ever sat in front of your computer and wished you could show someone else what appeared on your screen?
Maybe you were experiencing a problem, or couldn't figure out how to make something work, but you knew if someone else could see what was happening on your screen, they could help you fix the problem immediately.
Ever had a phone conversation with someone about a particular business topic, but you just couldn't "connect" with your ideas because it was too hard to explain over the phone?
Now, visualize jumping on the phone with that same person and literally sharing your computer's desktop to collaborate, discuss, and create virtually anything together, even if you are separated by thousands of miles.
Though this may sound like an episode of Star Trek, remote computer sharing is actually a daily business reality.
Imagine you need to take a trip and you either...
Access Your PC From The Road
Laptop > Access Your PC From The Road
Laptops Guide: Choosing a Laptop that is Right for You
Laptops Guide: Choosing a Laptop that is Right for You
by: Jonathan Chase
Most of us tend to think of laptops in the same way: a fairly small portable computer that can open and close like a suitcase, with all of the capabilities of a desktop.
In fact, the term ?laptop? is really very generic.
There are currently four main styles of these portable PCs, each offering something a bit different, depending upon your specific needs.
Ultralights ? Also known as sub-notebooks or ultraportables, this style of laptop weighs up to ? but no more than ? four pounds, making them ideal for travelers.
The upside of an ultralight is that it doesn?t burden those who have to spend a lot of time carrying them with aching muscles, as its larger cousins often do.
The downside, however, is that ? in order to cut down on the size and weight ? this type of laptop is so small that there?s no room for a network card or internal CD...
Laptop > Laptops Guide: Choosing a Laptop that is Right for You
Do The Differences In CPUs Really Matter?
Do The Differences In CPUs Really Matter?
by: Ryan Larson
CPU manufacturing is one of the most competitive areas of computer world. In the end, the overall performance of your laptop or your desktop depends on your central processing unit. Parallel to the demands of the users, we can say that CPUs traveled a long way from 386s to P4s and AMDs.
The cache is generally the most decisive factor in the tradeoff equation between the price and performance. Considering the L2 cache on some of the chips, you can easily understand that Athlon, P4 and PIII, having 256K or more L2 cache are the once with higher performance, in other words power chips.
Looking at the budget chips, you immediately notice that Celeron has 128K and the Duron only has 64K. Celeron is actually almost like a PIII with half the cache disabled. These numbers shows that the main budget issue for CPU manufacturers is to put enough cash on the chip.
You should consider the...
Do The Differences In CPUs Really Matter?
Laptop > Do The Differences In CPUs Really Matter?