To make the decision-making process easier, I have outlined three general concepts that determine the performance and price of any computer you purchase - the amount of Random Access Memory (RAM), hard drive space and processing speed your computer has been outfitted with.

The first two factors can be a little tricky to understand and are often confused because they are both casually referred to as just plain old memory. This, combined with other technical jargon, can make choosing a computer frustrating and even frightening. But, we will have that all cleared up in the paragraphs below.

But first, let's do a quick review of some of the numbers and units used to describe the size or power of our three components.

First of all, a Megabyte (Megs or MB) is a term used to define a specific amount of storage space or active memory.

To give you an idea of how much space this is, an old floppy disk can hold about 1.4 MB. A zip disk can hold 100 MB. And your computer should be able to hold much more data than that.

In fact, it holds so much more information, it goes into a new unit of measurement called Gigabytes (Gigs or GB). One Gigabyte is equivalent to 1000 Megabytes. It is common to have a 20 Gig hard drive on your computer and that would be the same as 20,000 Megabytes.

Now, when it comes to your computer's processor, the same Mega and Giga prefixes and their unit relationships apply, but, the actual term is changed to Megahertz (MHz) or Gigahertz (GHz) in order to describe how fast your computer can process data.

Ok, now that the technical stuff is out of the way, let's apply it to our three main computer factors you should consider when making your next computer purchase.

First is the amount of RAM a computer has.

Think of the RAM as your computer's short-term memory. Any time you open a program as well as any documents you create or work with in that program, it goes into your RAM. That means if you like to have a lot of programs running at once or work on large documents, you will want more than the minimum amount.

More RAM means a higher price you'll pay, but not enough RAM is one of the first things that will slow down your computer.

My recommendation is 256 MB of RAM for the average user on a new computer.

The second type of memory I mentioned is the hard drive space. Think of this as the raw storage your computer has. You will want to plan ahead and try to predict how much storage space you will need over the next few years.

These days, it is common to see computers shipping with 20, 40, 60 and 80 GB hard drives. For the average user, 20 GB is probably enough. But, if you have a digital camera and store a lot of photos on your computer or get into digital video, you will definitely want something toward the higher end of the spectrum.

The third factor outlined above is the processor speed. The processor is the part of the computer that does the actual computing. This is what crunches the numbers and makes all those calculations that allow what you see on your screen to happen.

Not that long ago, it was common to see 500 or 600 Megahertz computers. Today, most new computers are in the 1 or 2 Gigahertz range. Unless you are editing some documents with really large file sizes, anything over 1 GHz should be enough.

Of course, there are other things to consider, like the size of the monitor or additional equipment that comes with the computer package, but, starting off with these basic components will make sure your new system will live up to your current needs and keep up as your needs grow into the future.