Today's home PCs are easier to set up and use than those on the market a couple of years ago. Most PC makers now supply poster-size maps that illustrate how to plug in all the system components. After plugging in the monitor, speakers, keyboards, and the mouse, it's time to fire up the system for the first time. You can run Win95 on a PC with 8 megabytes of main memory, and that level of memory is standard on systems sold by many suppliers. There are other memory options to look for.
Cache memory speeds up the system's performance dramatically.
Look for at least 256 kilobytes of cache memory, especially if you are planning to run memory-hungry database programs. Many systems come with 1 megabyte, but with those animations or film clips may appear jerky or less crisp. While Win95 is a big step forward in ease of use, it may not be enough for less experienced PC owners. Hewlett-Packard's Pavilion, meanwhile, has a Personal Page that lets you organize and fire up your software programs without the Windows 95 interface. One of the best things about buying a multimedia system is all the preinstalled software and CDs you get.