Thoughts Before Purchasing Your Next Computer

Buying a new computer can be a relatively tough decision. With so many different brands and configuration, how do you find the one just for you? Should you go all-out and just buy the best computer possible with the amount of money you are willing to spend or do you conserve your resources, take a step back and actually take the time to find a computer that suits your exact needs? Well, I will be looking at the latter factor in this article and try to steer you in the right direction towards your new computer purchase.

I’ll start this off by saying that this article is not meant to be a computer purchasing guide. If you are looking for recommendations on specific computers or hardware parts, you’d best move along as well. A lot of what I say here are things that I mention to many friends and clients who are not too knowledgeable when it comes to computer technology. My intent is not to point you to a specific computer brand or model but to rather help steer you in the right direction of finding the right PC just for you. Yes, you’d still have to do the hard work of looking for a computer yourself but trust me, it’s not that hard. If you have three grand to spend on a computer, you obviously could just buy any computer you want and call it a day. However, not all people are privileged to such amounts of money, especially when using it to buy a new computer. Therefore many of us have to get the best computer possible for the best price as well. However as you’ll see later on, a $2000 computer may not be necessarily the best choice for some users because a $500 computer can do equally the same job. What I write in this article hopefully gets you thinking about the many different aspects of what it means to buy the perfect computer. This article is mainly to help the many casual computer shoppers out there who don’t know too much about computer shopping. You can think of this article as merely questions you would ask yourself before making the final purchase decision.

Price Range

For obvious reasons, this is a pretty important factor when deciding what kind of PC you’ll be getting! However, just because you have a maximum of a thousand dollars or two to spend doesn’t necessarily mean that you must absolutely spend it all to get a good computer! In fact, that’s a pretty big misconception that many users still make today. The computer technology field is advancing everyday. Therefore, as we have more competitors and new products, prices are bound to drop. That is why getting a cheap yet powerful computer today is a very easily conquered feat. Think long and hard about your budget. Be honest with yourself as well. Do not think that just because your budget is below $1000 or even $500 that you cannot get a decent computer. Times have definitely changed and so should your thinking.

Computer Usage

What will you generally be using the computer for? Well ladies and gentleman, this is the main question you must ask yourself if nothing more. I can go on for a whole hour talking just about this topic alone to some people so I’ll try to keep it brief and to the point here. Basically, your new computer will be based on how you answer this question. Do you do a lot of Adobe Photoshop work? Then you’ll most likely want a computer with a ton of RAM. Do you watch a lot of high definition movies? Then you’ll want a good dedicated video card to handle that task. Do you encode a lot of movies? Then you’ll want a pretty beefy CPU. Want a computer that can pretty much do everything? Sure! You can have that too, which I’ll explain how in the upgrading section. Whatever the case may be, what you need to do is sit down and really think about this question if nothing else. If all you’ll be doing on a computer is doing email’s, typing on Microsoft Word, Internet surfing, listening to music and viewing photos, then you’re not considered a computer resource hogger. Which means, you don’t really need a high end computer system. You can get a mid-range system for about $500-$600 or so and it will be very much capable for years to come. Still to expensive? Well I’ve seen computers for around $400 and less that is very much capable of doing all those as well. Like I’ve said, times have changed and there’s no better time to buy a computer than now.
It is really important (which I can’t ever stress enough) that you realize what it is you want to accomplish with your computer BEFORE you actually go and purchase one. Although upgrading your PC in the future is very much possible, you wouldn’t want to go that route if you don’t know how to install computer parts yourself. By figuring out what you’ll be doing with the computer now and in the near future, you are one big step closer to finding the right PC just for you.

Custom Built or Pre-Built

This question usually don’t apply to most people but for those who are considering having someone custom build their computer from scratch, there’s a lot to think about. Contrary to beliefs, custom building your own computer, although sounds really cool, doesn’t really save you a lot money. It might have back in the days but nowadays, pre-built computers you see in the stores are dirt cheap and equally powerful depending on what you’ll be doing. What I usually tell people is that custom building a PC is mainly for hardcore PC gamers or for computer users who need a very specific computing environment. Every PC usually has similar components like a motherboard, power supply, memory (RAM), a hard drive, and a CPU. Buying all of these separately obviously costs money but what many people seem to forget is that you must pay for your operating system (Windows Vista/Windows 7) as well! By itself, your OS already costs over $100-$200 (depending on OS edition, OEM vs. Retail version, and whether you follow all the licensing rules or not)! If you are paying someone to custom build your PC, you better make sure you are not getting a bootleg copy of Windows and on top of that, being charged for it! If you are absolutely sure of what you are doing, having your own PC custom built may have its merits, like knowing exactly what parts are going to be used. But if money is an issue, I doubt you’ll save much by going this route. In fact, it may actually hurt you more than help you depending on your situation.
If no computer seems to satisfy you at any of your local computer stores, then you can have the luxury of custom ordering your PC at the computer manufacturer’s website. The professionals will then put together the PC with your custom hardware of choice and ship it to you when done. Custom ordering your computer this way usually won’t give you the freedom to choose any parts you want but it should be nice to know that at least professionals are installing everything for you. However, I usually only recommend this option in limited situations. If you can learn how to crack open your computer case (which isn’t hard at all), then you’ll have full access to the innards of your own PC. By doing so, you can buy your own hardware at a later date (usually more cheaper as well if you know where to look) and install it yourself which usually just consists of just inserting the hardware and hooking up the right wires and installing the right drivers. I’ll talk more about this in the upgrade section.

Brand Loyalty

This is definitely another hot topic. In my honest and humble opinion, all things electronic will fail over time. Like the popular saying goes, its not if it breaks but when it breaks. Yes, that also applies to computers, no matter what brand or manufacturer as well. A $2000 Sony VAIO can and will have malfunctioning parts just like a $400 Gateway. Granted, there are things that can prolong the life of a computer like not smoking near it, occasionally giving the inside a good spray of compressed air, not kicking the computer while it’s powered on, etc. However what you have to realize is that many of the different parts that form a complete computer, no matter the computer manufacturer, consists of many other different manufacturers! For example, you hard drive could be from Western Digital, your RAM modules could be from Kingston, your power supply from Antec, your motherboard from a proprietary company, etc, etc. If a Western Digital hard drive failed in your Dell computer, would you place the entire blame on Dell’s shoulder? With that being said though, I’m not hinting that every computer is made equal to one another. When it comes down to it, you can call me crazy but luck plays a big role (doesn’t that apply to everything as well?). I have seen many low brand PC’s by manufacturer’s like Acer, Gateway, Compaq and eMachines last the life time of it’s use without breaking down once. Basically, when choosing a computer, try not to let the brand manufacturer be the decisive factor. It doesn’t matter how nice or fast the computer is because at the end of the day, it’s what you make out of it and how you personally use it. Giving a Ferrari to your grandma, while very nice of you, will completely disrespect the car as she’ll still continue driving 30mph. The same can be said with a computer. Very geeky, but true.

Future Upgrades

Sometimes, we can’t predict exactly what we will be using our computers for in the future. For example, one of my friend never would have imagined using his computer to edit and play back huge 1080p high definition videos until he bought himself a Canon HF200 camcorder. Because his computer at the time wasn’t capable of handling such large video files, I had to help him upgrade to a dedicated video card. This may happen to you as well. Worry not though as most computers you buy in stores now days are upgradeable to some point or another. The four main components you’ll be looking to upgrade is a hard drive, memory modules, video card, and CPU (which is the trickiest). Therefore, it’s not absolutely necessary that you buy the right PC right off the bat contrary to what I may have said earlier.
My advice is do yourself a huge favor and learn how to open up your computer. Once you do so, many possibilities will reveal itself to further enhance your budget PC. That built-in video graphic ain’t quite doing it for you? Simply slap in a $40-$60 dedicated ATI Radeon video card and jump for joy as you watch your favorite TV series in high def. Need more RAM? Buy a stick or two and watch your computer come to life. Need a bigger hard drive? Sure no problem. Simply open your case, mount it in the bay, connect the power and SATA cable and you’re done. Got yourself a nice sound system and want to enjoy music from your computer? Sure! Slap in a dedicated sound card with all the works and you’ll be enjoying your music like you’ve never imagined possible. Point is, get to know the innards of your computer system. It’s only for your own benefit!

Warranty

Whether or not to purchase warranty can be a tough decision for many shoppers. I usually don’t purchase warranties except for electronic devices that costs more than $200-$300. If you do decide to purchase some type of warranty plan, please make sure that you fully understand how you are being covered by it. This may sound like common sense but you’ll be surprised at how many people are oblivious when it comes to this topic. A lot of people also think that warranties are for suckers and that it’s just a giant ripoff. Well, my take on it is it’s only a ‘ripoff’ if you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into!

 

In the End…

What I wrote here is something that every potential casual computer shopper should think over. However, if this is just too much, you can simply just head to your local computer store, spend $600-$700 for a computer and you should be well off for years to come. With that kind of money, I am positive you can at least get a system with a quad core processor, 4-6 GB of RAM, a dedicated graphics card along with a 500GB-1TB hard drive. A computer like that should be able to meet the demands of any casual to even some hardcore computer users. Just by saying that, I’ve pretty much made this entire article seem pointless didn’t it? Why think so much when you can get one for so cheap and yet powerful? Sometimes, I even wonder myself why go through the complicated process of explaining how one should purchase a computer when pretty much any computer off the shelf for $500 or so should satisfy even the most demanding computer user. Advancing technology along with competition is sure a beautiful thing when looking at it through a consumer’s point of view. Best part is, there’s no sign of it slowing down.