What to Look For When Buying a Personal Computer

Buying a personal computer is a big investment for most people. But because most computers will offer the basics so the process for selecting the best computer for your needs can be hard to work out without getting confused by sales people, who will sell you a wonderful computer that you will need multiple experts from IT support to set up for you. We’ve put together the big three questions you need to ask yourself when you’re looking for a computer. If you ask yourself all three of these questions, you will also have covered the technological basics you need to consider when purchasing a personal computer.

Why are you getting a computer? What do you need it for?
This is the most important step. The programs you need your computer to run define the CPU needs, the memory requirements, the hard drive capabilities and the networking requirements. You can read up on all of these technical terms, but any good computer consultant should be able to translate the amount of RAM into a summary of capabilities. If you’re using your computer for Internet, email and basic Microsoft office activities, most computers will be fine. But if you are using the computer for extensive photography and especially film creation, then you should pay special attention to the memory and CPU factors.

What is your budget?
This question is often where people make budgeting mistakes that have a flow on effect to the computer that they use, and consequently the work that they produce. The best way to do this is to put together a brief list of what you are looking for, and then search the internet to understand the general price of the type of computer you’re after. It’s best not to set a hard and fast budget, but it can help to have a realistic cap that you refuse to go over. Remember, don’t tell this top number to a sales person, because their job is to sell you the best (and most expensive) computer possible, and they’ll shoot just slightly over your absolute max.

Whose computer is it, and where does it need to be?
This is where you need to consider if the computer will have other users, especially kids. The more users, and especially the more high-memory users such as young people who download music, watch movies and cruise youtube and photo websites the bigger your memory will need to be. People often forget to factor in the other people who might be regularly using the computer, and so after a few years when the computer gets full and cluttered. A great way around this issue is to buy a laptop. Not only are laptops clearly personal computers that your kids may only use in case of a home computer crash emergency and your kid’s computer is MIA, until the computer support people turn up. You can also pop it away in a drawer for the weekend. This can be a really helpful relaxation idea, or if you’re under the pump you can bring your work home and do it while you’re supervising your kids play.

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