One of the most common questions I am asked by people is, “Is this a good computer?”
While the Odds are, that computer you looked at will be good for most people if you are buying new. But there are a few things you should look for when purchasing a new PC.
Research!
Always check out the computer you’re looking at purchasing. It’s easy, just search the web for the brand and model PC then add the word review. You will come up with a lot of information from other people who have the same computer. Read the info and see what they say.
If you see hundreds of reviews, and there mostly bad, keep looking around, this probably won’t be the PC for you; and you just saved some of your hard earned cash on a bum PC.
In the same note, if you see a lot of good reviews, but maybe 1 or 2 bad reviews read them carefully, perhaps they are just a couple people who had a bad experience, and wanted to be negative on a public forum. (Yes I know it’s rare to see negativity on the internet haha) but it happens.
RAM!
Most new PC’s usually have nice processors and sufficient hard drive space, but tend to lack in the Ram (Random Access Memory) Department. Buying the most RAM you can afford will pay off in the long run.
When you start running more and more programs you’ll notice that the speed doesn’t drop off as much. The more RAM your PC has the quicker it can process the applications you are running. If you cannot afford more ram at the time, be sure your PC has the ability to accept more ram in the future. Some “smaller” computers don’t have much extra room for upgrades. By small I mean physically small, if you want to upgrade your ram, you may have to remove the old ram, and replace it with a larger chip all together. This may seem silly, buying more ram later, and throwing out your original ram. Hence, the reason for buying as much as you can afford up front.
Disk Space
Now I know I just said new computers have sufficient hard drive space, but more space is always better for the future. Replacing your hard drive is not an easy or fun task to undertake. I have done MANY in my time. The main problem with upgrading your hard drive down the road is, you either add a secondary hard drive, and have to sort all your files manually and keep track (Windows usually like to keep your files in individual user folders).
Option 2, remove your hard drive, either clone it to the new one, or start from scratch and re-install your Operating System, and then restore everything from a backup. Honestly a Pain in the…. butt. This is what most people come to me for lately, and not something I recommend for a first timer. So getting a larger hard drive in the beginning will save headaches down the road when your disk becomes full.