What to Look For When Buying a New Computer

Written By: Nate Davis

In today's market of laptops, desktops, and devices, it is hard to know what to buy. I often get asked how much should I spend on a nice laptop? Should I buy online, or in a store? Should I buy a custom computer?

Let’s see if I can answer some of these questions.

Most people don’t need to build their own custom computer. You should only do that if you are interested in learning how they work, or how to piece them together for future upgrades. You will find that for the most part, you can just buy a desktop with the same amount of power as anything you could build.

If you are in the market for a desktop or laptop your first step is to decide how much you can spend. If you want some amazing hardware, my suggestion would be to go to the Apple store and buy one of their machines. Apple hardware is designed well and to last a long time. Many computers I have purchased from there will be used for 6 years. If Apple desktops and laptops are out of your price range, I recommend going to Best Buy and buying a laptop or desktop that better fits in your budget. These machines will generally last 2 to 3 years. There are a couple of things to look for when browsing through your options. The first thing to check is if your computer has plenty of RAM – It should have 4GB or more. The more RAM you have, the more applications you can have open and running at the same time. Another important thing to look at is hard drive space. Your hard drive is storage for photos, movies, music, documents, and more. That all can take up a lot of space. Many people use the internet to stream their movies, and music or they store their photos on a service like google photos to save room on their hard drive. One TB is ample hard drive space for most people to store their photos, video, documents, etc. If you can find a solid state drive (SSD) then your computer will function even faster than a traditional hard drive, these are a great storage options but they can get quite expensive.

Buying a new laptop, desktop, or devices can be really hard to navigate. If you have a specific use for your new computer and you want to get thoughts from me, feel free to reach out at – ndavis@medonegroup.com - I would be happy to help steer you in the right direction as you purchase a new computer.