ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A COMPUTER?
COMPUTER BUYING TIPS — SELECTING THE NEW COMPUTER
This is "new computer season" for a number of people. Some families will buy their first computer as a big Christmas present. Other times, the computer is a replacement for an aging machine.
Beware don’t fall into the trap of what sounds a good price – offer but the actual specs of the computer might be expensive to upgrade later on.
Christmas might just be the excuse to get the new computer. No matter why you get one, the computer needs some security help before it connects to the Internet.
HOW MUCH COMPUTING POWER DO I NEED?
Consider a "middle-of-the-road" model, not just the cheapest and not the "bleeding edge of technology," either. You should buy a good machine, whether you want to buy your new computer with us or purchase it by phone.
If your goal is computer gaming, especially flight-simulation and "first person shooters," you will need a fast machine with plenty of hard drive space and a top graphics card.
GET ENOUGH MEMORY — BUT DON'T OVERSPEND!
Check whether you can expand the memory in the new computer. Memory is usually one of the highest priced manufacturer upgrades for computers — while you can usually find much better deals elsewhere. Memory upgrades are easy to do, too.
I recommend Crucial.com for memory for desktops and notebooks they have an excellent Wizard to help you figure out which memory you need. If you’re a user on ebay then do a search on your machine it usually also displays any matching memory to go with it. I helped several customers save well over £100 by buying from Crucial and other memory sites last year by buying extra memory instead of changing their computer.
LAPTOP VS. DESKTOP
A laptop computer makes an interesting alternative for a main computer — that's what my primary computer is! But, laptop’s are notorious for not being upgradeable. Sure you can add memory or replace the hard drive — but that is all. For the corresponding amount of power, a desktop computer may be roughly 60% of the price of the corresponding laptop, although we can find very cheap laptop computers in today's world. The laptop was only intended as an easy way to be on the move by being light weight at least if all you want to do is surf the web and read & write email. If you’re buying for a student be aware that the battery power can be quite low so watching a film will drain it completely after an hour.
Look for expandability in a desktop computer. A sleek, slim model may look nice, but if you cannot add another hard drive, it may not be your best choice or indeed if you wish to add a graphics card this can be difficult. Also with a desktop you can easily buy a much larger monitor without any impact on the computer performance.
GRAPHICS CARDS AND OTHER HIGH-PERFORMANCE NEEDS
If you're buying the computer for a family, you may be able to get by with a standard big-name manufacturer's PC. But, if you are buying a custom computer for a game-playing teenager, you have to shop in a different marketplace.
Some manufacturers have their super desktops for gamers, but you won't find these at your corner discount store or "big box" computer store.
You can always talk to us and we can suggest the best gaming machine for your teenagers. So, if you're buying a PC for gaming, you need to research the available products always try to find out what type of games they play for instant if it’s mainly online games then you don’t really need an all guns blazing games machine.
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