When I went shopping this time for a computer I looked around and compared prices, brands and what features they had.
In the past when I have needed a computer I would buy what seemed to be a good priced computer and not think of anything else.
I remember when I got my first one and my sister had gotten one first which was a Packard Bell and was telling me all about it and said I should get the same thing. I knew nothing about computers at the time. If you don’t know that much about computers I would first recommend taking some one with you that does.
I didn’t do that I just figured if she said it was great than it was great. She was new to computers herself. But I did end up buying the computer she suggested which only had 4mbs of ram to it and she said I would never need more than that. LOL! I could not do much but play games on it. I couldn’t get on line as it went so slow it would take me an hour to sign in so gave up being on the net.
As time went on I learned and figured out what would serve me best and feel confident buying a computer myself.
I would recommend at least 128 mbs of ram, more if you use alot of graphics programs and programs that are memory hogs.
My latest one has that and I have another 128 chip that I want to add to it as I do a lot of multi tasking and run many things at once.
Speed is important to me so I bought the fastest one I could find. Of course now I went to a cable modem so that is even faster.
The hard drive on mine is 40 GB’s but I plan to install a second one later on. I want the most I can get. Some people may not need as much. My last machine which I still have had a 13 Gb hard drive and I never used it all up.
You should get the features that you really want and skip the ones that you will hardly ever use.
I wanted a dvd for movie viewing so I made sure I got that and with a 19’ monitor it is like watching tv and I use it for that. It is a lot less expensive to have the feature in the computer rather than buy a dvd player alone.
I also wanted a reader/writer to burn copies of things so that I don’t lose anything if the computer crashes like I have in the past.
I would say decide what is of upmost importance to you and make sure you get all that you need as the computer will be with you for many years.
The only extra I had to purchase with mine was a keyboard. It came with one which is still in the box and will be used for a spare if needed but it did not have all the Internet features on it that I wanted and a calculator plus I am used to the split keyboard due to carpel tunnel in the past this type helps prevent that.
While looking at keyboards I noticed they have a remote one that does not have to be plugged into your computer which I would have loved but as of yet it doesn’t come in the split board.
I do have a cordless mouse and would not be without it. I hate being attached to cords in any way.
Anyway if you are not sure what you need ask some one you know. I would not suggest asking the salesman as they may try to convince you to buy something more expensive and you may not need all that comes on there.