Guide to Buying a Computer

Hello, I am here with a guide on how to buy a computer. With buying anything, whether it be in a store or on the internet, you must know a little bit about what you are buying and where is the best place to get it. With this guide, I will explain everything from whether to choose a laptop or desktop to what size hard drive would suit your needs. I hope that my guide can help you with your next big purchase!

The first step with buying a new computer would have to be deciding whether to get a Desktop or Laptop. Both come with their own basic pros and cons, which I will explain now. The pros of a desktop are as follows: Very durable, fast speeds, larger hard drives, and better for video games. The con's are that it is not portable and will shut off if unplugged. A laptop is very different. The pros are that it is portable, can run on a battery, and has wireless internet. The con's are that it is not good for gaming, the battery can die when needed, can be slow sometimes, and does not hold as much hard disk space.

Once you have chosen your type of computer, your need to decide what size hard drive you want. A hard drive is like memory of the computer (Not to be confused with RAM, discussed later). It stores information, like a file or a program. The only way that you could lose the file is if you removed the hard drive or deleted it from your computer. Usually, people choose a bigger hard drive because they have more information that needs to be stored. If you like to install video games, have a lot of pictures, have a large database of songs, or own a business and your computer needs space for files, you should get a bigger hard drive. Most of the time, hard drives come in the following sizes: 60GB(gigabyte, term for amount of space), 120 GB, 160 GB, and 250 GB. Some custom hard drives can even be measured in the TB(Terabytes), being 1000 GB. These are mainly for people who own servers and need the space to hold the information being processed through computers.

The next step of the process is choosing your RAM (Random Accessed Memory). Remember when we talked about the hard drive and the RAM being alike? They are alike because they are both used to store information on the computer. The difference is that the hard drive is like long term memory while the RAM is like short term memory. When the computer is turned of, all memory on the RAM is deleted. The RAM is used to store temporary information, like a page on the internet or a current game in progress. RAM usually comes in the following sizes: 256 MB(Megabyte), 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB. The 8 GB I do not personally recommend because people only have them if they are trying to run a very large game on very high quality settings. If you are running Vista on your new device, at least 2 GB of RAM is sufficient. Any less and you will get constant messages saying "Not enough memory to complete the action", meaning your RAM is filled and you would only be able to run a few processes at a time.

The next step in buying a new computer is to think about a processor. This is the nervous system of the computer (the brain). It has microchips on it that process millions of commands every second. Processors come in measures of speed called Gigahertz, or GHz. Your processor needs are determined by a wide range of factors. I cannot tell you what exactly you need. I know that the faster your processor is, the faster that your computer is. To find out what your processor needs are, you can chat online at http://www.dell.com with a live technician to discuss needs for your computer. This also goes for your graphics card. Avid gamers need better graphics cards, and you would need to discuss that with a professional.

The final process in determining what computer you should buy is where to buy it! I suggest (as I did above), Dell, at http://www.dell.com because you can chat with a live technician to help you further determine what computer you should get. You even have a feature where you can go through, step by step, choosing what parts you want for your computer. You can choose all the extras that you want and even customize your computer. I thank you for reading my guide, and if you have any questions, please comment below! I will do my best to assist you. Thank you again!