PC buying guide, thanks to Michael Fenton

Michael Fenton got in touch with the following, excellent buyer's guide on personal computers. No matter how experienced you are in buying PCs it's worth reading. Many thanks to Michael for his sensible advice and effort in helping his neighbours.

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It occurred to me that there seems to be a whole horde of people out there that buy computers without knowing WHY they are buying them. I thought I could compile a list that might help save people from buying something they don’t need. Other people might not agree with me, well then they can add to the list. But at least on a weekly basis I’m asked “What computer should I buy”

My answer is quite simple….

"What are you going to use it for?"

There's no point buying a PC suited for typing out emails and working on spreadsheets if you want to play high graphic games on it. At the same time theres no point buying a PC suited for games if all you will ever do is type emails on it. Once you know what you want to use it for only then should you head out to a computer shop. Don’t go to the shop before you know what you need the PC for as this will only lead to confusion and “panic” next thing you know you are like a rabbit caught in headlights and you end up buying something just to get out.

Things I tell people to look at when buying a PC:

Memory – don’t confuse this with hard drive space.
Hard drive space – Don’t think “ooooooh I’ve got 320GB therefore I have a lot of memory”

Now what I would suggest for a “office PC” is something with the following minimum specs:
Memory – 2 Gigabytes
Hard drive space – 250 Gigabytes
Processor – You can get away with a Celeron here, but if you can afford it get something like an Intel Duo core or the likes. Processors are changing all the time so I won’t start a list. However look at what’s called the cache. The bigger the better.

If you are buying a PC for gaming be prepared to spend around P5000 (at least) I won’t go into this because I would hope that if you were an avid enough PC gamer you will do your homework.

If it’s a pc for home use:
Memory – more is better try to get 4 Gigabytes
Hard drive space – Get nothing less than 320 Gigabytes General rule is buy as much space as you can afford – you can NEVER have enough space (especially if you have kids)
Processor – Splash out for something like the Intel i3 with 3 megabytes of cache. You WILL need the multiple processing capabilities.

Once you have bought your PC remember, most off the shelf PCs that are “no name” brands don’t come with an operating system. This makes it cheaper but you still need to buy Windows. You will also need to buy the office suite. Windows and office can set you back by as much as P3000. But you will be legal.

Most PCs come with a one year HARDWARE warranty however if you take your PC back to the shop after a lighting storm because it doesn’t work you may have to pay because the motherboard might have been hit by a power surge or lighting. For this reason I suggest getting an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

SOFTWARE (Windows, Office etc) will NOT be covered by warranty. So make sure you get a decent antivirus.