By Suzana What to Consider When Buying a Desktop Computer
If you’re in the market for buying a desktop computer, you’re in luck. On average, a desktop computer is the smarter buy unless you’re have a great need to take your computer with you everywhere you go. So, why is buying a desktop computer a better buy? That’s easy. Desktop computer’s tend to be more reliable and they are easier to upgrade than a laptop. Not only this, a desktop computer is by far a more cost effective item to buy. Right now, most of the computer technology is being put into laptops. Manufactures are always trying to make a sleeker, more compact computer. This is very appealing to students because they can take their computers to class, to the library or the dining hall if they have a paper or research that needs to be done. Now that leaves the desktop industry at a struggle. How are they supposed to market a machine that isn’t portable? They make it cheaper. It’s not cheaper by quality, it’s just cheaper by price. Many desktops have the same specifications that their laptop colleagues have, just not the portability.
When you’re buying your desktop computer, things you should take into consideration are what you are going to be using it for. If you’re going to use it as a media center to stream video and music all through your house, then you’re going to want a system with a lot of memory and a big hard drive. Upgrading your hard drive isn’t as much of an issue as it used to be because a lot of the desktops come with hard drives that are two to three times bigger than one you would get if you bought a laptop. For instance, my Macbook came with a 100 gig hard drive installed. If I had purchased and iMac, I would have gotten a 350gig hard drive installed.
If you’re primarily looking for a machine that you can do word processing on or use to shoot off a couple of emails to your friends, then a bare-bones system is extremely cheap and still a great machine to have. Diagnose what you are going to use your desktop computer for before you buy. Read reviews, go on discussion forums and determine the best machine for your needs. Always remember that getting a computer that is a little better than what you need is optimal, as the shelf life any computer is about three years.
