Buying a Good Computer on a Budget
 | Amazon Price: $349.99 List Price: $399.99 |
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 | Amazon Price: $299.99 List Price: $449.00 |
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Dell Inspiron 530S Windows Vista Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz 500GB HD
Current Bid: $91.00
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FREE WIRELESS UPGRADE on DELL OPTIPLEX GX620 3GHz XPP w/ HUGE 19" LCD WARRANTY
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Dell Optiplex 745 PD 3.4GHz 2GB 80GB DVD Win XP Pro Desktop Computer + 17"LCD 1
Current Bid: $254.99
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FAST DELL GX520 DESKTOP COMPUTER COMPLETE WITH LCD 3.0GHZ 1GB 40GB,P4, 17"LCD
Current Bid: $169.00
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Dell Optiplex 745 Desktop Computer Intel Dual Core 2.8GHz, 2GB ram, Dvd, Windows
Current Bid: $139.94
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Or, how to avoid the overupgrade
Practically the entire computer industry is built around the idea that computers must be as fast as possible and further, must be replaced every 15 minutes. Most computer purchasing decisions are the technology equivalent of buying a Corvette, then buying a replacement for it the following week in order to get the new radio.
Fortunately for people who need a good computer, some of the "replace replace replace" frenzy has subsided to a great degree recently, mainly because computers have been categorized into budgets based on what they are going to be used to accomplish.
The basic rule of budgeting for a computer purchase is "inexpensive, but good enough." Basic everyday computer use does not require a quad-processor liquid-cooled server with a double-failover power supply and dual SATA terabyte RAID arrays, but by the time the average person gets past all of the jargon and technobabble and grinning salespeople, they find themselves with way too much computer with way too much price tag attached.
Basic everyday computer use can be categorized into four things: e-mail, word processing, web and most recently, organization of vacation photos and home movies. The only activity on that list with even the remotest need for an over-powerful system is the home movies part, and that's only if the computer's users plan on editing movies.
Otherwise, a basic computer will suffice for 99% of what is required by e-mail, web and word processing, so people shopping for computers should consider the following guidelines:
Processor or CPU
Just about every processor on the market now is more than capable of handling basic computer use. Find the least expensive CPU.
Memory or RAM
On a price to performance basis, there is no way to increase the speed of a computer less expensively than to add more RAM. 256MB is enough if the system won't be used for more than e-mail and web. 512MB is a good minimum for everything. 1GB is ideal.
Video and Audio
Data Storage
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Very interesting hub. I have recently decided my dell pc is well past it's sell buy date and am looking to upgrade and found your information very useful and is definitely one of the best resources on this site.
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I love this hub it really tells consumers how it is.
The whole computer industry can be very sly as instead of going all out and producing a super fast high spec'd desktop they slowly increase the processor speeds, RAM memory size, hard drive size in a way that makes it look like an upgrade when in fact all they have done is held back and then made a model slightly better then the last to try and squeeze more money out of those who are looking to buy.
Check out http://www.digitalgadgetsworld.co.uk for simple easy to understand budget desktop pc reviews
livelonger 5 years ago
Good advice. Takeaway is more memory and more disk space. I'll keep the 3-year-old processor. :-)