If you’re thinking of buying a new computer or laptop this Christmas in in your city here are the main considerations to think about and look for.
Laptop or desktop? This is down to personal preference. In the past desktops were much more powerful than laptops but now you can get the same amount of efficiency out a laptop. The decision comes down how much space you have and if you’d use the portability factor of a laptop compared to a desktop. Advantages of a desktop system are that you’ll usually get a bigger screen and games will play a lot smoother using a dedicated graphics card. They are also cheaper to repair if something goes wrong.
Make sure the PC or laptop has the newest version of Windows installed. The latest version is Microsoft Windows 7 and has been heavily advertised on TV recently by Microsoft. Windows 7 runs a lot more quickly than Microsoft’s last version called Windows Vista which should be avoided at all costs. If you’ve got an old computer you can upgrade to Windows 7 in in your city, just call us.
Choose a system that has at least 2GB of RAM. RAM stands for random access memory. The more RAM you have the quicker your system will respond. Anything less than 2GB of RAM on a new computer should be avoided.
Storage on a computer is not really an issue nowadays. The minimum storage on most new systems is 120GB which is plenty for storing photos/music/files. If you plan to download movies then you may consider larger storage.
Antivirus software and security should also be considered. Usually you’ll get a 3 month trial of anti-virus software included with you new system however you pay for what you get and Mcafee/Norton anti virus will slow a system down compared to something like Kaspersky Anti-Virus which will usually be a separate purchase.
Microsoft Office suite which includes the productivity tools Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook do not come included with a new system and again have to be separately purchased. Please consider this when budgeting for a new system as the office suite can be a considerable amount. There are alternative free versions such as Open Office http://www.openoffice.org/ and Google Docs http://docs.google.com. These are worth consideration especially Google’s product as it can be accessed anywhere on any computer with an Internet connection.