@LoveMyBaby wrote:
Good advice here, and I agree if at all possible, go talk to the tech's at a BestBuy, or similar type store. And 'try it on for size' so to speak. Could you even get away with just investing in an Apple iPad for instance? Or do you need to perform word or excel documents, etc? If it's just to cruise the internet, answer emails, shop, Facebook, check out an Apple iPads. They sell them here too on easy pay too! Good luck.🍀👍🏼 do your foot research, as it's a larger money purchase and you want to be completely informed and satisfied.
If those are the only tasks you're looking to do, you can get by with a Chromebook for a portable, Chromebox, or Chromebit for a desktop replacement, or a lower priced tablet like the Kindle Fires.
As to going to a Best Buy or similar store, you have to understand that their sales people don't necessarily guide you to the right computer for you, but rather the one that makes the most profit for the store/chain. They also tend to push whatever they have the most of in stock. Stores like that are great for getting a feel for the keyboard and mousepad, to see if they're comfortable for you, but other than that, they're limited in their usefulness. Even the displays can be tweaked, so what you see isn't always what you get.
Step one in buying a computer is to figure out what you need it for. How do you use the computer? Once you know that, you can narrow things down from there. Will a tablet or Chrome computer be adequate, or do you need a "real" computer? Then hit the big retail sites and read the consumer reviews. Try to find sites with lots of reviews. Something's that been reviewed 200 times and has 190 five star ratings is likely a very good option. A computer with one, two or three reviews is a lot iffier, regardless of whether the reviews are good or bad.
You can pretty easily spend $3,000+ on higher end gaming laptop/desktop that has very impressive performance, but if all you use the computer for is simple web-browsing/social media an $85 Chromebit might be all you really need.
And don't get too hung up on performance stats unless you're doing high-end gaming or video editing. My $75 AMD FX 6300 CPU looks sad in benchmark tests against the best Intel CPU's, but in the real world (which oddly enough is where I live) it 's blindingly fast and has never made me wait for even a second on any task I've put before it. It's got six cores all running at 3.5 ghz and will be more than adequate for the next five to ten years. I could spend $2,000 to get a CPU that blows it away in the benchmark tests, but it wouldn't be noticeably faster in the real world.
If you want a bragging rights computer, then by all means buy the fastest, most powerful, best of everything. If you just want a good, functional computer, you can spend a whole lot less and get perfectly adequate performance. You just have to pick what's best for you and only you know how you use a computer.
Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
Blogs & Forums
