What are the important things to consider in buying a computer?

Answer 1

What you want to do with the computer is the most important thing as it determines what you need.

If you just want to do undemanding stuff like write letters and surf the net then you'll be better off skimping on processor and graphics card for the sake of a better screen while those who need to do heavy number crunching won't be skimping on performance.

Someone who only uses the computer for business applications will have no problem with Intel integrated graphics but a gamer will be wanting to stick a proper video card in (though not the highest model, those are for suckers and probably not SLI or Crossfire which are also pretty much only for suckers, though less so than top of the range hardware).

Unless you really need top of range hardware stay a few steps behind the best, the extra ten percent of performance just isn't worth double or triple price when you could be spending the money on another component.

Since this is in the desktop section I'd also say that you need to pay attention to what components are in the computer to make sure they are good quality, especially the Power Supply (a bad PSU can cause all kinds of problems) but aside from that the warranty on desktop computers isn't that big a deal because every is standard and so cheap to repair (as opposed to laptops where you do need a 3 year warranty because of expensive repairs).

Answer 2

For gaming: Look for the ability to upgrade in the future whenever the parts are obsolete, like the graphics card or processor. Also make sure that the processor is the best you can afford, Dual core recommended, 2.4 Ghz will work. AMD Processors are usually better. Needs room to expand RAM and other components, like a sound card. Graphics card, if it comes with it, must be fairly recent or there isn't much of a point in buying it, upgrade if it doesn't have it, usually PCIe is best.

For anything else: Most of the time, just having a fast processor and good amount of RAM and a large HD will suffice.

Answer 3

Motherboard CPU and the graphics card

If the motherboard is the mother of everything a good mother board allows everything to work properly, Also a motherboard should be a latest one because if you want to change from pentium 4 to core 2 duo theen you woudnt have to buy a new motherboard

CPU 3.2 is good enough also core 2 quad is better

the graphics card is the most expensive so it needs to be the top of the range a graphic card with pixelshader and SLI compatible will work any game out today with ease

Answer 4

1. What do you intend to do with it?
2. How much can you afford?
3. Whether you intend to allow others to use it
4. What, if any, aids will benefit you (i.e. screen size, keyboard, speech control, etc.)
5. What if things go wrong. How can you get everything back?
6. Will an "off the shelf" solution be suitable for me or would a custom solution be better?
7. How much knowledge do you have of specific products? i.e. do you want to have to learn how to use new things, or improve what you already know?

Answer 5

price - performance ratio. in other words, if you're only going to do word / excel documents, surf the net and just basic computing, don't go buying the latest and most advanced hardwares because you don't really need to spend that much. also, look for those that offers good after sales services and warranty. because computers will always break down and you need a dependable store in case that happen.

Answer 6

usally processor and graphics if your buying it for games but a work computer needs to have a good processor and memory and also watch out for windows vista because of problems (i didn't get windows xp until 2 years later when almost all problems were resolved) even when i tried it out i found problems in a few seconds.

Answer 7

One word: WARRANTY.