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BUYING GUIDES - Buying a new PC

Introduction Buying Guides - Home

Checklist Decide what you want to do with the PC Decide on a budget including VAT Commence your research Establish your own specification and select five vendors Examine accurately specifications being offered by the vendors Thoroughly check out each vendor Examine the warranty supplied with the Hardware and all options if any Short-list three suppliers and it's decision time Parting with your money

Buying a New PC? 1. Decide what you want to do with the PC Deciding what you want to do with your PC can be tricky. Many factors will effect your decision which are outside your control, as is the nature of the IT industry. Initially however, you may decide the use you are going to put your computer to, is for Internet use, Home Office, or for the Children (if so, how old are they?). Whatever you need, the important factor is you will need software to cater for your requirements. Another factor to consider is how long you want keep your PC for. Is it two years? or three years? Do you want a PC you can upgrade and provide future proofing? Or just for short-term and see how it goes. These are important factors to consider, as it will affect your specification and the price you are prepared to pay. The concept of "Future Proofing" and "Upgrading" has no meaning anymore. It may have done so few years ago, but the pace at which new hardware is being introduced makes this the least of your worries. The only upgrade you will ever do is really add another Hard Disk, more memory, a Zip Drive, or even upgrade your CPU, any reasonable PC you purchase will do all this and possible more. The only time you need to be concerned is when a new chipset is launched by Intel or one of their competitors which may alter the specification of your peripherals. This happened when Intel announced the 810i chipset along with changes to the Hard Disk specification which changed from UDMA/33 to UDMA/66. This will mean an upgrade to a new motherboard, this is the only time you need to be concerned. From past experience there is gap of 8-12 months for new chipset announcements, and around 3 months for the chipset to settle down. Our advice? Once you have purchased your system the chipset will suffice for 2 years without any concern. Whatever you do, you will always find that something better or cheaper is round the corner if you wait - so it's sensible to bite the bullet and go for the best deal that suits your timescale. Prev | Next