In todays fast paced high tech world it is hard to fathom what life would be like without a computer. They can be found everywhere from resturaunts to your own home. Yet it seems as soon as these machines are unboxed they are already obsolete. Or perhaps you have had your computer for several years and it is so slow that it would make a more efficient paper weight. In this article we will cover the basics about buying a new computer, what to look for in a new system, and how one can save money when purchasing a new computer.

Making the decision to buy a new computer is not one to take lightly. If you buy something that does not suit your specific needs, you have essentially bought a worthless item.

Basic Computer Purchasing Steps:

- Determing Primary Use

- Determine Price Range

So one of the first steps that you have to do when determining what kind of computer that you are going to purchase is what do you primarily use your computer for. A user that generally just uses their computer for internet browsing and basic document/spreadsheet creation, etc... does not need as high end of a system as someone who enjoys playing video games. After you have determined what your primary use is, it leads us to our second point.

Secondly the next major determining factor of what kind of computer you should purchase is your price range. Computers have come down dramatically in price over the past several years. A basic computer built by a major manufacturer such as Dell can cost you as little as $299. Or if you money is no object you can find yourself spending $2500 or more on a desktop system.

After spending many years providing Network Consulting to many clients I can say from experience that buying the cheapest brand name model may sound like a great deal. But they are usually cheap for a reason. They are often made with the bare essentials. From personal experience with cheap "bargain" computers they often suffer from a range of problems from hardware failure, overheating, and many other problems. Newer operating systems like Vista demand a lot of CPU and memory, and when run on low end bargain computers can cause many errors such as crashing, random reboots, hung applications, general slowness.

When purchasing a new PC on a tight budget you should reasonably expect to pay at least 600 for a decent running system. If you are truly interested in video games or work with a lot of media and graphics some of the main hardware components that you will want to make sure are top of the line are the Processor, Memory, and Video Card.

So these are just a few things to consider when you are considering purchasing a new PC.