Buying Smart: Picking out a New Computer

I’ve always been an advocate for buying computers, in comparison to building them.  It’s not because I don’t have the balls — it’s just that nowadays, manufacturers offer so many various options that I see no more advantage in building my own computer:

• Customizability: Dell offers customizations for free.  You can decide where you want to spend the most of your money — for example, if you’re going to watch movies or play games, you can choose to get a more powerful graphics card.
• No Risk: You can short-circuit one of your peripherals just like that *snap* when you’re building your own computer.  Why take the risk (if you want it for the experience, then be my guest)?
• Support: Usually computers come with at least a year’s limited warranty.  After that, you can still choose to pay for support and whatnot — if you build a computer, good luck when something breaks down.
• Part Selection: There are so many types of computer parts it makes me dizzy just thinking about it (ATA vs. SATA hard drives, DDR2 vs. DDR3 RAM, etc.) and you have to make sure your motherboard is compatible with everything.  Right.  Good luck with that.  Manufacturers assemble the computers, so you can bet your bottom dollar that they work (if they didn’t, then Future Shop and Best Buy wouldn’t buy from them, right?).
• Small Price Margins: Nowadays, at most, I’m thinking you’ll save $100.  Tops.  Assuming nothing breaks down when you build it, you pick all the right pieces at the lowest prices ever.  But manufacturers make prices so appealing now (especially Dell with their coupons).  Reel me in, Dell (I’m a big fan of Dell, been running on a Dell Inspiron 6400 for a good year and a half now).

As far as I’m concerned, I’d rather be able to just walk into a store or go online and pick up a computer, and not worry about it.  I figure there’s a lot more things in life to worry about, like the recession, apocalypse, your relatives overseas, etc (I’m not poking fun, I’m actaully dead serious — besides the apocalypse).

photo credit: Llandudnoandy

But would walking into a store and totally trusting the customer rep be wise?  Hm, probably not.  Firstly:

• Nobody’s perfect, so the customer rep may make a few mistakes on occasion.
• They might have other interests — including commission, in the back of their minds (I know that Best Buy claims not to work on commission anymore, I think that’s great).
• There may be a misunderstanding in communication, leading them to make you pay for more than you need or less than you need.

You don’t necessarily need to do as much research as you would when building a computer (trust me, the difference in research between buying a computer and building one is like comparing a splinter to a log, respectively).  I suggest starting off from my post on How to Buy a Computer in 2008 (I wrote it in LATE 2008, so it’s still applicable — I’ll probably follow-up soon though, so keep your eyes peeled).  Give it twenty minutes, or half an hour.  Google around the web, and I’m sure you’ll find what you need.

If anything, you should always arm yourself with information.  If you don’t want to do it yourself, find a loved one that knows a lot about technology and has your best interests in mind (advice: kids these days know a lot about technology).  Bring them along, or have them spend ten minutes with you configuring your computer on the Internet.  When in doubt, feel free to comment or e-mail me, and I’ll try my best to help you out.

Hope you have fun picking out a new computer!