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Specific Computer Buying Tips

Okay, so we’ve gone over some general computer buying tips on this page. Now let’s talk specifics.

I recommend Dell computers and Windows XP Professional.

I do so because:

  • Dells consistently rank in the top ten of PC World’s Hardware reviews, and

  • I’ve owned Dells personally for the past 12 years, and

  • I’ve purchased hundreds of Dell computers for my employers during my career. I’ve never had any problems with my personal Dells, and any problems with the business machines I purchased were fixed quickly by Dell certified techs. I didn’t have to do a thing. I don’t think you can say that about the generic machine the local computer store has on sale.

  • The system support is excellent. If I want information about my Dell PC or laptop, I just go to Dell's website, type in my service tag number, and the drivers, chipset information, RAM specs, everything I need to know about that machine is available all in one place. This is fantastic when you want to upgrade your hardware drivers or RAM down the road.

I will admit that Dell’s service is not nearly as good as it used to be, but then, you could say that about all the major computer manufacturers.

So what should you buy? Here are my specific computer buying tips for various computing scenarios:

If you:

  • want a desktop computer
  • are just going to use your computer for emailing and surfing the net
  • have a broadband connection to the internet

    I’d recommend this: A Dell desktop with 1 Gigabyte of RAM, a 80 or more Gigabyte hard drive, and a mid range processor. As of today, 4/10/2008, a mid range desktop processor would be an Intel® Pentium® dual-core processor E2160 with a speed of 1.80GHz. Right now, PC World is recommending the Dell Inspiron 5300 as a basic budget computer. I would avoid the Celeron chips though, they are just dog slow, in my opinion, and the extra savings just isn’t worth the aggravation.

    If you:

    • want a laptop computer
    • are just going to use your computer for emailing and surfing the net
    • have a broadband connection to the internet

    I’d recommend this: A Dell laptop with 1 gigabyte of RAM, a 80 or more gigabyte hard drive, and a mid range processor. A Dell Latitude would fit the bill here. An example processor would be an Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2.00GHz) 2M L2 Cache, 800MHz Dual Core.

    If you:

    • want a desktop computer
    • are going to run some Office applications, and some graphics programs, or maybe run some business applications like Quicken or Quickbooks
    • have a broadband connection to the internet

    I’d recommend this: A Dell desktop with 2-4 gigabytes of RAM, a 240 gigabyte or more hard drive, and a mid range processor. As of today, 4/10/2008, a midrange desktop processor would be an AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 Dual Core chip. An example system would be a Dell OptiPlexTM 740. This kind of system will be fast and efficient, and not too hard on the wallet..

    A laptop computer is this range would include the same RAM and hard drive space with a slightly slower processor. The Dell Latitude line of laptops would fit here. I own a Latitude D620 and I’m very happy with it.

    If you:

    • want a desktop computer
    • are going to run complex 3d animation modeling programs, or other resource intensive engineering programs
    • have a broadband connection to the internet

    I’d recommend this: A Dell desktop with up to 64 gigabytes of RAM, a 5 terabyte or more hard drive, and a top of the line processor. As of today, 4/10/2008, a top desktop processor would be a Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor Up to 3.16GHz (1333MHz FSB, 64-bit, 2X 6MB L2 cache). An example system would be a Dell Precision T7400. This kind of system will really hurt the wallet, so be sure you really need all that power.

    So there are some specific computer buying tips for you. You should be able to extrapolate the specific computer buying tips that you will need for your situation.

    Extra tip: If you are looking to buy a computer really cheap, check out auctions and garage sales. If you aren't sure about how to bid at an auction, check out this auctions page. It tells you all about it.

    If you have any questions, please contact me.

    I’m done with Computer Buying Tips, take me back to Buy a Computer.


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