So you have decided to purchase a new machine. You need to make a few major decisions prior to going online or into a store to pick one up.

What type of machine are you after?

Desktop, Laptop, Notebook, Tablet, Tower, Slimline. Each has its own benefits I will go through some of the fundamental pro's and con's of each - knowing what each of these machine will and won't do may rule out one or two systems prior to your search and may save you time and the added pressure of a sales person pushing you towards the wrong type of machine for your intended use.

Desktop

Tower

Slimline

Laptop

Notebook

Tablet

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What to Look for?

Ok so you have seen the Pro's and Con's of the basic system types, and I suspect that you may have ruled out one or two of them from your purchase plans. Your next step is to read up on the different PC's available in the current PC market. You have to understand that the computer field is moving so fast that they computers come down in price and PC Specs go up so regularly that you need to have a look what's out there.

Various computer advice magazines such as, PC Advisor, What PC? and Personal Computer World may have some solid PC reviews to go look at.

Talk to your friends, relatives and colleagues about what make of PC they use, where they bought it and their experiences, have they had problems with it?, is there anything they wished they had bought or indeed; not bought for the computer. Try to get a idea in your mind what you really want to use this new computer for.. this will be a major key in your final purchase.

Where should I buy from?

When buying NEW you usually have 3 types of sellers.

1. High Street Store which sells all types of Electronics including computers

2. Small Computer Shop specifically selling computer parts and PC Systems

3. Internet reseller.

The choice is yours really, but to give you an idea about what you can expect here is my opinion on the three.

High Street Stores prices are usually quite high, but you do get a full PC system. PC, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Cables (sometimes a Printer). Another benefit of buying here is the 'shelf selection' they will usually have 10 - 20 built and working systems which you can see, touch, and try out. The sales person will be there to answer any questions you may have and may be able to guide you towards the right machine, but, tell them what you want not what they want to hear! If you aren't so sure what you want, they will say things like, "you could go with that one, but this pc comes with a Printer/scanner and a DVD read writer"! If you don't need it, don't go with it. Peripherals usually come as a bonus package, don't get swayed by free add-ons. The PC System itself should be your main focus. That has to be exactly what you want, if that's wrong then the rest of your free add-ons will be useless. Also don't settle with the stock that a High Street Store has, you usually find that they are resellers for one or maybe two branded systems, say HP and SONY. So their range; although versatile, may only be limited to those company's. Often the sales person will also try to sell you warranty packages. These may provide some peace of mind, including things like health checks and repairs, but if you look after your PC and keep your security software up-to-date, you will most likely never use the service and will have paid a lot of extra money for nothing.

Small Computer Shops, are usually run by computer technicians rather than sales personnel. Because of this the system prices may be slightly higher that that of the High Street Stores. They may be in a better position to put together a PC that very closely matches your exact requirements. Their general knowledge of computer models and brands may be more flexable than that of a High Street Store. They may not have as many pre-built machines for you to look at and as such the shop staff may have to show you pictures or photo's of machines. You also may have to buy a Monitor as an extra item unless they say it is a 'complete system' confirm the main parts and also insist on the Operating System CD (the original not a recovery CD). It has been my experience when dealing with this type of vendor that if you tell them what you want to use it for they will try to accommodate your requirements as close to that brief as possible. This type of shop does not generally offer any free add-ons like a printer or DVD writer etc, unless it has been costed into the system price already.

Internet resellers, will usually offer the best overall price for a system, the PC's are usually pre built and come with a standard warranty, however you will usually be charged for shipping it back if something went wrong. because the products are sold via the web, you cannot actually touch the machine and get a 'feel for it' and usually the vendor has posted up lots of PC Specs which to you might not make a lot of sense. In some cases the vendors quote benchmark test numbers (large numbers and stats trying to lure you in thinking that bigger numbers means faster PC). This is not always the case. There are of course benefits of buying online, the main one of course is the overall cost being usually a few hundred dollars less than from a High Street Store. Some sites will even let you select your PC Part configuration. Size of screen, amount of memory, DVD drive etc? and in some cases offer 'free upgrades' if you buy this model!

What should I buy? **

The computer market today has a whole host of computer specifications and pretty much all new computers can handle the standard office chores as word processing and spreadsheets, as well as basic Internet functions like e-mail and general browsing. If you want to edit digital video or manage a large database, however, you may need more than the basics

Here is a guideline for those of you wanting a pre built machine off the shelf.

For everyday work look for:

2.66-GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon XP 2800+ Processor you will not need the latest and greatest processors for this type of work.

At Least 256MB of Memory. More memory = faster PC, so the more the better. 512MB would be better especially if you are getting Windows Vista.

Operating system. If you are getting Windows Vista you are already getting the whole package, although XP Home is a reliable operating system, pay extra for XP Professional only if you want to have the extra software management features like Remote Desktop (which lets users control the computer remotely over the Internet)

Integrated AGP Graphics. Before you buy a computer with integrated graphics, ask if it has an AGP slot or PCI Express. If it doesn't, you won't be able to upgrade your graphics at a later date.

Improve Sound. Adding a sound system with a sub woofer (a large speaker that produces very low bass tones) can dramatically improve the sound quality of a home system or office PC. There are also better sound cards to add-on to your machine, a 5.1 surround sound card like the Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro for instance would enhance your sound dramatically.

A large monitor. CRT (cathode-ray tubes) are the old style large box monitors. They are still around but TFT (thin film transistor) and LCD (liquid crystal display)are rapidly replacing them. TFT is the main replacement. Look at spending a bit of money and get a 19inch TFT screen, the quality and sharpness of the screen will be worth every cent.

CD-RW or Recordable DVD Drive. Now that most PC manufacturers have dumped the 1.44MB floppy disk drive, a recordable DVD or CD-RW drive is essential for data storage and transfer. Both allow you to back up important documents (700MB on a CD, 4.7GB on a DVD). I would also recommend for your smaller document transfers to purchase a USB Key. These can come in various sizes, currently up to 8GB, but a 2GB is worth buying. for machines running 2000, XP home, XP Pro and Vista, its just plain 'plug and play', for the rest of the operating systems a cd containing the USB keys software can be installed.

A 80GB or Larger Hard Drive. A 40GB hard drive is fine for simple word processing or Web browsing tasks, but you'll likely fill that hard drive pretty quickly. In the long run it's best to buy more storage space than you think you'll need. Today's largest hard drives reach 500GB+, unless you are downloading huge movies or performing video editing in a big way 80GB should be ample.

Connectivity on the Front Case. Many PCs now offer a pair of USB ports on the front case, so you can connect multiple peripherals without having to reach behind the case. If you have lots of devices to plug into the PC, look for systems with front mounted FireWire (IEEE 1394) or USB 2.0 ports, or optical audio connectors, depending on your needs.

So there you have it, some basic requirements for a PC, there are a few other things to take into consideration though.

Do's and Don't of buying a New PC.

Don't buy software you don't need. Basically an Operating System (including its Original CD), an Office Package and an Anti Virus Package are your minimum requirements.

Do look for above average specifications, this comes down to cost, the higher end spec machine will have a longer life cycle and as such will last longer in today's market place.

Don't buy gimmicky keyboards, sales staff try to sell you a keyboard that has a whole host of buttons on it, if you don't need them don't buy it. The keyboards are usually three or four times the price of a regular one.

Do look at free 'upgrades at time of purchase'. Some vendors offer a upgrade on your Hard drive or a upgrade on monitor size or a upgrade from a CDRW to a DVDRW. Although these will not add any major dollars to your purchase, why pay to have one installed if you get it for free!

Don't over pay on a warranty. Most PC faults appear within the 1st year of purchase, so getting a 5year upgrade may be a waste of time especially as a average PC's life span is only about three or four years.

finally, Do buy from a trustworthy source. A warranty is only as good as the paper its written on, if the company customer service is poor at the time of purchasing you machine what makes you think it is going to have any decent after sales support?