This time of year I get lots of friends and family members asking questions. They are usually buying someone they love a computer for Christmas and want to know what to pick. Let’s go through some of the decisions you need to make, and hopefully you’ll be able to walk into Best Buy or go to your favorite site and buy a computer with confidence!
Mac or PC
We might as well get it over with. The first question is always going to be Mac or PC. I use both and I can tell you from experience that both are fantastic computing platforms. Each have unique advantages and strengths that play out to specific types of people. My general advice for someone buying a computer, asking this question, is:
If you don’t have a compelling reason to buy a Mac, buy a PC.
What does that mean exactly? Unless you’re buying a computer for an audio buff that wants to run Logic or a video nut that wants to run Final Cut, or you are buying for someone who specifically says “I want a Mac!” You’re best bet is to buy a PC.
The ugly truth is that you will get a lot more value for your money with a PC. Windows 7 is a fantastic, stable and secure operating system. The old Mac vs. PC debates are antiquated. Devices rarely dictate which one you should use. These days it’s mostly about preference and cost.
I won’t go too much into choosing a Mac for the rest of this article. Apple just doesn’t offer a whole lot of choice, so you are pretty much in the situation of choose your form factor (Laptop, all in one or Workstation) and choose how much you are willing to spend, that’s the end of the decision process.
Picking a PC
Get the Laptop or desktop question out of the way first. These days prices and features are very similar for both. Make that choice first, and then we can get into what all these components are and what you should pick.
Processor
It’s fortunate that today’s processors have more than enough beef for what you want to do. Unless you are going to be doing some serious computing the processor is almost a non-issue. That being said, you are going to run into two flavors, Intel and AMD.
Both brands have several tiers of performance. I’ll kind of summarize with Intel’s offerings:
- i3 – Lower end, great for someone who is just doing web surfing, basic productivity and communications
- i5 – All-Purpose, this CPU is great for what 90% of people do with their computers.
- i7 – High Performance, if you’re getting this machine for audio, video or gaming, you want an i7, preferably a quad-core.
Gone are the days of one CPU, these days a single chip has multiple cores, or chips inside it. Dual-core is the most common and Quad-core is coming up fast. Unfortunately software has to be written to take complete advantage of all those cores, so a Quad-Core computer doesn’t blindly mean “twice as fast” so choose carefully unless the cost is negligible. Today’s dual core processors are blazing fast and will most likely do everything you want to do. Like I said, if it’s a small premium, go for the quad for future proofing. If that moves you into another model, and the price is significant, don’t feel cheated going home with two.
Don’t get too caught up in clock speed. If it’s a normal machine anything over 2Ghz will be fine, if it’s high end, shoot for over 3Ghz.
RAM (Memory)
These days computers come stuffed with RAM. I usually give very simple advice with memory. Get as much as you can afford, but pay more attention to how much it will hold. Memory is very inexpensive these days, I just bout 8GB for my laptop for $99. I’d rather give someone a machine with 4GB of Ram that holds 8GB than one that comes with 6GB but only holds 6GB. More is better, but it’s a cheap and easy upgrade, so don’t let it be the driving force behind your decision.
Hard Drive Size/Speed
If you are going laptop, you are likely going to get something in the 250-500GB size range with a speed of 5400rpm. That’s a pretty standard laptop drive. If you need more performance because it’s going to be for video or gaming, look for a 7200rpm drive as they usually read/write data nearly twice as fast.
If you are getting a desktop, you’ll likely see 500GB-2TB sizes out there. This is another one of those cheap upgrades and externals are usually not only a cheap upgrade, but a smart one too. Keeping your data in a way you can move it around is great. Skimping on hard drive space is bad, but these days it’s very hard to. Unless your loved one is going to store a ridiculous amount of music or work with editing high definition video, you’ll be fine with a 500GB drive. If the latter is the case, look for 1TB+ and make sure the computer has room for more inside or a fast connection like FireWire or eSATA to connect external drives to add more space.
Video Card
This is much like the processor. If the computer is going to be used for surfing the web, email, chatting and productivity, you’ll probably never notice the difference a better video card will make.
If the computer will be used for games or video, look for the fastest card from either nVidia or ATI to be in the machine and with 1GB of video memory or more. Also pay attention because sometimes they will put cheaper laptop video cards in PCs that share memory with the computer. If the card uses shared ram, it’s likely no better than not having a dedicated card at all.
Monitor
Simple, go big. The biggest you can afford is gong to have the best bang for the buck. I personally prefer Samsung monitors, but Dell, HP, Viewsonic and LG all make great monitors that you are likely to find in the big box stores. Things to keep an eye out for are the extra features.
You want a variety of inputs, HDMI, DVI and VGA are the standards, I’d suggest getting one with all 3 so you never worry about not being able to connect it up. Some come with speakers, but they are usually terrible so don’t let that drive your decision.
The Bottom Line
You can find a great PC Desktop or Laptop for $600 these days. That’s going to provide a lot of fun and entertainment as well as help with the productivity side of life too. I recommend sticking with the major brands just from a support perspective so check out the Dells, HPs, Gateways, Acers, Lenovos and Apple of course. Find what fits what your looking for the computer to actually do, and your budget, and buy with confidence.
