When you buy a new computer, you should look for a computer that will last four to five years with minimal upgrades to handle future peripherals and software upgrades.

1. List the tasks you want your computer to perform and take it to your computer salesperson.
   
   
2. Case -- The main consideration for your case should be air flow, which is directly affected by two variables -- the room inside the case for air to flow and the number of fans in the case. Your case should have at least a rear fan for cooling purposes with today's faster, hotter processors. It should also be roomy enough that air can easily flow throughout and not get clogged by the cables that can cram a smaller case. Your case should also have adequate ventilation holes in the sides as well as the rear.
   
   
3. Power Supply -- Rarely considered, the power supply provides the critical power necessary to run your computer. A power supply capable of handling today's power requirements should be at least 300 watts, with 400 preferred.
   
   
4. Processor -- The "brains" of your computer, the processor impacts the performance, or speed, of your computer. You should look for a computer that has either an Intel Core Duo® or AMD Athlon® processor rated for at least 2.0 ghz with a 1MB cache. Don't bother with the slower, cheaper Intel Celeron® or AMD Sempron® processors.
   
   
5. Motherboard -- Ask your computer salesperson what motherboard the computer has and then look it up on a ratings site such as tomshardware.com. You should look for a motherboard that offers on-board audio, USB and 10/100 LAN in the ATX form factor (not Micro-ATX) with a PCI-Express slot for video. The motherboard should also be capable of handling faster processors, more memory and more PCI expansion slots than you need now for possible upgrades down the road.
   
   
6. Hard Drive -- While 80GB of hard drive space will suffice in most instances, today's pricing on 120GB or larger drives has dropped so much that it doesn't make sense to stick with 80GB anymore. The larger drives will give you a lot more storage space for all of those photos, videos, graphics and music files (but be sure to back them up). Besides the size of the drive, you should also look for SATA II hard drives rated at 7200 rpm with an average seek time of less than 10ms. The larger the "cache" or "buffer" size, the better. The cache is where frequently used data is stored. When a hard drive can use the cache, it doesn't have to search its files for the data you want. A 2MB cache size will suffice, but 8MB is better.
   
   
7. Memory -- Modern computers use DDR2 (dual data rate) memory. You'll need at least 512MB of such memory to run a computer using Windows XP®, but at least 1GB to run Windows' new operating system, Vista.
   
   
8. Modems -- If you have high-speed Internet like DSL or Cable, you won't need a modem unless you need backup Internet access, in which case you could use a modem with a dialup Internet account in a pinch.
   
   
9. Monitors -- With drastically reduced prices, LCD flat panel monitors have become the standard in computer displays. If you opt for a flat-panel LCD monitor, you'll want a response time of no more than 20ms and a contrast ratio of no less than 350:1.
   
   
10. Floppy Drive -- Not much to say about these other than be sure your computer has one. Without a floppy, some diagnostic tasks and repairs simply can't be performed.
    
    
11. DVD Drives -- You want a computer with at least a DVD-RW drive that will play and burn DVDs and CDs.
    
    
12. Printers -- It's obvious that you can buy a printer now for less than they cost to fix, but be careful. Some of the sub-$50 printers are absolute junk -- if the printer looks flimsy, avoid it. The All-in-One printers that provide scanning and copying functions, and in some cases faxing, are good investments if you don't plan to do any heavy-duty scanning or copying. Be sure to compare the replacement ink cartridge costs of the models you're considering.
    
    
13. Software -- There are two types of software -- operating system software and application software. Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP and Vista are operating systems. The jury is still out on Vista, which should have a Service Pack with many bug fixes in the first quarter of 2008. If your primary use will be graphics, give serious consideration to Apple® Macintosh computers with the X operating system. For applications, any new computer should have the following as a bare minimum -- a word processor, spreadsheet, a web browser, email software, and anti-virus software. You may also want office productivity software such as Microsoft Office®, WordPerfect®, or OpenOffice®, and some kind of financial software such as Quicken®. Be sure to ask your salesperson what software applications are included with your new computer, because most new computers no longer include anything but bare-bones software.
    
    
14. Other Considerations -- If you plan to play games or music, you may want an upgraded video card, sound card and speakers. For games, you want a video card with at least 128MB of memory, but 256MB will be better. Check the number of USB ports your new computer offers. You'll need at least four USB ports in the back and preferably two more in the front or top of the computer so you don't have to fiddle around trying to find the ports in the back of the case. If you plan on editing video on your computer, you'll want a computer with a FireWire port. FireWire offers the fastest, most error-free transfer of those large video clips from your camcorder to your computer.

    If you still have questions about buying your next computer, FlexITechs offers a Computer Setup Service that will help you buy your computer and install it starting at $149.95. Remember, you can also buy a new computer system custom-built by FlexITechs!

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    • What to look for when buying a computer
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    • Buying a computer from FlexITechs
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