Things to consider when buying a new Windows computer

Cheryl asks about a new PC

Hello EB & TC,

I’m in the market for a new computer but before I buy, I know you used to post in the Premium Newsletter about what to look for, etc., before making that decision. Will all the new fancy things that computers do and the new processors, etc., I thought I’d ask your expert advise before buying one. I bought this computer after reading one of your Premium Newsletters regarding what to look for.

Currently I have a Dell Inspiron 530. When I ordered it from Dell, I requested NO anti virus software and I installed AVAST Home as soon as I hooked it up. I’ve been using AVAST for the past 5.5 yrs. and haven’t had a problem with it. I am going to erase the hard drive and re-install the software that came with the computer and then ship the computer to my sister in CA because hers is about to crash. She’s using my old Sony that is about 10 years old and cannot afford another computer.

Will I be able to access all my Favorites/Bookmarks on a new computer or do I need to save them to a flash drive (one of which I bought from Cloudeight) and will they transfer over? (I use Google Chrome)

Thank you so much for all the things you do for everyone. I don’t know where we’d all be if it weren’t for you and Eightball looking out for us. You’re the BEST!

I play online games, Facebook and I also need a computer that will allow me to use all of the following:

Here’s what I have and/or use:

(Long list of software programs redacted by us for brevity.)

Thank you for everything you two do for all of us.

Our answer
Thanks so much, Cheryl. Before we give you our guidelines for buying a new computer, we suggest rather than formatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows on the computer you’re going to give you sister, that you just use the recovery partition included (at least on 95% of all computers do — and your Dell does) to restore you computer to its factory state (i.e. the state it was in when you brought it home from the store). This will save you oodles of time since you won’t have to reinstall Windows and then hunt around for the driver disk and reinstall drivers. The only thing you’ll have do after the recovery is install all the Windows updates ( and there will be many). Once you’ve done this, you can ship your computer to you sister and it will be like brand new.

Now, we’d not recommend this way of doing it if you were going to sell your computer or give it away to persons unknown. If you were going to sell it or give it away we’d suggest wiping the hard drive completely using a program like DBAN (Duke’s Boot and Nuke) to completely erase all data on the disk to prevent someone from using forensic file-recovery software to dig out your personal data. But we highly doubt your sister would do this, so just use the recovery partition.

We are not familiar with a couple of programs on your list, but most of them will run on Windows 8.

You can export all your Chrome bookmarks quite easily:

— Click the Chrome menu (the three horizontal lines icon) on the browser toolbar.
— Select Bookmarks.
— Select Bookmark manager.
— Click the Organize menu in the manager.
— Select Export bookmarks.

Consider buying a laptop instead of a desktop. Five years ago we’d have never suggested that. But laptops have come of age – and offer the same power as desktops and take up far less space. Plus you’re not pinned to one area of your house (if you have Wi-Fi set up). We run our business with laptops now and would never go back to a desktop computer. And wow! Have prices come down on laptops. TC saw a 15″ laptop in Walmart yesterday with a 500GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM for less than $300! Amazing.

Whether you choose a laptop or a desktop the two most important things to consider are: RAM and hard disk space. A quad-core or better processor is nice, but nothing is going to make more difference in how your new computer performs than the amount of RAM installed. Since computer sales have slowed to a crawl recently, there are some GREAT deals out there. For less than $700 you can get a laptop computer with a 1.5 terabyte hard drive, 8 GB of RAM and a quad-core processor. A computer like this would be far more computer than you’d ever need — right now. But you never know what may come along tomorrow — or what you’ll be doing on your computer in the future. It’s best to buy as much computer as you can afford.

We’d recommend you don’t get a computer with less than 4GB of RAM or less than a 500GB hard drive. Most computers in the $500 to $700 range have 6GB to 8GB of RAM and 750GB to 2TB hard drives. And while the processor is certainly important, for the average user the processor speed and type is not nearly important as the RAM.

If you want to spend a little bit more, get a touch-screen laptop (or desktop). Windows 8 was designed for touch screens, although by adding a start button like Classic Shell, it can be just as easy to use with a mouse and keyboard. Of course, I’m digging myself a hole here — you can use Windows 8 without problems using a mouse and keyboard even if you don’t add a start button – but it is easier to get around if you do add a start button. And if you wait a few months, Windows 8 will come with the option boot to the desktop and come with a start button – more on that later.

To sum it up: Laptops are now as powerful and durable as desktops, and they offer many advantages over desktops — so if you are one of those who think laptops are more a second computer than a main one — think again. We’ve been using laptops to run Cloudeight for several years and we’d never go back to desktops.

Think RAM RAM RAM. Get as much installed RAM as you can — but never buy a computer with less than 4GB of RAM. Hard drive space is becoming very important in this age of high-speed Internet. Downloading movies, music files, and even programs requires a lot of hard drive space. Aim for a 1TB or larger hard drive; don’t ever buy a computer with less than a 500GB hard drive. A quad-core processor is nice and your new computer should have at least a quad-core processor. All processors installed in new computers are faster than any average computer user needs. So RAM and hard drive space are the two most important things to look for in your new computer.

A touch screen computer (laptop or desktop) would help you take full advantage of Windows 8 — but Windows 8 runs just fine on non touch screens too.

RAM and hard drive space — got it?