Computer Buying Guide

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Shopping for a new laptop or desktop can be a confusing business; it is leading most people to purchase the wrong products and spending a lot more money than needed. This job gets even more complicated when you have specific requirements such as photo editing or video editing. In this article, I’m going to talk about three different types of users hopefully you will identify which type of user you are to give an idea on the computer to purchase.

When purchasing a computer for a customer, I first need to ascertain what type of computer user are they? Normally I only need to ask 3 questions to ascertain this, “What do you use the computer for?” “Do you want a large screen or small one?” “What is your budget?”

Typical User

A typical user generally uses their computer to surf the Internet and open emails they also do the odd bit of printing, such as plane tickets and insurance documents. They want a medium size laptop, not too heavy. They have a budget somewhere between £300 and £600

Typical users and easiest to cater for they can work on any computer. There is no need to spend more than £500 it would almost be a waste of money. Look for something with similar specs to this.

Processor: Intel Pentium or Intel I3

RAM: 4GB or 8GB DDR4 (DDR3 is still ok)

Storage: No need to be bigger than 500GB No need for SSD storage

Computers with similar spec should last at least 4 years if not longer.

Specialist user

A specialist user generally has a niche that they work in such as photography or they have a hobby which requires special software to be installed, also using it for the same reasons as the Typical User. Essentially if you need to open multiple different programs at once such as word processing, the Internet, music, and database then you also fit into this category. Normally a larger laptop with a good-sized screen, the budget would be anything up to £800

Specialist users can be difficult to cater for what we always advise not spending more than the top end of the budget. Depending on the niche depend on what they need is a general overview.

Processor: Intel I5

Rob: 8GB to 16 GB DDR4

Storage: 1tb HD or 250GB SSD with 1tb second drive (desktop) 500gb SSD (laptop)

Computers with similar spec should last at least 4 years if not longer.

Advanced user

An advanced user is typically the person that uses their computer to play games or has a niche that they work in which requires high processing power. Normally they want a desktop and are not bothered by the size if they want a laptop they wanted to be really big. They typically have a budget between £700 and £1500

Advanced users have a lot of decisions to make so I would always recommend speaking to us or having us build something special.

Processor: I7

RAM: 16GB or 32GB DDR4

Storage: 500GB SSD storage + 1tb HD

Graphics card: This is the price point you can spend between £150 to £800 on a card

Computers with similar spec should last at least 2 years if not longer.

Summary

I hope this short Guide is helpful and if you are still lost in a sea of numbers we are always here to help. Just give us your budget we will go out get you a new computer and set it up for you. If you want a high machine for yourself or as a present we can custom build with a specific target in mind.

Windows 10 update series 3

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In the last article, we talked about my favorite feature in Windows 10 Cortana. Today I’d like to talk about the start menu.

From Windows 95 all the way up to Windows 7 the start menu was laid out in a very similar way but then Windows 8 came along. Windows 8 was originally released featuring its new almost tablet-like view, however, we have become so accustomed to the way that we use Windows that nobody liked it including me. With Windows 10 Microsoft has attempted to take the best parts of Windows 8 and incorporate them into a version of Windows that works the way we’ve been using them to working. They’ve achieved this by adding a new section to the start menu.

The new section in the start menu is on the right-hand side and incorporates the large pain like icons. People that find visual prompts helpful may well like this feature has it is easy to use, you simply drag and drop the program you want to use in the section you want it. For me, however, I find it too clunky and my analytic brain does not compute and I’ll always prefer a small icon and list. Luckily for me just next to this section is a full list of all the programs installed on the computer you can simply scroll up and down and the laid out is in alphabetical order.

On the left-hand side of the start menu is where you’ll find the power button to turn the computer off, settings, pictures, and documents. As you can see the start menu is similar but fundamentally different, there are also extra sections which can add a lot of confusion. As I always say to my customers ignore the other pretty colorful squares and just use the start button to turn the computer off and access your files.

I hope you find the explanation of the start menu helpful for the next article I want to try and explain the most efficient way to go about your daily business from writing letters checking emails to saving opening files.