Computer Sales

How to chose a computer

There are 3 essential parts of a computer, the Processor, Hard drive and Ram, that if not chosen correctly, can make the computer slow and can cause you to waste your time and money.

Processor(CPU)

The processor is the most confusing part to pick. There are so many flavor, and there is no way of telling which is faster even when comparing them between generations. It is very possible that newer generation processor can be slower than an older one. There are websites that have tested the processors and can tell you which are faster.

Hard Drive

There are two types of hard drives. Traditional spindle drives that have rotating disks and Solid State Drives (SSD). The benefit of spindle drive is that it is cheaper and it has a larger capacity. The negative of a spindle drive is that it has a slow transfer rate. SSD’s cost more, their capacity is constantly increasing and their speeds is many times faster than a spindle drive and constantly getting faster. You will see the most benefit of having a SSD when it is used to hold the operating system.

RAM

You should have a minimum of 16 gigs of RAM. Even though 8 gigs should be enough when you start using your new computer, the Windows 10 or 11 Operating System is constantly growing through updates and so are the size of programs. If you plan on having many programs open at once or many tabs open in your browser, you should not get less than 16 gigs of RAM.

Software you need

To keep your computer functioning and to avoid problems you should have the following programs on your computer.

HD Sentinel – (https://www.hdsentinel.com/) – This program monitors the health of your hard drive. It will give you an early warning if your hard drive will fail.

AntiVirus – I like Norton Security. It is a great price if you purchase their 5 or 10 user product.

Malwarebytes – AntiVirus programs do not do a good job keeping your computer clean from malware.

Backup

There are many reasons why you need a backup of your computer. Just in case you don’t want to spend a little money upfront, here are the reasons:

  • Hard drives fail
  • You get hit with a virus
  • You might accidentally overwrite you file with a blank file
  • Someone might spill a drink on your computer
  • Your computer can be stolen
  • Your computer might burn up in a fire
  • Your computer might get fried in a lightening storm
  • and so on…

I like www.idrive.com, because you can use one subscription to backup more than one computer. It will backup everything in the folders you specify. They give you 5 TB of backup storage and 5TB of Sync storage, for $70 per year. They also offer larger capacity for more money. (many, many more feature: backup Office365, file sharing w/ password, web console allow you to manage all computers that are backed up. Business feature include: server backup pricing, deploy with GPO policy, Sub-accounts, and more)

Carbonite – They offer unlimited storage but I don’t like it because they don’t automatically backup video files unless you purchase their $150/year plan. For their cheapest plan, $60/year, you need to specify each video file that needs to be backed up.

Where to find a computer
https://www.dellrefurbished.com/desktop-computers
https://www.edealinfo.com/
https://www.bestbuy.com/