What I look for when buying a computer is decent processing power and a good amount of ram. Being a student I spend many hours on computers working on assignments and projects that involve the use of some pretty resource intensive software and let me tell you that nothing is quite as frustrating as working on a slow or laggy computer that is unable to handle these softwares . Other than that a decent graphic card that is able to play the latest games on medium setting would be nice.
This question has been asked several times on this forum but with just different wordings. You must know that you look for the processing power, storage capacity, memory, webcam, the Wi-Fi technology, HDMI ports among other things. The mentioned ones are the most important. If your a gamer then the graphics card should be the first one in your mind.
The first thing I look for in a computer is its build quality. This is due to the reason that I travel a lot and have to carry my laptop along with me. So, it is very essential that the laptop has an excellent build qualiy. The next thing I look for whether the price of the laptop is competitive in terms of its price. The amount of battery backup is also an important aspect for me.
I rarely do heavy work. I need, good CPU, good building quality, good RAM. And talking about software, I can install the OS I need, but if Windows 7 is installed, its better for me. I like not Windows 8 yet. My brother just buyed one with 8 GB RAM and other stuff of that kind. He is making a home studio for recording music.
I'm looking for a balance between cheap cost and good performance. I don't want something that's cheap yet can't deliver the performance you need, and at the same time I don't want something that's totally expensive. I always look at the CPU and the GPU because those things are the core for a good computer, RAM and HDD are easy and cheap to upgrade.
I've been content with near entry level to mid range systems for the past 5 or so years, but over the past few months that I've started dabbling in Adobe After Effects, I am starting to reconsider that and I think I will look for a more high end system the next time I buy a new computer. More specifically, something with a dedicated graphics card and a lot of memory as well as the fastest processor on the market. My big fear with getting a system like this though is I did just that with two Dells about 10 years ago and both systems overheated and died on me. I had selected a pre-configured system on the Dell site, then upgraded some options for the memory and video cards. I am now wondering in hindsight if perhaps the design of the system wasn't optimal for dedicated graphics cards. Even though they could technically fit in the system, there probably wasn't enough consideration given to how likely they would be to cause the system to overheat. I may even go do far as to get a larger tower, that I can keep cool through some other add ons. It all depends on the price really.
I look for processing power. I want my computer to be powerful. I do a lot of things with computer such as download, watching, and converting videos. I play games , and a lot of other stuff, I need for my computer to be able to handle all of that. I need my computer to be able to handle several task, all at once. Which is why i never buy cheap computers.
When I buy a computer, I look for one that's more expensive than the cheap computers. I want one I can upgrade if necessary and one that won't become obsolete as fast as those cheap ones. Brand is also a major consideration for me. I usually stick with a highly rated brand like asus and avoid cheaper companies like acer like the plague. Had one of their laptops in the past and it was awful.
