How To Choose a Computer

With a dizzying array of options, it can be very difficult to choose a computer these days. The reality is that virtually any computer on the market today is more than powerful enough to handle what the vast majority of people will use their computers to do.

However, there are certain users I like to call "power users" who will need to make sure they have enough horsepower to handle resource hogging tasks such as playing certain video games, editing graphics, video or music or running very complex business or science software applications.

First you need to think about what you intend to use your computer for. If you are like most people, you'll use it for web browsing, email, word processing, watching videos, storing and editing photos, playing some games, office applications and maybe a webcam. The good news is that even the lowest cost computers on the market today can easily handle all of these tasks. If you want to watch movies or do a lot of gaming on your computer, you might consider getting a large monitor. Some people who multitask with a lot of windows and applications open at the same time may also appreciate a large monitor.

If you want mobility, you probably won't be getting a large monitor. There are three options if you want to compute on the go. The largest is notebooks. This is the closest computing experience you can get to a desktop, since the screen size can actually be similar to desktop PCs. If you opt for a large screen however, it will be a lot more expensive, a lot bulkier and heavier, and the batteries probably won't last as long.

Just remember that to get the same power in a notebook as a desktop, you have to pay a lot more. That is the mobility premium. The advantage is that you can do you aren't chained to a desk, and you can do computing on the fly. Some people like the portability of laptops even for home use, since if you set up a wireless router, you can surf the web throughout your home or even in your backyard.

An increasingly popular alternative to laptops is netbooks. This relatively new category of computer is much less expensive than a laptop, and is also much smaller. The advantage with a netbook other than savings is that they are much less bulky and much lighter than laptops. This means they can easily fit in a purse, or be carried around without any strain. Another advantage is that the batteries last longer. For a lot of people, the smaller screen size is a big drawback. If you want to watch movies, then the smaller screen size may be less desirable, and there are certain websites, although not many that are very difficult to use with such a small screen. Other drawbacks are that netbooks are less powerful, and don't have DVD drives, so you can't really watch high definition movies, play high end video games or work with powerful graphics applications.

The third category of mobile device is a smartphone. While most people don't consider these to be computers, the fact is that they are small handheld computers. On many of them, you can actually run office applications, photo and video editing, surf the web, and watch videos. The line is blurring between computer and cellphone, and the constantly evolving smartphone category is becoming powerful enough to be considered a mobile computer.

The drawbacks of course are the diminutive screen size and keyboard. In some cases, with touchscreen phones, the keyboard is actually on the screen, which many people find it difficult to work with. For fast typing, or if you need to enter a lot of text, smart phones are not ideal. But if you're more interested in browsing the web, the new mobile browsers are actually making it a much more enjoyable experience, and finding innovative ways to overcome the small screen size. In the future, virtual keyboards, built in projectors and more powerful processing will enable smartphones to more or less replicate the desktop computing experience, but this may take a few years.

Getting back to desktops, if you want a budget desktop, then there is a new category called nettops. This is an all in one device where the computer is built into the monitor. They are less powerful than standard desktops, but are able to run all of the most common applications that are all most people use anyway. The advantage of this type of computer is that they cost a lot less, and some people prefer the simplicity of having all the components in one.

On the other end of the spectrum are high end desktop computers. These are the most powerful, most expensive desktops. There is no reason to buy one of these unless you are a "power user". If you want to use it for high end gaming, you'll need a lot of RAM and an excellent graphics card, possibly even a GPU (graphics processing unit). The same goes for if you are video editing. You'll also want a lot of processing power, possibly a quad processor, depending on what you're working with. If you want to do computer animation and rendering, you'll basically want the most horsepower you can get within your budget. If you are doing audio recording, you'll want a high definition, low latency sound card with lots of ins and outs and midi ports.

As you can see, finding the right computer is all about knowing what your needs are. If all you want to do is get information online, and type short messages, then you might even be able to get by with just a smartphone. If you want to run very complex, resource intensive applications, you're best off with a very powerful desktop.