Computer Buyer's Guide

Yesterday I bought a computer. For those of you who don't know, I'm pretty computer savvy, but not nearly as savvy as I was in high school. People always ask me what kind of computer they should buy. For years I've always given advice to people that I've never followed myself. I always recommended a package deal WITH support at some major retail outlet like Dell or Best Buy or CompUSA while I have always gone to the small town shop somewhere far and custom built mine after researching every little individual part. Well, that's what I did for my last computer and over the last 5 or 6 years I've observed that computers have changed quite alot. I also realized that I probably paid too much for my last computer. Even though it had lasted me this long I probably paid double what it was worth because it was the newest technology at the time (most of which I never took advantage of). I've always been a sucker for the fastest best everything as if I could actually tell the difference. Well not this time. Last night I went to Best Buy after looking at the various computer models they had online.

I would have to say that the process took longer than it took to buy my car. Computers may be mainstream, but they are no easier for people to buy than 10-15 years ago. I was getting confused even with the knowledge I had. I had been out of the loop for a couple years. Evidently there is a new kind of video card out there called PCI Express that is twice as fast as the fastest AGP, but cuz it was PCI I kept thinking it was old technology until I read up on it a little bit. Once I figured out what hardware specs I wanted for my PC, I began to do the price comparisons. Some just didn't make sense at all. They are really pushing this Media Center thing for the PC, but if you have no plans to make your PC replace your entertainment center in the living room, there is no point for it, and from what I hear the software isn't that great yet. If you think you're going to do it down the road, it's more likely your computer will be too old for the streamlined features they will have developed by then. You'll need a new computer to do it anyway so my philosophy is "don't buy it unless you plan to use it right now". You can save about $600 by ignoring the top tier and looking at the computers right below it (which were the top tier about 6 months ago). Another thing to look for is what parts are upgradeable and which parts you're stuck with. Stuff like the hard drive and video adapter are easily changed so why not cut corners on the base system that includes cheaper versions of these. Their value in the system is next to nothing. Some systems come with a cool graphics card for quite a bit more, or you can save the money and buy the computer with the integrated graphics card and then pick out the graphics card you want separately which is what I did. Also buying a system that comes with a small hard drive could save you quite a bit and its still probably more storage then you will ever need unless you plan to work with lots of video. You can always add more hard drive space later, too. The last is memory which is kinda insignificant in my opinion. You will probably never need to upgrade your RAM because by the time that more RAM is going to come in handy, it will be time for a new computer anyways so don't bother with the upgraded RAM. I lucked out here on my system and I ended up getting alot of RAM anyway, but 512MB is good enough if you're wondering. I finally narrowed it down to two Gateway models. One was $800 and one was $950. Both had pretty much the same specs (3.0 GHz Pentium 4, 1GB PC3200 RAM, 800 MHz front side bus (whatever that is), and integrated video adapter, blah blah blah). It seemed like the only difference between the two was the hard drive. The cheaper one had a 160 GB hard drive and the costlier one had a 200 GB hard drive. I only get 40 GB more for $150! I can get another 160 GB for that much just buying a second hard drive separately if I wanted. So I took a close look at the specs of each one and I couldn't believe it, the ONLY difference was the hard drive! So I got the cheaper one, and then I bought a sweet video card (ATI Radeon X700) for $200 making a pretty awesome system for about $1000. It can play the most CPU intensive games and do video editing, pretty much anything you want. It also came with a DVD burner which I really didn't need, but it came standard.

But the store won't give it up without a fight, there are other things to consider (so they say). You're going to want software with that, right? Here is where buying from a retailer is better over building one yourself. The operating system comes with it which will save you $100-200 right off. Oh, but what about Microsoft Office? That's pretty expensive (about $350). Well, I think I used Word a handful of times on my last computer and I never used Excel, so I guess I don't really need it. Then they try to stick you with the fear factor. Do you have anti-virus software or Adware? No, and I don't want it. This is where being computer savvy has its privileges. If there is a software related problem, I'll be able to fix it. Plus you can do virus scans for free on the internet and if for some reason I can't, I can always go buy anti-virus software when I actually get a virus. And the best way to avoid the need for adware is not to download all those silly free applications from the internet. What about internet access? AOL is offering 3 free months with purchase of a computer. I have DSL, nuff said. That ends that discussion. Then they try to stick you with the 3 year warranty. If anything this only provides you with warm fuzzies and convenience. I usually recommend warranties for people who can't fix their own computer. Something isn't working, you take it back to the store and they figure it out while all the time and money you spent was the effort in getting to the store. But would a car mechanic take his car to another mechanic? Certainly not! The truth is about electronics is if they are going to go bad, they go bad in the first couple weeks. If they make it that long, they'll last for 10 years at least (much longer than you'll want your computer). So if you turn on your computer and smoke pours out the back (which happened to my last new computer), it's completely covered under the manufacturer's warranty which is usually 1 year. So they weren't going to get me on the warranty either (another $200 savings).

They tried one last trick. They saw that I was buying a video card for the system. They said if I installed it myself, I void my warranty. That is just so ridiculous even if it is true. If anything, you just void free Best Buy service on it for 90 days or something like that. The manufacturer's warranty is still good. Besides, what's to stop me from taking the card out of the computer and taking it back to the store? There was no sticker on the computer that said, "by breaking this seal you void your warranty" which means Gateway would honor their warranty even if Best Buy wouldn't. It's pretty silly to think I would not be allowed to open my own computer.

So if you're interested in a quality computer for a good price, I recommend the Gateway 503GR (the bigger hard drive one is the 505GR, but just buy a bigger hard drive separately for a better value). If you're really serious about buying though, I think the price is only good until December 4. I'm kinda disappointed that Best Buy pushes the sales so hard now. They used to advertise to come to their store so you won't get hassled. I know cuz I used to work there. It's kinda funny to think those sales people trying to bully me. Man, they don't know who they're dealing with, moo ha ha! So don't get bullied by those guys. They may have some knowledge, but their interests are not your own. It was kinda funny actually going up to the counter and saying what computer I wanted like I was ordering a hamburger at McDonald's. "I'll take this video card and a Gateway 503GR...to go please." The guy was kinda stunned like no one had ever just ordered a computer by name. I guess they are used to telling what computer the person should buy after a consultation. The guy was so stunned, he was stammering through his checklist of other stuff (mentioned earlier) that I had to buy before getting a computer. "No, I just want those two things, thanks."

So during this whole ordeal, I kept thinking about how this was so much more difficult than buying a car which was strange since a car costs so much more. Here are 8 reasons why buying a computer is harder than buying a car:

1. The car dealer has only a few models to choose from and even if they look the same, they can explain the differences quite easily and it makes sense.
2. Usually a more expensive car is clearly better for alot of reasons while 2 computers can be sitting right next to each other in the store very similar in every way yet one is $600 more than the other.
3. You don't need a consultation to buy a car while it seems every person who wants to buy a computer is expected to go through a consultation.
4. When you buy a car, you get free drinks.
5. When you buy a car, people see it as a nice car for many years. When you buy a computer, people see it as a nice computer for about 3 months.
6. Cars don't need anti-virus or adware software or a firewall (not yet anyway).
7. You don't have to worry about buying a really fast car so that it will still run at the speed limit a few years down the road.
8. No matter what decade you buy a car, they pretty much all work the same way, while with every new computer it seems you have to learn the latest version of Windows all over again.

How funny, 10 years ago, I would never have owned a Gateway computer. The times sure have changed.