It’s that time again.  Back-to-school is upon us and the pressure is on for a new computer.  What should you get? Let this guide… well… guide you!

General suggestions

-if you are planning on purchasing a Windows machine, I would suggest waiting for the October 22 release of Windows 7 – while I generally do NOT suggest using a new Microsoft OS within 6 months of its release, Windows 7’s pre-release versions have really proven themselves solid – I give it a solid thumbs up!

-many Vista machines now sold qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released, but my recommendation above still stands, as major operating system upgrades never seem to run as smoothly as a clean install.

-as per a previous blog, insist on 64-bit if getting a Windows machine; if you have a application that will not work in a 64-bit OS, go with good ol’ Windows XP while you still can: it’s still the most compatible OS around.

-a “dual-core” CPU, or “brain” if you will, should be standard in almost any computer these days. You’ll also see “triple-core” and “quad-core” out there, but for the vast majority of software out there right now, you won’t see any benefit going above 2 cores. If you do need 4 cores, chances are you are in an industry that already knows it needs 4 cores, and I don’t need to tell you.  Regardless, if you are thinking of getting into high quality photo or video editing in the near future, or hardcore gaming, it won’t hurt to get a quad-core now

-no new computer, outside of netbooks, should come with less than 2GB of RAM. 2GB should be plenty for most people for the next couple of years, but considering the price of RAM currently, I suggest everyone get 4GB from the get-go and never have to worry about it again (until the next computer that is)

-a laptop is NOT a desktop.  I have had many ask me about replacing their aging desktop with a new laptop. The response is always the same: do you need the mobility? If the answer is no, stick with a desktop.   Laptops have much poorer ergonomics (either your head/neck/eyes are in the right position, or your wrists are, but never both), the screens have much worse contrast, color, and viewing angle than even a lower-end desktop monitor, are much more susceptible to overheating and harddrive failure, have greater repair downtime, have very little expandability (the harddrive and RAM are the only practical upgrades) and are generally lower spec’d than a similarly priced desktop. If you’ve come to expect 5 year lifespans from your computers, prepare to have a rude awakening if a laptop is your new primary computer.

-ASSUME the computer will fail, because it will eventually. Now ask how long the expected downtime is.  Now ask yourself if that length of downtime is acceptable.  If the answer is no, choose another computer.

Under $500

For portables, you’re limited to netbooks and AMD-based laptops (with the occasional Pentium Dual-Core on sale for $499, which is a fair deal. Celeron? Not so much) . With the former, they all have Intel “Atom” CPUs, which are very power efficient (some netbooks have over 8 hours of battery life), but also have very poor performance. Expect rendering of webpages to be noticeably slower on a netbook, and higher quality video will likely stutter badly. Netbooks also come without an optical drive, which may be a deal-killer for some (although there are external drives you can buy additionally). Netbooks all have screens smaller than 12”, and are quite low-resolution, so most webpages will require you to scroll quite a bit.  The upside to all of this?  They are all lightweight, and generally run on a nice, clean, ready-to-use install of Windows XP. As for the full-sized AMD-based laptops, they are slower than their Intel-based counterparts, and have considerably less battery life.  I would definitely recommend spending the additional $100 to get an Intel-based model.

As for desktops, AMD is a little more competitive in this category, as there is no battery-life problem to worry about.  $500 and under should still get you a lower-end dual core processor (still plenty fast for the vast majority of people, both now and for the coming few years), DVD burner,  2GB+ of RAM, and up to 640GB of hard drive space.  If bundled with a monitor (generally a 19” – 22” widescreen LCD), the specs of the computer are probably on the lower end of the above estimate in order to absorb the value of the monitor (around $100 – $300).  As always, I suggest a custom built system from a reputable technician over a major name brand like HP/Acer: hidden costs can really add up when you buy from a big box retailer (between the trialware cleanup, the security software they sell you, and the in-home setup, you can easily be looking at another $300+).  Almost all sub-$500 systems come with built-in graphics cards, which may not give you the optimal picture on your monitor, and they won’t play any recent 3D games well.  It can generally be upgraded, but having a custom built PC gives you more flexibility in this regard.

As for Macs? You ain’t getting a Mac for under $500! Move on!  As for used: except for very specific circumstances, I HIGHLY recommend against used computers.

Up to $1000

Upping your budget to $1000 really opens up some options.   Any Intel-based laptop (forget AMD, they are simply not competitive in the laptop arena at the moment) between $600 and $1000 is going to perform relatively similarly to its competition in most tasks (assuming the same operating system, and not being loaded down with trialware). They should all have a dual-core Intel CPU between 2.0 and 2.66GHz, 2GB+ of RAM,  160GB+ harddrive, and DVD Burner (maybe even a Blu-ray player closer to $1000).  Screen sizes vary from 13.3” up to 17”.  Average battery life for typical use is around 3 hours, and significantly less when playing multimedia/games.  The standout in this category is the white Macbook, with average battery life of 4.5-5 hours.  Also unique about the Macbook is fairly decent built-in graphics, which makes some fairly recent 3D games playable, and helps speed up the interface in the latest ”Snow Leopard” update from Apple (for example, pictures now open up much more quickly than before).  Mind you, I only occasionally see the white Macbook on sale for $999, and even then, if you want to install Windows (and stay legit!), you’re looking at another $100+ for a Windows license, but it’s close enough that I’ll include it in this category.

As for desktops, even more so in this price range should you be looking at a custom built PC.  Most big names just throw in a high-end dual-core, or a mid-range quad core, to justify the higher price tag, when it nets most people no noticeable benefit.  With a custom build you put the extra funds into a better monitor, a solid state drive for super fast boot times and application startups, or a better graphics card.

The only Mac “desktops” under $1000 are two models of the Mac mini. Basically take the white Macbook, take off the screen, keyboard, and trackpad, scrunch it into a cute little aluminum box, and you have the Mac mini.  Is it worth it? Well, a lot of the limitations that apply to laptops also apply to the mini.  In fact, most of those limitations apply to all Macs outside of the MacPro.  I call them niche/appliance desktops, and I will address them more thoroughly in the next section.

Over $1000

The higher you go above $1000, the more you really need to ask yourself WHY you are going above $1000: going much higher than $1000 doesn’t improve quality much anymore, just performance and features. Performance/dollar quickly drops off as you approach $2000, and performance can actually DECREASE at this point to accommodate a certain feature.  Case in point: the $1749 Macbook Air. It’s inferior in almost every regard to the $1399 13” Macbook Pro… except it’s thinner and lighter.  The $2549, well-reviewed Lenovo X301, is another example of a big premium for an ultra-portable (ultra portables are basically like netbooks, except with better performance, so if you only need the ultra portability, you might want to look at netbooks first).  If you sunk those funds into a performance-oriented laptop instead, like the $1999 Alienware M17x, you could get close to the performance of a $1000 desktop, but portability and battery life goes down the drain.  To be honest, I have to give it to Apple again for a good balanced laptop in the base $1399 13” Macbook Pro.  It uses a new type of battery that gets you up to 7 hours of use: that’s the first laptop I’ve seen at this price do that while still offering a relatively fast processor.  Unless you need a Blu-ray player, or a bigger screen, or just HAVE to play the latest games on your laptop, it’s the only laptop above $1200 I can recommend at the moment.

Now for desktops: with custom builds, over $1000 means smoother, prettier gaming, bigger monitors, Blu-ray players/burners, the works.  Just like laptops, performance/dollar quickly drops off as you approach $2000 (although a $2000 desktop would outperform a $2000 laptop considerably).  Also just like with laptops, you can pay more and get less performance in order to get a certain feature.  A prime example of this is the resurgence of all-in-one PC.  The all-in-one PC has been around for as long as the PC itself.  Having the computer and keyboard, or computer and monitor, or all three in one cabinet has been around since the original Commodore, Atari, and Apple computers.  The reason we went to separate components were for rational business reasons: upgrading and repairing is much easier with separate components – it minimizes downtime for swapping out parts.  Now that computers have become so common in the household, aesthetics have taken the limelight, and people don’t want to see all those cables.

… a noble goal, but there is a price to pay…

An all-in-one PC, like the Apple iMac or the $1599+ HP Touchsmart series, basically become big laptops without a battery, with most of the associated negatives of laptops (less expandability, more downtime, paying more than you would for similar normal desktop).  I just recently set up one of the HP Touchsmarts for a client’s daughter, and she was all excited about the touchscreen and general look of the machine… until she wanted me to install her new Sims game for her.  I gave her the bad news that her brand-new machine, not even 20 minutes out of the box, was not fast enough to play her game.  Furthermore, not only was it not fast enough now, but it would NEVER be, as the graphics card couldn’t be upgraded.  You could see her re-evaluating  the importance of a touchscreen and lack of cables at that moment.   This is why I put these all-in-ones in the category of “niche” or “applicance” PCs:  you buy them for a certain, timeless purpose.  An analogy I use for these types of PCs is this: A DVD player five years later is still a DVD player, not a Blu-ray player.  It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have bought that DVD, and nor am I recommending universally against all-in-one machines… just know what to expect, and don’t expect more.

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