Which Computer Is Right for Me?

Suppose your old desktop went belly up today.  You need a replacement.  Or do you?  Which computer should you get?

To a techie, this is a challenging question.  Why?  Because there are so many assumptions and requirements that go into a decision, and I want to make all of them explicit.  My personality wants to make a flow chart that pulls out all the assumptions, considers all the technical possibilities as well as the financial issues, and, when used, recommends just the right "computer"  (desktop, laptop, netbook, iPad, tablet, smart phone, camera, microwave oven, or whatever).  However, I do realize that by the time I finished the flowchart, it would be out of date.  By the time you had gone a couple of steps, you would be saying "what is this guy doing?  Good grief!"  Or words to that effect.

So, I'm going to take some shortcuts by stating some basic assumptions and then giving you a couple of choices that are reasonable, though perhaps not the absolute best, if all options were considered.

Assumptions on Usage:

• eMail
• Browsing the web
• Some business documents
• Photo storage, but not fancy photo editing
• Some video streaming, but not video editing
• (optional) music storage, some listening, but no intense audio and no editing
• Some book reading using a PC/Mac app
• Taxes and home business
• Skype or similar
• Simple games, like solitaire; no high intensity interactive games

Quality:  It used to be computers were manufactured for around a 10 year life span, though individual components might fail.  Some computer brands might strive for that today, but the majority seem to be designed to last through the warranty period.  Realistically, figure that a computer has a expected life span of 3 years.  Why the drop in quality?  My background is computer design and manufacture.  The short answer has two parts.  First, we are dealing with China as the primary manufacturer.  They will cut corners and use inferior materials whenever they can get away with it.   Both by specification and by culture, they will pass up the kinds of tests that weed out those computers that will fail early (called early life failures).  Second, the technology continues to change at a high rate and margins are shrinking.  So they figure customers should and will buy a computer every three years.

Recommendations:  First, type "home desktop reviews" in your search engine and visit a couple of sites.  Here is one.  Second, look for "home desktop quality repair" to find something recent on quality.  My own experience is that HP has the poorest quality.  Dell comes next.  Lenovo and Asus seem to have the best quality, but you have to be careful there to make sure the mother board has been properly tested.  (See quality discussion.  I'll have to write another article on how to tell at a later time.  For now just assume they are OK.)  All the rest are in the middle, changing positions depending on the article.  Oh, Macs... most articles will rate Macs highest in quality.  Of course they cost more for what you get.  On the other hand, my experience on Mac quality is mixed.

Features you will need:

• i5 Processor.  There are several speeds and several models.  Get the latest generation (4) if it is in your budget range.  Read some background here.
• 1TB hard drive should be enough
• 8 GB RAM  (if you can spring for 16GB, the more the better)
• ethernet port 10/100/1000... make sure the 1000 is there
• At least 2 USB 3.0 ports and some 2.0 ports.  You'll need the 3.0 ports for the newer flash drives and plug ins.  3.0 is much faster. 
• At least 1 HDMI port.  If you want to run 2 monitors at once, make sure there are 2 digital video outputs  (the white video outs or HDMI).  Here you have to make some decisions on your monitor.  Most of the older monitors only have an analog port.  (that 15 pin \   / shame).  Link to explanation of video output types. You'll need to move away from that.  
• Video should support HD (1080p)  (Explanations)
• Audio doesn't make that much difference given the assumptions.  
• A DVD reader/writer.  Blue ray if you think you will watch blue ray
• Microphone input
• Bluetooth can substitute for some USB ports, especially for laptops

Note that I did not include one of those devices where you can plug different kinds of flash cards into the computer.  That isn't necessary given the assumptions.  I assume you can plug any phone or camera into your computer using a USB cable.

Regarding operating system... For Apple you have one choice.  For a PC, you can have Windows 7, Windows 8, Google, or some Linux variant, such as Ubuntu.  Discussion of these is beyond the scope of this post.  Though Windows 8 reviews tend to be hysterically on the negative side, I haven't found a problem with it.  But you would need for me to show you how to use it in a way that feels familiar to you- kinda works like Windows XP.  If you just don't want to deal with it, you can usually get Windows 7, but that will be less and less true.

Some miscellaneous comments:

• All in ones, where the screen and computer are combined... They tend to be hard to service and can run hot. It is up to you but I wouldn't get one.
• The small desktops.  These run from about a foot tall to hockey puck size.  The latter doesn't have the features.  The former may have the features, but my experience is that they don't have adequate heat management and, therefore, tend to fail earlier.
• Laptops instead of desktops:  whatever you want- do the cost tradeoff.  Remember, you can use a separate keyboard, mouse, and monitor.  

Now, some suggestions on models.  I will keep to under $700 (I will add to these in the next couple of days):

• ASUS CM6730-US010S 
• I wasn't able to find a comparable in a Lenovo... it doesn't appear they are in the standard size tower business for the specs I gave above. 
• Lenovo IdeaPad G780 Brushed Metal Laptop Intel Core i5-3230M 2.6GHz (a laptop- look at Costco site)  The screen isn't super good, but you can always get another monitor