01/05/2022
Computer buying guide 2022:
DO NOT GET AN ALL IN ONE.
Now that that's out of the way..
Get a prebuilt full tower, they are cheaper and can be upgraded to last longer. (Or have me do it. You can get another 5 years of good performance from a PC for $300) You can buy a complete engineered PC for less than it would cost to buy the individual parts. Plus you get a warranty and sometimes tech support. There's very little margin in desktop hardware, they make their profit by bundling McAfee and Spotify type bloatware.
Don't try to build your own PC unless you are looking for a unique performance profile or just want to do it for fun.
16GB ram recommended, 8 will work if budget is limited. 24GB+ for power users.
Operating system drive should be NVMe if possible, SSD is ok, spinning drive not recommended. Should be 500GB. Budget build can get by with 250GB.
Secondary drive for storage can be a spinner. Most PCs don't come with dual drives. An external storage drive works fine if you don't feel comfortable installing a second drive. Just make sure the PC and external drive are both USB 3 compatible. If you don't have enough big files to justify a second drive, you still need it for backups. Every drive is temporary, they all die eventually. I am currently and always recommending against using OneDrive and Dropbox for backups due to shady terms & conditions, future large scale hacks, aggressive pricing increases, and people being conditioned to accept software as a service as an acceptable business model. If you really need cloud backup, I offer a very affordable and heavily encrypted cloud backup product called Savant Cloud Backup.
On-board graphics works just fine for general use. Get a discrete video card if you play video games, do graphic design, video editing, etc. Otherwise, it's not worth the cost.
Go for major brands, Dell, HP, Lenovo. Big brands tend to have a more consistent quality. Keep in mind that the Vostro, Inspiron, and Pavilion are base models. Go for Elitedesk, Optiplex, and ThinkCentre for business class machines that will never break down. They cost a little more, but you get a lot more in stability and reliability.
Smaller brands like Asus, Acer, generic no-name brands have wildly inconsistent quality. Some are great, some are trash, but you don't find out until you start using it.
Apple/Mac is good if you want to spend half your computing budget on the logo and impress the barista, otherwise, grow up and get a Windows PC.
What I do is go on Amazon, NewEgg, Microcenter, Best buy, etc, and look at the best sellers in the target price range. Get the CPU part numbers (i.e. Intel Core i7-9700K) and plug them into cpubenchmark.net. Look at the benchmark results. 5000 is the floor. 10,000 is decent, 20,000+ will melt your face off. Pick the one in your price range with the highest score. You would be surprised how stores will have a 6000 score CPU and a 9000 score CPU at basically the same price.
I also reinstall windows in any new PC. The bloatware slows down the computer and presents attack surface for cyber attacks. You can get the Windows Install Media Creation Tool for free on Microsoft's website and use the license key that came with the PC. All you need is an empty thumb drive. Installing Windows is actually pretty self explanatory. If you run into a problem, call me and I can walk you through it, it takes like 5 minutes.
Install the Ublock Origin ad blocking extension on any browser you use. Web ads are not only annoying, but also an attack vector. Windows comes with a pretty decent antivirus already included so don't let any software install piggyback an antivirus. (Adobe...) Installing any antivirus disables Windows defender. They present it as increased security, but it is the opposite. It's always a trial and they nag you to pay for a subscription. Which no one ever does.. When McAfee or Norton or whatever trial expires, the updates stop and then you have 2 antivirus products that don't work. Windows defender works just fine for web surfing and emailing grandma. If you have sensitive data (client data, medical data, financial data) then invest in real security software. Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and Eset are the best. Webroot it's really good and budget friendly.
I'm currently recommending that people hold off on windows 11 for now. If the new PC comes with Win11, that's fine, but Win10 will be supported for 3 more years, during which time Microsoft will be debugging Win11.
If you want your passwords to be secure, use a password keeper like LastPass or Roboform. Anyone who gets access to your PC can easily retrieve passwords stored in the browser.
I am keeping with my personal policy of providing free basic tech support to my friends and family.
The internet is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. It's dangerous to go alone, take this. (my advice and support)
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
