You're looking for a new computer, so where do you go, your local computer store... Best Buy, Fry's, Comp USA, some other useless place. While there, you tell a trustworthy salesperson your looking for a new computer, but aren't sure what you really need. You may not notice this, but money signs are now rolling through that salesperson's eyes.

Why? Ever see that commercial for the new Core 2 Duo CPU by Intel? With lines such as "Your old computer is now obsolete" and such. This is simple marketing, yet people believe it, that they need the power held by the Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, a 1 terabyte hard drive, and Windows XP Professional not Home.

But do you really need these things? Quiet honestly, not even a little bit! Personally, I use my computer for gaming, programming, watching movies while doing the other two on a second monitor, ect. and my computer never even comes near to slowing down. Because I have a powerful system with 2 GB of ram, a server level, over clocked CPU, the works. But I truly need that sort of power, and even then I don't use it all!

Everyone is told they need this because that's where the money is, not the second generation stuff that can't be marked up as much, yet will work for you perfectly. Although I can't really cover every different perfect computer based on every different set of needs and desired usage, I can tell you this, something such as a single core AMD Athlon with 512MB of RAM and a 80GB hard drive is more than enough for your standard family computer, and that it is more than worth the time to research this stuff at home at valuable sources such as The Computer Guide.

About the Author

Adegan is an experience computer repair technician, system administrator, and programmer, with a slight history in computer sales.