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How to pick a desktop or laptop computer |
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Page 3 of 3  1 year warranty is a minimum. - Rule number seven: Protect your investment.
Ensure that the computer you are about to buy comes with at least 1 year of hardware warranty. Unfortunately, many computer makers are cutting corners by limiting the standard warranty to only 90 days. This is not a good practice.
Consider getting an extra accidental damage protection when spending more than $1500.00 on a laptop, or more than $1000.00 on laptop for kids. The accidental damage protection costs extra, but it covers all damage to the computer, including spillage (coffee, tea, coke, water) and physical damage like cracked Laptop LCD screen which is still very expensive to repair.
- Rule number eight: Before committing to a brand, check their support options and the manufacturer’s web site. These are very good indicators of the overall quality of their products.
- Rule number nine: If you plan to use the computer to play the latest games, get it with a dedicated video card, at least 1GB of RAM, and avoid Celeron, Duron, and Semptron branded CPUs. Dedicated video card means that the computer has a specialized add-on card which handles the video processing and generates 3-D graphics. If the video is a part o the motherboard, it will not be adequate for most games. Also, good dedicated video cards are expensive and there are a lot of them.
If you don’t know which one to pick, determine your budget and ask around on the Internet. People in places like forums.anandtech.com will be more than happy to help you out get the most out of your money. To summarize, the amount of RAM memory is the most important parameter one should consider when shopping for a computer. 512 MB of RAM memory is the minimum any computer (desktop and laptop) has to have for a comfortable work. Consider more to make your system “future proof”. Good luck with your purchase.
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