by Alexander Darracott

Created on: June 06, 2009

Buying a computer is always a daunting process especially for consumers who are not very computer literate, as sales people can easily fool the consumer into buying a top of the range computer made especially for resource hungry applications such as games, when all they want to do is simply surf the Internet, write letters and manage their finances. It's an unfortunate fact but it's true: sales assistants are there to sell products to consumers, sometimes not necessarily the least expensive option, convincing consumers that they need a Pentium 4 processor running at 4GHz along with 500GB of hard drive space just to surf the Internet and write letters.

For purchasing computers from a retail shop, you need to know three important pieces of information:

Why the computer is needed within the household

Your budget limit

Your consumer rights

The first step in the process of buying a computer is to understand why a computer is needed. Understanding why a computer is needed determines the power and computer functionality that is required for the task or series of tasks to be completed, but naturally a computer illiterate person will have no idea what hardware they require, even if the know their own computer requirements hence the tendency for them to spend more than they really need. There are many possible reasons and requirements for the use of a computer, so I have categorised them as Simple requirements and Complex requirements. Simple requirements are those that do not need complex, expensive pieces of hardware in order to be satisfied. Examples of simple requirements include surfing the Internet and using basic Internet applications (browsers, E-Mail client, etc), using a word processor or other office application, low-intensive Desk Top Publishing work, listening to music and playing old or basic games. Complex requirements need the more complex, expensive pieces of hardware in order to be satisfied. Examples of complex requirements include running the latest games, watching or editing video and carrying out heavy graphics or animation work. The power of the hardware that is required should be relevant to the category of requirements that they fall under: for example, a Pentium 4 processor running at 4GHz is wasted on simple requirements; similarly, a 500GB hard drive is wasted on users who simply want to store spreadsheets and word processed documents, and other such low processor intensive data. In any event, ideally,

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