(NC)—Canadians are spending more time on their PC than watching television, and the industry has responded with affordable computers designed to meet just about anyone's needs. With all this choice, shopping for a new computer can be intimidating, but if you are willing to do a little research up front, it's easy to get the right computer for the right price.
Before you fork over the cash, consider what you need your computer for—is it primarily for work? Surfing the internet or trolling Facebook? Are you a gamer, or do you watch movies or television on your computer? If you are looking to just surf the web and email friends and family, then investing in cutting edge processors or graphics cards is probably not the best investment for you.
For word processing, email and web surfing, there are lots of choices offering great value for your dollar. For fans of Mac, $1,200 will get you a 13 inch MacBook with a 160 GB hard drive. But for a more reasonable $849.99, you can pick up a Toshiba Portégé, with the same screen size and a much bigger hard drive at 250GB. The Toshiba Portégé runs Windows and comes in a wide array of colours so you can personalize it just for you.
Multimedia fans and PC gamers will require a Windows PC with a bit more power, allowing them to get the most out of their gaming and entertainment experiences. Here, there are a lot more factors at play, such as processor speed and graphics, so the price tag will be higher. We found a great entry level machine from Gateway at $1,800. The P-7808uFX is a 17-inch Multimedia laptop with a GHz Core 2 Quad CPU and NVIDIA's GeForce 9800M GTS graphics card is a sweet deal.
Once you know what your requirements are, take your research a step further. Retailers such as Future Shop and Best Buy offer side by side comparisons that will help you find exactly what you need at the price you want to pay.
- News Canada