Laptop/PC Purchasing Advise
Many people when they decide that it’s time to purchase a new laptop head straight for the High Street where prices are around £400-£500 at this time.
These new computers are usually good machines but in my opinion have specifications that are well beyond the needs of most people. There is absolutely no need to pay up to £500 for a new computer unless you are going to be doing something like processing high resolution video or high-end gaming.
The other thing that happens on the High Street is that customers are ‘cross-sold’ antivirus products and Microsoft Office and other things like accidental damage insurance.
Customers assume they are getting sound advice, but the advice revolves around selling another product that isn’t necessarily needed. Since fear plays a big part in ‘staying safe’ online - it’s even easier to persuade a customer to buy one of the well known AV packages.
Due to how quickly technology advances and how quickly consumers swap out old technology for the newest, latest model - the secondhand market is saturated with fully working, reasonably priced laptops that are actually more suitable for your average computer user than a brand new £500 machine. The actual electronics inside usually last pretty well and with a quick refurb, SSD upgrade & Windows 10 installed - they will perform well without breaking the bank.
I typically look for specs as follows;
Windows 10 now has a good level of security built into a standard and free antivirus packages are readily available and perfectly adequate for most people. In my opinion you don’t need to spend £50-100 per year on antivirus. You would be better served by updating all your online passwords since that is a security risk that is more of an issue for most people.
It’s often easy to find such a laptop with a 12 month warranty.
If you are unsure of buying a refurb I can do it for you (for a small fee) and transfer your data over from your old machine. I do this regularly and will purchase the machine, check it over, install a free version of office & free antivirus and transfer your data and deliver (assuming you are in Cardiff and/or surrounding areas).