Back in March the ol’ home PC decided that it was time to give up the ghost. And, debt-or-no-debt, doing without wasn’t really an option. But I certainly didn’t want to empty a savings account or, worse yet, throw it on a credit card.
As I mentioned at least once before, I do a bit of computer tech work, so I was pretty comfortable deciding what was needed and what was not. Just in case you are in the same boat as I was, here’s a few money saving tips on buying that new PC:
- Never buy a top of the line computer. That is, unless you really enjoy paying double what the same system will set you back in six months.
- Most preconfigured systems come with marginally adequate amount of memory at best. There are ways to go cheap on a computer; this is not one of them. Memory is by far the cheapest bang for buck. Get at least one gigabyte of it.
- Unless you are a hardcore DVD or music pirate, a 300 gigabyte hard drive is overkill. Oh, and good luck backing that all up!
- If buying a Dell/Gateway/HP/Compaq/etc. pre-configured system, choose a “without antivirus” option if possible. You can get excellent antivirus protection with the free version of AVG. As a plus, you won’t have to suffer with the spectacular piece of junk that is Norton Antivirus.
- The big money saver? For most people, the bloat that is Microsoft Office just isn’t necessary. There are many, many alternatives that do the job of almost any MS app just as well, if not better, for the much more reasonable cost of zero.
- For word processing and spreadsheets, OpenOffice is wonderful. As is Google Docs. Or for that matter, ThinkFree. Or WriteBoard. Or EditGrid. Or Zoho. Or… well, you get the point. Let’s just say, there’s a few options.
- What about email? You’ll have to pry my Gmail account from my cold dead hands. (And if you feel like really integrating what Google offers, Google Apps is really pretty painless to set up.) Yahoo Mail. Or even Hotmail. On the other hand, if a desktop application is your thing, Thunderbird might be your thing.
- Calendaring? Google Calendar. 30 Boxes. Remember The Milk. Kiko. Yahoo Calendar. Again, lots of options — and seemingly more every few days!
- PowerPoint? Just say no.
Ok, if you must: Empressr. Or Spresent. Or Zoho Show. But really, best yet:
Just Say No! One more wasted hour sitting through another poorly thought out PowerPoint meeting (which is almost every one) that could have been taken care of more effectively with a simple handout and I may flip out…
Using those tidbits of knowledge, I easily knocked $200+ off an already ridiculously cheap system, and am happier with the end product to boot! 
