4 things you MUST know before buying ANY computer

#blackfriday #blackfridaycomputer #blackfridayscams

Not every computer deal you find on Black Friday is REALLY a good deal for you. If you don't know what you ACTUALLY need in a computer, you could very well spend more money than you need to. In this video, I briefly explain the 4 basic things you need to know when buying ANY new computer. Having this information could save you HUNDREDS of dollars at checkout!

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Scott's YouTubey stuff wish list:

💢 ALL the tools that I *highly* recommend and use personally every day...
Hardware ---
◼ 142-piece magnetic electronics precision screwdriver set with 120 bits
◼ StarTech 4-bay USB 3.0 hard drive docking station 6Gbps
◼ StarTech 2-bay USB 3.0 hard drive docking station SATA 6Gbps
◼ Netgear A6100 wifi adapter
◼ Godshark NVME to USB adapter M.2 SSD to Type-A USB 10Gbps
◼ Cordless, rechargeable air duster 6000mAh 10w fast-charging

💢 Helpful/useful everyday software ---
◼ Back up your CRITICAL data automatically with Carbonite!
◼ Ninite (used to automatically download and install your favorite software):
◼ Defraggler (used to defragment and organize your files):
◼ Open Office (Microsoft Office FREE replacement)

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[fremandg]

Good solid sound advice! There is always a balance to be struck, there’s no point in having a Rolls-Royce when all you need is a Ford.

[annamay]

Thank you for laying this out so clearly, and in an easily understandable manner. I really appreciate it!

[swallowedinthesea]

LOL, the intro! My Dad went to Microcenter and got sales pitched to buy the new Pentium 2 computer as a gift for me when I was 10 years old. I became a paraplegic from a car accident when I was 9 years old. Lived at hospital for 8 months and when I arrived home was gifted the computer - it had the whole package printer, speakers, mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc.

Found out it was $2000 and all it could play was 1996's Chex Quest that was in a cereal box (still remember the kid in me loved the game) and a golf game. Used it until 2005 when I bought a Compaq.

[MarinosMysteries]

Nice video with great info. Warranty doesn't make as big a difference here in Maine as it does other places because Maine has a 4-year implied warranty on almost everything even stuff bought online. Exceptions are used cars and such things.

[RONBONIX]

Thanks for laying it all tons of "CENTS".... Hugs from Okinawa! :)

[gfwdhxr]

Not all modern laptops allow to upgrage or add RAM so it's better to check

[SpiritintheSky.]

Excellent advice that avoids expensive mistakes.

[DosBear]

The last laptop I purchased was a Vivobook ASUS for about $325.00 Canadian and I must say I am very pleased with it. It only has 50gbs of storage space but I purchase external hard drives that holds 1.5TB's/70 bucks Canadian and store everything I want to keep on them for use on any lap or pc, mac i come across. The nicest thing about this unit is that it has no fan and no problem with overheating. I literally never shut it off. It's very light and compact so it's perfect for travelling around town etc. It has 2 usb ports and an HDMI port, so I can plug it into my 65" Webros smart TV along with my USB external HD and a USB compatible mouse. But I would not recommend it for anyone who does a lot of gaming or wants to access multiple web pages at the same time. It perfect for my purposes though. I also purchased an external Hisense sound bar for very reasonable price so I get great sound for music and movies etc. So all in all with everything included I'm set up great for about 1000 bucks total if you add in the price of the TV.

[keithbrown]

I've noticed that when it comes to phones and computers, people get "memory" tangled up. We always thought of "memory" as the amount of volatile "RAM" on the system.

But people extend that to include hd storage or permanent storage. And the sellers don't always help, certainly not online. The result-- confusion.

[underby]

you forgot video game installing on that list which trumps all those game can be over 100gigs by itself alot for me average about 30 to 50gigs

[keithbrown]

Does anyone suppose that most people or the majority of people would have the most peace of mind if they just got a Chromebook?

Trade-offs, for sure. The functionality is mostly Google's, but so is the upkeep.

Just a thought. But sometimes it's more than that.

[thomas]

You have a level headed perspective. Shoppers need to overlook the hype and get what they need.

[leonlewis]

I am part of the warranty 😂 as I'm the one building the PC 😅but this kinda works out better as most parts come with a 3 year warranty 💯

[safianimoid]

As a more technical person (I daily drive Linux if that's anything to go by)

I love how well condensed this is... There's a few technical nuanced inaccuracies that make me cringe a little but ultimately that new ones is completely irrelevant for the vast majority of non technical computer users

That being said I do find the 4-8 gb ram number to be a bit low... I feel like for basic document / web browsing applications 4 gigabytes is more than enough on a clean or well-maintained installation but given how much blow is ofteten pre-installed and configured on start up I do feel as though 8-16 seems like a better metric... I feel like 8 is enough for the majority of this video's target audience with 16 offering solid future-proofing

The only real catch is if we're discussing something like a Chromebook instead of windows in which case even 2 gb probably be sufficient for light use (though I would still say at least 4 even then)

[D.von.N]

I see this is probably more than a year old. How many PCs or laptops are sold with a spinning HDD these days?
And I have noticed some videos (haven't watched yet) mentioning issues with CPU on Win11.
But thanks for clarifying that CPU is more important than the RAM. I'll try to remember it in the future.

[wesleyrichards]

Lots of thin and light laptops now have memory that is soldered on the motherboard so is not upgradeable.

[alexr]

So you think that all the computer companies honor their warranties to the same extent. I hope that you are right! I loved the way you presented the information. It was far more rational and intelligent than the one other "computer expert's" analysis.

[ttaylor]

I'm kind of likin' the experts! 😅

[giovannipascarella]

Hey Scott, what gives the most "bang-4-your-buck" when it comes to speed? Hard drive, RAM or CPU ?

[keithbrown]

My first question when confronting my Win11 computer was, where is everything? I'm always comparing with earlier versions of Windows, where you had a clearer picture in your mind about where your files are, where those folders are, and where (in reality) are the files and folders in the directory tree.

This is what I have to work on. Because I want to know and I want control. This machine is mine, not Lenovo's, not Microsoft's.

Speaking of "everything". There is a free program by that name. And though it indexes files differently from Windows Search, it works better. It actually finds the files I'm looking for, and a few that I wasn't. : ) It can't index contents but I'm usually just looking for names.