Unless you are a computer guru/addict who has special needs for gaming or design work, don’t buy one with all the possible whistles and bells.
The very cheapest machines like the old Emachines product worked very well for about 1/3 the price for most users with normal computing needs. Shop around on sites like Tiger Direct or NewEgg or ebay for good prices.
Remember that most machines will begin to have problems after about three years so you’ll be faced with another purchase. The good news is that all the whistles and bells of today will probably be standard on the machines of three years hence.
Most people won’t need or ever fill up the huge storage space on some new machines. I’ve never exceeded the storage on any computer while it was still operational. RAM is the key to the average user’s happiness rather than Terrabytes of storage.
There are probably a lot of good buys right now on new machines with Windows 7 operating system. Windows 8 may be the wave of the future, but lots of folks think it is over rated as an OS for today.
just the opposite i cant even fix my wifes simple hp laptop. im sure the problem is something a 12 year old could deal with in 30 seconds or so