"Buy 'em cheap and buy 'em often" is a phrase that I use alot when helping people understand my approach to computers. Since any computer you buy, no matter how much you spend, is only designed for today's uses, I don't like to over spend on a computer expecting it to last longer. I suggest that you buy your computer based on the most you need right now and when new uses come along in 4-6 years, just buy a new computer.
However, I saw a brand new Dell today that was a good example of why my advice shouldn't be interpreted as "buy the cheapest thing on the shelf."
Dell loves to advertise $399-$499 computers in their ads. I saw one of those machines today. It had a 2.4 ghz processor, 256 MB of RAM, no recovery disks and a 60 gigabyte hard drive.
While this system will run, it does it terribly slow and newer software will really have problems running on it.
I called Dell and ordered another 256MB of RAM and recovery disks. Now their $499 computer is a $599 computer and the specs are still lower than what they could have got from a store for $600.
My advice should not be understood as a recommendation to shop by price alone. Make sure you know your product. Compare the specs from every brand and price to see if what you are getting is truly a good deal or just a cheap computer. Our current minimum computer should have the following minimum specs:
Looking at these features will net you a great computer that will last for years. If the machine meets these three specs, the rest of the machine will be fine. And you can usually get a PC with these specs for less than $600-700.
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if you buy cheap you get cheap