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Dave and the team discuss GM dropping out of CES, technology over the last 25 years, and more.

Sue in Canada asked: “What are the things I should consider when purchasing a new computer?”

Sue, the main thing you probably want to consider is what you want to do with it.

All computers are not created equal and some you want to buy something that adapts to your real-world needs so you don’t overpay and you also don’t end up with a machine that can’t handle the tasks you’d like it to take care of.

If you are asking what to consider, then you’re probably not a power user like gamers, or video editors or other professionals.

That means that you probably don’t need to worry too much about graphics and you don’t need the most powerful processor or the most RAM.

Things that may make more of a difference for you are for example SSD vs HDD. An SSD will be much faster and can greatly improve your overall user experience, but if you want to store lots of photos or other media and HDD will give you more storage for less money.

With most features more is better, more RAM is better, more storage is better, a more powerful processor is better, but most users need very little.

For example, most users will mostly use their computers as an access point for internet services, if you’re one of those users you can pick almost any computer you want and they’ll do the job reasonably well. Just stay away from the absolute cheapest ones or the more gimmicky ones and you’ll be good to go.

If you’re not like most users, your requirements will vary depending on your use case, for example, accounting software won’t require much hardware, but editing large photos will take some power.

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