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PC Purchase Check List: What You Should Know Before You Buy a Desktop or a Laptop ComputerLast updated on 5 May 2010
On this page... Click the relevant link to visit the following topics. - Use your browser's Back button to backtrack. 2. - The PC check list expanded... 3. - Computer Shopper UK - Buying Advice - hardware and software 4. - Obtaining redress through the Small Claims Court 5. - Using eBay safely PC purchase check list1. - Obtain a parts' specification that includes every component of the PC and a description of the nature of the software, which can be supplied in several different forms that come with varying rights. Most of the major PC manufacturers, such as Dell, provide detailed specifications of each of its desktop PCs and laptop PCs. Visit the Desktop PCs section of this site for information on how to buy, build, repair, fix, and protect the various types of desktop PCs. Visit the Laptop/Notebook PCs section of this site for information on buying, protecting, and fixing problems with them. Before purchasing an extended warranty, obtain a copy and read the small print. Weigh up the cost of an extended warranty against the likely cost of having repairs done by a third party after the statutory 12-month protection period, or learning from books how to do the repairs yourself. Desktop PCs have a modular design that enables their parts to be replaced very easily. You can check if the components are the latest ones available by reading the advertisements in computer magazines or by telephoning one of the small, local vendors for advice. Some computer vendors are like the grocer that includes an old apple among the fresh ones to get rid of old stock. For a brand new computer, a standard ATX motherboard from one of the major manufacturers and a standard ATX case are essential. Beware of non-standard, proprietary makes of motherboards (mainboards) and cases that can be used by companies such as HP, Compaq, Packard Bell, Dell, Olivetti, and Gateway. Upgrades for customised, non-standard cases can usually only be supplied by the manufacturer, usually at a premium over standard components. 2. - Find out if the software that is provided with the computer is pre-installed and is provided on CD/DVDs, or if it is only pre-installed and is backed up by a Recovery Disk (aka Recovery CD/DVD), which merely contains a restorable image of the system as it was when it left the factory. The recovery system could also use a CD/DVD to access a hidden partition on the system's hard disk drive that contains a master image of the system as it was when it left the factory. Find out if a Recovery CD/DVD is provided with the system, because, believe it or not, some vendors/manufacturer's do not supply one. It is best if a PC (desktop or laptop) comes with a Windows CD/DVD and CDs/DVDs of all of the software installed on the machine, but most PCs only come with a Recovery CD/DVD. If your PC came with a Windows XP/Vista CD/DVD, it provides recovery options and tools. See Recovering Windows XP on this site for methods of recovering Windows XP. For information on Windows Vista, read the information on the Using Windows Vista section of this site. Note well that if you install new hardware and Windows asks for its CD to be installed in the CD drive, you won't be able to do this, because the Recovery Disk is not a Windows CD, it only contains an image of Windows as it was when it was first installed on the computer. The Windows CD contains all of the system files that its setup program installs all at once or to order. Moreover, by using the Recovery Disk, you'll probably lose all of the data and/or the programs you have added to the system. Click here! to go to the information on creating back-ups on this site. 3. - Find out what the statutory 12-month warranty provides. A return-to-base (RTB) warranty usually involves paying the delivery cost to the repair site; something that might have to be done half a dozen times or more. An on-site 12-month service warranty is far superior to a return-to-base warranty. Any guarantee or warranty is worthless if the company or vendor goes out of business. This is more likely to happen to small firms than big, well-established ones. See the Warranties page on this site for more information on this subject. 4. - If you intend to purchase a brand-name proprietary make of computer, such as Dell, HP, Compaq, MSI, and Gateway, find out if the company has a website that provides BIOS and software device driver updates for its computers, and look into any terms and conditions that might apply to the use of the service. For example, free access might expire with the twelve-month statutory warranty. Be aware that the brand-name computer manufacturer might use components that have been customised for its products, made by third-party companies that provide BIOS (in the case of motherboard manufacturers) and system device driver updates, from their websites for the products that they sell via public vendors, but you might have to obtain these updates from the brand-name computer manufacturer itself, because they cannot be obtained from the third-party manufacturers. This is commonly the case with the video drivers for laptop/notebook computers, which have to be downloaded from the computer's site because the video chip manufacturer does not provide drivers for video chips that have been custom-made for that computer manufacturer. If the brand-name company does not provide these updates, you will have to obtain them from the third-party manufacturers of the components, so it is advisable to find out if they are available, and under what conditions, before you make a purchase. If this is your first purchase, and you do not have access to the Internet, you can make use of a cyber café to gain access to the relevant websites. 5. - Find out exactly what kind of after-sales support is provided. This can be supplied over premium-rate phone numbers with support staff encouraged to waste as much time as possible. If the company is a high-volume supplier, the local-call or national-call lines might be so busy that you can easily spend tens of hours on the telephone to sort problems out. In which case, it would be cheaper to call in a freelance technician, or take the computer to a local vendor for diagnosis and repair. 6. - Always make purchases with a credit card, because, if the company you are making a purchase from goes out of business, or fails to deliver your order, your credit-card company will usually refund the purchase price. Debit and Switch cards do not provide such protection. The protection provided by a credit card can apply to the primary card holder only, so, if a secondary holder of the card intends to use it to make a large purchase, make sure that he or she is covered by the terms and conditions of use. If necessary, ask the card company's advice on the matter. 7. - Look out for hidden costs. For example, even though you have made the purchase from a retail outlet, the company may deliver the goods from a distribution centre and so charge you for the delivery. Some companies can charge a small fortune for delivery, which, when taken into account, would have meant being able to get a better deal elsewhere. 8. - Don't be taken in by bundled extras of software and hardware. The software might not be of much use, and bundled hardware such as printers and cameras may be junk, or of poor quality. You can use the Google search box at the top of this page to search for reviews and articles. Cheap inkjet printers, for instance, usually make up for being cheap by having extra-expensive ink replacement costs. 9. - Make sure that you are insured. Some household insurance policies won't cover computer equipment unless it is specifically named on the policy schedule. It should only take a telephone call to your insurance company to make sure that your new computer is covered against fire and theft. Pirated software10. - If you buy a desktop or notebook (laptop) computer from a small-time dealer you run the risk that the installed software, including Windows itself, has been illegally pirated. If that is the case, you would soon find yourself unable to download or install updates, or experience other problems. You would then probably have to pay for the legitimate software in order to put yourself on the correct footing. Microsoft has the following page on its site that can validate its software: Windows comparison Guide - http://www.microsoft.com/resources/.../windows/default.aspx?displaylang=en But it's unlikely that you'll be able to use the validator before buying a computer from a small-time dealer that has illegal software preinstalled. Therefore, it's sound advice to buy computers only from well-established vendors or dealers that have a good reputation. RAM memory and storage capacity11. - You should make sure that any desktop or laptop PC that you buy has the amount of RAM memory to run the version of Windows it is using and for your own particular computing needs. The current versions of Windows in use and supported by Microsoft are Windows XP and Windows Vista, which have different minimum and maximum memory requirements that vary further if the version is a 32-bit or 64-bit version. Visit the RAM section of this site for more information on memory. If you need to store large files and images or large numbers of files, you should make sure that the computer has a large hard disk drive. The date of writing this is January 2009 and it is now possible to buy desktop PC hard disk drives with 1TB (terabyte) of disk space, which according to the drive manufactures standard is 1,000GB (gigabytes). A gigabyte (GB) is 1,000 MB (megabytes). Software developers, which include Microsoft, use the binary standard in which a megabyte (MB) is 1024 kilobytes (KB), a gigabyte is 1024 megabytes, and a terabyte is 1024 gigabytes, so Windows will always report less disk space than the manufacture's specification for a particular hard disk drive, because its units of measurement are larger. It is now possible to buy laptop hard disk drives with 500GB of disk space. Some laptop PCs now use Solid State Drives - SSD drives instead of a hard disk drive, or come with both a standard hard disk drive and an SSD drive. The maximum disk space provided by SSD drives is considerably less than that provided by hard disk drives, because the flash memory used by SSD drives is much more expensive than the magnetic platters used in hard disk drives. With a desktop PC in a standard ATX case, or a proprietary case, made by Dell, HP, etc., with sufficient interior space, you can install multiple hard disk drives; with laptops if you want to add more disk space you have to make use of an external hard disk drive, which come in standard and portable versions. Visit the Disk Drives section of this website for more information on them. Information on SSD drives is included.
The PC check list expanded...Insist on being supplied with a full written specification of the computer's hardware. If you are buying the computer because of the software that comes with it, make sure that all of the software is included is unrestricted versions on CDs/DVDs. If you have a problem with installed software, such as Microsoft Office, you don't want to have to run a Recovery Disk that re-installs the entire system as it was when the computer left the factory every time you have a problem with it, you want to make use of the software's repair features that run from its own CD/DVD. Note well that the software provided with a computer can often be limited by a trial period, or is restricted in some other way. The computer's specification should include the type and make of the graphics (video), and sound adapter cards (on ISA, PCI or AGP cards, or integrated on the motherboard). Intel makes the most well known motherboard chipsets, but there are other very reputable manufacturers, such as VIA Technologies Inc., SIS, and Ali. Read the Motherboard page on this site for more information on chipsets. If you are using Windows XP/Vista, visit the RAM pages on this site to read some useful information. If you are buying a new computer, you should know the make of motherboard it contains. Before buying a new computer or upgrading an existing computer's motherboard, it is always a good idea to visit the motherboard's website (no proper website, no buy!). A summary of the motherboard's specifications will usually be supplied. For the information in detail, most motherboard manufacturer's sites allow you to download whole motherboard manuals. These let you know exactly where you stand with regard to the motherboard's specifications and its upgradability. If you can't identify your motherboard click here! to go directly to the links to some free software/hardware identification utilities on the second of the four Links pages on this site. If you want a quick way to identify a PC's processor, motherboard, and RAM, the free CPU-Z is ideal. It provides plenty of information on those components in Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7. Buy a computer with an on-site repair warranty in preference to one with a return-to-base warranty. Instead of purchasing an expensive extended warranty, obtain a book on how to repair and upgrade a PC. You will be surprised how easy and satisfying it is to do your own maintenance and upgrading. In my opinion, Computer Shopper is the best PC magazine for technical and programming information (its website is called Expert Reviews), and its sister publication, PC Pro, is the best source of drivers, Microsoft Service Packs, and other useful free software that would be much more expensive to download from websites. The processor upgradability is an important issue. Make sure that the speed of the processor installed in the PC is stated in the PC's written specification. If the computer has, say, a 1000MHz (1GHz) processor fitted, and the motherboard can only accommodate upgrades that run at, say, 1100MHz (1.1GHz), you will have to replace the motherboard if you want to run the 2.0GHz and 3.0GHz processors that are available. The make and model of a PC's motherboard sound also be made available. You can then visit its manufacturer's website and download the user manual in order to find out the the maximum speed of the processors it can run. [1 gigahertz (GHz) = 1,000 megahertz (MHz)] Unless all you do with a computer is use office applications and surf the Internet, avoid purchasing a computer that has the sound and video chips integrated on the motherboard. An integrated sound capability is often acceptable, but given that modern video cards are monsters, both in their graphics rendering abilities and in the amount of RAM they use, a video chip integrated into the motherboard that has to use system RAM is not likely to be up to running latest games and DVD movies, etc., in an acceptable manner. Desktop PC manufacturers such as Dell often use motherboards which have integrated sound and video chips in their cheapest models. Since only the high-end video chips made by nVidia and ATI are capable of playing the latest games properly, you could only reliably use a computer that has its video chip built into its motherboard as an office workstation. All too often, computers advertised as family PCs have motherboards that have integrated video and sound chips. If this is the case, you should research the individual components by using the Google search engine to find out if they meet your computing needs. There is a Google search box provided at the top of this page that you can try using (with its Web radio button enabled). Remember also that for certain uses, TV tuner cards, video-capture cards, and DVD (Digital Video Disk) drives may need to be attached to the graphics and/or sound card. If the chips for these are integrated on the motherboard, those devices will only be able to be linked to them if there are special attachment points built into the motherboard, which is all too often not the case. In any case, the technology involved in integrated video chips always lags behind the technology used in video cards, since it is first developed in video cards and then has to be adapted so that the chips can be integrated on to motherboards. Making sure that it works properly directly from the motherboard takes additional time. Video card technology becomes outdated fast enough, so why start out with something that is outdated to begin with? The moral of the story: unless your computing needs are very basic, save yourself a lot of bother and do not buy a new computer with a motherboard (or a replacement motherboard) that comes with integrated sound and video chips. Buying advice - hardware and softwareThis page on the US Computer Shopper site provides good buying advice on desktop and laptop PC and all of their components and peripheral devices such as printers, cameras, MP3 players, etc. - http://computershopper.com/buying-guides/ Obtaining redress through the Small Claims CourtThere is a limit on the size of claim you can pursue in an action through a Small Claims Court in the UK, but it is often within the limit if you are trying to force a computer vendor to restore a computer to proper working order, or even to restore it to the same state it was in when you purchased it, because it is not uncommon for a computer to be sent in for repairs and to be returned in a damaged state - and still not working. For this reason, it is advisable to have witnesses examine the computer, and then take photographs of the back, front, and inside of the case and monitor (if it is also returned) before you send it in for repairs. It is also a good idea to place small marks on the motherboard, PCI and AGP cards, and RAM modules, by using, say, Typex, to ensure that the same ones are returned, because it is not uncommon for high-spec cards to be replaced with lower-spec ones by service personnel. Pre-litigation stepsIf legal action is being contemplated against a limited company in the UK, check to make sure that the company isn't already in liquidation, and obtain confirmation of the company's registered address: http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ If legal action is being contemplated against an individual in the UK, check to make sure that he or she hasn't already been declared bankrupt by downloading and completing a K15 Land Charges Search application: http://www.landreg.gov.uk/assets/library/documents/k15.pdf If you want to find out if the defendant has any outstanding county court judgements against his or her name, contact the Registry Trust, 173-175, Cleveland Street, London, W1T 6QR. You can also find out if an individual owns a particular property. Fly-by-night dealers usually rent property, so if the individual owns the trading property, that's a good sign that you'll be able to get your money back. Go here to do that - http://www.landreg.gov.uk/online. Here is a useful Small Claims Court site in the UK: SMALL CLAIMS COURT ADVISORY SERVICE (THE SMALL CLAIMS BUREAU) - http://www.small-claims.co.uk/ You can use Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled) to find relevant sites in the US, and others in the UK. Using eBay safelyNote that when you have registered with any eBay site, you can trade on any of its sites worldwide. But not all sellers accept international bids. 1. - Do some research. Find out how long a particular seller has held an eBay account. Look at the kind of customers the seller is attracting by examining his or her feedback record. Has he or she got positive feedback from a wide variety of purchasers? The purchasers have links that allows you to contact them by e-mail. Remember that a seller can build up a positive feedback record by selling cheap goods (£1 keyrings, etc.) and then start selling expensive items that don't exist. A fraud of this kind was perpetrated recently by Russell Dana Smith, who was arrested in June 2003 for a $1 million eBay scam. The scam was active for only two weeks before it was discovered, but during that time over a thousand people had sent Mr Smith's company, Liquidation Universe, a $1000 cheque for a notebook computer that was never received by any of them. His company had been trading legitimately in high-value electronic goods for eight months on eBay, and had a genuine positive feedback record containing over 750 entries. Liquidation Universe was also registered with the eBay SquareTrade verification service on which it had a protection level of $1000. Unfortunately this protection scheme covers the company as a whole, not the individual bidders, who can therefore only look forward to receiving an amount calculated by dividing the cover of $1000 by the number of conned bidders - less than a dollar each. 2. - Look for inconsistencies such as the seller trading under one name and asking the cheque to be made payable to another name or address. 3. - Check to find out who else is bidding on the auction. eBay allows certain bona fide sellers to elect to have the auctions held privately so that third-parties cannot contact the bidders with offers of their own or impersonate the seller, but most auctions for inexpensive items have to allow you to view the other bidders. If several bidders with no feedback record of their own are bidding, or some of the bidders have an image of a pair of spectacles beside their names as a warning of a recent change in their registered details, it is highly likely that the bids are being increased artificially. 4. - If you are a seller that ships goods internationally, be extra-cautious if the bidder lives in a place that is well known for fraudulent or counterfeit activity. If in doubt, insist on using the escrow service that charges a fee to accept the purchasers payment, and then informs the seller to send the goods when the payment is cleared. 5. - If you use a credit card for payment, use one that operates an online fraud-protection scheme. Avoid using a debit card because it offers no protection, and never pay in cash. 6. - Keep a track of the transaction by saving screen shots of the relevant webpages, including the sellers feedback record. You should make back-up copies to a recordable CD or floppy disk. You wil have to deal with eBay customer support if there are problems. Read the terms and conditions of use of an eBay site to find out about the fraud protection that eBay itself provides. 7. - Never deal with anyone who contacts you from outside the eBay community. When you bid on an item, your contact details are displayed under the Bidding History, and this allows people to make contact with you. Usually they make offers to sell you the same item or similar goods from outside the eBay community. If eBay has verified the bona fides of a trader, it is possible for that trader to elect to have private auctions that show no bidding history so that this kind of scam doesn't occur. But a bidding history will be shown for most items, because it is very useful for other bidders to see who else is bidding. Phoney bids are usually placed by people who have just registered, have no feedback record, or have recently changed their contact details, in which case the image of a pair of spectacles shows beside their registered name as a warning. There is also a scam involving e-mails supposedly from eBay that look genuine and require confirmation of your eBay account details, saying that your ability to trade using eBay will be impaired if you don't confirm them. Ebay never requires its registered buyers and sellers to confirm their account details by e-mail. Sundry commentsI know of established traders that sell expensive items (such as precision watches) that used to accept credit-card payments but stopped doing so because of the level of fraud they encountered. Those same traders have also usually stopped accepting payment via PayPal (now owned by eBay), because if the credit-card number used to register with PayPal is later reported as having been stolen, or having been used fraudulently, the money is removed from the trader's account. It is all too easy for a credit card's owner to say that the card number was used fraudulently, or was stolen, because the police are unlikely to search the delivery address for the goods or conduct other investigations in order to determine if they were legitimately received or not. The police don't have the staff to deal with all of the frauds, the courts don't have the time to prosecute them, and it's cheaper for the credit card company to write off the losses than have staff attend court cases. Most of the confidence tricksters use their repertoire of conning tricks from outside the eBay community. They obtain the details of a trader's eBay shop and then make contact directly by using untraceable mobile phones and Hotmail addresses under the pretence of making a general enquiry. Usually they have something to sell the trader, because tricking a trader by making a fraudulent purchase doesn't usually work. Inside the eBay community, the biggest problem is non-paying bidders, who make up about ten percent of winning bidders. Most traders accept this as an inevitable part of trading life in the eBay community, because they know never to send the goods until the payment has been received via an Internet company such as PayPal, or has been cleared by a bank. If a successful fraud takes place, the police are usually not of much use, because, strange as it may seem, they have little understanding of the law involved in online trading, or even how to catch the culprits. If someone was caught stealing a television set from a trader, the police would be able to deal with the matter, but if the television was stolen fraudulently online, they are usually all at sea as to what to do about it. Neither should too much faith be placed in the feedback records of the sellers. Why? - Because too many people have multiple eBay identities that are used to build up artificial feedback and trading histories, or to bid on their own items. The latest scam I've come across involving PayPal involves the fraudster ordering products via eBay in the UK from somewhere far away like the USA, refusing to pay the extra for tracking the goods, insisting that they're sent by seamail instead of airmail, and then after a few weeks, complaining to PayPal that the goods haven't arrived. Deliveries by seamail can take more than a month. Desperate sellers have been in contact with PayPal to explain the situation, but have still had PayPal refund the payment to the buyer for non-delivery, and have had their PayPal account charged with the amount of the purchase. The moral of this story: always insist that the buyer has to pay the extra for tracking for expensive goods, or goods that can take a long time to deliver and which can't be sent by recorded or registered delivery. Advice and Tips on eBay: http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebaycenter http://www.freewarehof.org/ebay.html Tools for eBay: http://www.hammertap.com/index.html http://www.auctionessentials4u.com/ Book: "eBay Hacks, Second Edition" by David A. Karp -http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/ebayhks2/
PC Buyer Beware! Copyright © Eric Legge 2004-2010. All rights reserved. | |||
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