Well today we had a laptop dropped in for a service by an elderly gentleman.  It was really slow and becoming frustrating for him to use.

Upon inspection the computer was so slow, we immediately suspected an actual hardware fault, or a bad virus/spyware infection, "my computer" took nearly 10 minutes to open and when it finally opened, we were horrified to see that it had 468mb RAM and was running windows vista, one of the most resource-hungry operating systems ever made, which is only happy with 1024mb and really becomes useable with 2048mb (2 gigabytes) or more!

I thought to myself, no wonder everyone hated vista when it first came out.  This is disgraceful on the manufacturers part to produce a machine with this woefully inadequate hardware that is barely capable of even running the operating system at idle, let alone any applications, games or anything fun that the user might actually want to use their computer for!

The really sad thing is now, this poor gentleman needs to spend more money getting his computer up to a useable standard, when it shouldn't even have been sold to him like this in the first place!

This highlighted a need to me, a need to highlight to consumers the minimum they ask for when buying a new computer, because suppliers out there will take advantage of you if you don't at least know a small amount.

Some minimum specifications to ask for when buying a computer or laptop (we never sell a computer with lower specifications than these, except netbooks as they are a different kettle of fish completely)

• Processor - at least Dual Core 2.0GHZ or higher
• Memory (RAM) - at least 2GB, preferably 4GB
• Hard Drive space - at least 160GB or higher

We really do suggest that if you must buy from a large chain store, be it a need for finance, or a deal that's too good to pass up, that you at least take some advice from us, and avoid being sold a lemon by at least ensuring you get these minimum specifications.  Unfortunately, we see it all too often with computers coming across our service desk for attention due to slowness.

If you want a good reliable, and affordable computer, see someone local, with knowledegable staff, like us!