Many people choose their computers mainly (if not solely) by price. That’s understandable, since non-tech-savvy people don’t know how to evaluate the relative merits of different makes and models.
Initial purchase price does matter, of course. But if you’re concerned about ALL the money you’ll spend on a computer, you might want to think beyond the price. Think instead about the total cost of ownership (TCO), which includes all the money you’ll spend in the months and years after you walk out of the electronics store with that box of new hardware.TCO might not matter if you buy computers to use for a year or two. But if you want to invest in a piece of hardware for, say, three or four years (or more), consider looking at TCO from a consultant’s point of view.
Say, for instance, that a consultant charges $50.00 per hour. This consultant can buy either computer A for $500.00 or computer B for $1,200.00.
The price difference: $700.00.
Or: 14 billable hours ($700.00 divided by $50.00 per hour).
At what point does a cheaper computer become more expensive? In the example above, that happens when the consultant, having opted for the $500.00 computer, has accumulated 14 downtime/“slowtime” hours (and related repair bills and grief) that the $1,200 computer would not have caused.
How you can use this tip
It’s difficult to forecast reliability of a given product, but people do it anyway. How? Often, they check the track record of products using third-party reviews.
So before you invest in computer hardware (or other technology) that you want to keep for a long time, investigate the many reviews and annual surveys available on the Internet. Great places to start looking include:
- Consumer Reports
- J.D. Power and Associates
- CNET.com reviews
- PC Magazine
- Cheap Laptop Reviews: a page that rates different rating sources of cheap laptops (http://www.consumersearch.com/cheap-laptops/reviews)
Do you have a favorite source for reviews? If so, tell me about it in the comments below.