What PC Should I Buy? - Real World Scenario

The world of PC's can be daunting to anyone who doesn't come into contact with them on a regular basis. Even if you use a computer at work it can still be daunting going into a computer shop and trying to look beyond the marketing hype to find a machine that's suitable for your needs.
This is no doubt a question you'll be asked more than once in the computer profession, so what's the best way to answer it and give advice?
One of the first things to ascertain is the users level of computer knowledge. Afterall you don't what to baffle them with techy terms and abbreviations.
The next thing you should do is find out what the user intends to do with the machine, this should give you some understanding of what kind of processor power they'll need and storage capacity.

Future proofing

Because computer technology moves at such a fast rate it's almost impossible to predict future PC technology and therefore know what kind of features to look out for. One thing we can be certain is that computers will get faster and allow you to store more data.
The best way to think about future proofing is assume a computer has a lifespan of 5 years, and make sure that the specification you provide will still be able to cope with a users computing needs 5 years from now.

Will the user be upgrading their operating system at some point?

If so this will no doubt require more computing power if the preview releases of Windows Vista are anything to go by.
Applications that perform operations like:

• Computer graphics
• Animation
• Audio sequencing
• Video editing

All require a fair amount of processor power and a Pentium or high end Athlon CPU's would be advisable.

Laptop or Desktop

Due to advances in operating systems such as Windows and ever decreasing hardware costs, laptops are now becoming a very popular choice as a replacement to chunky desktop systems. Because of the size restrictions with laptops however the user should be aware of the difficulty in upgrading, and future maintenance costs due to manufacturers propriety parts.
Laptop parts are always more expensive than their desktop counter-parts, your money will go further and allow you to buy a more powerful desktop machine than a laptop.

Laptops generally have a shorter lifespan than desktops because they are portable and are prone to knocks and drops. They have batteries with relatively short life, and while we're on the topic of batteries it should also be made aware that a notebooks battery charge can be very short (as low as 15 minutes) and that mobile processors such as Intel's Pentium-M, Celeron-M or AMD's Mobile Sempron are better choices providing up to 3 hours battery life than laptops with desktop processors.

Confusion surrounds the Intel Centrino brand. Intel have created such a good marketing campaign that people buy into a brand without actually knowing quite what it is. The Centrino is not a processor, nor is it a chipset. It is in very basic terms a combination of Intel's components that perform well enough in a mobile environment to earn a flashy Intel sticker. More about Centrino.

This site weighs up the pros and cons of desktop computers versus laptop PC's.