Buying computers online

What a specification sheet does not tell you

Specification sheets are built from the numbers that are easy to print. They rarely say how well the machine is cooled, how loud it becomes under load, whether the memory can be expanded, or how difficult it is to open when something fails. Those are the properties owners notice after month three.

They also flatten differences that matter. Two machines listing the same processor can perform differently because one has room to keep it cool and the other does not. The number is the same; the experience is not.

The order to read a specification in

Read it in the order that decides how the machine will feel, which is not the order it is usually printed in. Storage type first — a solid-state drive is the single largest difference between a machine that feels quick and one that does not. Then memory capacity, because running short of it slows everything at once. Then the processor. Then graphics, if the work needs it.

• Storage type and capacity — solid-state, and large enough not to fill
• Memory — how much, and whether it can be added to later
• Processor — matters, but less than the two above for ordinary work
• Graphics — only if games, 3D, video or several high-resolution screens

Ask before you buy, not after

The advantage of buying from a shop that also repairs is that you can describe your situation and get an answer that accounts for it. If a cheaper machine is genuinely enough for what you have described, we would rather say so and have you come back than sell you more than you need once.