If you are buying a new computer, here are some things to look for. This is not meant for gamers, just people looking for regular desktops or laptops.
Drive: Make sure it mentions either NVMe or SSD or “Solid State Drive”. These drives are MUCH faster than older spinning drives. It is not very common to see spinning drives as the main drive anymore, but some cheap laptops will still have them. As for drive size, for basic usage (just browsing websites, not saving many pictures/videos) then 120GB is enough. For most people you will want a larger drive, common sizes are 240GB, 500GB, and 1TB (1,000 GB).
Memory: 8GB is the minimum you should have, and you will notice a speed improvement with more. More never hurts, but I would recommend 12GB or 16GB for most people.
CPU: There are so many models that it is not realistic to put them all here. Make sure the computer has or supports Windows 11. Often they will list how many cores or threads the CPU has, 4 cores is an absolute minimum, and 6 or more threads. Fast CPU’s are generally at least 8 cores and 12 threads.
OS: Windows 11 Home vs Pro. If you are using it in an office environment, Pro is preferred. For home users, you usually don’t need Windows Pro, unless you want to use Remote Desktop to connect to this computer. You can upgrade any version of Windows Home to Pro for $100 from Microsoft.
Other Features:
For laptops, make sure the screen resolution is at least 1920×1080, higher numbers are better. Touchscreen can be nice, if you want it. The size of the screen is usually 13″, 14″, 15″, or 17″, pick based on what you want. A Backlit keyboard makes using it in a dark room much easier.
DVD Drive: Very few Laptops and even Desktops come with a DVD drive these days. You can get a USB DVD drive for around $20 – $30, so this usually isn’t a big deal.
Links to Deals: These links take you to a website called Slickdeals.net which lists deals people have found. These may be in-store only, or online only, and sales can often end quickly. In general, the more thumbs-up a listing has, the more people think that is a good deal. You can find a good deal on a $300 laptop and also a $2,000 laptop, what gets a thumbs-up is that being a good price for what it is. You can search for non-computer items there too to find all kinds of deals.
Desktops
Laptops
Gaming