So, it's time to get another computer, and you asked around for the latest pointers. Your cubicle-neighbor at work touts the coolness of her netbook when she's working on her novel during lunch breaks -- you can type with one hand and hold your sandwich in the other, how neat is that? -- while your best friend gleefully rubs your face in the awesome powers of his gaming laptop.

Meanwhile, your uncle clucks irritably at all the shiny toys that manufacturers come up with to boost sales, all the while praising the merits of his reliable desk top, the one he's had for years. You know, the one so steady he's only had to upgrade the monitor (and add some RAM, plus fiddle a bit with a more powerful CPU and motherboard, an extra hard disk...) to make watching movies and reading on-line easier. With so many options out there, there's bound to be one for you.

Now, whether you're a first time buyer or a seasoned online- electronic bargain hunter, it's a cinch that you can access all the information you need on-line to make an informed choice about the best computers out there, but this article series isn't about that access.

Well, not entirely, anyway.

This article is about thinking through the process of picking a computer to fit your need. This way, you not only get  to pick the best computer out there, but also the best computer for you. And if anyone else you know is having problems picking a new computer for themselves, you're there to give your improved take on the whole thing. Hold up on the impulse buy, hang onto your credit card, and let's just think things through.

First things first: Everything depends on the user. The computer is just a tool, the user decides what to do with it.

Set aside the glossy flyers for a moment and think about what you really see when you imagine yourself with the laptop, netbook or desktop you want. Don't look only at the particular model. Look at how you see yourself using it, where you'll be using it, what you'll be using it for and how you'll be using it.

"Oh, look at that sexy little net-book, 11-hours battery life, wow!" won't cut it if you have issues with reading on the small screen, or scrolling up, down and side-ways like mad to view your fave sites the way you're used to on bigger monitors. (Granted, the screen-size of today's netbooks have improved, from the 7-inch screen of the first-generation ASUS Eee PC in 2007, to the current 9-to-10 inch models, and the ones with screens that hit the limits at 12 inches, but don't expect to do anything like hard-core graphics editing on such small real-estate.)

"Dude, lookit my baby....isn't she lovely? All 13 inches and 3 pounds of her." This said while being cloistered at home, with the kiddies demanding equal on-line time for their homework (read: Dora the Explorer on YouTube, and Facebook).

Surface thinking about computers is about your fantasies. All the ads push this image, and they know just the right words to trigger the images: powerful, sleek styling...ultra-long battery life....outstanding performance. It's the promise behind the evocative images that prompts many to make a decision based on what they imagine themselves doing with that glossy little netbook, or this cutting edge, super-slim laptop, or that monster desktop set-up.

What happens?

You fall in lust with the implicit power of the image, you pay a premium for that power, but will you use it to the best of its capacity? If not, if you didn't really need it, then you're out on funds that could've been used on more vital things, or stored as a financial cushion in these difficult times.

Think about it for more than a second, please. Justifying a splurge as a "must-have" is like buying a fancy, top-of-the-line sports car when your routine consists of acts like going to the grocery, dropping off stuff at your local Goodwill, and picking up the munchkins from school. Who are you trying to impress? What are you trying to prove?

You fall in love with the idea, and get emotionally invested (Don't laugh, this happens more often than people will admit). What happens is people get an idea in their heads of where they want to be --say, a famous screen-writer-- and get micro-focused on the picture, not on the effort it will take to get to that point. A famous screen-writer is bound to have a fancy ultra-slim laptop parked in from of her, right? You get the laptop, but the dream fall flat because you just got the tool, but don't do the work. Do yourself a favor. Stick to pen and paper (or your old medium of choice), and use your imagination to fuel your dream, not use your laptop fantasy to fuel your imagination.

Look around Craiglist and in local garage sales. How many exercise machines, musical instruments and other fancy stuff gets sold or donated in near-pristine condition because their owners fell in love with the idea but didn't actually commit to doing the work? Get it now?

You fall in love with the promise of productivity. A few years back some start-up company posted intriguing reports on their product, an e-paper prototype. The whole thing rested on the premise that the e-paper would be a hit in its design as a cutting edge substitute because using it would require no change in the user's routine. "You modify the tool, but not the behavior." (Now? Still no e-paper on the mass market.)

Again, "You modify the tool, but not the behavior."

A pencil, mechanical pencil, ball-pen, fountain-pen and even a quill are all writing instruments. You use them all the same way, ink and graphite notwithstanding. But an artist holds his instrument of choice differently from a writer, as will an accountant, or a musician, or a student. If it's not your habit to religiously capture your midnight ideas with notes taken on a pad of paper beside the bed, for example, or scrabble to pin the melody down on, say, the tissue they hand out with your latte, then maybe you should think about why you think a net-book would change all that.

Habits are tricky things, no? Minds are even trickier. Try not to be lulled with the dreamy image of you clicking contentedly along in a quiet corner of the coffee shop when in reality you can't stand working with people talk-talk-talking-dammit! all around you. Examine your habits, your routines and your actual needs.

If you want to make the best fit, you better know what it is you want your purchase to fit with: your real self, or your image of a better self. Remember, the user decides how the tool is to be employed, not the other way around.


Here are a few hints to get you started:

WHO: Who is the intended end-user?
A professional photographer and  a college student each have very different requirements, and quite probably very different budgets. Also, if it's just for you, you can have an easier time making your choice, but if you intend to get a shared computer for your family, that difference also factors in. You can use your old computer as the internet terminal at home, as a home server, or as your latest test PC, the choice is yours.

WHERE: Where do you intend to use it the most? And for how long?
If you're on a trek, on-the-go, in transit, where exactly? Airport ninjas use their laptops on long waits and long flights. Travel bloggers can use theirs in the local net-cafe, or on a crate in the exotic, open-air eatery of their profiled destination. A high-school student can have different requirements than a college student -- for one, how big is your campus? 3 lbs. weighs little in the morning, but it gets heavier if you haul it all over the place -- especially when you're hunting for a freaking wall outlet to recharge.

Battery life counts a lot, also. And think about it: for example, yes, you do have an 8-12 unplugged life-span, but how long do you really work and stay online with your net book?

HOW: Notes, drafts, research? What kind of notes? Text-editor kind of notes, or chemical modeling-and-analysis kind of notes? As for drafts, architectural, financial or your-flavor-of-typical? Research: Wikipedia, or SETI? -- kidding, kidding.

WHAT:  Graphics, gaming design, coding, spreadsheets, novel-writing, lesson-planning...the kind of work you do dictates the parameters of what you'll require your new computer to do, its most basic features as well as the fancier add-ons. And that's just work. Things you do for fun also play a part in the add-ons. Watching vids, checking e-mail and Facebook doesn't ask much from a mid-spec PC. Full-on digital editing, on the other hand, is different. The screen requirements alone would influence the size of the monitor, especially in a laptop.

Another example is coding. Many developers employ multiple monitors, devoting one to the code, one to the log, and one for the debugger. YMMV, so it's just best-practices to check which vehicle fits your parameters by defining your parameters first.

Desktops offer power and upgradability around the same price of less robust laptops. These anchored workhorses come in as many flavors as their smaller cousins, and with regular care and back-ups they can offer years of stable performance. And the modding/hacker crowd can push the envelope with a lot of DIY options and special upgrades. 

Laptops offer portability first, and power a close second --followed by price,eh? Lightweight, mainstream, or gaming, laptops enable you to work--or play-- anywhere you choose. Netbooks, on the other hand, are all about portability and long battery-life so you can connect on the fly.

With that in mind, you now have to focus on the following factors: Performance (power) and Portability. If portability is a must have, you also need to put battery life very high on your priority list. If portability isn't really an issue (you want a desktop) then move on to Price (or to be more exact, price range. Really. All things being equal, there's a difference in what you can afford to pay and what you're willing to pay.)

Once you have the targets for each factor, you can then find the intersection which forms the sweet spot.  Once you find the computers that occupy that sweet spot, it's easy pickings.