Anyone who does anything remotely related to information technology is always faced with the following question. "Hey [insert one of: Uncle, Aunty, Cousin, Brother, Sister, Neighbor, Random Stranger], what kind of computer should I buy?"

Most often, we hem and haw, and talk about the brands we use at work or at home, and make some halfhearted recommendation. Invariably, the response is "oh, my [Uncle, Aunty, Cousin, Brother, Sister, Neighbor, Random Stranger] bought one of those one time and it sucked!"

The fact of the matter is that most major brands of PCs have been commoditized to the point where there really isn't much difference between them. They all use the same "guts" such as memory, hard disks, video cards, network cards, etc. They basically follow the same manufacturing process.

Even support, which used to be a differentiator, is basically the same. You call a toll-free number and get someone with a very un-American accent and a very American-sounding first name. So you hang up and call back until you get someone who sounds American, even if that person has an accent that falls into stereotypically less intelligent areas of the country (how's that for political correctness?).

So what should one do when in the market for new computers? First, stick to the major brands, since those will probably still be around when you need support a year or two from now. Depending on whose numbers you believe, the current market leaders are Dell, HP, Lenovo (formerly IBM), and Acer. (Apple is fifth, but that's a topic for another column.)

Then, compare apples to apples. All of the major manufacturers give you complete configuration information on their websites. Again, due to the commodity-like nature of the components, don't be so concerned with the brands of the internals, but look at the specifications.

There is one exception to this theory, and that is the processor itself. For years, we used to view Intel as the gold-standard for processors, with AMD being more like olivine. In recent years, however, we have become more and more comfortable with AMD-based machines, which are still considerably less expensive than Intel-based units.

In addition to the specs of the internals, you should also be concerned with expandability. Specifically, look at the number of memory slots and the number of chips used to fill those slots. Usually, manufacturers will "max out" the slots, for example, filling all four slots with 512mb chips for a total of 2gb. This will be cheaper than using two 1gb chips in two slots, but will be more expensive to expand if you choose to do so in the future.

Other than memory, also look at the number of expansion slots available on the motherboard, which will allow you to add new components. Nowadays, we're not too concerned with the number of drive bays due to the high capacity of hard drives and inclusion of CD/DVD drives in the base configuration.

Finally, once you've got comparable configurations for the different brands, go with the least expensive model. Be sure to factor in shipping, tax, and delivery time. Oftentimes, the cheapest models take the longest to show up.

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