Great deal on a powerful computer for a reasonable price!

Friends and family often ask me what I recommend for them (or they ask me to build them a computer).

The first question I ask is, "what do you want to do with the computer?"

I'm a firm believer in only buying what you need, perhaps plus a little extra to make it last.  Anything that you buy should meet your needs first, wants second, and if it doesn't, then it isn't a "deal".

SHORT VERSION: - $449.99, this is the computer to buy: ASUS M32CD Intel i5-6400 Desktop Computer

You can find it here on Amazon for $449.99:
http://amzn.to/1pMdCjI

This is the computer to buy for most people.  Continue reading for the long version of why I recommend this.

---  Note: This is a long post, but if you're serious about finding a deal for a desktop computer, please give it a read ---

First, some background: I have been using computers in one form or another since the early 80s, my first computer I owned was an Apple IIe in 1984!  That was so fancy, it came with DUAL 5.25" floppy drives (the big kind), a nice color monitor, and even a...  wait for it...  9-pin Near Letter Quality Epson FX-85 Dot Matrix printer, the kind that used the form-feed paper!

Since then I've bought many computers over the years, from a Gateway 2000 386DX/25 in 1991 to a Dell Core2Duo E6600 in 2006.  I have also built many custom machines over the years, and while you DO get more for your money in most cases when custom building, there are times when I prefer to buy a machine.

At the moment, I'm typing this from my couch, using a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse, on a Acer mini-tower computer that has an Intel i5-4440 Haswell CPU that I picked up refurbished for about $350.  My only addition to it was a spare Intel 180GB SSD that used to be in something else (I forget which machine now) for speedy boot and shutdown times.

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So on to today, and my suggestion for a good first place to look.  Today, as I write this in March 2016, the deal in desktop computers is this:

ASUS M32CD Desktop Computer
Intel i5-6400 2.7GHz 6th Gen Quad Core CPU
8GB RAM
1TB Hard Drive
24x DVD Reader/Writer
802.11ac Wi-fi
6-in-1 memory card reader
Windows 10 64-bit

You can find it here on Amazon for $449.99:
http://amzn.to/1pMdCjI

This is a fast, powerful machine that will last most people many years of use.

1. It has the latest and greatest quad core Intel chip, very fast.  Compared to machines from 6 years ago, this is up to double the performance of those computers.

2. 8GB of RAM is enough for most people, but this is easily expandable to 16GB of RAM in 5 min if you end up needing more.

3. The 1TB drive is plenty of space for most people, however if you need more, the computer has 6 USB 3 ports for adding super fast external storage without having to mess with the internals.

4. It reads and writes CDs and DVDs, it also has a multi-card reader for SD, microSD, etc memory cards.

5. It has the latest and greatest version of Wi-Fi on the market today, known simply as "AC" Wi-Fi.  This is the fastest, best you can get, so if you're not next to your Internet router, it will work well enough via wireless.

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For the majority of PC users, from someone wanting a computer at home for e-mail, Facebook, light games, Skype, etc. to someone wanting a good office machine for a front desk, back office, or even the Boss's computer, this will take care of all of that.

There are two main groups of people for whom this computer is NOT good for:

1. Content creators (professional).  If you are serious about making professional videos, image editing, 3D rendering, etc. this is not the computer for you.  More power would be well worth the money spent if you are doing more than minor edits to home movies.

2. Serious gamers.  If you want to play the latest games such as Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Fallout, Battlefield, etc. then this may not be the right machine for you either.  It actually isn't the CPU that is the concern here, rather the lack of a dedicated GPU, or graphics processing unit.  You CAN add a GPU to this machine, a NVidia GTX 960 is about as much as you can put in here, and it'll game at 1080p in nice detail, but that is about the limit.

Excepting serious gamers and content professionals, this computer meets the needs of almost everyone else who is in the market for a desktop computer.

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Note: You CAN spend less...  but I am of the viewpoint that you actually get LESS for your money when you drop below this level.  Knock $75 off the price and get a Core i3 DUAL core CPU and you cut the computer's brains in half, for only about a 20% savings in cost.  As you go further down in price (computers exist at the $150-$250 price points), you'll end up with something that will do e-mail and watch videos, but little else.  The performance is poor and they will quickly become out of date and slow as new software comes out each year.

You CAN spend more...  but generally above this level, the performance per dollar drops off quickly.  Spending double this price doesn't get you double the computer.  Buying an Intel i7-6700 CPU for example really only benefits content creators and doesn't really benefit gamers at all.  A nicer GPU will help gamers, but there is a limit to what you can put into a pre-built computer.  For a high end video card you really need a custom computer to get good performance out of it.

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If you have read this far, have a cookie!  *hands you all cookies*  The above might seem like a lot, but frankly I probably left something out, so please let me know if you have any questions, comments, thoughts, feedback, or constructive criticisms.  :)

Disclaimer: I DO own the machine that I linked to in this blog, it was not given to me as a sample, I purchased it from Amazon because honestly, it really is that good of a deal.