Are you buying a new computer? Don’t make these mistakes! Of course, you probably know that we sell computers here at Keystone Computer Concepts. However, we don’t have a problem with you buying a computer somewhere else and, hopefully, having us set it up. Unfortunately, some customers have been buying them without checking with us first on what to look for when getting a new device. Let’s see if we can clear some things up.

What We Don’t Sell Or Recommend

Let’s start with the things you don’t want in a computer. On our website, where we have computers listed for sale, we start out with what we don’t sell. This would also be the same things we don’t recommend. Here is that information, altered slightly for the blog post instead of our webpage.

Before you buy a new computer, let me explain what we neither sell nor do we recommend if you purchase elsewhere.

• We do not sell refurbished computers. All our computers are brand new – whether we have them in stock or if we order them from our distributor. Likewise, we don’t recommend that you purchase refurbished computers, especially if it’s to be your primary computing device.
• All the computers we sell have at least 8GB of memory. Although you can find lots of computers online and in stores with 4GB of memory, Windows 10 and Windows 11 just don’t run well unless there’s 8GB of RAM or more. If you buy elsewhere, don’t buy anything with less than 8GB of RAM.
• Processors – In the AMD line of processors, we don’t sell any computers that have less than a Ryzen 5 processor. We don’t sell the Ryzen 3 or below. In the Intel processor line, our computers have at least an i5 processor. We don’t sell the i3 or below. Why? We have found customers to be very unhappy with computers with a processor below our requirements. We prefer happy customers. Should you buy a computer from another company, we strongly suggest you follow these same processor guidelines regardless of what the clerk in the store tells you.
• We don’t sell by price. We will give you the best price for the hardware that is in a computer but we won’t compromise our standards by selling refurbished or computers with 4GB of memory or computers with slower processors. You might find a computer at a lesser price than ours but rarely will you find one at a lower price with the same hardware.

Don’t Buy Based On Price

Don’t buy based on price. (This section isn’t on our website.) Recently, we’ve had two customers who went out and bought laptops without running the specs by us. Ugh! We were disappointed in the quality of what they bought and we came to discover that they simply looked for the lowest price. As one of my favorite mentors, Zig Ziglar, used to say, there’s a difference between price and cost. There is almost little doubt that they will both be disappointed in the computers they purchased. (Whether they will admit that to others, well, that’s a different question!)

We’re Happy To Help

Do you have to purchase a computer from us? Will we be mad at you if you buy from a competitor? Absolutely not, on both counts. But, please, be sure to run the specs of something you’re looking at by us, before you purchase. Again, it’s a question of price vs. cost!

Although this post is about buying a laptop, a desktop, or an all-in-one. we do have a video on buying a laptop. You’ll find many of the same points as in this post. (Note: the section about processor generations is slightly outdated as we’re at generations 11, 12, and 13 now. However, the point of the message is still the same.) If you’d like to watch the video, just click on the picture below.