If you are looking for a new Desktop PC, you may want to consider the following during your research:

A few years ago, new PC Technology (processor, motherboard, memory, and disk components of the PC) were released by manufacturers every 2 years. Now 6 months is common. You buy a PC for Christmas, by summer its half the price, and you feel like you should have waited for prices to come down. Knowing the Cheapest PC’s advertised likely have Clearance Technology should make you feel better. Clearance means the technology has changed to the point that its costing the vendor more money to keep in stock than the tiny profit margin justifies. It is also an indication that advances in technology have caused a drop in sales for the model. The sale and discount ads you see are generally not for the new technology.

Most people intend keep a system until it has a catastrophic failure of the CPU, motherboard, power supply, or can no longer run the latest programs due to ever growing memory and performance requirements for new release of applications. This period of use used to be +-10 years. Now its +-5 years. Not because the system can’t be used, but the reason stated above (6 month technology curve) vendors don’t keep older parts in inventory as they used to. Software vendors don’t support as long as they used to, so the system becomes obsolete long before the system actually fails.

So, its pay now, or pay later, there’s really no difference. Considering the life span is +-5 years and the reasons stated above, the longer you wait for the prices to come down, the sooner you will have to replace your PC it. If you set up the system right from the beginning, are able to easily move your files, applications, etc. to a new system, wait and get cheaper technology 6 months to a year old. If your somebody that doesn’t want the hassle of replacement, you need to buy the latest.

If I suggested or listed the latest technology on this post, it would be obsolete by the time you read it! For this reason, I maintain a list of the PC’s with the latest technology, as well as the deals Here.

Older PC’s are great candidates for Linux. Linux has come a long way, and should be considered. Search this site for Linux information.