So you want to get mom something nice this holiday season. Then, you recently decided that getting her a PC would be the best, most practical and useful gift of all. That’s when the brain cramps started.
But what kind of PC should you get, you might be wondering. There are so many price points, multiple manufacturers and an endless array of systems with multiple specs setups. It could be difficult to decide what PC would be best for your mom, especially if you’re far from being a computing wiz.
If you fall in this camp, you’re in luck. Microsoft put out a PC buying guide, written by Microsoft employee Kim Douglas, that’s geared towards moms and people shopping for them. If you look past Microsoft’s attempt to steer people towards buying a Windows 8.1 machine, you may realize that the guide asks some pretty straightforward questions about the kind of person you’re buying for, and what they’re likely to do with a PC once they’re in possession of one. These are the same kinds of questions we ask as well.
For instance, the guide asks whether mom wants to store and edit photos, play games, browse the web, watch tv or perform any number of other tasks. Next to each question, Microsoft recommends that the PC you buy have a “sufficient” amount of RAM, hard drive space, and more. Depending on the task in question, Microsoft makes a different recommendation, though stops short of providing any hard stats. For the record, a system sporting between 4GB and 8GB of RAM should suffice for any of the above-named tasks. SSDs are faster, but typically smaller, while mechanical hard drives are larger in size but slower.
The guide addresses whole host of other questions as well, including the importance of the display, physical space requirements and more. Just remember to take it with a grain of salt and maintain your inner skeptic, though there’s valuable info to be gleaned from the guide for sure. You can check it out here.
