How to choose your future desktop/laptop

I won't analyze much the laptops since most of the companies don't build their own laptops but they give them to companies like Clevo, Quanta etc to build for them. Companies who build their own laptops are MSI and Asus, which i like and have a good enough product quality. Now about your new dell or alienware (dell's expensive product line) it's made by the company named Clevo. Of course Clevo isn't a bad company and have a good amount of achievements, such as first 17" screen on a laptop, first dual core processor on a laptop etc, so you must know this before you buy your new dell, fujitsu, hp, toshiba or whatever else. it's either gonna be Clevo or Quanta who build your laptop :) Lastly i want to say that you should test the laptop you're thinking to buy to see if you like its performance and most of all its keyboard. personally i dislike the laptop that comes with a "desktop-ish" keyboard... laptop keyboard must be silent! :)

Moving on to Desktops...
I never bought a 'ready' desktop because i have noticed the following things on every single company...



Budget PC

• CPU: average CPU, core i3 or pentium (fine with me)
• Cheap motherboard (not fine with me)
• Cheap RAM sticks (not fine with me)
• No name power supply (HELL NO!)
• Usually small-ish hard drive 500GB or so (that depends on you actually, a alot of people don't need big amount of storage...
• Cheap case (aka bad airflow aka overheating machine)
• Low end Graphics Card (GPU) or no Graphics Card

You can build a better Desktop PC with the money they're asking...

Entry/Mainstream PC

• CPU: somewhat better usually a i3 or i5
• Cheap motherboard
• Cheap RAM sticks
• No name PSU
• A larger hard drive, 1-2TB
• Somewhat better case
• Somewhat better low-end GPU

The price of this group is about 600-1000Euro usually and they don't offer you anything really, I mean with 600-1000Euro you can build a way better machine with good enough graphics card a trustworthy power supply and a way better motherboard.

High End PC

• CPU: always i7 or the AMD equivalent
• An average motherboard
• Decent RAM sticks (most of the time, but not always)
• No name PSU (most of the time)
• Larger hard drive alongside an average to low-end SSD drive for the OS
• A decent case
• A good GPU but not the best choice for the money you're about to pay

The price of this group is about 1000-2000Euro and obviously you can buy something WAY better with this money than spending it to a branded PC.

I'll make some Desktop builds for budget, entry/maintream and a high end level.
PS: i won't include DVD-drives since i consider them obsolete.

Budget 400-500Euro

CPU: AMD A10 7700K 134e
Motherboard: Gigabyte F2A88X-D3H 94e
RAM: Kingston HyperX fury 2x4GB (8GB) 1866MHz - 56e
GPU: -
Case: Rainjitek Arcadia - 37e
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 62e
PSU: Thermaltake hamburg 530W 58e

The CPU has a really decent and better GPU than core i3, Pentium's Intel HD graphics.

If you have less than 400e simply choose another processor like AMD A8 and a smaller amount of RAM. On the other hand if you have more, like 600Euro you can add an SSD for quicker boot and load times or a better AMD A10 CPU

Entry/Mainstream 700-1000Euro (LGA1150)

CPU: Core i5 4460 - 209e

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 - 114e

RAM: Kingston HyperX fury 2x4GB (8GB) 1866MHz - 56e

GPU: Gigabyte Gaming G1 960 2GB GDDR5  - 293e

Case: Rainjitek Arcadia - 37e

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 62e + SSD Samsung 850 EVO 120GB - 85e

PSU: Thermaltake Smart SE 630W

If you're not a gamer, or you have 700-800e for a desktop system i'd advise you to replace the GPU with another one, like Nvidia 750TI (asus or palit) or GTX950.

Entry/Mainstream 900-1200Euro (LGA1151)

CPU: Core i5 6600K - 282e

Motherboard: Asus Z170-K Retail - 159e

RAM: Kingston HyperX fury 2x4GB DDR4 2133MHz - 86e

GPU: Gigabyte G1 Gaming 2GB GDDR2 - 293e

Case: NZXT Source 340 - 92e

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 62e + SSD Samsung 850 EVO 120GB - 85e

PSU: Thermaltake SmartSE 730W - 89e

Again if you're not a gamer or you don't have more than 800Euro to spend BUT you want Intel's Skylake you can choose another Graphics card.
PS: since new skylakes are unlocked, if you want to overclock your system you MUST choose a cooling method, either a watercooling solution or aircooling, tip: a good aircooling solution is coolermaster hyper 212EVO, 34e

I don't have a problem with money (LGA1151)

Here i won't just select the most expensive parts and be done with it, but only what's worth getting.

CPU: Intel Core i7 6700K - 408e

Motherboard: Asus Z170 Pro Gaming - 198e

RAM: Kingston hyper x 2x8GB (16GB) DDR4 2400MHz - 149e

GPU: Gigabyte gaming G1 GTX980 - 655e

Case: Phantex Enthoo pro - 106e

HDD: Samsung 850 500GB - 225e + Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB - 62e

PSU: SuperFlower 850W (80plus gold cert) - 186e or EVGA superNOVA 850W - 181e or Seasonic X series 850W - 174e

Once again, if you're not a gamer, choose another GPU or invest the money from the GPU to a bigger or better SSD, another Case you might like, another motherboard etc, i stronly recommend you adjust my builds to your needs.

As you see if you're gonna  buy a branded desktop you're about to do the wrong thing, since the quality is not gonna be the same compared to a custom build.

Hope you find this article useful and you start making some research before you listen to the advertisement of a new branded machine.