There are a lot of sites that sell computers, and it will take you a long time to find them all — that's why we do it for you here and highlight the best deals we can find. However, to save you some time and frustration, you need to be smart about where you look any time of year.

If you're looking for a new computer during the holidays or during popular sales periods like Black Friday or back-to-school, you're likely to find great deals directly through first-party vendor websites. These include retail storefronts of popular computer manufacturers such as HP, Dell, and Lenovo.

However, if you're looking between sales periods, it's usually a good idea to search through major third-party retailers like Amazon, Adorama, Walmart, BestBuy and Newegg. Often times these websites offer limited deals of the day type sales in hopes of getting rid of excess stock. On the upside, you can score a solid PC at a substantial discount.

Generally you will want to make your PC computer purchase around a prominent sales period. The biggest sales periods are Black Friday/Cyber ​​Monday in late November and Amazon Prime Day in early to mid-July. The best sales often happen during and around these two events, and it's a great time to snag a new PC computer for cheap. Other holiday shopping periods such as New Year's sales in January, President's Day sales in April, and back-to-school sales events in August are also good times to find discounts on computers.

You'll see a lot of options when looking for a desktop computer, but they all basically fit into four main categories: productivity tower PCs, gaming PCs, mini PCs, and all-in-ones (AiO). ). Which one you should buy depends on what your needs are and what you want to do with your computer. If you're looking for something that will work in a home office or family room, a productivity PC or AiO with a solid CPU and lots of RAM and storage is probably the way to go. If gaming is your main concern, then a gaming PC can offer a lot more bang for your buck than a laptop and you should focus on getting the best GPU. Or if you just want something that can fit anywhere and provide basic computing, a mini PC is a good bet.

When looking at a CPU for your new computer, get at least an Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5, both of which will provide enough processing power for everyday computing tasks. If you don't plan on PC gaming, feel free to save some money by going with integrated graphics. However, if you want to turn your game on, we recommend at least an Nvidia GeForce 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, as these are the least expensive discrete graphics cards that can handle ray tracing well. . If you're not interested in these advanced lighting effects, however, the RTX 3050 and Radeon RX 6600 also provide good 1080p gaming performance at lower prices.

As for RAM, we think it's best to shoot for at least 16GB for productivity and gaming, but for family computers and Internet browsing, 8GB should be plenty.

Storage size depends on your personal needs, but it's generally a good idea to choose an SSD over a standard HDD because they're much faster and don't significantly affect the price of a desktop. Before making a decision, it's best to consider what you'll be using your computer for. Are you just working or browsing the web? Then something like 512GB would be enough. If you want to load a lot of large files like games or content creation projects, you'll need at least 1 or 2TB or so of storage. However, just remember that even if your computer doesn't have enough storage built-in, you can always. Upgrade your SSD. Or go with one External drive To expand your available storage options.

Refurbished computers are used machines that have been repaired, upgraded and cleaned for resale purposes. They are usually open box returns, overstock, or models with minor cosmetic damage (scratches, scratches, etc.). Refurbished computers can be a bargain hunter's dream because they're likely still in good (or great) condition and you can save a lot of money. That being said, refurbished computers can have their downsides as well. In addition to cosmetic blemishes, some internal components may be somewhat old or outdated and may not be in optimal condition due to previous use.

If you are considering buying a refurbished computer I recommend checking out eBay as they offer a one year warranty. You can also check the retail storefronts of the manufacturers. Dell's outlet store And Refurbished Apple Store– Be sure to check the terms of the warranty offered before making a purchase.