The average family computer user needs three features in a machine: Reliability, simpleness and affordability. The vast majority of consumers do not require the sort of processor energy which can strip the paint off the walls, nor graphics capabilities which make real life look faded and dull in comparison. As a result, a cheap desktop computer is ideal.

Reliability is a requirement for a family computer because a surprisingly amount of customers do not back up data. Issues seems excessive to go to the time and effort of purchasing a couple of terabytes of hard disk drive space, usually spending no less than a couple of hundred pounds, and then virtually never use it aside from the occasional time when your computer's interior hard drive fails and cannot be recovered. However, the benefit of backing-up vastly outweighs the cost. Losing years worth of vital paperwork, cherished photographs, stored songs and endless other information is a very galling experience. You all of a sudden realise that you never effectively appreciated certain things on your computer till they vanish.

A cheap personal computer, which uses cheap components, will never be since reliable, in this regard, as a higher priced model. Even cheap desktop computers are better than laptop computers for reliability, though, for that simple fact that they are put under less strain. The components may be bigger and better spaced and the fans are generally more efficient as well as effective, reducing the risk of overheating. More importantly, from a family computer viewpoint, it is virtually impossible in order to accidentally drop a desktop computer in order to knock it off the table.

Also from a family viewpoint, the sheer size of any desktop computer makes them excellent for using along with small children. Proper supervision is way simpler to achieve if the pc cannot be carried off to another room.

The simplicity of a computer does depend on the operating system with regards to actual usage and a desktop computer can add a little bit of complication because each of the external components - the monitor, mouse, keyboard, inkjet printer, etc. - needs to be born into the central processing device. This, however, is generally quite simple to achieve and is just a situation of matching the plugs to the holes.

Desktop computers are not the least expensive machines available. Netbooks have been expressly designed, as the identify suggests, to be a cheap method of getting on the web and they are generally extremely portable. Nonetheless, they are also extremely limited in their capability, making the purchase of such a computer effectively a waste of money. Besides the internet, there is no other job they can handle. A desktop computer, on the other hand, is a good middle soil - a jack of all trades.