When buying a new computer, the single most important thing for the average consumer to consider is how much RAM their computer will have. RAM is short for Random Access Memory, but that is neither here nor there--most people don't need to know/care about that. What RAM means to the typical consumer is that more of it lets your computer "feel faster." Well, up to a point.
I suppose this requires a little bit more explanation. In computers there are two types of data storage that make the biggest difference to consumers--hard drive space and RAM. The hard drive holds your permanent data that will stick around long after you've turned your computer off (it will still be there when you turn it on the next time, too). The hard drive holds your photos, music, movies and programs, any and all of which you *can* use whenever you want. The more hard drive capacity you have, the more stuff your computer can permanently store. Hard drives have incredible capacity but they are very, very, very slow. They are slow because they have mechanical moving parts that have to physically spin around to access your data. It's a tradeoff.
RAM, on the other hand, contains what your computer *is* working on *right now*. It's like temporary storage for your computer's current needs. Unlike a hard drive, RAM has no moving parts and its speed is only limited by the speed that electricity can flow through wires and that logic chips can act fast enough to control it. In other words, it's way faster than a hard drive. Unfortunately, it also has much less capacity than a hard drive. This low capacity can be a problem.
If you are running a heavy workload on your computer, it's possible that not everything you're working on will fit inside your RAM. If this happens, then some of what you're working on will spill over to your hard drive (which will definitely have enough space). This spilling over effect makes your computer *feel* very, very, very slow because your hard drive *is* very, very, very slow. This is what is going on when most people say their computer "feels slow." It feels slow because it *is* slow.
So what's the solution? The solution is to buy *enough* RAM. "Enough" is the key word here. You need to buy enough RAM to fit all of the programs and movies and photos you want to work on at the same time without spilling over into the hard drive. Buying any more than just "enough" RAM will probably be a waste of money, because that extra RAM will go unused. But how much is "enough?" Well, I can't tell you exactly how much you personally will need, but I can give you some good general guidelines that should suit the Average User.
If you are buying a new computer right now (April 2011) I would recommend to not get less than 3GB (giga bytes) of RAM. Any less than this and you will probably run into that "slow feeling" occasionally during normal use. 4GB of RAM would be even better, but if you are buying a system that you want to last more than 2 years, I would recommend getting a computer with 6GB or 8GB of RAM. The good thing about buying more RAM is that it's a pretty cheap upgrade that can go a long way toward making your computer "feel fast." Buying 12GB or more is probably overkill at this point in time, but if the price is right or you expect you will use it (like if you are a graphics or movie editing professional) then it's probably worth it.
Of course there are many aspects to a computer that consumers need to be aware of when choosing what to buy, and I've only scratched the surface here. I feel like I did start with the most important aspect, though. Buying "enough" RAM (whatever that means) is the best thing you can do for making your computer feel fast, and is honestly the first thing you should look at on a specifications sheet when shopping for a new computer. Don't skimp!
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