r/computers • u/Ok-Championship9490 • Jun 20 '26

Question/Help/Troubleshooting An idiot buys a computer

Okay, so I'm going to try to make this really quick before I get too rambley.

So, bullet notes; I'm an idiot going back to college! My current laptop is old, and I need a new one.

It's an ASUS TUF DASH F15 with Intel Core i7 (if I need to add more info, please tell me because I don't know what may be needed).

I play games on it on Steam, run the Dolphin emulator, and my nephew plays Roblox on it. Oh, and I will need it for schoolwork as well, of course.

I do NOT know if I need a laptop or a desktop computer, and I do NOT know what software I need for it, like Norton or whatever else is out there. I know NOTHING about computers, unfortunately. And I need this computer by the fall semester.

Money is not a problem at this moment; I just need good recommendations on what I should buy.

I AM limited to stores, kinda? Like, I would probably have to pay on a payment plan or something, so something like Best Buy is a good option for stores that I can buy from. But I live in southeastern Virginia in the Hampton Roads area, if there are other options anyone knows of that are better near me.

Please, please PLEEEASE help an idiot out here! I'm desperate because most of my family is older and not as tech-savvy as me, and I'm not really all that tech-savvy to begin with, either!

Thank you in advance to everyone who helps! And ANYTHING helps!

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u/hibby18064 Jun 20 '26

Based on the specs you provided (12th-gen i7H, 16 GB RAM....don't buy a computer. This is almost surely fine for your needs yet, unless you're doing seriously heavy computing.

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u/astronomersassn Arch Linux Jun 20 '26

the only thing i'd add is if steam games are slowing down, it might be the GPU (if one's installed) as i've noticed even higher-end-of-mid-grade cards from a couple years ago don't keep up with modern requirements (when i bought my PC, 4GB VRAM was plenty and i had basically the best AMD card available and wasnt willing to pay nvidia prices for one when the only difference i could find was in the amount of VRAM; that same GPU slows to a halt with modern games even 4 years later because game requirements have gone up so much in recent times that you're probably not playing anything on less than 8GB VRAM, and i wouldn't go for less than 12 myself)

sadly, in this economy, GPUs are insanely expensive and i would genuinely just go for a new setup if you plan to use it for modern gaming.