I came up with the idea for this service because I received many requests within a month from friends and family to configure computers for them.  I realized that many people  don’t know what the difference is between one computer and another and often buy incompatible hardware.  I once saw a client’s computer running Windows XP 32bit  with 6 gigs of RAM inside, anything over the 3-3.5 gig range will not be used by Windows XP so they essentially wasted $250.  A little bit of knowledge can save quite a bit of money.

That is where I got the idea to help people out in mass by offering my service online custom configuring a computer for free.  Here is an example, “I need a computer for when I travel on business, most of the time I will just be reading email and surfing the web as well as doing a little web design on the side” or “My son loves to play “World of Warcraft” and I want to buy him a new desktop for Christmas, but I don’t want to spend more than $500“.

Here are the brands that I work with:  HP, Toshiba, Lenovo (IBM), and Apple.  I would personally recommend HP but I have experience with all of the brands listed.  If you are set on another brand I can set you up with a good computer from a third party site called Newegg.  From my experience most people don’t really care about one brand or another, they just want the best computer they can get for the money, if this is the case I’ll try to find you the best Laptop/Desktop for your price range regardless of brand.  I get paid a small amount per transaction as a result of these existing relationships, and as a result of my relationships with these big companies they often give me coupons that I can give my users to save a little extra, get free shipping, etc.

Try to be as specific as possible, especially in the field labeled “Comments”, this is where you will explain what you plan to do with the computer, the story behind why you need, when you need it, etc.  Any special instructions should also go in comments, such as “I would like a fingerprint scanner” or “I only buy Intel processors”.

Hopefully you will find this service useful.  I have started doing it to drive up buzz around my website so please feel free to share it with friends, family, etc. or give me a little link love on Twitter or your blog!  If you are feeling adventurous you could also try to build a computer from scratch.