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Thinking about a new computer, no clue where to start.
I use to love tech things, but since I'm no longer single, on my own, and able to afford it all, my love for it has taken a backseat 
I am now at the point where I simply need a new computer. Mine just can't run programs like it use to.
I'm wondering a couple of things.
1. Should I upgrade or buy? (is there an easy way to share specs?)
2. What is a good desktop for my needs & that can hopefully last me a while?
I don't need something crazy, but I would like it to last and meet my needs for a while to come.
I do a lot of photo editing (photoshop), store tons of photos (other drive). I blog, nest, email, etc. I also use Quickbooks for various things.
That's the majority of my computer needs.
I would love and appreciate any help I can get on this. Either specific models I might want to look at or a list of preferred specs would be great. I just need something to go off of. I've been out of the game for a while 
Thank you so much!
Re: Thinking about a new computer, no clue where to start.
What type of system do you have now? How much are you willing to spend?
I'm sure a lot of us "techies" on here are going to steer you towards a Mac if you want to buy new. Which is what I'm about to do.
A imac 21.5" would be a good space to start. It's a large screen (you could go bigger) which would give you a good amount of space to do editing in. You also would want a large drive, a terabit drive should keep you going for a long time. Quickbooks has a mac edition so you'll be safe there.
Brand new an imac 21" w/ a TB driver will run you about $1500+, but try craigslist first looking for intel imac's.
Any more question let me know. I'm happy to help.
I think it really depends on what you are planning to do with it and how tech saavy you are. Have you tried just doing a clean install of your OS on your computer? Sometimes a clean slate is all it needs to bring it back to life.
If you are dead set on buying one, the PP mentioned needed to know what OS you are looking for. I'm a PC/Mac user and either one would be ok depending on what you are looking to do with it. Or, you can get the best of both world and buy a hackintosh. It's a PC computer (basically), but has Mac OS installed on it. You'd save TONS going this route and often wind up with a much easier to upgrade computer. Macs are kind of a PIA to upgrade and the parts are typically a bunch more than PC parts (thank you, Apple). My workhorse is a PC that I built myself. Has tons of power, memory, and HD room but most people don't need it as supped up as this. I think, all total, I spent less than $1500 on the entire thing including the monitor and a wireless keyboard/mouse setup.
I haven't done a clean slate in about a year or so, so maybe I'll just do that. I wish I could use more of my D drive for my C drive :
I'm kind of considering a laptop too, so I don't have to come down here (basement offices/playrooms/laudry, etc) but I'm wondering if that's a good idea w/ kids (can they easily ruin it?)
I got these from Belarc advisor about my computer...
Local Drive Volumes
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 15.00 GB 326 MB free
d: (NTFS on drive 0) 98.61 GB 5.98 GB free
Memory Modules
512 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
Slot 'DIMM0' has 256 MB
Slot 'DIMM1' is Empty
Slot 'DIMM2' has 256 MB
Slot 'DIMM3' is Empty
Processor
2.80 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Hyper-threaded (2 total)
Not sure what this is, but thought it might matter
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
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I have a question for you before I go too much futher... Are you willing to do the hardware work necessary to either upgrade or even build a new computer from scratch? If you are, that's an *extremely* simple way to cut costs.
Let me know and I can go from there.