If all you want to do is surf the web, read email and edit basic documents, you can pick up a PC that will do the job for under £300 these days, so there's never been a better time to buy.

Of course, there's always more you can do and more you can spend, so it's important to know exactly what you're going to use your PC for and spec it accordingly before you set off to buy: otherwise you'll end up either unequipped, or paying for upgrades that you don't need.

1. Deciding what you want

What activity do you use your PC for the most?

* If you are only going to be using email and office apps, there's no point going for the fastest processors or latest graphics cards.

* Same goes for web browsing.

* If you're going to be playing lots of games, make sure the graphics card is up to spec. 'Integrated' graphics cards will struggle with the latest games, and just because a graphics card is DirectX 10 compatible doesn't mean that it can run 3D games well.

What are 'integrated' components?

* If a PC's graphics processor is a chip soldered onto on the motherboard, it's considered 'integrated'. If it's on a separate card slotted horizontally into an upgrade port, it's known as 'discrete'.

* Watch out for new PCs with integrated graphics, they may not have a 16x PCI Express port for upgrading later.

* Don't be fooled by phrases such as 'Turbocache' or 'Hypermemory'. They don't mean speed, they mean your graphics chip is using main system memory to store games info – which means less performance all round.

* Integrated sound cards are fine though. Just remember that if you want extras such as Dolby Digital or optical out for watching movies, you may have to add a discrete one.

Where will you keep your PC?

* There are many value PCs which are well-designed and quiet these days. You don't have to settle for a noisy, bland box any more.

What specifications should I look out for?

* Your new PC should definitely support PCI Express, preferably PCI Express 2.0.

* Try to avoid a PC that uses DDR3 as it's expensive to upgrade later.

* Check out reviews for every major component – the CPU, graphics card and RAM particularly – to ensure that it's not an inferior part being sold at a high price.

What CPU should I get?