Choosing hardware

Matching the machine to the work.

Start from the workload

Office work and browsing need memory and an SSD. Compiling and video editing want cores. Games and machine learning want a graphics card. Buying the wrong axis is expensive.

Benchmarks matter only if they resemble what you actually do.
Second-hand business machines are the cheapest route to a solid desktop.

Longevity

Buy more memory than you need today, since it is the part that ages worst. Storage can be added later; a soldered configuration cannot.