Buying a laptop or desktop PC for professional use involves some of the same considerations as buying a computer for home use. Mark Kyrnin, About.com’s Guide to PC Hardware / Reviews, has excellent advice on determining what you need before you buy a laptop or desktop computer.

1. 02/11/2011 03:39
blog.bestlaptopbattery.co.uk
Buying Guide: Features to Consider, Before
You Buy a Business Computer
Buying Guide: Features to Consider, Processors (CPU)
Before You Buy a Business Computer
Although many business tasks, such as word pro-
Buying a laptop cessing, are not processor-intensive, multi-core pro-
or desktop PC cessors are recommended for professionals because
for professio- they allow you to run multiple applications at the
nal use in- same time (e.g., Microsoft Word and Firefox and
volves some of virus scanning software). A dual-core processor will
the same ensure a smoother computing experience; quad-
considera- core processors are recommended for graphics-
tions as buying intensive work, heavy database tasks, and other
a computer for professionals who will be taxing their PCs.
home use.
Mark Kyrnin, Memory (RAM)
About.com’s
Guide to PC Hardware / Reviews, has excellent ad- In general, the more memory the better, especially
vice on determining what you need before you buy if you are running resource-hogging operating sys-
a laptop or desktop computer. In addition to his tems or programs (such as Windows Vista). I second
recommendations on processors, memory, video, Mark’s recommendation of a minimum of 2 GB of
etc., below are some additional guidelines for buying memory. Because memory is relatively inexpensive,
a business computer. though, I think professionals should definitely get
the maximum amount of RAM you can buy, as it will
Desktop or Laptop give you the most performance bang for your buck.
Deciding on whether to buy a desktop PC or a laptop Hard Drives
depends, of course, on how mobile you intend to
be. Telecommuters working full-time from a home Business users may need less disk space than consu-
office can choose between desktop PCs, which ge- mers who save photos, music, and videos to disk;
nerally cost less than laptops and have more upgra- the exception, of course, is if you’re a professional
deable parts, and “desktop replacement” laptops, working with multimedia or accessing large files like
which tend to be the most powerful — but larger database files. You can still get an external hard drive
and heavier — of the laptop types. Road warriors, for extra space, so a drive around 250GB should do
however, on the other end of the spectrum, need for most business purposes. Get a drive that has a
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mobility and therefore will want to have a laptop; 7200rpm spin rate for faster performance.
which one to select will depend on finding the right
balance between portability and computing power. Laptop business users should look into getting a solid
state drive for better performance and reliability.
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Buying Guide: Features to Consider, Before You Buy a Business Computer
broadband card or add that feature to your laptop
later for the ultimate in Internet access on the run.
See Also:
Warranty and Support Plans
While most general consumers can do with a stan-
CD or DVD Drives dard 1 year manufacturer’s warranty, professionals
should look for a warranty of 3 or more years, since
Optical drives are becoming less common in lap- you should expect to use your computer for bu-
tops, especially the smallest and lightest ones. siness for about that long. Also, consumer support
While consumers may not need a DVD drive any plans generally require you take the computer to
longer because most applications and files can be a depot or mail in a laptop for repair; if you don’t
downloaded or shared online, a DVD writer is more have a fall-back or second computer that you can
important for professionals, who may still need to use for work, as a professional you should get on-
send files on disk to clients or install proprietary site support — either same or next day, depending
software from CD. on whether you can tolerate any downtime if your
computer breaks.
Video and Displays
Before you buy your business computers
Graphics professionals and those in the gaming …
industry will want to have a discrete (i.e., dedica-
ted) video card, essential for video and graphics
performance. For regular business tasks, however,
an integrated video processor (integrated into the
motherboard) should be just fine.
If you use a laptop as your main working computer,
I highly recommend hooking up an external mo-
nitor to your laptop, especially if your laptop has a
screen size under 17. The extra desktop real estate
can make an enormous difference in productivity.
Networking
Because connectivity is key to remote work, profes- Realize that the computer market is vast with
sionals should make sure they have as many network hundreds if not thousands of different variations
connection options as feasible: fast Ethernet and in makes, types, abilities and features to choose
wireless network cards (get at least an 802.11g wi- from, not to mention price. Before you even consi-
joliprint
fi card; 802.11n is preferred and becoming more der buying you therefore need to have some basic
common). If you have bluetooth headsets or other computer understanding and the terminology to
peripherals such as a PDA that you wish to connect help you decide. Hopefully I can give you some basic
to your system, make sure you get bluetooth instal- information on computers that will help you make
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led as well. You can also opt for a built-in mobile the right choice.
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3. 02/11/2011 03:39
blog.bestlaptopbattery.co.uk
Buying Guide: Features to Consider, Before You Buy a Business Computer
Computers in business can sometmes become an I have always preferred the latter choice and have
ego thing, but remember, you are buying a computer no regrets.
to meet the needs of your business, right? Work on
satisfying those needs and you will virtually have
your decision made for you.
Decide this and you will know what type, style or
computing power you need to meet these processing
requirements.
Let’s have a look at some of those needs for compu-
ters in business …
• Document processing – Word Processor for
letters, etc.
• Spreadsheet – for statistical analysis
• Accounting and finance – Annual Accounts
and Cashflow management
• Presentations – Sales and training
• Contact Management – customer records
and contacts
• Access to the Internet and your own bu-
siness website.
• Date Backup, offsite storage and restore
functions.
Further on we will go into more detail on the
software that will satisfy those needs, but here you
only need to decide on what computing power your
business needs. Remember that the use of computers
in business is to make life easier and your business
more productive.
On the other hand, if your business has a large staff
and many complex transactions, it will need a more
expensive, powerful, faster computer with a larger
variety of software.
joliprint
Now that you have some idea of your needs, you
have to decide where to buy. As always you will have
to decide between less expensive and so-so service,
or the best service but more expensive equipment.
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