Buying Computers for Small Business - SPEC #1
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Do you need to have computers? Everyone needs to have computers!
Before you can seriously get into any kind of business - you need to buy computers. What kind should you buy? It depends (the 2 keywords you'll see a lot throughout these series, but don't worry - they'll be SPECifically addressed, as everything else in SPEC series.
The considerations should revolve around your NEEDS as well as your ENVIRONMENT.
Your business needs dictate what you need the computer to be able to do to address them. For example, if you think you'd be doing a lot of collaboration with someone located elsewhere from your office - you may need the computer to have built-in webcam & microphone to have video/web conferencing ability (and save time and money on driving or flying).
Your environment considerations are based on whether you'd be doing a lot of traveling with a computer. If so - a laptop would be in order (instead of a desktop). How secure is the location of your computer (it's more difficult to steal a desktop). How is your eye sight (would a 14" monitor suffice or will you want something much bigger to be comfortable). And speaking of comfortable - definitely keep that in mind as a consideration - if you're going to spend a fairly significant amount of time in front of a computer - try to make it as pleasant an experience as you can.
Finally - consider your computer savvy. If may type 90wpm or you may be a hunt-and-peck with one finger kind of a person - either case qualifies for getting the benefits of technology. But it does play a role in determining what kind of computing power you would need to handle your computing style. After all, with computers it's always a balance between features, speed and capabilities vs price. Not to imply for a second that just because you're typing with one finger - you don't need to have a decent computer... not at all, simply saying that if what you need to do, in the environment you have, with your computer skills and expectations - you can easily get away with a $400 desktop, why spend $4000 for a gaming laptop? Spending money is certainly a consideration and we will be as frugal as possible throughout SPEC, without sacrificing... well, anything.
The considerations should revolve around your NEEDS as well as your ENVIRONMENT.
Your business needs dictate what you need the computer to be able to do to address them. For example, if you think you'd be doing a lot of collaboration with someone located elsewhere from your office - you may need the computer to have built-in webcam & microphone to have video/web conferencing ability (and save time and money on driving or flying).
Your environment considerations are based on whether you'd be doing a lot of traveling with a computer. If so - a laptop would be in order (instead of a desktop). How secure is the location of your computer (it's more difficult to steal a desktop). How is your eye sight (would a 14" monitor suffice or will you want something much bigger to be comfortable). And speaking of comfortable - definitely keep that in mind as a consideration - if you're going to spend a fairly significant amount of time in front of a computer - try to make it as pleasant an experience as you can.
Finally - consider your computer savvy. If may type 90wpm or you may be a hunt-and-peck with one finger kind of a person - either case qualifies for getting the benefits of technology. But it does play a role in determining what kind of computing power you would need to handle your computing style. After all, with computers it's always a balance between features, speed and capabilities vs price. Not to imply for a second that just because you're typing with one finger - you don't need to have a decent computer... not at all, simply saying that if what you need to do, in the environment you have, with your computer skills and expectations - you can easily get away with a $400 desktop, why spend $4000 for a gaming laptop? Spending money is certainly a consideration and we will be as frugal as possible throughout SPEC, without sacrificing... well, anything.
Getting SPECific with Your Computer Purchase
Ok, now that we've got some basic considerations out - let's get to SPECifics.
Your typical choices of computers (aka hardware) are either desktops or laptops (if anyone in the audience doesn't really understand the difference between these choices, generally speaking - please contact us directly and we'll bring you up to speed; our assumption is that you already do).
The initial recommendation would certainly be for a desktop. They're typically more powerful and less expensive, harder to walk away with and don't suffer from the 'relatives syndrome' (eg your newphews were visiting over the weekend and played on your laptop, resulting in major migraine for you the following morning).
Desktops are faster, many running with processor speeds of 3Ghz (most laptops' speed is 2Ghz), which means your calculation processing speed would be about 50% faster. Their hard drives are faster (spinning at 7200rpm or 10000rpm, where laptops mostly go around 5400rpm) and the capacity of desktop disks is usually greater than that of a laptop.
You have a lot more choices in terms of expandability by being able to increase internal memory (RAM) much more so in a desktop, you can plug in additional cards inside (a more capable graphics card, for example), or additional disk drives for storage expansion. And to make the whole thing sweeter - they're cheaper as well.
Screen size is another consideration - you have plenty of choices when it comes to screen sizes and based on personal experience - it's very nice to work on a nice size screen, having several screens is even better (although for initial purchase consideration disregard the multi-screen capability, we'll address that in another lens).
In other words - a desktop should be your first consideration as the biggest bang for the buck... unless you ponder some other things... like taking it with you and then you quickly see that hauling a desktop all over is definitely not an option. And that brings us to laptops.
Laptops actually overtook desktops in sales a few years back, because once people saw that they could take it with them... and by 'it' - I mean everything - they jump at the opportunity... to work at a client, work at home or work... on a beach. And there's certainly merit and validity to such considerations, and the biggest reason you'd consider getting a laptop.
Laptops vary greatly, in terms of capabilities, attributes as well as pricing. If you need to be able to easily take your computer with you, for any reason and relatively often - you'll have to buy a laptop.
Unless you want to use your computer as a muscle builder, and you do plan to take it all over - I would highly suggest getting a lighter weight laptop (aka notebook). There are some laptops that are incredibly small and light (around 2lbs). There's a new ultra-small group of laptops, called netbooks, that have really tiny (7") screens, although some with screen sizes up to 10", they're small enough to fit into any purse (or big pocket) and are so light that you couldn't use them for self-defense, but they certainly fill a niche, which we will discuss separately, because they're not powerful and capable enough to be used for mainstream business needs.
The laptop weights typically range from a couple of pounds all the way to 10lbs behemoths. If carrying it around and often is a must - stick to what's lighter. You can certainly find a decent laptop weighing about 5-6 pounds, without breaking the bank. The lighter weight laptops are generally significantly more expensive (netbooks excluded).
Once you conquer the weight issue - look at the screen size next. Laptops range from 10-12" screens - all the way to 18" and probably someone will come out with something even bigger, although that kind of kills the whole laptop experience, since any 17+" laptop would be very heavy. We do not recommend buying a laptop with a screen size greater than 15", if it's going to be carried a lot. Mostly due to weight, but also due to fairly large size of the computer. You're almost carrying a desktop at that point.
Screen size should also be based on your vision preferences and the amount of screen real estate you'd like or need to have. For example - if you have relatively poor vision - having a larger size screen would certainly be helpful, but then you certainly limit the amount of different windows you can see at one time or even how much of a single window contents are visible. If you only see relatively small amount of content - that would mean you'd need to do a lot more scrolling vertically and possibly horizontally, which of course would take extra time and degrade efficiency. In that case - bigger screen would be in order... but don't run out and get a huge screen laptop just yet - there's another option (below) that gives you a luggable computer and respect your eyes.
Once you determine the screen size and weight - the next consideration should be the speed of the CPU (think of it as computer brain) and the size of internal memory (RAM) and permanent memory (internal disk drive). RAM-wise would depend on what kind of Operating System (aka OS) you would be running. The basic logic would be - get as much RAM as you can afford. For WindowsXP - 1gb RAM would suffice fine. For Windows Vista - 2gb would be ok, although 3gb would be better. Again - the more the merrier, with RAM being cheap these days - that's certainly not much of a consideration.
In terms of disk drive - also the bigger the better. Nobody even sells 'small' drives any longer, these days the smallest ones would be 160gb. But if you can get a laptop with a faster drive (faster than 5400rpm) - that would be my recommendation versus a slower speed but more capacious drive. Unless you plan to store a tremendous amount of photos, videos and other disk-consuming information - even 160gb would last you for years typically. And if you did want to store large size files - getting a cheap external drive would be a good option. But you want the internal disk drive to be as fast as possible. Most drives these days run at 5400rpm in laptops, but some older drives were 4200rpm and those are s...l...o...w - definitely do NOT get 4200rpm drive, regardless of its capacity.
As for CPU - the speed is important for obvious reasons, but you typically find something that fits all the other criteria and the CPU works out. If you can get something around 2GHz or better - great. Do NOT get anything less than 1GHz.
I'll probably get yelled at by some 'in the know' on this, in terms of only mentioning PCs and skipping the Macs. Outside of the fact that my company is called PCS (although you could easily spell it PCs, which isn't an accident btw), I'm looking at this from a purely productive & efficient point of view. That being the case, putting zealotry aside, it's a very clear choice. Do you want to be with the crowd of less than 10% or 90+%? Do you want to pay more for getting the same result as if you paid less? Do you want the widest support in terms of hardware, software, staffing and just about any other consideration or not? If 'not' - you might consider a Mac, otherwise - it's definitely a PC. Don't buy into the myths of 'easy to use', 'never any problems' etc. - simply not true. I have friends with Macs that experience more problems than I do on my PC. I've used Macs, they're ok... I've also used Amigas and thought (still do) that hey were the biggest computer marvels invented, way before their time... and now they're dead... so let's stay productive, efficient & frugal - and thus PC should be your choice. I would only recommend a Mac if you're getting into some sort of desktop publishing/creative environment, since vast majority of that market does use Macs.
Additional considerations would be the extras. Do you need to communicate with people cheaply and/or face-to-face? If so - get a laptop with built-in webcam and microphone. There plenty of those around and even though you could get a separate webcam - it's just not as convenient, another thing to haul & set up every time. Do you plan to do a lot of digital photography? If so - get a laptop with built-in media reader (usually the reader accepts multiple media formats, the number of formats is irrelevant - what's relevant is that it accepts the media that you're using). Do you like listening to music or watching DVDs often? If so - look for a laptop with what's known as Quick Play. It's simply a feature that enables you to listen to music or watch DVDs without booting up the computer, simply insert the disc, push the play button and enjoy, just as if this was a stand-alone DVD player. Do you plan to get an external drive, a scanner, a printer and perhaps more devices, which are all likely to use the USB port? If so - make sure that you have a decent number of USB ports available. Typically 3 or more would be sufficient. You can buy an external USB hub, which would enable more devices, but it's a hassle to have yet another little box to plug in and carry and some devices don't work well unless plugged in directly, so if you're comparing 2 laptops with similar SPECs, but one has more USB ports - get that one. If you have fast Internet - you could watch movies & TV shows on it (www.hulu.com is one of many excellent web sites with free content). Even the biggest laptop will pale in comparison to your 42" plasma, and that's where having TV out ports is very handy. Some laptops have S-Video plugin and newer ones have HDMI for truly exceptional quality, although at higher cost. I'd certainly recommend the S-Video option, since it's still great quality and reasonably priced.
If you don't need any of these extras - you'd be hard pressed to find a decent laptop that has none of them, but just look around or perhaps custom-build one online, which takes us to the next question - where should you buy a computer and what brand to buy?
Nowadays practically every computer manufacturer makes desktops and laptops, althou
Your typical choices of computers (aka hardware) are either desktops or laptops (if anyone in the audience doesn't really understand the difference between these choices, generally speaking - please contact us directly and we'll bring you up to speed; our assumption is that you already do).
The initial recommendation would certainly be for a desktop. They're typically more powerful and less expensive, harder to walk away with and don't suffer from the 'relatives syndrome' (eg your newphews were visiting over the weekend and played on your laptop, resulting in major migraine for you the following morning).
Desktops are faster, many running with processor speeds of 3Ghz (most laptops' speed is 2Ghz), which means your calculation processing speed would be about 50% faster. Their hard drives are faster (spinning at 7200rpm or 10000rpm, where laptops mostly go around 5400rpm) and the capacity of desktop disks is usually greater than that of a laptop.
You have a lot more choices in terms of expandability by being able to increase internal memory (RAM) much more so in a desktop, you can plug in additional cards inside (a more capable graphics card, for example), or additional disk drives for storage expansion. And to make the whole thing sweeter - they're cheaper as well.
Screen size is another consideration - you have plenty of choices when it comes to screen sizes and based on personal experience - it's very nice to work on a nice size screen, having several screens is even better (although for initial purchase consideration disregard the multi-screen capability, we'll address that in another lens).
In other words - a desktop should be your first consideration as the biggest bang for the buck... unless you ponder some other things... like taking it with you and then you quickly see that hauling a desktop all over is definitely not an option. And that brings us to laptops.
Laptops actually overtook desktops in sales a few years back, because once people saw that they could take it with them... and by 'it' - I mean everything - they jump at the opportunity... to work at a client, work at home or work... on a beach. And there's certainly merit and validity to such considerations, and the biggest reason you'd consider getting a laptop.
Laptops vary greatly, in terms of capabilities, attributes as well as pricing. If you need to be able to easily take your computer with you, for any reason and relatively often - you'll have to buy a laptop.
Unless you want to use your computer as a muscle builder, and you do plan to take it all over - I would highly suggest getting a lighter weight laptop (aka notebook). There are some laptops that are incredibly small and light (around 2lbs). There's a new ultra-small group of laptops, called netbooks, that have really tiny (7") screens, although some with screen sizes up to 10", they're small enough to fit into any purse (or big pocket) and are so light that you couldn't use them for self-defense, but they certainly fill a niche, which we will discuss separately, because they're not powerful and capable enough to be used for mainstream business needs.
The laptop weights typically range from a couple of pounds all the way to 10lbs behemoths. If carrying it around and often is a must - stick to what's lighter. You can certainly find a decent laptop weighing about 5-6 pounds, without breaking the bank. The lighter weight laptops are generally significantly more expensive (netbooks excluded).
Once you conquer the weight issue - look at the screen size next. Laptops range from 10-12" screens - all the way to 18" and probably someone will come out with something even bigger, although that kind of kills the whole laptop experience, since any 17+" laptop would be very heavy. We do not recommend buying a laptop with a screen size greater than 15", if it's going to be carried a lot. Mostly due to weight, but also due to fairly large size of the computer. You're almost carrying a desktop at that point.
Screen size should also be based on your vision preferences and the amount of screen real estate you'd like or need to have. For example - if you have relatively poor vision - having a larger size screen would certainly be helpful, but then you certainly limit the amount of different windows you can see at one time or even how much of a single window contents are visible. If you only see relatively small amount of content - that would mean you'd need to do a lot more scrolling vertically and possibly horizontally, which of course would take extra time and degrade efficiency. In that case - bigger screen would be in order... but don't run out and get a huge screen laptop just yet - there's another option (below) that gives you a luggable computer and respect your eyes.
Once you determine the screen size and weight - the next consideration should be the speed of the CPU (think of it as computer brain) and the size of internal memory (RAM) and permanent memory (internal disk drive). RAM-wise would depend on what kind of Operating System (aka OS) you would be running. The basic logic would be - get as much RAM as you can afford. For WindowsXP - 1gb RAM would suffice fine. For Windows Vista - 2gb would be ok, although 3gb would be better. Again - the more the merrier, with RAM being cheap these days - that's certainly not much of a consideration.
In terms of disk drive - also the bigger the better. Nobody even sells 'small' drives any longer, these days the smallest ones would be 160gb. But if you can get a laptop with a faster drive (faster than 5400rpm) - that would be my recommendation versus a slower speed but more capacious drive. Unless you plan to store a tremendous amount of photos, videos and other disk-consuming information - even 160gb would last you for years typically. And if you did want to store large size files - getting a cheap external drive would be a good option. But you want the internal disk drive to be as fast as possible. Most drives these days run at 5400rpm in laptops, but some older drives were 4200rpm and those are s...l...o...w - definitely do NOT get 4200rpm drive, regardless of its capacity.
As for CPU - the speed is important for obvious reasons, but you typically find something that fits all the other criteria and the CPU works out. If you can get something around 2GHz or better - great. Do NOT get anything less than 1GHz.
I'll probably get yelled at by some 'in the know' on this, in terms of only mentioning PCs and skipping the Macs. Outside of the fact that my company is called PCS (although you could easily spell it PCs, which isn't an accident btw), I'm looking at this from a purely productive & efficient point of view. That being the case, putting zealotry aside, it's a very clear choice. Do you want to be with the crowd of less than 10% or 90+%? Do you want to pay more for getting the same result as if you paid less? Do you want the widest support in terms of hardware, software, staffing and just about any other consideration or not? If 'not' - you might consider a Mac, otherwise - it's definitely a PC. Don't buy into the myths of 'easy to use', 'never any problems' etc. - simply not true. I have friends with Macs that experience more problems than I do on my PC. I've used Macs, they're ok... I've also used Amigas and thought (still do) that hey were the biggest computer marvels invented, way before their time... and now they're dead... so let's stay productive, efficient & frugal - and thus PC should be your choice. I would only recommend a Mac if you're getting into some sort of desktop publishing/creative environment, since vast majority of that market does use Macs.
Additional considerations would be the extras. Do you need to communicate with people cheaply and/or face-to-face? If so - get a laptop with built-in webcam and microphone. There plenty of those around and even though you could get a separate webcam - it's just not as convenient, another thing to haul & set up every time. Do you plan to do a lot of digital photography? If so - get a laptop with built-in media reader (usually the reader accepts multiple media formats, the number of formats is irrelevant - what's relevant is that it accepts the media that you're using). Do you like listening to music or watching DVDs often? If so - look for a laptop with what's known as Quick Play. It's simply a feature that enables you to listen to music or watch DVDs without booting up the computer, simply insert the disc, push the play button and enjoy, just as if this was a stand-alone DVD player. Do you plan to get an external drive, a scanner, a printer and perhaps more devices, which are all likely to use the USB port? If so - make sure that you have a decent number of USB ports available. Typically 3 or more would be sufficient. You can buy an external USB hub, which would enable more devices, but it's a hassle to have yet another little box to plug in and carry and some devices don't work well unless plugged in directly, so if you're comparing 2 laptops with similar SPECs, but one has more USB ports - get that one. If you have fast Internet - you could watch movies & TV shows on it (www.hulu.com is one of many excellent web sites with free content). Even the biggest laptop will pale in comparison to your 42" plasma, and that's where having TV out ports is very handy. Some laptops have S-Video plugin and newer ones have HDMI for truly exceptional quality, although at higher cost. I'd certainly recommend the S-Video option, since it's still great quality and reasonably priced.
If you don't need any of these extras - you'd be hard pressed to find a decent laptop that has none of them, but just look around or perhaps custom-build one online, which takes us to the next question - where should you buy a computer and what brand to buy?
Nowadays practically every computer manufacturer makes desktops and laptops, althou
Homework (really!)
Please read through the above a few times. It seems like a lot, but once you wrap your brain around it - it's fairly straight-forward and reasonably simple stuff. People always tell me "it's easy for you", but that's not really the case. Just like anything else, with computers you need to get some education, invest a little bit of time and then make an educated decision. It's not rocket science and I urge everyone NOT to think about it as something more complex than it really is. We are here for you and would be glad to answer any and all questions we can possibly answer. Do we have all the answers? No... to be honest - nobody does, there's just too much stuff out there, but we certainly have the skills and experience to assist anyone in business or trying to start a business of how to get things done better using technology and computers are the main tools to get there.
What's important is to understand what's presented, not memorize it!
What's important is to understand what's presented, not memorize it!
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And definitely send us your questions, comments, rants and raves. We love feedback, besides - we can't answer any of your questions... unless you ask. So ask!
by RecordSage
Born in the wrong country, aka USSR. Emigrated (legally) to the right one, where I reside with my wife and 2 adorable kids (IMHO). First love - music... more »
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