Choosing New Computers for Business

Choosing new computers can be difficult because of the amount of options out there. This article will give you a checklist of considerations and some helpful tips from pros with a lifetime of experience. This is essentially our process for helping clients pick hardware.

The Switchover Costs

Migrating from a old hardware to new hardware will have a cost additional the purchase cost of the computer. The cost is in terms of time if you are configuring yourself, or cost of your IT Support company.

Some switchover costs include:

• Time that your old computer will be down for migration

• Cost to configure your new computer with all your apps and logins

• Time consumed looking for lost passwords

• Support needed when some things are not working on the new computer

• Time to wipe data from the old computer

Is it Time to Replace?

Replacing your computers will generally be very costly. We ask our selves these questions when helping a customer determine buy vs repair:

1. Is your computer older than 6 Years?

   1. In general computers will start having storage and battery issues around this age.

   2. The most we expect any computer to work reliably is 10 years.

2. Does the computer work well except for one main issue?

   1. If repairing this one issue solves your problem, then repair will be much less expensive then purchasing a new computer.

Critical Features / Needs

Consider your non-negotiable demands/needs these computers will need to do. It is easy to think that any or all computer will do basically the same thing. This is not true, although most computers look similar, the small details make a big difference. Here is a list of critical considerations:

• What type of work will be done (normal office work, graphics intensive, video editing)

• Battery life needed

• Screen brightness (do you need to work outdoors frequently)

• Type of charger (can it charge with a generic usb-c charger)

• Touch screen

• Keyboard (some keyboards are much easier to type on than others)

• Screen size

• Screen resolution (how much content will fit on your screen)

• Screen color accuracy (for photo and design work)

• Warranty (business computer manufactures often offer 2-3 year warranties as standard)

• Is the memory upgradable

Computer Specs Simplified

For normal office work, there are only 5 specs that certainly must be considered:

1. Processor (CPU)

   1. The most important feature of the processor these days is the core count. We recommend 6 cores minimum. The brands of CPU that offer this are both AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel i5.

   2. For those that want to maximize performance, it is necessary to analyze data on the specific processor performance, and compare between the options.

2. Working Memory (RAM)

   1. Look for at least 16GB of RAM, this will handle all manner of multi-tasking.

   2. It is important to not purchase a computer with less than 16GB as many laptops' RAM these days is not upgradable.

3. Screen Resolution

   1. Screen resolutions is very important because it will affect how useful your display will be.

   2. Resolutions are often listed in codes (see below).

   3. We recommend avoiding FHD instead look for QHD or UHD.

      Common Resolutions

      • FHD (aka Full HDD) 1920 X 1080

      • QHD 2560 X 1440

      • UHD (aka 4K) 3840 X 2160

4. Battery Life

   1. Real world battery life can be best assessed by tests conducted by 3rd parties.

   2. Do not trust the manufacturers stated battery life if this is important to you because their test are done under ideal maximum battery conditions.

   3. We do a google searches to find real world tests for that specific computer model.

5. Display Brightness

   1. If you need to do work outside, it is important to consider if your display is bright enough to work in sunlight.

   2. Screen brightness is usually measured in NITS.

   3. It is generally accepted that 500-600 NITS is bright enough for outdoor work. So be sure that your display is at least 500 NITS if you plan to do outdoor work frequently.

Considering Apple?

Apple computers have many benefits over Windows machines. We typically recommend them over windows machines for clients whose workflow works with Apple. Additionally these days most of our work is cloud/web based, so this makes it easier than ever to switch to Apple.

We recommend Apple computers for their build quality, excellent color accurate displays, solid keyboards, trackpads, battery life, and much more.

The down side is of course the cost, and for businesses that cannot make a full switch to apple, juggling both types of devices may not be ideal.

Beware of Refurbished Computers

This is especially true on Amazon. Refurbished computers can be a great bargain, especially for new businesses. However refurbished hardware tends to have problems more frequently and more unexpectedly. Essentially half the time you will have no issues, and will save a lot of money, but the other half, you will have intermittent issues, and will be chasing solutions.

Beware that refurbished hardware listings are designed to fool you into thinking the hardware is very new, because it looks just like the new computers. HOWEVER, a quick look at the processor (CPU) model number, will show you that the processor is likely many generations old. This is a clue that the whole computer is just as old as the processor.

Beware of Very Inexpensive Computers

These days you will find very inexpensive computers available for $200-$300. These computers are great for children, or for people with very basic computer needs.

These are not going to hold up for long in business. Business tasks will quickly become too demanding for these underpowered computers.

Conclusion

We hope this guide helps to demystify the process of choosing new computers for business. You should now be able to make a purchasing decision with more confidence. If you have any questions or need help with your decision, please contact Onn Site IT.