Internet Help for Small Business

How to Choose Your Office Desktop

They’re not pretty or sleek like their portable cousins, but they’re the machines that keep the business running, ensuring that accounting is up to date, invoices and statements are produced on time, and stock records are up to date.

So for the small business or home office, few choices are more important than the desktop computers you select to perform the numerous functions essential for successfully running a small business.

Whether you favor HP or Dell or some other hardware vendor, whether your preference is for the Mac Operating System, Windows or Linux, there are some common elements that run across any good system.

Cost is clearly the first thing that anyone will consider. We’d all like to have $10,000 to spend on every computer in the office. With that kind of money you could buy the absolute best around. But rarely is that justified for even a single personal machine, much less every computer in the office.

The specific amount is less the idea here, though, than the principle: get what you pay for, but pay for what you need.

We’re all tempted to cut corners. Saving money is critical in any business, especially when starting out. But trimming the computer budget too tightly will cost you productivity all day, every day for the useful life of the machine.

However, it is possible to spend too much on a machine even when you think you’re getting something for that money. "Too much" in this context doesn’t mean not getting a good deal from a vendor. It means spending money for features that don’t give you equivalent value.

One current Intel processor that runs at 3.16 GHz clock speed, for example, sells for several hundred dollars more than the 3.0 GHz model. The other features of the two processors are almost identical. The higher number does not, in fact, mean the machine will be 5% faster.

Even if the price was only 1% higher you would still be spending money unwisely. You will rarely notice the difference. There are many aspects to computer performance and this small extra speed will, in the majority of cases, go unnoticed.

Lesson 1

So, lesson one is that if you learn a little bit about what makes for good computer performance then you can avoid spending extra money for which you'll get essentially nothing extra in return. No need to be an expert yourself, although it never hurts. But be sure to ask some probing questions or get someone to advise you.

Post-sales support can be equally important. No major hardware manufacturer today gives stellar post-sales support. They simply have too many customers to make it feasible to answer all the questions that come up.

Most will send replacements parts or a repair person in a reasonable amount of time for machines that actually break down within the warranty period. But you should not expect much more.

That means it can be worthwhile (depending on your personal comfort level with computers and other circumstances) to purchase indirectly. Many resellers offer a great value by providing increased phone and email support, rapid on-site repair services and other value-adds if you purchase from them instead.

They can do this because they have a smaller customer base, often are closer to the customer and are usually much better trained than the customer service staffs at major corporations.

Lesson 2

Lesson two, then, is to consider how vital it is for you to have rapid, reliable, knowledgeable help when something goes wrong. Hardware (and even, to a large extent, software) is pretty solid these days ... but problems still do occur.

If, when you need help, you need it now and need it badly, then it can easily be worth the extra 10-15% you might pay for a system.

The old saying "penny wise and pound foolish" is an enduring truth, never more so than when it comes to choosing a desktop computer. For most offices today, it forms the core of a small business’s productivity. It’s worthwhile to put a little extra thought into choosing one.

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