|
|
To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu
-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
|
Tech Guide: Buying for your business June 11, 2003 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/hardware/storage/soa/Tech-Guide-Buying-for-your-business/0,139023427,120275220,00.htm
Don't make a costly mistake. Before you plunk down the big bucks on new hardware, read our expert advice on how to choose the right desktops, notebooks, servers, displays, and printers for your business.
How to Buy: Desktops for your businessEverything you need to know about purchasing PCs for business use--from system specs to choosing a vendor.
Shopping for desktops for a business--even for a small one--is a far different experience than shopping for a PC for your home. When you're buying a home system, you try to get the fastest, biggest, and best of everything, adding on features, peripherals, and software until your credit card will hold no more. But when you're buying PCs for business, the question quickly becomes "How much can I live without?" In other words, you want a desktop that has everything you need and nothing that you don't--at a competitive price. The basics Home PCs need expansive hard drives because they rapidly become cluttered with MP3s, digital photos, and home videos. But at work, a standard 20GB drive offers plenty of space for most users. Don't believe us? Look at it this way: You could crank out a new 10MB PowerPoint file every day (we know some managers who have tried), and you'd still have plenty of room after five years. If you're working with video or large graphics files, however, you'll need a little more muscle in your system. In addition to lots of memory, you'll want a larger hard drive, FireWire and USB 2.0 connectors, and a separate graphics card with its own memory as opposed to one integrated on the motherboard. Necessary extras If your business needs upwards of 100 desktops, you should consider a managed PC such as the HP Compaq Evo, the Dell OptiPlex, or the IBM NetVista. These desktops include several features designed to make them easier and less expensive to deploy and manage. They use similar hardware and software, which lasts for long periods of time, minimising the need to upgrade. The components are designed so that you can swap them out quickly and easily. And they can be monitored and managed remotely using included software. Many managed PCs also come in small form-factor designs--perfect when space is tight. Buying advice Christopher Null is a freelance business and technology journalist in San Francisco. He has written for Wired, Smart Business, PC World, and Business 2.0. He is also a veteran of numerous small businesses--including his own Internet start-up, filmcritic.com, which he has operated since 1995. How to Buy: Notebooks for your businessExpert advice on choosing the perfect business portable--from size and weight to the right processor for your needs.
Unlike desktops, notebooks never seem to outpace their users in terms of performance or features. Can a laptop ever be too light or have a battery that lasts too long? Of course not. That's because notebook designs require a lot of trade-offs; it's not easy squeezing all that power into a portable package. Unfortunately, this means there's never really a perfect time to buy a laptop PC. Budget laptops are readily available, and they can get the job done if you can live with a small display, a slow CPU, minimal RAM, and no extras such as built-in wireless. If you buy one, chances are you'll find yourself itching for a new machine within six months. The most important criteria with notebooks are size and weight. Both home and business notebooks are divided into distinct classes, ranging from featherweight ultraportables to bulky desktop replacements. The most popular choice for businesses fall somewhere in between in the form of a thin-and-light system, which is nearly as small as an ultraportable yet delivers much of the performance and many of the features of a much larger system, including a built-in CD or DVD drive. Unfortunately thin-and-lights also tend to be pretty pricey, so if your budget is tight or you don't travel often, you can get by with a slightly larger mainstream or value system. The type of notebook you choose will also dictate the screen size. Ultraportables have rinky-dink 12.1-inch displays that'll kill your eyes if you use them all day long; midsized notebooks have 14.1-inch displays; and desktop replacements have screens that are 16 inches or in a few cases even larger. If your notebook spends most of its time sitting on a desk, you should opt for one of the larger displays; on the other hand, just try fitting a 17-inch Apple PowerBook on an airplane tray table. Trade-offs The smaller ultraportables, however, still lag in terms of performance and features, while at the opposite extreme, there are mainstream laptops or desktop replacements that offer the works at more competitive prices. If performance is your top priority, you can even opt for one of these larger notebooks with a less expensive desktop chip, though you'll sacrifice some battery life. No single configuration will be right for every business user, but for most, we'd recommend one of the slower Pentium M processors (you'll save a little money without giving up much), 256MB of memory, a 20GB hard drive, a 14.1-inch display, an internal combination CD-RW/DVD drive, and integrated wired and wireless networking. If you want to shed a little weight, you can opt instead for an ultraportable with a separate media slice so that you can leave the drive behind when you need to travel light. Buying advice Christopher Null is a freelance business and technology journalist in San Francisco. He has written for Wired, Smart Business, PC World, and Business 2.0. He is also a veteran of numerous small businesses--including his own Internet start-up, filmcritic.com, which he has operated since 1995. How to Buy: Printers for your businessThe ins and outs of picking the right printer for your business--whether you need black and white, colour, or a multifunction device.
The fundamental technologies behind office printing haven't changed much over the years. Laser printers still deliver crisp text and graphics at top speeds, and they are less expensive to operate than inkjets. Inkjets offer low-cost colour printing, but they are slower than lasers, and the cost of ink cartridges and paper can quickly add up. Overall, the output quality is better, print speeds are faster, and prices are lower than they were a few years ago, which means that you have many great choices for business. Black and white The best way to share a printer such as this is to connect it to a machine that's always on (your server, for example) via a USB or parallel port and share it through the Windows printer-sharing system. Many models also offer an optional Ethernet card for direct network printing. For heavier-duty printing needs, you'll want to consider a true workgroup printer such as the Xerox Phaser 4400N. Not only do these printers give you roughly double the speed of a high-end personal printer, they typically include built-in Ethernet support for direct network connections and multiple paper trays. If your office is constantly bogged down with people waiting for print jobs to finish, moving up to a workgroup printer is the way to go. Colour You'll find models at several different prices from Canon, HP, Epson, and Lexmark. Insist on a printer with a separate black inkwell and, for highest-quality prints, look for a printer that supports six colour inkwells plus black. Also keep in mind that there are now several colour laser printers that cost just less than AU$2,000, most notably the HP Color LaserJet 2500, making them viable for small business. Multifunction devices Christopher Null is a freelance business and technology journalist in San Francisco. He has written for Wired, Smart Business, PC World, and Business 2.0. He is also a veteran of numerous small businesses--including his own Internet start-up, filmcritic.com, which he has operated since 1995. How to Buy: Displays for your businessLCD or CRT? Here's all the info you need to make sure you purchase the right display.
Whether shopping for the home or office, there's one trend in displays that can't be ignored: the world is going flat. LCDs offer many advantages over traditional CRT monitors. They are much smaller, making them an excellent choice for small desks and offices. They can display crisp, legible text and images at higher resolutions, meaning that you can fit more information in the same-size display: a 17-inch LCD has about the same viewable area as a 19-inch CRT display. They require less electricity and emit little heat. Finally, they are easier on the eyes because LCDs don't need to refresh or redraw the images many times each second the way CRTs do, creating a barely perceptible screen flicker. LCDs now affordable Though there are many companies selling LCDs--Dell, Samsung, HP, and NEC-Mitsubishi are the biggest--the actual panels themselves all come from a handful of manufacturers, including LG.Philips and Samsung. That means you can shop for a vendor based partly on the best price for the size you need, with 17- and 18-inch LCDs representing the sweet spot in the market. Look for an LCD that has both analog and digital (DVI) inputs, a wide viewing angle, and a high contrast ratio. Some pricier model include multimedia extras such as wide-aspect screens, picture-in-picture, built-in speakers, and composite and S-Video inputs, but most small businesses will have little need for these. CRTs still an option As long as you can squeeze it into your budget, though, a flat panel is a worthwhile investment for most small businesses. Christopher Null is a freelance business and technology journalist in San Francisco. He has written for Wired, Smart Business, PC World, and Business 2.0. He is also a veteran of numerous small businesses--including his own Internet start-up, filmcritic.com, which he has operated since 1995.
Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive, a CBS Company. All Rights Reserved. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
