My managed services provider helps me chose my new computer

One of the most important decisions that a business will make is buying new computers, and as this is a purchase that should last you 5-8 years, what should you be looking for?

Before you set out to buy any computers, you need to ask yourself the following 3 questions:

What work will your computer/computers be doing?

Are you going to go Mac or PC?

Will you need a desktop computer or a laptop?

What work will your computer/computers be doing?

This will help you decide what specs you need for your computer, the more power intensive work you are doing will require you having to use a more powerful CPU. If you are just going to be doing day to day office tasks such as using Microsoft Office, online research or using cloud-based software such as Salesforce then you won’t need a powerful CPU. But if you are doing web design, graphic design, editing audio/video or game development then you will need a pretty powerful machine. If you need help worknig this out a managed service company like iPing can help answer these questions.

Are you going to go Mac or PC?

This will depend on what work you are doing and it is worth noting that most corporates use PC’s, whilst quite a few startup’s use Mac ‘s and the majority of journalists and graphic designers use Mac’s too. If you go with a PC, they are easy to upgrade, so if you want to add more memory or a new hard disk it won’t take too long to do this. If you decide to go with a Mac, they are much harder to upgrade as the memory is soldered on to the motherboard and replacing the hard disk can be a very tricky job too. It is important to make sure yout IT support company can look after Mac

Will you need a desktop computer or a laptop?

A lot of people are now using laptops as they take up less room, can be taken anywhere which is handy if you have to give a presentation to a client, and they can also be taken home if you want to do work over the weekend. You can even get 2 in 1 laptops which can also act like a tablet which can be useful if you want to add some comments etc. to presentations. Some modern desktops have everything built into the monitor which means that you only need space for the monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

Once you have answered the above three questions you will know what specs your computer/computers will need. For day to day office tasks a computer with an Intel Core i3 will suffice but if you are doing anything more intensive a computer with an Intel Core i7 is recommended but you could get away with a computer with an Intel Core i5, depending on what work you will be doing. You should have at least 8 GB of RAM and maybe more depending on what your computer/computers will be doing. And you should always get an SSD hard disk as they are quicker to boot up and don’t’ have many physical parts meaning they won’t easily wear down.

iPing provides managed services and IT services and we can help provide you with an overview of your I.T. infrastructure and what computers you might need to buy now or in the future. So, if you need some help with the above please contact us or give us a call on 01 5241350.