Buying A Desktop PC

Anyone can go into K-mart and walk out with a $699 desktop or PC these days. So what is the difference between that and say a $1800 business desktop.

Correct setup for your business systems, performance, features, and to a lesser extent quality.

Ultimately you can save a few dollars up front and get a “cheap” windows desktop and try installing and configuring things yourself but when you weigh up the risks of failed hardware, and long periods of low productivity, coupled with shorter effective lives for your desktop PC's and servers, it makes sense to choose a system that is reliable and built for business.

When you buy from a large chain store, you are provided with a brown cardboard box and a CD or two. You are required to unpack and setup the desktop yourself. In a home environment this is not too bad because its fairly straight forward and easy to get the internet and email up and running. You will rarely require desktop support fro a home PC.

For a business however, its quite a different story, specific programs have to be setup a certain way otherwise they will not work. You may never get it setup properly. Again in a home environment having a PC not running quite right is no big deal, in a business environment this could be chewing through hours of productivity per month that could be put to other uses.

Desktop support can be expensive, if the PC is not setup correctly from the beginning, then it will be a continued source of frustration and will also have a high total cost of ownership (TCO)

Getting a decent, fresh install of the operating system is essential to the good running of a Windows desktop, a business computer should come packed only with the absolute essentials to the running of your business. With many of the chain stores that sell I.T related equipment, the reason they get it so cheap is because they put what can only be referred to as paid advertising on the machines they sell. Many of these programs are insidious and the only way to remove is to format and reinstall.

Most desktop computers that are purchased without seeking professional advice ultimately are not suitable for the task they have been purchased for. A Sony Vao with Vista home basic installed is not an appropriate business tool!