he first question I have for you. What’s is the PC going to be used for? This is the first place to start. Are you going to be doing high-end video editing? Essential office admin duties or a power user that needs lots of excel documents open to cross-reference. This is the question you have to answer before the rest of this article falls into place.
Manufacturer
Why is this?
Well, it’s the aftercare support when there’s a hardware fault. You may have an IT support person helping you out. Both Lenovo & Dell have small business IT support lines and well versed in helping businesses with their hardware issues. This will save you or the IT companies time so choose either Lenovo or Dell.
Personally, I prefer Lenovo, but it’s really just about aesthetics especially when it comes to laptop purchases which is a completely different post for another day.
Processor
Ram
Storage
The SSD has no moving parts so works much quicker and it’s a fact that if you have an SSD in your system, you’ll save between 10-20 minutes each working day waiting for your PC to do things. This is massive, for an office of 5 staff that’s about an hour a day. Do the math, and the SSD is a real no brainer.The only issue with SSD’s is that they don’t come as standard with most budget systems. They are an additional purchase and will require a professional working in IT services to install. There’s a bit of investment here but well worth it when you factor in the amount of time you’ll be saving by having an SSD in your new system.
Operating System
Will my old software run?
Some businesses may have older software that is not suitable for newer operating systems but still needed in the business. Windows 10 does have the ability to run software applications in a compatibility mode to handle older bits of software. However, the compatibility mode does not always do the trick, and this is when you may require running a virtual instance. If this is the case make sure to choose a PC with at least 8-16GB of RAM.
Physical Size
There is also the all in one PC systems which have gained some popularity where the actual PC is built into the monitor. This is a real space saver. However, the main drawbacks on the all in one PC systems are that they usually not as powerful, can’t be upgraded in future and because the operating temperature is that bit higher they don’t typically last as long.
Peripherals
The main reason I suggest to avoid these is that if you’ve got many staff, you’ll eat through batteries every month and can be a real pain if no spare batteries are kicking about.