Hardware

 

2a. Start with buying the right PC

 

Some computers cost less than Rs. 15,000, others more than three times that.

 

The received wisdom is that you should buy the most powerful computer you can afford. But you don't need a racing car to get to the local bazaar. So how much is enough and what should you look out for?

 

 

An Operating System (OS) is the program that manages all of the other programs in the computer. Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing inputs from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers.

 

 

All PCs are the same - a rectangular box with a main circuit board inside, a rack arrangement for slotting in components like hard disks and CD-ROM drives, slots for memory and smaller circuit boards, and so on.

 

The name on the front of the PC refers to the company that assembled the parts into a system. That company almost certainly did not manufacture the parts; they bought them from individual suppliers - just as a carmaker buys components from individual suppliers.

 

Because all PC designs are standard, and because all the component suppliers follow those designs, all computers do tend to look much the same.

 

But since the PC maker's reputation is at stake (not to mention their legal liability), it makes sense for them to use the right components - the ones that work well together, that offer maximum reliability, that leave you satisfied and able to recommend the brand. For your own peace of mind, it might be worth paying extra for a bigger name.

 

Checklist

 

What should I be looking for when I buy a PC?

2b. How to choose your Laptop/Notebook

 

If you take your work with you when you travel, or if you need to show presentations away from the office, you'll naturally be thinking about a laptop, in one guise or another. Notebooks, portables, Tablet PCs - all names for (more or less) the same thing.

 

Modern laptops do practically everything that a desktop computer can do. Crucially, they have enough memory and enough disk capacity to run the same operating systems and the same applications as a desktop PC.

 

The same considerations about processor and memory apply as for PCs - the more the better. But if you do a lot of travelling, there's the additional issue of battery life to bear in mind.

 

The more powerful the processor and bigger the memory, the greater the drain on the battery. Even with a purpose-designed low-power processor in your laptop, you'll be lucky to get more than two hours' use before the battery needs recharging.

 

Just be careful not to take the manufacturers' claims on battery life at face value. They use their own test parameters, and almost inevitably your workload won't be the same. It's always worth checking the price for a second battery.

 

Checklist

 

What to look for in a Laptop/Notebook?

2c. For first Printer

 

Laser or inkjet?

 

For most needs you shouldn't bother looking beyond inkjets. Laser printers are significantly more expensive. But if your business demands a lot of printing, a laser printer is a smart buy. It's significantly faster at printing, generally cheaper overall to run. Toner cartridges aren't cheap, but they last a long time, so you get more pages of print per cartridge. Laser printing tends to give better results with text.

 

It's difficult to check how quickly a particular printer can produce pages, because there's no such thing as a 'standard page'. How much text should it have? How much colour? How many images? So manufacturers quote an average speed for whatever they think an average page looks like.

 

Don't take it literally. A printer that claims to do 20 pages a minute will almost certainly be quicker than one rated at 4 pages per minute. Just don't expect it to be five times as fast.

 

Ink

 

Inkjet printers use ink cartridges - usually between one and four, but sometimes more. Typically there's one cartridge for black - the colour that gets used the most, plus separate cartridges for cyan (light blue), yellow and magenta (purple). A mix of these creates other colours and shades. Be careful of printers that have a single cartridge for the three 'other colours’; when you run out of one colour, you have to replace the whole cartridge.

 

For the more common makes and models, there are fully compatible work-alike cartridges available at a slight discount; you'll find these at the bigger retailers, including office supplies catalogues, PC superstores and even some supermarkets.

 

Some of these 'third-party' cartridges are just as good as the printer manufacturers' brands, but not all - you might not get as much ink in the cartridges and it might not be as opaque. For some cartridge makes, you can get refill kits that involve messing around with syringes and inkbottles. It's a cheap solution, and you might be disappointed at the results.

 

Checklist

 

Buying Guide

 

Buy only what your business needs - why pay more for things you don't need or won't use?

 

Try to think and plan ahead - will you need to print in colour soon?

 

Buy the best products your business can afford and from authorised resellers only

 

Think about networking and the business future. Will more than one person use the device? Will the device handle more than one user?

 

Does it work wirelessly?

 

Consider technology finance programmes that can make your IT purchase easier

 

2d. When is the right time to upgrade or replace?

 

Should you extend your PC's life, or are you postponing the inevitable?

 

Computers don't last forever. Most computers that are less than three years old still have some useful life left in them. They may be approaching the end of their useful life cycle, but you can keep these systems working effectively by spending a little money to update key elements.

 

Some companies replace PC equipment every one to two years. Why? Because they find that by the end of that life cycle, the computer is running the necessary software too slowly, especially by comparison with newer PCs elsewhere in the organisation. Or the hardware can't work with the latest versions of software, or with new devices that they want to attach to the computer.

 

Processor manufacturers keep bringing out newer and faster processors; memory prices fall so that PC manufacturers can afford to include more in their products; hard disks are getting cheaper too, so the average PC gets a bigger hard drive. All this encourages software makers to produce better but also bigger and more demanding software.

 

So how does your current PC relate to the current benchmark? Can you still run the most up-to-date software or, more to the point, the specific software you need to run?

 

If older versions of your software work perfectly well, you might not need replacements or an enhanced PC. But the newer software doesn't just have extra functions; it should have fixed some of the earlier flaws and it should be a lot easier to use.

 

Those improvements might appeal to you.

 

Easy upgrades

 

From your point of view, one of the most attractive aspects of the average PC is how easy upgrades are. If you can't afford a top-of-the-line machine now, or if you can't anticipate each and every functional requirement that you might have, you can always buy a more basic model and install the extras later.

 

Bear in mind that some components are easier to upgrade than others. It's easy to add memory provided the PC has one or more spare slots for the memory strips (and most do). Swapping out a hard disk, or adding a second one, is slightly trickier. The same applies to adding a second CD or DVD drive, should you want to do that.

 

When it comes to improving the graphics, perhaps for gaming or video editing, you might be restricted by the design of the computer. Some computers have 'integrated' graphics, meaning the graphics circuitry is soldered on to the main circuit board. This can be difficult or impossible to replace or bypass. If the graphics processor is implemented as a separate circuit card, however, it's easy enough to remove one and replace it with an updated model.

 

It probably isn't worth your while to swap the processor. The processor is the single most expensive element of a PC. Buying an entirely new PC might be more economical.

 

Tune-up

 

So if you're a casual user who spends a little time on a network, emails and surfs the web through dialup or broadband, and uses your computer for basic Office applications, a tune-up may be in order. More memory and a bigger, better hard disk would probably improve performance sufficiently.

 

But if you need to upgrade the operating system investing in upgrades probably won't be adequate. Your PC's motherboard (the main circuit board, to which everything else is attached one way or another) might not be able to move data around quickly enough to make the most of the updated components, and it may not be compatible with some of those add-ons.

 

Then there's the economics of the update. These days you need to pay little more than Rs. 45,000 for a decent XP-based PC complete with flat screen, 80MB disk, CD writer, and 512MB memory. Say you can reasonably expect to get three years' work out of that before it starts to slow down; that computer would cost you around Rs. 15,000 per year. How much would you have to pay to upgrade an existing PC to get the equivalent capability?