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Business Computer Considerations

Most new computers have more than enough power for most business applications. Whether you're working on a spreadsheet, payroll, customer invoices, or product inventory, nearly any computer will have the CPU power and memory be more than adequate.

There are a few items you need to consider, though, when you are looking for a new computer.

Power Supply:

Computers come with a power supply that should be adequate for running the computer. But, many peripherals do not come with their own power supply. They use the power from the computer.

For example, many scanners get their power from their USB connection to the computer. Scanning lots of documents can put a strain on a barely adequate power supply. If your scanner does not have its own power supply, be sure your computer's power supply is up to the job.

If you will be doing video work, you will likely use additional video graphics cards in your computer. You may also have an extra hard drive dedicated to video processing. These cards and devices can also put a strain on a barely adequate power supply.

Of course, for non-productive work that are many video and gamer interface cards with devices attached that can also put extra strain on your power supply.

For Pentium 4 and all AMD CPUs, a minimum 300W power supply is recommended. If you want to run one of the new ATI X8xx or GeForce 6xxx series 3D graphics cards, don't even try anything weaker than a 400W power supply.

The right power supply is critical. An under powered system will be prone not only to unreliable operation, but also to component damage.

CPU:

On the entry level side of things you have a choice between AMD's Sempron CPUs and Intel's Celeron D. These CPUs are not for the hard core gamer - they're for the average user who only want to run office applications and use the Internet.

For the hard core user/gamer there's the Pentium 4 and the AMD Athlon 64 CPUs. There's little to choose between the two big guns in the CPU business. The slowest Pentium 4 CPU readily available at present is the 3Ghz version, while AMD's equivalent, the Athlon 64 3000+ will likewise satisfy most users' demand for processing power.

Faster CPU speeds increase the cost significantly. You'll need to weight that against your budget and your demands.

RAM:

RAM is fast memory used by your computer to execute tasks. When your computer runs out of RAM, it starts swapping data to the much slower hard drive, which slows down your entire system.

Most computers today come with at least 1 GB. If you're going to run Windows XP, don't get less than 1 GB or you'll slow even the fastest CPU to a crawl because of swapping the content of memory with content on the disk.

For video work or hard core gamers, less than 1 GB simply isn't an option anymore.

Hard drive:

Most computers now come with at least 120 GB of storage. That's more than the average home/office user will ever fill, while it's not nearly enough for music/video collectors or avid gamers.

Businesses may want to invest in a RAID drive to help protect important data. A RAID drive allows you to store the bits of your data on different physical drives. This allows the reconstruction of data should one of the physical platters become damaged. While the RAID drive costs more, it can make life so much easier when you know you avoided a disaster.

DVD Drives:

Most new computers come with read/write DVD drives. DVD drives can store 4.7 GB of data on a single-layer platter while a double-layer platter can store 8.5 GB. Make sure your DVD drive and the media your obtain support the double-layer specification so you can take advantage of the greater storage capacity.

The DVD drive can be a great asset when it comes to backing up your critical business data. While many businesses have adequate backup capability they often do not have a regular backup schedule. So, along with your hardware, you need to establish a regular backup schedule.

So, think about the uses you will make of your business computer. Then, purchase one that has the CPU power, speed, and memory to handle your requirements.

The following are resource you can use related to computer hardware and software:

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