Choosing the Right Desktop for You

Choosing the Right Desktop for You

 

When advising customers on what the right PC is for them, we always consider the following:

1. What is the main purpose of the computer?

A simple question, but something that gives a better understanding of what the customers’ needs are.  By finding out what the computer is to be used for, it gives a better understanding of what specifications are needed on the machine.

2. Is a fast processor necessary?

Is the customer is happy to spend time over their work or do they need the computer to react instantly to the demands of a busy person?

3. How much storage do you need?

Files and programs take up relatively little space yet if you have thousands of pictures, songs of videos these will eat up your storage quickly

4. How important is support?

Is warranty and support an important factor when choosing a new machine? Downtime can affect any individual’s performance, so having the right support from suppliers can be a big factor.

 

How do the specifications listed match your needs?

Processor

In terms of general office work, internet processing and Microsoft Office, anything from Core i3 2^nd generation onwards are good processors. The higher-end AMD processors are also good but Intel would be the benchmark

What tasks require a demanding processors – any type of rendering, encoding or decoding music or video files, creating large simulations, apply filters to large graphics or videos. Any of these tasks can take anywhere from minutes to hours to complete and the performance of your processor is directly related to the speed.

RAM 

For general use, 4GB of RAM is more than enough; you will however see a benefit from the speed of the RAM. Look for DDR3 RAM, not DDR2.  Higher RAM is necessary for very large files or playing higher end games. High-end graphics, gaming, or architecture work will benefit from 8GB or more RAM.

Hard Drive

There are 2 parts to the hard.

1. The GB which is how much information it can store.
2. The speed of the hard drive; the fastest desktop hard drive is 7200 RPM and has a 6Gb/s connection speed. This speed directly affects how fast you can access the information on your hard drive which in turn will affect how fast your computer starts, open programs, opens files, anything which isn’t already open.

Sold State Drives (SSD) is a new technology which is over 3 times faster than hard drives and can have a huge difference in terms of how fast your computer operates.

Graphics Card

This is a very specific area for gaming, graphics design, architecture, and engineering. For general use, the standard onboard graphics especially on the i3 and i5 processor PCs are good enough for any basic design work, internet use, and watching videos.

 

Support

GreenIT offers support to our customers. We have up to 3 years warranty on our products and a support platform that customers can rely on to resolve any issues they may encounter. Having a non-working machine for days or weeks on end can affect productivity greatly. At GreenIT we strive to provide our customers with the support they may require which brings with it confidence and peace of mind.