System advice.

Aiight peeps - have a many layered query and in need of some advice.

Essentially here at my office our computers are shit and we need total replacements. We don't really need any specifics in terms of our professional needs other than basic Office Pro type stuff. I use word, excel, powerpoint and outlook fairly extensively, and do a fair bit of photo manipulation etc... and in terms of our business needs that would really be the extent. Our accounts lady uses MYOB and little else, so I intend just to get one of our old machines rebuilt, formatted, Win7'd and getting it some extra ram.

The business setup is small and fairly intimate here - essentially just me and my boss do all the important work, and our crappy old computers are barely doing the job. Essentially though, all we need is some decent personal computers. We travel a bit so I have been looking at laptops so we have full email functionality on the road, something that has proven to be lacking and a genuine frustration in the past. We also have international clients so it would be good to fire off the odd email and presentation from home in the late evenings.

Anyhow - long story short I have decided that we should get a couple of well spec'd notebooks so we can take them home and take them on the road where necessary, and have a docking station (of sorts) in the office so we can have decent screens, mouse, keyboard etc (mostly just because my boss is a bit old school and still wants to operate like this). My problem is thus:

'Business' notebooks seem to look shit, have shit screens, shit sound cards and generally make shite personal computers. Aside from faster processors they seem to have crap specs and cost like double what personal ones cost.

There are some pretty cheap, wizz-bang personal notebooks around, but they don't have the professional accessories. I.e: docking station. I suppose it wouldn't be too much drama just to plug in cords when coming in and out of the office- especially since in reality 90% of the time the computers would still just live in/on the desk.

Any thoughts/knowledge/advice?

Chur



gc.

HP Probook 6540b with docking station (bit of a rip off tbh). At home I use the dock with my 24" screen and it does the graphics fine. At work I simply plug the screen + keyboard and mouse in manually as I dont need the DVI monitor like on the dock.

$1600 + ~$300 for the dock I think. $350~$600 for office and you can use GIMP with a photoshop GUI for free for image manipulation.

Prices NZ.

Legend Bob that's fkn perfect mate.

Cheers!



gc.

Hold tight. I have much to say on the subject and will lay it down when I'm not about to run out the door again.

Although FUCK that machine of Bob's is nice.

We just got HP Elitebook 8440p notebooks with 8GB and SSD drives. Which doesn't help you, but god damn are they fast.

OK. Few points.

*To say that business models are behind on spec is somewhat wrong. It IS hard to gauge because business lines don't have the same wide distribution channels as consumer level gear, so business models that are listed on sale retail tend to be older stock. Sound cards are a pretty standard thing now across all machines I see. There is about 3 common chipsets, and everyone uses the same ones. Basically, not a concern.

*Even if they are slightly behind on spec with something like a video card - it doesn't really matter, because they are still going to have more than enough grunt for the sort of work you're talking about.

*The best way to access a full range of business models is to go direct to corporate reps. I can tell you that with Dell, talking to a rep usually gets you a better price than the website too.

*As noted, consumer models miss out on stuff like docking ports. While it IS easy enough to plug in an external monitor and usb mouse/kb (Use bluetooth mouse in reality), I have not regretted moving to a proper docking station one little bit. It's SOOOOOO much better. Don't even have to put the machine to sleep, just slap it down and automatically my external LCD, speakers, gigabit network, keyboard, iPod dock are all connected in seconds. It's SO worth it if you're doing it every day. If not....well it's a toss up.

*Design - yes consumer models are prettier. What are you, a fuckin girl? If you want a pretty laptop, just get a fucking Macbook Pro Business models are more conservative design because the models stay around longer and you end up with parts commonality across the range. In my experience, business models are more rugged and more solidly built and last longer.

*Warranty - this is the #1 best part about business models. Sure, default is usually 1 year return to base like consumer models, BUT business lines give you the chance to upgrade to way better offerings. You can upgrade to 3 years, or do what smart people do, and upgrade to 3 year onsite support. It breaks, you call, motherfucker turns up at your office and fixes it for you then and there. Pay enough, you can have them there in 4 business hours, 24/7. Next business day is most common option. Yes, you pay for this privilege, but if you rely on your machine enough, it would probably pay for itself even if you only used it once over the life of the machine.

*Leasing: This won't really make that much sense in a situation where you're only talking a half handful of machines, but it may be worth looking into. It moves the cost of the machines from capital to cashflow, and structured right, the insurance burden is placed on the lease company not yours. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but in our case, it means a stolen laptop costs us $100 excess, not the $1000 it would claiming it on our own insurance. After 3 years you roll over the lease and get a brand new machine.

*Brands: HP and Dell would be the only two I consider in this market. Toshiba would be 3rd, but lately their service hasn't been as good as the other two. (I've dealt with all 3 a lot over the last few years.)



As for me, I have a slightly older HP EliteBook 8530p.

Core 2 Duo 2.53, 4gb ram, ATI Radeon HD3650 w/ 1680x1050 15.4", 320gb 7200rpm, E-SATA, HDMI, fingerprint, touchpad and trackpoint stick, webcam, BT, blah blah all the standard stuff. It's awesome and still performs really well even with what is essentially 2 year old spec. And I still get pretty sweet battery life out of it, 3.5hours+ with no performance degradation because of overly aggressive power management, which I consider good. Runs cool and quiet too, fans barely ever come on.

Cheers Kris!

I guess what I meant about the business models being lower spec'd is that you seem to have to pay double for the same shit that you get in consumer ones. And re: design, I don't need it to be ultra pretty, but FFS some business models are fucking hideous.

Cheers for the advice though guys! Will def be looking at HP.



gc.

The business ones are built tough and to last. The consumer ones are cheaper, because that's usually what they are. Cheaper materials etc.

Some of the newer ones have a multi touch pad without actual mouse buttons which I didnt like (though I only used for a while so maybe you get used to it). The tap to left click was fine as usual, but to right click you had to push the whole touch pad and the cursor seemed to move away as you did.
(PROBOOK 4520s)

The single log in is cool too - swipe finger to decrypt the drive and it logs you into windows. Allow people to have finger print readers with caution. If you dont set up an admin on it you can get yourself in trouble.