Whne I pass my level III ICB exams and I set up in business proper I intend buying eith a laptop or PC or maybe even both. These will be used solely and exclusively for business purposes. The reason I say this is my hard drive on this computer is used up storing photos, videos and MP3s. None of these are buisness related. So what is the minimum size of hard drive I should be looking at if I bought a new PC or laptop? How much space do the data files and program files use up. How long is a piece of string springs to mind - but realistically, a small practise with an average number of clients of average size.
What other specifications should I be looking at so that it goes fastr enough to run business applications?
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
Ram you need ram all applications I have come across all require ram so anything with around a 2.5-3 gig processor and 2 meg of ram (more if you want)would suffice as for hard drive I dont think they do small anymore :) http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=n00m5009&c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&model_id=inspiron-m501r
I used to be able to understand computer specifications - now they are just way over my head.
I think I'll just go into a shop and see if I like the colour of one and base my judgement on that.
Same with TV's. There was a time when all you had to choose from was the size of the screen - you went for the biggest one you could afford. Now there's that many choices. I even remember my parents used to rent their tv. The reluctance to own one was if the tv broke down you could always call the tv folk out to repair it.
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
I used to be able to understand computer specifications - now they are just way over my head.
I think I'll just go into a shop and see if I like the colour of one and base my judgement on that.
Same with TV's. There was a time when all you had to choose from was the size of the screen - you went for the biggest one you could afford. Now there's that many choices. I even remember my parents used to rent their tv. The reluctance to own one was if the tv broke down you could always call the tv folk out to repair it.
Buy one from Dell and colour will most likely be your first choice :)
The laptop I use has 4gig Ram and a 320gb HD which is more than enough for me. I have a "problem" with Dell laptops as I've broken 2 keyboards in the last two years, for some reason it's allways the number 4 and the letter E.
I'm not sure I'd go to the expense of the desktop and a laptop, each to there own but personally I'd buy a more expensive laptop. I've recently switched from PC to Mac purely because the build quality is so much better.
If you're going to go down the desktop and laptop route then you're going to have to be really disciplined transferring data if you're going to use both for business.
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Tony
Responses are intended as outline only. Formal advice should be sort from your Institutes Technical Department or a suitably qualified Accountant.
I am actually using more 'cloud' based solutions nowadays. In particular making great use of dropbox. Google Apps is also very useful.
Funnily enough because of posts on here I've been opening up various drives for various things. Dropbox I opened up a few days ago but I opened up and Amazon drive and a Dell drive today. It's a pity there isn't a drive that features all the best bits of each drive.
Being able to automatically backup (or use "Back up now") - Dell.
Dropbox - being able to use it like a Windows folder and use on an Iphone.
Amazon - I don't like the fact I have to zip everything up into a compressed folder rather than click on a folder and upload all the files (and subfolders) in it.
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
