The problem with a question like that is nobody other than you knows your exact requirements!
The main factor you need to consider is whether or not you may need to use a computer away from your main desk: If you will, you need either a laptop, a tablet (that runs the software you need, so probably a Windows tablet) or a hybrid.
If that's not going to be the case, then you don't need a laptop, tablet, or hybrid, and a desktop/tower should be fine.
One possible advantage of a desktop over a laptop: For the same money, the best laptop you can buy won't be as good as the best desktop - the laptop form factor tends to attract a premium. (At least that used to be so - more people seem to be buying laptops these days IME, so it may be that differential has diminished thanks to economies of scale, which is why I said *possible* advantage).
Another advantage of a desktop over a laptop: Easier to chop and change its guts when things go wrong or feel things need to be improved - this is a real advantage, but if you're disinclined towards opening one up and giving it a little surgery when need be, it's less of one.
Advantage of a laptop over a desktop: You can use it away from the desk and your wired internet connection - but they're flexible enough that if you wish, when you do use it at your desk, you can plug in your a decent sized monitor and a proper keyboard and mouse.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
Whilst everything that Vince has said is sound, my personal feel is always towards desktops not least as with all of that extra ability to cool the machine your can use better chipsets to their capacity.
Desktops also tend to also be able to hold more Ram.
Now, if all that you are looking at is something like an I3 or I5 processor, basic on board graphics and 8gig of RAM then why go over the top for a desktop when a laptop plugged into an external monitor will do everything that you need it to.
Whatever you buy though I would hold off for a little while as we are soon to be losing the Windows 8.1 virus off our machines that takes them over and makes them look and act like smart phones.
Windows 10 is on its way (don't know what happened to 9?) so might be a good idea if you can wait to hang around until around three months after thats hit the streets (I never like having a brand new operating system before the gremlins have been hammered out).
Ever notice how Microsoft alternate good and bad operating systems? Me (jury's out), XP(Brilliant), Vista (Disaster), 7(Brilliant), 8(not what people actually wanted), 10.... Fingers crossed!!!
If it's any help at all my favorite machine is the Dell XPS but if you buy one be aware that they are not particularly generous with the PSU that they sling in them so if you want to rip out the suplied video card for a couple of GTX Titans... Or even a board just one step up from that supplied, you would also need to change the PSU.
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
"Whilst everything that Vince has said is sound, my personal feel is always towards desktops"
I do actually agree - I prefer a decent desktop to a laptop, but my Windows computers for the last decade and a half (at least) have all been laptops because of the need to use them on the go.
Theoretically, I could have a desktop for use here* and a laptop for use when out and about - but I find a need to stuff when out that would be on the desktop, and stuff from here that would be on the laptop.
There are ways around that problem, of course - and one of those ways is to just have a laptop and not make it a problem in the first place.
"Windows 10 is on its way (don't know what happened to 9?)"
When Windows 10 was announced, many people wondered the same thing - and it led to people joking that perhaps Microsoft realised just how much people disliked Windows 8, they decided skipping a version might make people think "Windows 10? That's two versions better than Windows 8..."
However, several months ago I saw a comment about this on another forum which offered a more plausible explanation.
(Searches... found it.)
The comment links to this example of real code, out in the wild - which obtains the Windows version as a text string, and checks to see if that string begins with "Windows 9" (currently line 46):
if (osName.startsWith("Windows 9") {
What that code does according to the preceding comment is read the 'windir' environment variable - note the disclaimer: "This is a bit dirty but seems to work nicely"
It is indeed a bit dirty, because it's reading the variable by outputting the variable to the command line interpreter - command.com on DOS-based operating systems like Windows 95/98, and cmd.exe on XP onwards. When it's output, the variable is expanded to show the actual path, and the output is then read back in.
That code, while dirty, should work on Windows 95, 98, XP, 2001, Vista, 7, 8 and, when it arrives, 10.
If the next version was called Windows 9, that code would fail - it would try to use command.com instead of cmd.exe
And if that has been the method used in one piece of open source code (Java in this case) you can bet your bottom dollar it's been used in many more - so if the next version was called Windows 9, it would probably break a lot of code like that in the wild and being used.
Edit, forgot I'd put an asterisk above! The footnote that I meant to include:
* In fact I do have desktop computers, but for the purposes of this I'm excluding those because they aren't running Windows.
-- Edited by VinceH on Monday 15th of June 2015 10:01:19 AM
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
Lol, your like me Vince but evolved to the next level.
Cheer for that. Now if it was a mainframe that we were talking about I would be able to chat on the same level but with PC's I'll happily bow out to your far greater depth of knowledge.
Now, those last eleven words don't cross my lips too often on the site. lol.
Hope you have a good day Vince,
all the best,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Whilst everything that Vince has said is sound, my personal feel is always towards desktops not least as with all of that extra ability to cool the machine your can use better chipsets to their capacity.
Desktops also tend to also be able to hold more Ram.
Give me a desktop any day. I took my home laptop away with me on holiday last week and hated it. (normally it has a monitor, keyboard and mouse plugged in) Needed it to do payroll and a couple of other odd jobs otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.
Windows 10 is on its way (don't know what happened to 9?) so might be a good idea if you can wait to hang around until around three months after thats hit the streets (I never like having a brand new operating system before the gremlins have been hammered out).
Thanks for the warning Shaun. My son has already registered me on my home comp for free upgrade on 29th July, but I'd not considered the gremlins side. Will leave it as is though and get the chance to test it out before deciding to upgrade the office comp. Windows 10 is a free upgrade to anyone who has Windows 7 or 8.
Ever notice how Microsoft alternate good and bad operating systems? Me (jury's out), XP(Brilliant), Vista (Disaster), 7(Brilliant), 8(not what people actually wanted), 10.... Fingers crossed!!!
Windows 3.11 - didn't know any better so thought it was good. 95 - ok 98 - ok 98SE - loved it. ME - hated it. XP - was good but I still prefered 98SE. Vista - quite liked it, big improvement on XP Windows 7 - the bees knees and the best so far. Windows 8 - I rarely use the metro screen so it's just like Windows 7 to me, apart from not having the Windows 7 menu (I could fix that quite easily but just never got round to it.
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
I haven't had a desktop computer for close on 20 years and always had laptops. With today's moden laptops the screens aren't that bad for size and usability is normally very good depending on make. With that said Windows 8 is awful and is on my current laptop and if I had the option of paying for a different windows version I would of taken it.
I'm only asking to see what people generally use, if there is any underlying benefit to having a desktop as a bookkeeper that I may have overlooked.
I use google drive a lot and have almost everything saved to it and I can access everything from my laptop to my iPad and iPhone and with wireless networks I can print from anywhere in the house. I was thinking of getting a desk top and using VT ( yes I'm fully committed to VT but that's another post on its own) to do books on and then if I need to work away from home I can access the backed up file from google drive the only problem could be is if I do not back it up the latest version will not be available on both laptop and desktop.
I use dropbox rather than Google drive so I'm writing this assuming that they work in a similar way.
Ok, take it from the top.
A single VT licence allows you to have VT on multiple devices for a single user to use so no issue over having VT on both the Laptop and the desktop.
Storing your .vtr files in dropbox it keeps the original in the cloud so accessible from any machine (all of you VT front screens will point to the dropbox directory as thats where you first opened it from. If you open a different version it would create a different front screen entry) but also put a hard copy on each machine and keeps that up to date so you have automatic backup.
If Google drive does not work in the same way then I would advise changing to dropbox as then you are always using the version stored in dropbox rather than a copy of it.
I would advise that even though you have automatic local backups with dropbox to still take regular weekly backups to other computers / media.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Yes, when you close a company it saves the file to the local copy of the .vtr file which then automatically updates the cloud version.
When you log onto any other machine with your drop box account attached to it then it downloads the updated .vtr file to your local copy on that machine.
All very transparent.
The thing that I like about that over a cloud based solution is that the software and the file exist on your machine regardless of an internet connection. So all of the benefits and non of the disadvantages of the cloud.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Just had same 'dilemma' opted for desktop. Windows seven as I use a clients laptop with windows 8 and loathe the damn thing. Love the bigger monitors and have two, although currently running with one desk desktop and new big monitor, one old desktop and small old monitor and one clients laptop on desk. Three keyboards, three mice and a dead spider in the corner of the room. Ok I jest about the latter, but need a laugh and who better to laugh at than myself. Dell XP series are good and they can build whatever spec you want, or they used to be able to. I use dropbox, couldn't be without it and it syncs to my apple products. Old sage never used to save direct ( well really old sage didn't) but now it can. I am in the habit of backup up every time I close down, even though it's on auto back up....just a good habit to have I reckon, and has saved me from one or two potential probs in the past.
Apologies now for any typos, not got glasses with me!!!
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Three keyboards, three mice and a dead spider in the corner of the room. Ok I jest about the latter, but need a laugh and who better to laugh at than myself.
Don't you need the spider to get on the web? (Yes, I know, awful even by my standards but I simply couldn't resist)
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
Cool looks like I might need to get drop box then I'm not sure if Google drive does that automatically
I've recently discovered that Microsoft One Drive is synching between my home and office comps, which I'm pleased about but didn't realise it was possible.
I would highly recommend Dropbox, it can also be accessed from the cloud on any computer if you log in to their website.
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
