Grundig Consulting

As the holiday season approaches, more and more people are asking for my advice on which computer system to purchase this year? This pertains to home users as well as those in a business environment. In my opinion, there are two major choices which must be made: PC or Mac? Desktop or laptop?

PC or Mac? There are a lot of great systems available right now are very good prices, especially on the PC side, made by manufacturers such as Dell and and other. I recommend purchasing one of the midrange systems when shopping for a PC, whether a desktop or laptop. More installed memory, as always, improves performance. However, the extremely versatile lineup of Macintosh computers from Apple always begs inspection. The iMac, Macbook and Macbook Pro models which are available are suitable for most home or small business users. Keep in mind that by using Bootcamp, which is built into the newest version of the Mac operating systems, you can run Windows XP or Vista on a Mac without sacrificing any performance.

Desktop or laptop? These days, the price difference between laptops and desktops has narrowed, while laptops are are also nearing desktop systems in performance. Laptops can be used at home, at work or on the road. As a result, more laptops are now being sold worldwide than desktops. I recommend that you seriously consider a laptop in any debate between a laptop and desktop system. Port replicators, external monitors, keyboards and mice can be attached to a laptop systems to give it a more ergonomic feel which being used in the laptop or at home. The easy portability of a laptop is usually worth the extra cost.

What do you think are the best computer systems available this holiday season? We’d love to hear your input or answer any questions that you have.

Best wishes for a happy and productive holiday season.

Using a slow computer workstation is one of the must frustrating things for anyone trying to get something done on a computer, particularly with the mounting list of tasks that each of us must accomplish during the workday.

A common request with by small business owners and managers and computer users is “. . . Speed up my workstation.” Usually, one can do any of the following, and in the following order (Reply to this post with a questions or talk to your IT consultant if anything is unclear.)

1) Disable startup applications using the Microsoft system configuration utility. Each application thinks it’s really important, but they don’t all have to load when the workstation is started up.

2) Add memory - memory is used by the operating sytem and also by running applications. Increasing memory allows on to run more application at the same time while also increasing performance

3) Defragment the hard drive - After years of use, files on the hard drive are not necessarily stored in a continuous space on the hard drive. Defragmenting will rearrange the files more efficiently and should result in a performance improvement.

4) Replace the workstation and transfer data and possibly, applications, to the new workstation. Most expensive of the options here, but often the most effective. Most companies and organizations have a 3 or 4 year replacement cycle for workstations. Options from Dell for Small Business are outlined here.