Hardware Tips

We are not in the business of selling PC's. We get a quote each month from our suppliers and post the best one as a public service. We also arrange for PC purchases for our clients. For this months recommendation select the "Current Recommended Hardware" button on the left, or just click here. For previous months' recommendations, choose the "Previous Hardware Winners" link from the menu or the list at the left.

If you are a hardware supplier and would like to quote on supplying systems to our clients, please email us and we will begin our due diligence on your company. We will be requesting references and contacting your existing clients for reports on your service.

Here are some tips on equipment:

1. Great Video Cards are getting cheaper everyday but these days even the free ones on most motherboards are better than most people need.
2. Cheap mice are just that! Wireless mice and keyboard are convenient they can use a lot of batteries. Consider the environment before getting a wireless keyboard or mouse. No one likes to buy the big battery packs from Costco.
3. More RAM is always better and with the price of RAM so low it will pay to load up when you can.
4. Solid state hard drives are fast and use very little power. Super-fast and super-efficient but they have some issues. They can only write on each sector a finite number of times so the drive will get smaller and smaller as you use it. They tend to be expensive and they tend to be smaller than regular drives. Still if you get a laptop today I would get one with a solid state hard drive.
5. A quality case will make servicing and upgrading your desktop computer easier.
6. You need a better reason that just being cheap to have a monitor smaller than 19 inches for a desktop computer.
7. National venders such as Dell, HP, or Apple don't always use quality components in their computers. Usually, not only will you save money on buying your computer from a local vendor, you will also get a better computer.
8. If you need a laptop, buy a well-made one with a good build quality. We like the Microsoft Surface and Lenovo's ThinkPad.
9. f you are a student please think twice or even three times about getting an expensive laptop. The chances of it being stolen are very high. Be careful!
10. Well, there are many people that love Apple computers. Think twice! Often they don’t play well with others.
11. Remember a computer is not a fashion accessory. You need a better reason to buy a computer than, "It's cute." (See above references to Apple.)
12. Quality is the best thing you can buy.
13. Never purchase a computer for your future needs. Computers get better and cheaper everyday so buy what you need and plan on getting a new computer every 3 to 5 years. That being said, it is very cost effective to purchase a computer with quality parts. No one should ever purchase a computer with a hard drive in it that comes with only a 30 day warranty.
14. Have a backup system! And use it. Off-site backups are best; but, any backup system is better than none. Computers break and without a backup your data may be lost forever. Now-a-days everyone should have a copy of all their important data on the cloud. You don’t ever want to be that person whose computer has broken and they have lost everything because they didn’t have a backup. Even an old backup is better than no backup at all. And, there is nothing at all wrong with multiple backups.