I currently have two desktop PCs networked together. They run Windows XP, so I have decided to replace these with two laptops which I will also network together.
I’m about to place the order for two of these:
-Dell Latitude 3540
-Windows 7 Pro
-Intel i5 processor
-4GB
-500 GB hard drive
-15.6 inch display
-2 USB 2.0 slots
-2 USB 3.0 slots
My plan is to use my existing desktop monitors and mice when the laptops are in use at the desk.
Any comments before I place the order?
Thanks.
Replies (27)
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I'm no techy, but if it were me, I'd be inclined to upgrade to 8Gb RAM now.
A couple of our older PCs were 3-4Gb, and the speed improvement was noticeable when upgraded to 8. We are using Windows 7, inevitably the later the version of software you're using, the more resource hungry it is. Things like saving VT files can chug.
No idea what price you're paying for those, but generally I think it's worth paying £500 for a computer, even though you'll find some that'll work fine for £300. An extra couple of seconds performing every task adds up.
Looks good
I would check what Intel recommend RAM-wise for use with the i5 chip - but 4gb should be enough for most tasks.
If you do a lot of data manipulation then more RAM would always be a good thing - but this could be upgraded in the future if required.
How much client data do you hold? 500gb may well get filled up very quickly. Although, for the smaller practice may well prove more than enough.
Also, why USB2.0 as well as 3.0? Most, if not all, USB2.0 devices will work in a USB3.0 port - and I would assume that any new tech will be USB3.0 compatible from here on out anyway.
BMan
Are you using any databases?
I'm using Samsung RV515s which are 4mg ram and 500gb hard drive. It only has 3 usb sockets, but I've added a USB hub to one which powers 3 printers and a scanner. The system is absolutely fine, and I've noticed no down time at all with most desktop applications, i.e. spreadsheets, browsing and word documents - all very much instant when clicked. The only times I've seen a deterioration is when using database driven software, particularly Taxcalc which was unbearably slow now it's a database. I trialled BTC which is also database driven and that was slow as well. I've been using them for a couple of years, there are two of us with roughly 100 clients, and the hard drives are still virtually empty, so no problems with hard drive capacity. I've had Dell's in the past and found them unreliable and poorly made, with keys falling off the keyboard, hard drive failures, etc - why not try a Samsung? I've had 6 in total now over the years and never had any issues with them.
I you intend to use existing monitors
make sure that the new laptops have VGA outputs. Some newer models have only HDMI.
I would also suggest ...
Consider
1) specifying a SSD (solid state disk) instead of a traditional "mechanical" disk. That will improve the performance dramatically.
2) Also, if you are intending to share information between users you could consider implementing a NAS device such as a Synology. That should easilly give you resilient storage and as much capacity as you wish to pay for
3) Make sure that the device which is sharing the computers i.e. making the LAN operate, such as your ADSL router has 1Gb ports not 100Mb ports.
Captain
USB 2.0
@BananaMan: it’s just that the Dell spec for this machine is 2 x USB 2.0 and 2 x USB 3.0, rather than my choice. It also has a 4-in-1 memory card reader (“SD Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, SDHC Card”), if that’s relevant. Do you think I should look into getting all the slots as 3.0?
It's not so much that the USB 2.0's are not worth having - it's just worth bearing in mind that new devices will, in the future, be made with USB3.0 or 'SuperSpeed' plugs and that if you replace your printer/scanner/keyboard etc. then the 2.0 ports may no longer be compatible.
In that sense, you may end up with 50% of the ports no longer being usable
Disks and More
Disks: You can get
pure mechanical disks (OK they have a small memory cache) ora Hybrid disk (part memory part physical disk) ora fully 'memory based' SSD
The hybrid and SSD devices will give much better performance over a conventional mechanical disk (whatever its cache). These are safe bets these days and, trust me, they will improve the performance of the computer substantially especially startup, program loads and shutdown times.
Router ports: the performance of the Local Area Network (which is transporting data between the computers in your case) will be the limiting factor on performance when sharing data between the computers. Using 1Gb ports (which are common and you may have them already) will noticably improve performance in these circumstances. What router do you have?
Final Point: screen resolution. Make sure you are happy with the vertical resolution of the screen...the more the better to avoid a lot of scrolling! So 1024*768 is the horizontal and vertical resolutions respectively. 768 is too small IMO!
Long term battery: the long-term use of the your laptop on mains should not be a factor for the battery. But, it would be sensible to allow the device to run the battery down and then re-charge it approximately monthly. Also, most laptops allow you to select only to charge the battery to 80% instead of 100%. This will extend the life of the battery significantly.
Captain
Memory and hard drive
My thoughts are that you may as well upgrade to 8Gb of RAM now if it doesn't cost too much - providing that your operating system is 64 bit otherwise you simply won't be able to use that extra 4Gb.
With hard drive there are two routes - if you are going to stick with the mechanical hard disk drive (HDD) then for probably about £30 you could say double the capacity to around 1Tb. Although you aren't really using it now, who knows what will happen in 3 years time. Windows 7 also likes a lot of room to make disk images to restore from in the event of problems.
As Captainblack says a Solid State Drive (SSD) will dramatically improve performance. If speed is important to you then this is probably the single most important think you can do. However, they are expensive compared to mechanical HDDs, but it is the best upgrade I have ever made.
Another vote for SSDs
Hi RL - just to reinforce what others have said, all my machines have SSDs and I wouldn't go back to working machines with mechanical drives. The biggest day to day impact, and I realise it may be cosmetic, is that I switch them on and am working on them within 10-15 seconds, rather than the 3 - 20 minutes I'd been used to.
For long-term storage however, I still rely on a couple hard drives.
Keyboard
Not sure if anyone mentioned this but I just bought a laptop for my new practice - high ram & storage, windows 8.1, touchscreen etc.. BUT the best thing is having a number keypad on the keyboard of my laptop. Since I'm greying, I started my career with one computer in the office shared by everyone and a calculator. My skills on the number keypad are phenomenal and not having to plug in a separate keyboard just to have a number keypad is FANTASTIC.
Replace the router
10/100 ports will be a limiting factor when sharing documents across pcs.
What router do you have now? Routers don't cost that much try a Billion 7800DXL.
Captain
Lateral comment
Why is there no 'Tab' key on the right of a keyboard next to the number pad? Go on, now tell me that there is!
Spec for Accessing Cloud
Interesting thread. I'm needing to replace my ageing setup and keep putting it off. Last year I moved my data to the cloud but still kept the desktop (which has slowed to a crawl) to access it.
Just wondered whether getting a new machine with SSD, 8GB etc is necessary, as like I say, my data is in the cloud. I know that in theory, I could use a Rasberry Pii to access it! Just don't want to double up and pay out for spec when not necessary. Any comments?
Cloud or not
Adam
Your data might be stored in the cloud but you process it locally.
If speed of system startup, program load, working speed or system shutdown is an issue to you then a new laptop or PC based on the specifications in this thread will definitely help.
If you are constantly uploading and downloading data from the cloud then a better internet connection (if you can get one) like Virgin Cable or BT Infinity would make your life run faster.
Hopefully you don't only have your data in the cloud, eggs and baskets!
Captain
Adam why not move everything up there?
All of my business is hosted and so all the MS Office, Iris, Adobe acrobat etc etc is processed on the host's server. Similarly, with the cloud based accounting all the processing is, again, done at their end not mine, consequently all I send up are keystrokes & mouse clicks and all that comes back is a screen image.
In this way it doesn't really matter that much what you have locally plus there is hardly any uploading & downloading, so no waiting time.
Another vote for SSD and 8GB
Another vote for 8GB RAM over 4GB.
And the SSD drives make such a difference. Some come with a smaller SSD drive alongside a main hard drive - this makes booting up really fast as Paul said.
Fundamental
For those of a timesheet persuasion, total time on this project to date is about 0.5 day. I estimate a further 2 days.
The fundamental point being, how much time (over the Laptops life) will you save due to faster processing/increased efficiency?
Monitors & Cloud
Monitors
This is probably to late for you, as you've already ordered yours, Red Leader, but I would always recommend ensuring that you have DisplayPorts on any new PC. DisplayPort offers the best resolution and (if it's version 1.2) allows daisy-chaining of monitors, so multiple monitors can be connected to one port. Also DP on a PC is compatible with all monitors, as you can buy very cheap adaptors that take a DP output from a PC and convert to VGA or DVI (respectively, the older analaogue and digital connections) or to HDMI (an alternative modern digital spec). HDMI is common for audio-visual equipment (TV, DVD, etc.), whereas DP is generally preferred for computing. Most PCs with DP will also have a VGA or DVI port.
So long as you have DP on your PC, I would always buy DP monitors but, if you do not have DP on your PC, do not buy a DP monitor, as the compatibility mentioned above only works one way: i.e. a DP PC can connect to the other three monitor connections but a DP on a monitor can only connect to a DP on a PC.
Like HDMI, DP is also very easy to connect and disconnect (especially useful if the port is hidden around the back and not too accessible) as it's a simple plug (like a large USB) with a clickable latch, unlike VGA and DVI which require accurate positioning and then plastic screws to be tightened.
Cloud - Hosted Desktop
I also second Paul Scholes' comment re adambarker's cloud setup. It's one thing to save your data in the cloud (eg via DropBox) but you gain whole orders of magnitude of greater efficiencies when you run your entire desktop in the cloud via a hosted desktop solution. The one (major) caveat is that you need a decent broadband connection at all times but, if you have that, a hosted desktop saves you ever having to worry about managing or upgrading your computer, as the intensive processing is all done in the cloud.
I have come across four companies who market themselves at accountants:
Hosted Desktop UK
Hosted Accountants
WorkPlaceLive
We Work Everywhere
We Work Everywhere is probably more suitable for firms with more than 5-10 users as they tell me that they don't use shared/multi-tenant servers, but a dedicated server for each company, so this would be expensive for one or two users. The first three have very similar offerings, though WorkPlaceLive offer Citrix as well as RDP connections for better data compression (useful mainly for streaming video). As they say on the BBC, other hosting providers are available.
SSD / 8GB RAM
Future proofs the laptop. Mechanical hard drives tend to fail more often, the size of data you'll be dealing with doesn't require a high capacity drive.