which laptop is better for my small business?

Question

I have a small company for PVC Doors and Windows producing. It is a family business and this laptop would be the only computer of the company. We would use it basically with Office, Internet, and such features. Eventually we would install some program for management but never for programming or for working with heavy graphics or animations. I've seen options from HP and ASUS, some of them come with Windows Starter and Office Starter and have 2gb ram, but I don't know if in the near future that will be too little memory...  Thanks for your advise!

Anonymous · Answer

My humble suggestion is that you get a MacBook Pro.  I would get a laptop and outfit it with an external keyboard, rodent and monitor and use the laptop in "Clam Shell Mode/Close Diplay Mode".  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3131    That way you can use it like a desktop, but if you ever need portability you can do that too.  Brenthaven http://www.brenthaven.com/  make outstanding travel bags.  They are more expensive.  But you get what you pay for.  The biggest benefit is something that's hard to get across to people that aren't gear heads.  The best part is under the surface.  You can't really see or touch the difference on the outside.  But think of it this way...  You want to build a skyscraper.  When you lay the foundation do you want someone who has a plan... uses quality cement and re-enforcing rebar or do you want someone who digs a big ol hole and pushes rip rap into it and pours shitty cement over the top?  When you're walking around in that office building you can't really see that's there's any difference in the foundation.  But if any heavy duty problems come up... which building do you want to be hanging out in?  It's kinda like that.
Extend your warranty on anything you buy with your credit card company.  Call them and find out if they automatically do that.  If the don't ask why all these other people at Amex and Discover get it for nothing.  Get that and use it to extend the warranty to 2 years(or whatever).   
In closing I will say this.  I'm a geek number cruncher.  I do IT as well and I help to oversee a medium sized office that has Windoze(XP,W7,Sever2008R2), Linux(RHEL5&6, Mint, CentOS, Suse) and OSX(10.5,10.6&10.7).  I have the absolute least amount of trouble from my Mac users.  I set them up... and off they go.  And I rarely have to do anything for them.  All the other virus crap... updates ... reloads. recoveries...are PC.  Get a Mac.  And that's all I have to say about that.  :)

Edit:  Actually something else occurs to me.  If you're strapped for ca$h and already have a computer of some sort and still want to go Mac you can do this:
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac
Mac often has refurbished gear.  Unlike other vendors their refurbed stuff has the same identical warranty as their new gear.  This very post is coming to you from a 2 year old mini refurb that I have had Zero trouble with.  So if you already have a monitor, keyboard and rodent and dont' care about being portable or need to watch your coins.... get a mini.

PC's are only a bargain if you feel your time is worth nothing.  Do you want to spend time and effort on your business or becoming a Windoze expert due to all the time you're spending fixing things?
They more than pay for themselves in the long run.   So WHEN you need help, If I take extreme pity on you it's 100$ an hour, 2 hour minimum.  If you have no inclination to become a gear head and want to focus on your business rather than f**king with the registry....  get a mac.

John · Answer

well if it is for your business and it i for basic uses like office, i would get a lower end new processor. the reason is you get better battery life, lower heat stress, and it is lighter.  since you only use it for basic things, it would be a waste of money buying a better processor because the heat stress alone will negate any benefits.  i am going to recommend this laptop, it has an amd c-50 with 4 gb of RAM and a 15 inch screen.  the has a processor that is ultra low wattage, the whole laptop uses less energy then just an average Intel processor.  that means it is a little slow, for instance it take an extra second to open internet explorer but once open it works normally.  and if you out it in power savings mode it uses even less energy.  dont listen to the guy suggesting mac, they are way too expensive and not only are the programs available for mac more expensive, there are far too many programs that are not available for mac. plus many things available for free on pc costs money on mac.  contact me if you need more help.