If you want something more than the standard “office” PC then a bespoke system is the way to go. Different applications require different emphasis on the selection of components. Beware buying a generic “power” system, as you’ll often be paying for equipment you don’t actually need.
Please feel free to browse, or call us on 0845 3888 746 / 01905 426364 to discuss your requirements.
Ultra-compact PCs
When space is at a premium, these are the answer. Equipped with a 4th generation i3 or i5, up to 16Gb RAM and a solid-state hard drive, these are seriously quick and capable of almost any job. All the usual parts are in place - wireless & wired networking, BlueTooth, HD graphics, digital sound and USB3. There’s a small premium to pay for all this compactness, but they are still competitively priced.
Also, having no moving parts, they are entirely silent in operation.
Designed for discreet mounting, they come supplied with a VESA plate, so they can be fixed to almost any surface. We are big fans of these little units, so call 0845 3888 746 to discuss your requirements.
Photo editing systems.
If you’re a keen photographer using - for instance - PhotoShop, you can greatly improve the performance of your system by carefully specifying the components.
Although a decent processor is required, you don’t have to go to the top of the pile. You don’t need a state-of-the-art graphics card either. Much more important is having plenty of RAM, and fast hard drives.
Although we only tend to ship these systems with 16Gb RAM on board, we only use motherboards that will accept at least 32Gb to allow for later expansion. Fitting at least two big, fast hard drives on the SATA3-6Gbps channels helps with throughput, and the increasingly popular SSD (or hybrid drives) are an optional extra that really makes for a responsive system
Video editing systems.
Editing videos is one of the few tasks that will stretch a modern PC. Unlike most other jobs video editing software will use as much processing power as you can throw at it. Our video editing systems are built with the fastest i7 CPU the customer can afford.
As with the photo systems, we tend to ship these systems with 16Gb RAM on board, but we only use motherboards that will accept at least 32Gb to allow for later expansion. Big, fast hard drives are also useful.
We are aware that dedicated video processing hardware (and software) can be picky about which graphics cards they will work with, so we take the time to research the options.
For a system that’s running so hard for so long, a good powersupply is a must. And often the system has to be REALLY quiet - not easy to achieve given the amount kit in the box.
Laptops
come with a bewildering variety of models. We are here to give some advice, and guide you through what’s useful and what isn’t.
We stick to a small number of brands (Asus, Lenovo & HP as a rule) because our experience tells us these give the best long-term user experience.
Laptops are often offered to us as “limited time specials” which can be discounts or bundled extras (e.g. extended warranties). These offer exceptional value, but there’s no time to ponder. Many of our customers leave us with a specification & a budget and leave it up to us, so we can pounce on these offers when they occur..
Servers & infrastructure.
Whether it’s a NAS box under the desk, of a full-blown Windows Server, we can deliver.
The cost of a “proper” Windows Small Business Server has fallen by an order of magnitude - call us to discuss just how little it can cost. Illustrated is a Hewlett Packard MicroServer - a tiny system perfectly capable of running Windows Small Business Server 2011 for a small business. All at cost that wouldn’t have purchased a top-spec PC a decade ago.
