One of the choices that a small business owner must consider when buying a new computer (either as a replacement for one that has failed, or for a new staff member) is to decide whether a new computer or a second hand computer is required.
- First, is the computer being used in-house, or will it be going out to customer sites? If you are seeing customers, then it should be new.
- Second is the computer going to be using modern applications that require processing power? Then it should be new.
- Third, is the computer going to be for a short term project, or for the long term? If long term then it should be new.
- Fouth, will the computer be using legacy applications (old versions of accounting systems etc) then it can be second hand (but Windows 7 has an XP mOde that allows it to emulate a Windows XP computer to handle the older applications).
So you've bought your computer. Lets look at how long it should last. A new desktop - 4 years. A new notebook - 3 years. A second hand computer - well as long as it still functions. Bear in mind that computer repair costs may be more than the value of the computer. Depreciation of nearly 50% per year on computers is there for a reason.
One of the advantages of second hand computers is that it allows you to cheaply provide the N+1 redundancy that I mentioned in an earlier post. The number of computers available should be 1 more than the number you need, so that if there is a problem with a computer, your very expensive human resource can still continue to perform their job,whilst the very cheap computer hardware is repaired.
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