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Is it time to ditch the desktop?

In this age of tablets, laptops and smartphones, many businesses are questioning the wisdom of investing in desktop machines. It’s true that portable devices have quite a few advantages over the traditional tower and monitor setup - they can be used on the go, they make it easier for employees to take work home with them, and they’re generally more versatile - but before we get too carried away singing the praises of newer devices, what about the advantages of the desktop?

First of all, there’s the matter of ergonomics. With a portable device, everything is necessarily scaled down - great for carrying it around, perhaps, but not so great for long periods of writing or number-crunching. Large, physical keyboards are still the best solution for sustained work, and the desktop setup allows for a more comfortable seated posture compared to huddling around a tiny screen.

Desktops are also generally more powerful and upgradable - some laptops and tablets can certainly offer comparable power, but not at the same price point. If at some point you need to implement an office-wide memory or processor upgrade, it’s a fairly simple matter to do it yourself with desktop machines, while portable devices may need to be sent to their manufacturers for upgrades.

For many office applications such as spreadsheets and word processing, you don’t need much power. However, if your business does graphic design, animation or uses 3D modelling, a desktop is usually the most economical choice as you have the widest selection of graphics cards, rather than being limited to what will fit in your machine.

Finally, and it may seem like a strange sort of advantage, but desktop machines are generally far too unwieldy for thieves to make off with, while laptops, phones and tablets are a much more tempting target. If your office experiences a break-in, chances are they’ll leave the towers alone and grab something that can easily fit under a jumper!

You should always choose whatever’s best for your business, and if that means a fleet of laptops then so be it - but don’t write off the humble desktop just yet! If there’s a place for them in your office, you’ll find them a reliable and cost-effective solution for your workplace.

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