Desktops and workstations buying guide - Making the big decisions

Business desktop PCs and workstations both offer desk-based solutions, but each is designed to serve a different function in your business. HP business desktop PCs offer dependable PCs for your business and support common business applications like e-mail and Internet access, Microsoft Office work, and even entry level professional 2D and 3D graphics.

HP workstations support processing and memory intensive technical applications such as MCAD, software development, video processing, and oil and gas applications. Workstations typically include professional graphics cards, are certified for specific technical applications, are capable of supporting dual processors and larger memory configurations, and support a wider range of operating systems including Windows XP Professional and Red Hat Linux.  
 

The operating system is at the heart of your system's capabilities and the OS choice you make affects what software you can run on your system as well as your options for security, maintenance, and manageability. Your most common OS choices for business desktop PCs are Microsoft® Windows XP® and Linux.

Windows XP is available in Home and Professional editions. The Home edition is less expensive than the Professional edition, but it also offers fewer tools and utilities to support your daily work. As a general rule, choose the Professional edition for your office desktop PCs so you can take advantage of the networking wizard to more easily share resources, use the remote desktop to remotely control a computer from another location, use the encrypted file system to protect your data from hackers, and more.

Linux is an open source OS, which means that it doesn't have a licensing fee associated with it, but it also doesn't necessarily have the same level of support and easy-to-use resources that you'll find with Windows. Also, common office applications may not run on Linux, although you can find similar open source applications to meet most office needs. Linux is a good choice if you have the IT staff to support it and you have a collection of systems that don't need to run a wide array of office applications. Call centers and software development houses are two good examples of the kind of businesses that might benefit from Linux-based desktops.  

Before you make a desktop purchase, you should consider the importance of the data you plan to store on the system, and how it will be connected to other systems that might house sensitive company information. While every computer in your business should have anti-virus and anti-spam software installed on it, those systems that will hold particularly sensitive data may need to have additional security options to better protect your company's intellectual property and networks. If the system you are purchasing needs extra security, be sure to look for business desktop PCs that offer more robust security features.

HP ProtectTools is a family of business PC security products, services, and features that allow you to add specific types of security to your systems. The HP ProtectTools Security Manager is an extensible console that gives you a single point of control over all elements of security for your system. You can choose specific security modules for your system to support your security needs. An example of a module is BIOS configuration for HP ProtectTools gives you control over your computer's BIOS settings and can prevent anyone who doesn't know your BIOS password from booting your system.