best buys an informed choice...

What computer should I buy? Who provides the best broadband? Make the right choice based on our experience.

Looking for a new computer, laptop or broadband supplier can be a confusing experience with techno-babble and and over-enthusiastic sales staff to deal with, we will let you know the products and services we recommend and the ones to avoid at all costs and why. With The Computer Wiz you can go in armed with the right information based on our many years of experience. As well as helpful pointers on this website we can also provide a Personal Shopper service upon request (call for details).

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Moore's Law: The observation made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented. Moore predicted that this trend would continue for the foreseeable future. In subsequent years, the pace slowed down a bit, but data density has doubled approximately every 18 months, and this is the current definition of Moore's Law, which Moore himself has blessed. Most experts, including Moore himself, expect Moore's Law to hold for at least another two decades.

Desktop Computers

With technology purchases, try to aim for the middle ground; for example if you spend top money for the very latest top spec computer within 3 months the technology inside will have been superseded by the latest offerings and your computer will already be out of date and furthermore you'll have paid through-the-nose for the privilege, alternatively if you buy the cheapest computer you can lay your hands on you'll get exactly what you paid for... not a lot! The majority of bottom-end budget computers usually die a catastrophic death within one-to-two years after purchase, usually around the time that the warranty runs out! Many people will advise you to buy a computer based on what you intend to use it for, on the whole this is good advice although be aware that your needs will more than likely change over time and you'll come to expect more from your computer; it's wise to go a little above the bare minimum spec to future-proof your purchase, in summary a computer which will just be used for surfing the web and email will still need to boot up quickly and run smoothly.

Manufacturer	What we think	Buy	Don't!
Acer	Mid range computers suitable for home/study/small business use. A good computer at a reasonable price.
Advent	Build quality is the main issue here, a typically budget machine often dressed up with pretty lights to draw your attention away from low spec components.
Alienware	High-end cutting edge gaming kit! If you need performance, quality and cool-factor... then get one! Expensive and super cool designed for gamers.
Apple	Top of the pile on quality and design, but also top of the pile on price! A Mac should be considered as a long-term purchase due to it's enduring build quality and it's resistance to obsolescence through the OS X operating system. On an Apple Mac the hardware and software are designed in unison affording a rich and reliable user experience but unfortunately with a price tag to match.
Compaq	Compaq build a fair mid-way point computer ideal for home or study use, for business use I would advise stepping up to the HP range.
Dell	Like HP, Dell is a very good choice for either personal or office use, stunning good looks and excellent build quality. On the downside Dells don't play well with others, if you buy an internal card such as a PCI TV then it might not work unless it's been specified by Dell. In summary, if your not going to touch the inside then go for it!
Fujitsu Siemens	Shake it, it might just rattle! Build quality is the issue here, these a very cheap computers dressed up with flashing lights and gizmos. Buyer beware!
Hewlett Packard, HP	A very good option, suitable for both personal and business use, solid build quality and thoughtful design. HP build good computers for a fair price. There will be a small amount of pre-installed software, or crapware to uninstall during setup.
Lenovo, (formally IBM)	IBM, one of the founders of modern-day computing used to build very high quality computers which led the way for many decades. In 2005 Lenovo took over the business and ever since build quality has unfortunately plummeted. Software-wise these machines aren't bad on the crapware front although they're commonly underpowered especially for those customers who brought a Vista machine.
Packard Bell	AVOID! AVOID! AVOID! The lifetime of a Packard Bell is extremely uncertain and very unlikely to span through one to two years, beyond two years is very lucky! The quality of internal parts are very poor and these machines are full of crapware which has to be removed though their own interface and cannot be removed from ad/remove programs in control panel. Very cheap, very poor product.
Sony	Like Apple, Sony are generally a high-end computer manufacturer who are known for their beautiful form factors and design and generally high quality computers. Although watch out for the optical drives, CD/DVDRW, they have been know to fail.

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Laptops

Laptops are a great solution where space is a premium or you just need portability, with a laptop very little initial setup is required and in most cases it's just a case of hooking up your WiFi and you're done. Considerations when buying a laptop are typically power/performance, weight, battery life and general build quality, you may also be interested in styling and colour options.

Manufacturer	What we think	Buy	Don't!
Acer	As with their range of desktop computers Acer provide mid range laptops suitable for home/study/small business use. A good computer at a reasonable price.
Advent	Very poor build quality, these laptops will rarely withstand the rigours of regular use and have a limited life span.
Alienware	A very big, very heavy, very powerful piece of awesomeness! High-end cutting edge gaming kit! If you need performance, quality and cool-factor... then get one! Expensive and super cool designed for gamers. Don't expect good battery life!
Apple	Top of the pile on quality and design, but also top of the pile on price! A Mac should be considered as a long-term purchase due to it's enduring build quality and it's resistance to obsolescence through the OS X operating system. On an Apple Mac the hardware and software are designed in unison affording a rich and reliable user experience but unfortunately with a price tag to match. Battery life is very good although battery cannot be swapped as it's built in internally.
Compaq	Compaq build a fair mid-way point computer ideal for home or study use, for business use I would advise stepping up to the HP range.
Dell	Very good value for money and available in a stylish range of colours.
Fujitsu Siemens	Very "plastic-y", very poor build quality and severely under-powered.
Hewlett Packard, HP	A very good option, suitable for both personal and business use, solid build quality and thoughtful design HP build good computers for a fair price. There will be a small amount of pre-installed software, or crapware to uninstall during setup.
Lenovo, (formally IBM)	IBM, one of the founders of modern-day computing used to build very high quality computers which led the way for many decades. In 2005 Lenovo took over the business and ever since build quality has unfortunately plummeted. Software-wise these machines aren't bad on the crapware front although they're commonly underpowered especially for those customers who brought a Vista machine. There are a large number of aftermarket accessories available for the Thinkpad range.
Packard Bell	AVOID! AVOID! AVOID! Very under-powered and absolutely full of crapware!
Samsung	Very stylish and excellent build quality. Great little laptops.
Sony	Like Apple, Sony are generally a high-end computer manufacturer who are known for their beautiful form factors in design and generally high quality computers. Although watch out for the optical drives, CD/DVDRW, they have been know to fail.
Toshiba	Toshiba build great mid-range laptops built to last, good buy.

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Netbooks

Netbooks are really designed for simple internet tasks, hence the "net" bit of the name. Netbooks ARE NOT laptops, performance is sacrificed to make way for superior battery life and savings in weight. Typically netbooks do not come with optical drives. If all you want to do is basic internet stuff such as Facebook and eBay then a netbook might just be right for you.

Manufacturer	What we think	Buy	Don't!
Acer	Great little netbooks available with either Windows or Linux operating systems. Very good build quality at a reasonable price.
Apple	At first glance you might be forgiven for thinking Apple shouldn't be listed in this category, but apple do have a couple of products which could fulfil this need. Firstly the Macbook Air which has extraordinary build quality and is incredibly light weight, ideal for carrying about all day in a back pack. The Macbook Air, like many netbooks doesn't come with an optical drive. The second offering is the revolutionary iPad, this device is an "instant-on" web browsing, touch operated miracle with an incredible battery life, the main downside is no flash available for web pages.
Asus	These guys started the netbook revolution and introduced the eeepc which came with either Windows XP or Linux installed out of the box. Asus have since rolled out a whole range of netbooks building on their established success.
Hewlett Packard, HP	Very neat and stylish netbooks ideal for both business (on the road) and general home use. A good dependable manufacturer.
Samsung	Image is everything! These netbooks look the biz and can get the job done!
Sony	Like Apple, Sony are generally a high-end computer manufacturer who are known for their beautiful form factors in design and generally high quality.
Toshiba	Toshiba build great netbooks built to last, good buy.

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Broadband Providers

Either for home or business, choosing the right broadband provider is essential not only from the point of view of price but also for quality of service and the efficiency of their customer service staff if you experience problems. This guide will give you an idea of what you can expect from these providers.

Provider	What we think	Sign up!	Don't!
AOL	Clunky and unnecessary desktop software involved during setup combined with poor service and sales driven customer service. A bad idea!
BT	DON'T! Despite what you may think BT are awful when it comes to quality of service backed up by truly dismal customer services based on the other side of the world. BT's customer service staff generally are very poorly trained and in most cases struggle to resolve issues. Broadband speeds are greatly effected at peak times in many cases which is not helped by poor quality equipment such as routers and Hubs provided. If you're with BT now and you switch to another provider, you'll probably see your broadband speed increase!
Demon	Dedicated broadband provider for both business and home use, excellent service quality and outstanding customer service experience.
Opal	The dedicated business to business division of the TalkTalk Group, the UK’s 3rd largest communications network operator. With a 15 year history of providing business telecoms you can rest assured that, with Opal, you are in safe hands.
Orange	Poor service quality, poor customer service!
Pipex	Professional ADSL for business users and for home users who want a dependable service. Prices aren't quite as competitive as some of the other providers although broadband is what they do... and they do it well!
Virgin	Overall not bad although their customer service and signup procedures could use a little work. Fault finding procedures are a little long-winded when it all goes wrong. When everything's working ok you can get pretty fast speeds in some areas at a reasonable price.

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WiFi Routers

Even if your broadband package comes with a free ADSL router you may get some benefit from an upgrade either in terms of speed or range, as well as basic connectivity some routers have "NAS Drives" built in enabling simple network storage for either shared file access or for backup of PCs or Macs.

Manufacturer	What we think	Buy	Don't!
Apple	Time Capsule is a glorified NAS drive capable of backing up Macs and PCs on your network as well as offering incredible WiFi coverage and speed. The Time capsule has dual band WiFi meaning in simple terms it has a fast lane and a slow lane enabling faster devices on your network not to be slowed down by slower devices such as older laptops and pocket PC's. The Time Capsule is primarily a backup device and does not have any form of modem built in, a ADSL or cable modem or router will be needed in addition to connect to the internet.
Belkin	Cost effective and good quality for either home or office use. We recommend Belkin.
Cisco	Top end networking equipment used throughout the IT industry. Premium price, buy if your budget permits.
Linksys	Simple, dependable and fairly priced.
Netgear	One of the market leaders in home installations, very easy setup, good value.
SpeedTouch	Cheap rubbish, DON'T

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Mobile Internet 3G

Mobile internet coverage is very much dependant on where you intend to use it, a good test is to look at the performance of friends smartphones (3G) in that area which can be used as a close comparison to the information provided by the mobile phone shop. Consider your options for usage and budget, for example you'll probably get a better deal on a Pay Monthly plan than on a Pay-as you-go package, but if your planning very occasional use then PAYG would be better suited to you. Final word, DON'T TRUST THE COVERAGE MAPS IN THE PHONE SHOP!

Media and Entertainment Centres

Sharing digital content throughout your home is well worth the initial effort as all your music, movies, photos, TV shows and more are all available in every room throughout the home even the TV in the living room.

Solution	What we think	Go for it!	Avoid!
Apple TV	Sometimes referred to as Apple's hobby project, Apple TV is an underestimated home entertainment solution. Apple TV syncs with iTunes on your main Mac or PC just as an iPod or iPhone would wirelessly. Connected to your TV via HDMI, digital media is stored on its internal harddrive and kept in sync to-and-fro via iTunes. It's a simple as that! Rent movies, buy music, share your photos on multiple Apple TV's throughout the home.
Boxee	A set-top media box based on Linux, very cheap, very simple
Windows Home Media Server	Unlike Apple TV virtually all file formats and services can be played and distributed to media centre PC's connected to TV's throughout the home. Overall cost is greater than the Apple TV option.

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Business Solutions

Distributing files and email in an office environment doesn't have to be difficult, with a number of cost-effective cloud computing solutions your business IT could be simplified while expanding capabilities. Snip the wires and un-tangle your business!

Solution	Overview
Box.net	Create sharable boxes in a virtual space and share to other users via an email invitation. Add notes, to-do's and create documents on the fly. This could act as your business portal, we use this solution for our website customers during the build process allowing us to easily collaborate across large distances. Box.net is a FREE service upgrades to a paid option.
Dropbox	This is a FREE service upgrades to a paid option. It does exactly what the name suggests, drop your files into the box and sync to the cloud, access you files even without an internet connection. Sync requires an internet connection. It's a great start if you want to see if cloud computing is for you.
Hosted Exchange by Microsoft	Hosted by third-party providers, Microsoft Exchange delivers email, contacts and calendars to Microsoft Outlook on you desktop computers in real time. Content is synced in the cloud and is accessible from any computer or mobile device connected to the internet including Blackberry's and iPhone's. Hosted exchange is also compatible with Macs as well as PC's
MobleMe by Apple	Dubbed by Apple "Exchange for the rest of us", MobileMe does pretty much what hosted exchange does with the inclusion of mac-centric extras such as "idisk" and "Find my iPhone". MobileMe is available as a single user or as a Family Pack (5 users).
Sharepoint by Microsoft	In simple terms this is a private harddrive on the internet, accessible everywhere!

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Mac or PC

This is undoubtedly the biggest argument in computing with strong opinions coming from both camps. I'm going to attempt to rationalise the main points for consideration in this section. Now you have to make your own mind up!

Mac Issues	Conclusion	Good	Bad
Compatibility	Macs can open most common files such as .jpg .mp3 .txt, and with installed software such as Microsoft Office for Mac, can open .doc .xls and other common office documents. For the majority of Windows software there is a Mac alternative.
Viruses	No I'm not saying you can't get a virus on a Mac, but is extremely unlikely as the vast majority of viruses are written for Windows to attain maximum exposure.
Defrag	You don't have to defrag a Mac, their just build that way!
File Permissions	File permissions can become corrupted, permissions need fixing on occasion
Sage	If you're in business you can't run Sage on a Mac natively
Windows	If you need to run the occasional Windows program on your Mac, you can install Windows on your Mac using either Bootcamp (built in) or by installing a VMWare client enabling you to run Windows within the OS X desktop.
Upgrades and Customizations	It's pretty difficult to customize or upgrade a Mac, what you see is pretty much what you get apart from the basics such as RAM and HDD upgrades.
Longevity	Macs last a long time, FACT!
Crapware	Macs only come pre-loaded with standard apple software and not third-party companys' products hounding you for payment or renewal.
Learning Curve	Everybody know's how to use windows, Mac requires a learning curve.
Software & Hardware	Software & Hardware built by the same company = no surprises!
iPhone's, iPod's etc	Who hasn't got an iPhone or an iPod. Built to work with Mac.

PC Issues	Conclusion	Good	Bad
Market Leader	PC's are still the global standard in computing affording almost guaranteed compatibility with other computers
Viruses	No I'm not saying you can't get a virus on a Mac, but is extremely unlikely as the vast majority of viruses are written for Windows to attain maximum exposure.
Defrag	PC's get fragmented HDD's
File Permissions	PC's don't have problems with file permissions.
Sage	Yes, you can run Sage on a PC
Software & Hardware	There are many different hardware and software combinations on a PC producing potential problems.
Vista	A very slow and clunky operating system by Microsoft pre-loaded on many PC's
Windows 7	A great version of Windows with many Vista issues fixed!
Crapware	Many PC's a pre-loaded with crapware from the OEM.
Learning Curve	Everybody know's how to use windows, Mac requires a learning curve.
Can't run OS X Leopard	WIndows or Linux only.
iPhone's, iPod's etc	Who hasn't got an iPhone or an iPod. They CAN work on a PC.

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