What's the best new PC for you?

We could quibble past this question easily with "Well, it depends ...", but instead we'll hit it straight on. The best all-round choice for most professionals is a portable rather than a desktop/tower. The advantages of portables are:

• Take up much less space and they can be put away to make more.
• Much easier to install - all the 'bits' are integral and recent portables even come with built-in modems, speakers and CDs.
• Battery operated and so save work if power fails.
• LCD screen is easier on the eyes (ours, anyway - ophthalmologists have any views about that?)
• Carry everywhere with you - you really only need one PC and there's far less hassle keeping everything up to date.

The disadvantages of portables are:

• About half the specification ('the spec') for twice the price.
• Performance never seems as good as an equivalent desktop.
• Tend to last only about two-three years because they get knocked around more and the technical spec is lower
• Hardware upgrades and additions are more expensive and there is less choice (USB gets around this to some degree).
• May not be possible to integrate with your clinical system.
• This advice is confirmed by experiences at Medix. We use a lot of fairly large databases and portables used tend to be sluggish. After a good deal of faffing about with desktops, including *building* one, we're now back to a cheap, but high spec, laptop (15" screen, 1.8gHz AMD Athlon, 512mb RAM for £999 but too plastic-tacky for the Medix Awards) and am much happier.

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