Buying A Laptop-What Should I Consider

What I Should Consider When
Buying a Laptop

Looking to Buy A Laptop?

More and more people are looking at laptops-and what is offers foremost. Mobility. Mobility translates into accessibility and up-to-the-minute exchanges on the road for individuals and businesses of all sizes.

With that being said, what should you consider when buying a laptop? It is largely dependent on your needs, personal wants and available cash.

Operating System/Ram

When you are looking at an operating system you need to know first, how much ram an operating system needs to work properly.

First, you need to know how much memory the different operating systems consume. Here are the most common:

XP Professional - 512 MB memory
Vista - 1 Gig of memory
Vista Home - 512 MB memory
Windows Vista - 2 gig
Vista Premium - 1 Gig
Windows 7 - 16 Gig or hard drive space with (Ram: 1 GB for 32 bit, 2 GB for 64 bit)

Laptop Screen

Laptops are always evolving. For example, laptop sizes can now range from a 7-inch screen to 20-inch screen, with their weight from anywhere from 3 pounds to 15 pounds. With that being said, you'll find the average size of a laptop screen to be from 14" to 15".

So what screen is right. It depends on your needs.

1. Are you going to be traveling and using your laptop at airports? If the answer is yes, then the 14" to 15" may be a better option. Why? The workspaces that airport terminals have available to business and consumers are rather space-deficient for the larger units.

2. If travel is not in your plans, and you don't mind the extra weight-then the larger screen can be a choice without problem. (As to extra weight-some units can be up to 18 lbs).

Hard Drives

The laptop's 2.5 hard drives range in size from 80gig to 350 gigs.

The diameter size of 2.5 is standard for most hard drives (diameter measurement of the storage device) on your laptop. But the line of notebooks such as, Thinkpad come with a 1.5 hard drive (which make it more difficult to upgrade).

Hard Drives come in 3 different speeds (Hard drive average price range of $65 to $120)

1. 4200 rpm
2. 5400 rpm
3. 7200 rpm

What does the speed do for the notebook-it determines how fast data can be accessed from the drive. The faster the hard drive the more it will cut into your power and battery life. Another consideration is the faster the speed the higher the cost. I would personally prefer the 7200 for speed, but if the cost is too much, go with the middle of the road and go with 5400 rpm.

Laptop Processor Speed

This, I must remind you is not an exhaustive review of different processor speeds, but a quick look at what is available. Each processor has it's benefits and drawbacks and as always, new processor chips are coming on board to improve speed, and lower energy consumption. With that being said...

You need to determine how you are going to be use your laptop, and the price you want to pay-and go with the best that you can afford to meet your needs.

1. PC Celeron- Found in low-cost laptops. Good laptop for running applications and lighter tasks. Speed is lower than that of the Pentium 4.

2.If you are looking for performance the Pentium D (first Intel chip with dual core technology) or Athlon 64 (high-end 64 bit processor) mid to high-end would be adequate.

3. Dual Core - With a Dual-core processor you have in essence two cores on a single processor. This gives you more power to multitask. Multi-tasking is working with several programs at once, with some programs running behind the scenes.

4. Pentium M - The Pentium M processors have a range of 2 MB cache with a front side bus of 533 Mhz. Con: The Pentium M runs at a slower GHZ speed then the Pentium Pro: Provide quality battery savings.

5. Celeron M -Offer the same as the Pentium M, but offers less cache and less GHZ speed.

6. Pentium 4 - The Pentium 4 are great for those wanting to use a laptop for gaming, video editing, or any business applications that require greater processing speed. Models above 2.66 GHZ supports offers hyperthreading technology.

7. Intel Core 2 Duo - Intel Core 2 Duo is faster than that of the Pentium D processor. The different Intel Core 2 Duo is broken down as follows:

Core 2 Duo E6700 - Clock Speed-2.66GHz-L2 Cache-4MB
Core 2 Duo E6600 - Clock Speed-2.40GHz--L2 Cache-4MB
Core 2 Duo E6400 - Clock Speed-2.13GHz--L2 Cache-2MB
Core 2 Duo E6300 - Clock Speed-1.86GHz--L2 Cache -2MB

Note: The higher the clock speed the higher the cost of the processor, if you are purchasing it outright. As to which of the Core 2 Duo processors to choose, if you're looking for a great performance budget processor look at the E6300. In any case, any of the Core 2 Duo is faster than the Pentium D. Also to be noted the processor speeds from the low end to the high end has a minimum step increase of 10%.

8. Intel Pentium Dual Core - Pentium Dual Core as to clock speed is positioned above Celeron but below Core and Core 2. The Pentium Dual Core has a maximum cache of L2 Cache 2MB, while the Pentium D has a L2 Cache-4MB maximum.

So what's the difference between the Pentium Dual Core and the Pentium D? The Pentium Dual Core offers lower consumption and has proven to be faster than the Pentium D, even with having the smaller L2 Cache.

8. Intel Centrino® 2 -The Intel Centrino 2 and Intel Centrino 2 with vPro Technology

Intel Centrino 2 with vPro Technology

Dual Core Performance
Greater battery life
Faster Wireless Connection
Hardware capabilities help improve network traffic filtering and isolate clients under attack, diagnostic repair
90% faster performance with multi-tasking
Gigabit Ethernet capabilities
Security and manageability built into the chip

Intel Centrino 2

Intel Centrino 2 processor technology provides a minimum of 3MB smart cache and 1066 Front Side Bus
90 percent faster HD video encoding and integrated Intel® Turbo Boost so you have everything you need to run Microsoft Windows Vista
Longer battery life
5x better wireless performance

****Clock Speed Defined - Clock Speed is the speed at which a processor executes instructions. The faster the clock speed, the more instructions the CPU can execute per second.

Peripherals-the other pieces to the Laptop Puzzle

CD-RW/DVD drive - can read data from CDs and DVDs, and can burn recordable CDs only.
DVD+/- RW drive - can read and burn DVDs and CDs
2. Broadband ready and modem capable
3. USB ports(2+ or more). In some cases, laptops have either none or 1 serial port. If you find that your laptop does not have enough ports and you need more, think about getting a USB hub for any additional peripherals for your laptop. What is important than is the laptop has built in USB or PCMCIA slots.
4. External Hard Drive - If you are going to be downloading music or videos it would be wise to invest in an external hard drive or thumb drive(s).
5. Video Drive- In determining which level of graphic capability you may need, you should ask yourself:

1. Do I need it for demanding graphic design, video editing, 3D imaging
2. Do I need it only for presentations, video conferencing
3. Do I need it for e-mail, instant messaging, Internet access, low-resolution video and relatively undemanding applications

Basic External Considerations for a Laptop

Now that you have the peripherals, operating system, what else should you consider when buying a laptop.

How long does their batteries last (This is dependent on need)
Screen quality
Keyword comfort when using
Does the touchpad tracks properly
How many ports
If Vista or Windows 7 is the operating system that is going to be put on your laptop, be prepared to buy new software-because some of the older software will not work with the Vista or Windows 7 operating system-which means upgrades to your old software.

Read More

Internal External Hard-Drives the Specifics
Hard Drive Docks-Backup Is A Snap
Windows 7 Anyone

What I Should Consider When Buying a Laptop

What I Should Consider When
Buying a Laptop