Choose to buy a suitable laptop

When buying a laptop you always want to have a machine that meets your needs and maximum capabilities as long as you're still in your budget.

If you've ever bought a notebook, you may know that in addition to performance and connectivity considerations, you have to think about other factors like size, weight, screen size, time. battery life and the quality of the keyboard - plus other options like built-in wireless networking features.

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Processors : Intel's dual-core processors support notebooks to keep up with user requirements. In PC World magazine tests, laptops using dual-core processors performed significantly faster than single-core laptops, especially in multitasking. In newer notebooks, you can see new technologies such as Core Duo, Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme, these new technologies are gradually showing the power of laptops.

Some notebooks use AMD's Athlon Turion 64 X2 dual-core processor, which is also a support for improved performance. Turion 64 X2 and Core 2 Duo, both support 64-bit technology, an increasingly used technology in market applications.

Notebooks use Intel's Celeron M processor in general, not as fast as Core Duo processors.

System memory : Unless you buy a cheap laptop, not a new notebook generally has system memory up to 1GB. Many of these notebooks now have up to 2GB of RAM. Equipping a laptop with 2GB of RAM at the time of purchase will help you extend the time to meet the requirements of future software development.

Graphics memory : Laptop computers have two different types of video chips: dedicated video (ie a discrete graphics card preinstalled) or integrated graphics card. Dedicated video chips are usually provided by nVidia and ATI / AMD, whereas integrated graphics cards are usually manufactured by Intel. If you plan to use a notebook for gaming, use a dedicated graphics card set, because if you don't, your game program will trim and use part of the main memory. Games often need 3D graphics cards, along with the memory of a dedicated graphics card, which is about 256MB to 512MB. The notebooks used to replace desktops need the same graphics capabilities as the desktop, the previous graphics card only worked well for business purposes, but Windows Vista needed a much more powerful graphics system. .

Choose to buy a suitable laptop Picture 1 Some notebooks now have Scalable Link Interface (SLI) - an open link interface, which can provide the means to run multiple graphics chips in one machine. Some new units like Alienware's Area 51M m15x say that two nVidia GeForce 8800M GTX cards are running in SLI; Needless to say, it's possible to know that such laptops are often very expensive.

Monitors : Notebook screens are getting bigger and bigger - and most are designed in a wide screen format, allowing you to view spreadsheets or watch movies easily. Conditional customers can buy a luxury screen with high resolution. Laptops with 14.1-inch and 15.4-inch widescreen displays are currently priced at $ 1000. Most notebook manufacturers also offer 17-inch widescreen displays. In the case of frequent travelers, you can choose smaller 12.1 or 13.3-inch laptop screens - one of them is the widescreen mode.

Notebooks with regular 14.1- or 15-inch screens are still on the market as they are not as rich as widescreen mode.

Computer battery : Battery life is continuously improved. Laptops using microprocessors often have an average battery life of about 3.5 hours per charge. Keep in mind that manufacturers can improve this time by adding a wireless switch to turn off the wireless receiver, which normally consumes a lot of power. Battery life (battery-life) has been reviewed by manufacturers to expand further - the latest battery type can extend the life of up to twice the normal battery life. In general, lighter laptops tend to have larger battery life than larger notebooks that replace the desktop.

Keyboard and cursor control device : Although you may be familiar with most notebook keyboards, it's a good idea to try it before you buy. Thin and light notebooks often have smaller than average keys and are closer to each other than the keys on larger laptops, the layout of the keys may be different from standard notebooks. If you have a fairly large hand, the keyboard of a laptop will make it difficult to use.

You may not be interested in choosing between device controls for trackpad and eraserhead. The good way here is: Buy a USB mouse designed for laptop computers. It has just lost a little money and is consistent with user habits.

Choose to buy a suitable laptop Picture 2 Optical drives and other devices : Most manufacturers offer notebooks with writable DVD drives. There are also notebooks with a combination of DVD-ROM and CD-RW drives, but on some computers there is only one DVD-ROM or CD-RW drive. If you really need a floppy drive, you can buy a USB add-on for as little as $ 100.

Hard drives : Cheap notebooks with 60GB hard drives are getting scarcer, but you can still save money by choosing an 80GB model. Top SATA hard drives (120GB, 7200-rpm or 160GB, 5400-rpm) will cost you several hundred dollars when purchased with your laptop. Hard drive space is often fuller, so the best way is to choose a portable external hard drive.

Weight and design : Notebooks usually range in weight from 6.3 kg for desktop replacements to 2 or 3 kg. One-bay notebooks are becoming increasingly popular because of its balance of features and weight. Many laptops also have optical drives as modular devices, so you can switch to a second hard drive or a second battery.

However, when buying, you should consider not only the weight of the notebook but also the AC adapter, extended battery or any other expansion module and their cable. Ultraportable notebooks have lightweight adapters but they have the same weight as full-size notebooks if you have to carry an external optical drive.

When returning to the desk, you can put most notebooks into a docking station (the box that holds the drive, video circuit, and socket specially designed to hold a notebook) or port replicator (price from $ 100 to $ 500. This will help you not to repeat plugging and disconnecting external monitors, keyboards, mice and other desktop peripherals.

Port replicator is a device used to quickly connect multiple peripherals to a laptop with a connector. Desktop devices are plugged into port replicator regularly to connect laptops with USB ports, PC Card slots or individual expansion ports.

Replicator provides a secondary set of ports for monitors, printers, networks, keyboards and mice, or similar devices on laptops.A port replicator is like a docking station, but there is no speaker or any PCI slot to extend the peripheral.You can refer to the port replicator image

Gateways : Fewer notebooks have some old-style ports. Serial ports are becoming increasingly rare, such as PS / 2 ports (for mice and keyboards) and infrared ports. Most notebooks today have a parallel port and a PC Card slot, some also have ExpressCard slots. In some current full-size models, there is also a DVI port for connecting to external digital displays.

Most notebooks have at least 2 USB ports; Most can be up to 4 or 6. Most notebooks have FireWire (IEEE 1394) ports to connect an external drive or digital-video camcorder.

Ethernet has a standard on all laptops, many models have gigabit ethernet standards. Many notebooks also have built-in Bluetooth ports. Notebooks are using Intel Core Duo or Core 2 processors - or AMD Turion 64 X2 - with Intel's 802.11a / b / g wireless chip.

For example, some notebooks also support wide area network connectivity, and can access some carriers' broadband services.

Most of them have one or several card slots for removable devices such as CompactFlash, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, or SmartMedia.

Choose to buy a suitable laptop Picture 3 Explain the technical details

Before buying a notebook, you should consider how you will use it. If your goal is to edit documents or work with spreadsheets and emails, the $ 1,000 Core Duo model with a 14.1-inch screen and 40GB hard drive will be quite good and economical. Some lighter notebooks and models with first-class processing capacity and large screens will be much more expensive.

Note that most vendors allow you to choose the price range and components of the notebook itself by offering the required features, which will help you decide a lot when making your final decision. me You can buy faster-speed notebooks instead, choose cheaper and small-capacity hard drives or DVD-ROM / CD-RW drives instead of Double Layer DVD +/- RW SuperMulti expensive drivers.

However, unlike on PC computers, only a few components (such as memory and hard drive) are capable of upgrading in notebooks; Other components (such as graphics board) are usually irreversible because they are installed permanently when manufactured at the factory. However, it only takes a little time to select the necessary things, which is an important job before buying the device.

Important considerations:

Memory installed . The more memory you have, the more applications you can run simultaneously and your notebook will perform better. Now with 1GB of RAM for a laptop is absolutely optimal, but if you use Windows Vista, you should consider upgrading to 2GB of RAM.

Processor . The CPU determines how quickly your notebook runs applications and performs on-screen tasks. Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors are good solutions for high-speed processing.

Screen size . LCD screens of notebooks have a diagonal parameter. The bigger the screen, the higher the maximum resolution and the more information you can view at once. At this point, most notebooks have a wide-screen model; If you want to have a notebook with a standard screen before then it will cost you a lot of searching, though they are still sold somewhere in the market, but not all.

Hard drive . The bigger the hard drive, the more data you can store on a notebook. Most people have no need for hard drives with capacities in excess of 80GB. If you plan to work with databases and spreadsheets or digital photos, or video files, choose a large hard drive. You should also consider choosing the speed of the hard drive; below 7200 rpm, hard drives can also cause slowdowns for some tasks.

Space can expand . The more space you can open, the more options you have for transferring between new optical drives or storage drives; however, switching between drives can sometimes be time consuming. Although the ultraportable doesn't have open space, you can still buy an external drive for them.

Optical devices . Most laptop manufacturers have writable DVD drives that allow flexibility. You can choose a notebook with a DVD-ROM / CD-RW drive to save money.

Tips for buying notebooks

Are you ready to buy a notebook? Here are some tips on the specifications that will suit the average user's needs.

1.73-GHz Core Duo processor . Every working day - word processing, spreadsheets, emails - you don't need expensive processors, but with Core Duo, you get long battery life and performance and that's the right thing. Best.

1GB RAM . Lower will slow down your work.

Additional battery . If you want more time without using an adapter, buy an additional battery. Secondary batteries usually cost about $ 99 to $ 200.

The screen is 14.1 inches wide . The screen is larger than 12.1 inches, probably completely comfortable for you. Unless you really need it, choose a large screen.

80GB hard drive . Unless you create large database files or music files or install many text editors, 80GB is a fairly large capacity.

Touchpad cursor control device . The cursor control device is a matter of taste. For most people, who don't decide between a touchpad and eraserhead device, some notebooks are designed to have both components. If you buy one of them, make sure it provides both mouse buttons - one for touchpad and one for eraserhead.

USB port . Many notebooks now have two or more USB 2.0 ports, useful for connecting to many new peripherals.

All-in-one design . Unless you need a lightweight notebook, you should choose an internal space for the optical device. This design allows you to exchange in other devices such as an extended hard drive or a second battery.