Investing Wisely When Buying a Laptop

by: Allison Thompson

I think many of us have now noticed the prices of laptop computers recently and certainly purchasing one can be quite a big investment for any one these days, but it all depends on you just how much you want to invest in one. When trawling through the paper on a Sunday there are flyers dotted all over the place offering various models on sale week by week. When people were first looking at purchasing a laptop they would select the one they wanted by looking at each laptops specifications and its general appearance (was it pleasing to the eye). Yet in today’s market these are not the sole choices that any one will have to make when purchasing a new laptop, and because the choice of laptop now available is so extensive that are you sure that the choice you have made is the right one for you. Provided below are several points that should be taken into consideration when looking to purchase a new laptop.

Firstly let us talk about the CPU (Central Processing Unit) and which is the main component of any laptop and this determines just how well your laptop will perform as well as controlling the heating and the length of life of the battery. But remember there is no way that you can have high quality CPU whilst comprising on the quality of the battery and power provided. So if your laptop is going to be replacing your desktop computer because you will be away from the office for extended periods traveling then there are several options that you could look at which offer a CPU that is integrated in to the laptops main board such as P4. Also if you should be using your laptop for business or schooling then it may well be worth considering purchasing one that has a more suitable CPU and certainly one fitted with an AMD Athlon may be the perfect solution for you. The Athlon processor has been designed for those users who are looking for an economical solution both in cost and the way it is used. Although older Athlon models certainly do not quite have the performance of the Intel Pentium Processor models with regard to performance, certainly the more recent models such as the 2800+ are strong enough now to compete as it has P4 2.8GHz of power.

However there seems to be one model of CPU more than any other that people prefer and this is the Centrino. The Centrino has been produced by Intel to provide a balance between performance and mobility issues for all laptop users. It comes with 2MB second level cash, and the Pentium CPU has been modified for laptop use which results in the easing of the burden placed on the CPU itself. This then helps to decrease the levels of heat and power consumption produced.

Next we will discuss RAM (Random Access Memory) and also the graphics card. Both these two items are important for the laptop to be of a high quality. You will find that there are 2 sorts of RAM now available on the market, SD RAM and DD RAM, and certainly if you are looking for a RAM providing you with high quality then look no further than the DD RAM. But you should still be careful when purchasing your RAM to look at the clock specification. If you purchase RAM in your laptop of 3.0MHz clock speed then you will see that the performance supplied is to the whole system. Also if possible do not look at purchase a laptop that has two slots of 256MB Ram x 2 as this will not be sufficient for your use, rather you should be looking at a laptop which comes equipped with 3.0Mz, 512MB, DD RAM.

Now as for video cards there are many varieties around today and the first thing that should look at when purchasing a video card is its “ON-Board” specification. Video cards are integrated into the laptop main board and normally run off of the main RAM for the video memory. So if you want to use your laptop for general purposes rather than gaming or 3-D design work (which would require 3D hardware acceleration) those laptops with onboard video cards are the right ones for you. But say you are someone who plays Counter Strike professionally then you would certainly be disappointed with the way the screen freezes and play becomes delayed.

The final technical matter that anyone should be looking at when purchasing a laptop is the hard disk. When purchasing a hard disk there is a detail you should be looking at which is more important than the capacity it provides and the RPM (Rotation per Minute) which determines how fast data can be transferred to the CPU to be processed. So this specification should be carefully considered as it plays a major role in the laptops abilities when dealing with multimedia functions.

So if you are considering purchasing a new laptop then certainly one to be considered is the Centrino with its onboard video card, big RAM (for those planning to use it at school or for their business) and if you want to occasionally watch a movie or listen to music. Yet you could also consider the Pentium laptops with AGP or PCI Express off board video cards which would provide you with the performance of a desktop computer (as long as you don’t mind the weight, noise and heat produced) in a laptop.

So with so many decisions to be considered when thinking of purchasing a laptop it is wise if you take your time and carry out your research thoroughly in order to make a wise investment for the future.