What to look for in a laptop?

[4u2nv]

As a few of ya might know (By my questions in the past..lol) I'm pretty much a computer moron. I mean I can do good once I'm on them (Kinda) but as far as the hardware and all the stuff inside it, I'm a doofus..

Anyway..

I've been contimplating getting a laptop. Figured itd be more versitile, portable and well, lets face it, I can sit on the toilet with it.. So my question is, what should a person look for when buying a good laptop? I want one that can play dvd's and burn cd's (maybe even Dvd's) but as far as the mhz's and Gb's, I'm lost... someone help me out?

 

[FastEddy]

Are you planing on using it for graphics for your work?
If so its a need to know before you start looking.

 

[4u2nv]

Well not really. Ill probably have Flexi on there just to work on stuff on the go, but it wont be hooked up to the cutter or anything. Its not really even a necessity to have flexi or adobe on there I guess either. Its just the home computer is starting to frits out (Just getting old I think) and thought maybe it would be a good time to buy something before all is lost on the desktop comp. My cutter computer though has never seen the net. Strictly for work junk.

I just have no clue what to look for when it comes to speed wise, and memory junk. Like whats good and whats bad. I'm not sure but speed will be determined by the ram? The more ram, the faster? No clue what Mhz's are..lol.. Thats where I'm retarded..lol..

 

[jetmechG550]

Macbook! 'nuff said

 

[HeartBreak]

The key thing to look for in a laptop is comfort. The keyboards on laptops are not standard-spaced. I would recommend going to several different stores and 'dry fitting' several keyboards.

After you find one that you like, check the overall 'solidness' of the laptop. You want one that doesn't feel like it was built in the same factory as a smartech.

Also, you have several different types of pointing devices (touchpoint, trackball, touchpad). Try each of them out and see what one you like the most. Or spend the extra $15 or so and get a decent mobile mouse. Belkin makes one called the 'miniscroller', its' about $12 or so, and works great with just about every laptop out there.

 

[AC48]

As far as ram and the hard drive and stuff, basically the more the better. If you get one that comes with a Core Duo processor, you should be set there, even with the slowest version. For ram, you'll probably want 1024 MB, but you could get by with 512 MB. Hard drive...well that depends on how much stuff you want on your comp. Get at least 60 or 80 gigs.

 

[sweetdiesel]

If you plan on traveling a lot with it, go with the smaller screen sizes. I have a 17" HP and it is not portable at all. It is big and very heavy. Battery life also sucks, I get about 45 minutes to a charge. The smaller sized laptops usually last twice as long or more. Get a wireless mouse if you can't stand the touchpads.

 

[WoodiE]

I look for porn in laptops - usually a great souce for it


Honestly, do you need it for portability or not? If so then get a laptop if not then get a desktop, much cheaper.



-Michael

 

[flm_savage]

Core 2 Duo or at least a core duo
minimum 1Gb ram
hdd should be 7200rpm if possible but 5400 is more common.
video card should not share system memory

thats all i can think of right now. it would be easier for you to post ones in your price range so we can tell you the pros and cons of each.

 

[.21Rc10GT]

I agree with the 1gb of ram AT LEAST. Hard drive speed should be 7,200rpm (but I don't know that it is on the little spec cards). Video cards that are not onboard (don't share system memory) are going to be fairly up there in price, and it really does not matter unless you are gaming or doing graphics intense stuff. Also, make sure there are plenty of USB, mouse and keyboard, etc ports. I know I hate using my notebook keyboard and mouse, so I just hook up my regulars.

 

[Plaidfish]

honestly if you are not into the hardware side of things then you can probably get the least expensive one (w/ CD / dvd burner) you find and be happy with it...heartbreak has the right way to go then .....feel em out and see what feels good...

also on the video memory, be careful in thinking just because the card is there that it still doesn't use system memory....I just read something about the Hyper memory that alot of graphics cards are listing and ti turns out that uses system recources still......

 

[4u2nv]

It will basically be used for surfing the web, email, watching dvd's, burning music and stuff like that. Everything I save (Besides pictures), I save disks and cd's. I'm not sure if the ram part is gonna be to big of a issue for me.. I wasn't realy sure and why I thought Id post. All my real concersn are, Dvd player, Cd-rw, and wi-fi. I'm not much into computer games, so I dont do to much gaming on it.

 

[hamz9561]

If you are going to be running Windows Vista, most versions say they require at least 1GB of Memory, a 1 GHz Processor, a DVD-ROM and at least 10 GB of hard drive. Anything more is just gravy.

I recommend as much memory and as big a hard drive as possible.

 

[cvec7]

Well, I just ordered myself a brand new Lenovo Thinkpad T60 Widescreen:

Core 2 Duo T5500 (I'm not going to 2.0 ghz, and w/ the 1.83 having the same cache as the 1.66, I don't see the point in an extra 200mhz)
15.4" WSXGA+ LG-Phillips screen
1 GB ram (I'll add more myself later)
integrated 802.11a/b/g/n
ATi X1400
DVD-RW DL burner
9-cell extended battery
5400 rpm 80 GB SATA HDD (5400 rpm has always been fine for me as long as it's got at least a 8mb buffer....and I'll maybe swap it out for larger capacity H-HDD later...)

Reg. price: $1800, sale price: $1200

Yes, I know the 14" widescreen T60 is coming out, as well as Santa Rosa, but I needed a new laptop now. I only have one pc, a laptop, and it's been needing to be replaced... BAD. Here's what I'm upgrading from:

AMD Athlon XP-M 1800+
1GB ram
DVD-ROM
40GB HD
14" XGA screen
Integrated gpu that can't handle HD content
broken PCMCIA slot
usb 1.1 which works only half the time
on it's 4th charger which won't give it a full charge anymore
802.11a/b/g that has a range of 30'


Anyway, I do agree to go to stores, see what kind of keyboards you like, I highly recommend to stay away from Toshiba's though. They use a retarded, non-standard keyboard layout, and the quality in any of their products is non-existant.

Go dual core definitely. Preferably a Intel Core 2 Duo. The base, T5500, 1.66 GHz model will suit you.
1 GB of ram will be fine for you.
5400 rpm drive will be fine for you as well.
Integrated intel GMA950 graphics are fine for your purpose
Most all laptops come with at least integrated 802.11a/b/g, you don't really need 802.11n unless you plan to transfer big files wirelessly over the network.
Screen size: I say anything over a 15" is too much, Anything larger than 4:3 14" or a 16:9 15.4" will be too big for a plane, as well as heavy.

The average life on laptops is about 2.5 hours for a 14-15" screen, so you can get an extended battery if you think you'll need more. Yes you can milk the std. battery to 3 hrs+, but since you're not the most computer-literate, (no offense) 2.5 is what you're going to get.


Some of the better brands are:

Asus
Apple
Lenovo
Dell
HP
LG (not available in US though)

Ones to stay away from:
Toshiba (Build quality? What's that?)
Alienware (What? Customers don't want to buy over-priced pieces of crap?)
Averatec
Other brands you've never heard of...

Gateway is an ok brand, as is Acer, but gateway would be nicer than acer.
Sony's are nice, just soooooo over-priced!



If customer service and build quality are important, then an Apple or Lenovo Thinkpad would be your best bet. They do cost a premium though.


Vista:

Yuck. Only way to put it, lol. I've got XP Pro and Vista Ultimate, and I much rather prefer XP Pro....but I know some companies won't let you buy a computer w/ XP anymore, in which case, just make sure not to get Home Basic. Get at least Home Premium.





Yeah, I just kinda rambled on in no order, but hopefully it helps you out some.

 

[bourney2006]

desktop pc's have a better power-value ratio than laptops (especially if like me you build the pc). What i mean is a latop will cost a lot more than a desktop if they both have the same power. So is the portability worth it?

You said you had no idea what goes on inside a computer so i guess you wouldn't even consider building one.

Also what do you want it for? do you want to play games on it (by that i mean new games not solitaire etc) or is it just for web browsing and writing documents?


Just for web browsing you would want-

Processor- (sorry i know nothing about laptop processor makes, just make sure you get one with at least 1.6GHZ)

-R.A.M (random access memory)- 512mb

-HDD (hard drive)- about 40GB (you could have higher but just for documents and the odd picture its plenty)

-Motherboard- No specific one, just get one with a graphics car and video card built in (it's cheaper and as you don't need amazing graphics and dolby 8.0 surround sound, because you wouldn't be gaming, it's fine)

- O.S (operating system)- Window's XP home. (you could go for windows vista, it's a brand new O.S but it will cost more, and maybe take up more processing power (speed) but I'm not sure as i havn't looked into it)


For the spec above it will be very cheap. About $600 (which is about £300) which for a laptop is very cheap indeed.
Take a look at this:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs




If you wanted to play games on it you are looking at $2000+ (about £100+) which is an awful lot of money. If you wanted to play games my advice would be, DON'T!!! or if you really wanted to then buy an Xbox 360



hope that helps