Getting Technical
Buying a laptop
Christmas is coming and one particularly expensive item that many people buy at Christmas is a computer. If you are one of them, then don’t be fooled by the speil of the commission earning salesperson.
Many people prefer a laptop. Nowadays they are much cheaper and can match many desktops on power. A good choice for space saving and portability. Laptop prices can range from €300 to €3,000+ and you really do get what you pay for. A laptop in the sub €500 price bracket should be avoided at all costs, it will break your heart later with problems. Trust me, I know.
The minimum that any laptop should have is integrated Wi-Fi (also called 802.11g), a DVD-Burner and built in stereo speakers. Don’t accept anything less no matter how much you pay.
If you want a laptop for just the following reasons:
- typing,
- web browsing & email,
- saving and printing your digital photos,
- listening/storing music,
- watching dvd’s
Then a laptop in the €500 - €700 price range will do you just fine. But, don’t expect to be doing much more than that with it. A laptop in this range should have at minimum a 1GB of RAM. If you don’t know what that means, well, bluff the salesman. He won’t know that you don’t know. Usually these laptops will have an ‘Intel Celeron’, ‘AMD Sempron’, or nearer to the €700 mark an Intel ‘Pentium’. If you can get a Pentium in this price bracket then do, it is far better than the Celeron or Sempron. Sometimes, for a special offer you may get a laptop in this price range with a ‘Core 2 Duo’ processor. That is a bargain, but ensure it has the 1GB of RAM or the better processor will be wasted.
One thing that catches people who buy laptops in this price range is they expect to be able to play games. Well, you might be able to play games that are 10 years old, but not any modern games.
You need what is called a graphics card for that. The salesman may tell you that it has ‘Intel extreme 3D graphics’ or something similar but it is anything but extreme. Ask if the graphics are ‘Integrated graphics’ and if yes, then you won’t be able to play games, edit video, CAD, etc, at any reasonable performance, if at all.
To do what is considered ‘high-end’ on a laptop, you would be looking at spending around €1,000 or more. The laptops between €700 - €1,000 would be just beefed up versions of the sub €700 laptops.
€1,000+ laptops are the kinds of laptops you may see referred to as ‘Desktop Replacements’ because they can pack quite a punch. You should find modern games run no problem, and the machine being well capable for video editing, CAD, 3D design, audio engineering, etc.
Over the €1,000 barrier they are different machines that are capable of much more. As standard for over €1,000 laptops, don’t accept less than an ‘Intel Core 2 Duo’ processor (make sure it’s a Core 2 and not just Core), 2GB RAM, ‘ATi X2600 256MB’ or ‘nVidia 8600 256MB’ graphics cards. Which card you pick of the two doesn’t matter. If you can get one with a higher number (ie, X2900/8800) then even better! Just make sure that if you are spending this amount of cash on a laptop the graphics card DOES NOT SAY ‘Hypermemory’ or ‘TurboCache’ or you are getting ripped.
The processor is the most important part and at the moment, nothing can compare to the ‘Intel Core 2 Duo’ so don’t part with your hard earned cash for anything less.
Contrary to some people’s belief, laptop brands do actually matter quite a lot. HP, Compaq, Sony, Dell and Apple all make quality laptops. One’s I would avoid though are Advent, Packard-Bell, ei-systems and e-machines.
I have no doubt that there are still stores trying to shift old stock at present day prices. By following what I have stated above though, you should have no problem. Just don’t let yourself be bamboozled by sales slur.
Next month: Desktops, and what to expect for your money.
Barry O’Brien has been building and selling custom hand-made PC’s as well as working as a freelance IT consultant for many years. He is Senior Web Developer and Technician with ClanConnor Studios, Ballincollig.
