Ever been in the situation where you're out to get a laptop, and when
you finally come across a selection of laptops with their
configurations display you just didn't know what to make out of them?
Fear not, in this guide I will reveal a few simple things which will
make understanding those scary specs a lot easier.
First of all,
you have to ask yourself what the purpose of your soon to be laptop is.
Is it an everyday use laptop, used to write papers and just carry it
around to surf the web... something like a laptop a student would
require? Will it be the business machine where you keep all your
sensitive information such as client names and contact information?
Perhaps you like computer games a lot and decide to buy a laptop
configured to run these new high demanding games. Or, maybe you just
want to own a new entertainment and media portable device to satisfy
your daily multimedia desires.
Each of these types of laptops has
different specs to them, but since you know what you'll be using it for,
here are a few basic steps to understanding what specifications work
and where they are needed.
Central Processing Unit (a.k.a. CPU a.k.a. processor)
Perhaps
one of the most important spec of all in a laptop is its CPU. This is
the heart of the laptop where all the calculations are being done. There
are several types of processors out there, in almost every price range
you might think of. If you are new to hardware, you should look for
something like 2 - 3 GHz in a laptop if it will be destined for everyday
use (basic office tasks including Microsoft Office Suite, browsing the
web, watching videos online or maybe chatting with friends). A decent
single core CPU could probably handle such basic tasks flawlessly. If,
however, you wish to multitask, and open up several applications to work
with, then a single core processor might not handle such loads
perfectly. Instead, look for the ones which say they're dual core or
even quad-core configuration laptops. A laptop with a quad core
configuration can go pretty high regarding the price tag, so make sure
you fully understand the use of your laptop beforehand.
Newer
lines of processors have the Hyper Thread technology built into them,
where a single core is seen as two cores by the operating system,
capable of handling two tasks at the same time per core. These can be
quite useful if you know you're going to throw a heap of applications at
it and expect the laptop to run perfectly. Such a configuration can be
used in machines destined for graphic design, where usually 3-4
applications are being run simultaneously. It would also be handy when
looking for the best gaming laptop or your new multimedia laptop if you
want to experience the peak of performance and visual quality in your
media crunching endeavors.
Random Access Memory (a.k.a. RAM or system RAM)
Along
with the processor, the overall value of the system RAM is a very
important parameter to watch for in your laptop. Think of it this way:
RAM is your systems memory, the place where your operating system and
all your installed applications are being run. It's fast because every
little bit of information can be addressed directly, unlike the hard
drive which requires the disk head to run over a place on the disk where
the information is stored. RAM is the canvas of your computer system, a
place where you can get the full picture of what's being run at the
present time (using the same association, one could say that the hard
drive is like a cassette, where if you want to hear a certain lyric, you
have to fast forward to that location).
That's about enough of
the free association thing. Going back to the spec itself, system RAM is
something you want to have plenty of. The more RAM in a computer, the
better it will run. If you're a newbie and just want a laptop that can
do basic tasks, then about 1GB of RAM should be enough to run basic
applications without any problems (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel,
music player and even watch movies). However, if you demand more from
your laptop and intend to use it like a powerhouse, your minimum aim
should start at about 2GB. Up to 4GB of RAM is a good start in any
graphic design computer or even a decent gaming laptop. For business
laptops which could use complex applications, a good start would be in
the 2-3 GB range to ensure everything runs smooth.
Just remember never to neglect this spec, since it could mean your system will be running slow if there's not enough RAM to it.
Hard Disk Drive (a.k.a. Hard Drive or Hard Disk or HDD)
The
hard disk is where all your information is stored. Unlike the RAM,
which gets wiped clean at each restart, the hard drive will keep all
your information for later use. Now this is not such an important spec
as the RAM is, but the more drive space you have, the more information
you can store and take with you. If you're a media junkie, then you
probably like to store a lot of music and movies on your computer to
watch at a later date. In this case, you should look for a laptop with a
decent HDD configuration (250 - 500 GB). Some hard drives retrieve
information pretty slow since they use spinning disks to read and write
information. Standard rotation speeds for laptops HDD are at about 5400
rpm (rotations per minute). These drives are pretty much obsolete if you
want a laptop with that's capable of top performance. Instead of a 5400
rpm HDD, look for a better one with 7200 rpm.
A new line of hard
drives has recently appeared, called the Solid State Disk or SSD. These
drives don't use spinning disks as a means to store information, are way
faster, more durable and lighter than regular hard drives. They do come
at a price though, and with a limited storage capacity. It can become
pretty clear that if you want the fastest laptop today, you'll opt in
for such a storage device instead of a traditional HDD.
Video Card (a.k.a. Graphics Card)
The
video card makes sure you get the image onto the screen. It can be
considered an output component and it is very important to those who
want serious lifelike graphics displayed onto their computer screens.
With regular everyday use laptops, you can probably get away with an
integrated graphics card (it's integrated into the motherboard, mind
you) which uses the available RAM to run. This can be a downside to
laptops which have a low RAM spec to them, since the integrated graphics
card takes its share of available RAM leaving the difference available
to run applications. An integrated video card is not recommended if you
rely heavily on system RAM for optimal performance. Such cases include
the graphics design laptop, the gaming laptop and in some cases
multimedia machine.
You do want to look for a dedicated
(replaceable/removable) graphics card in your laptop if you're a big
gaming fan. Newer games tend to have very high system requirements, and
since available RAM is not a thing you want to waste, a dedicated
graphics card is the best solution to such a machine.
It should be
noted that some of the newer processors that have just come out in the
market do have an integrated GPU (graphics processing unit / graphics
card) in them, along with the processor cores. This means you can get
away with such a spec if you intend to purchase a laptop with specs
designed for everyday use or ultra portability. Eliminating the
dedicated graphics card from your system means your system will be
lighter and you definitely want that regarding the portability issue.
Laptop Screen (a.k.a. Laptop Display)
The
laptop screen is an essential part where you marvel at the rich media
the computing world has to offer. There is not much to say about the
display technology in this case but its size. The display size of your
laptop is one essential specification you should not overlook if you
really want a higher level of enjoyment when working with the thing.
There is quite a variety to choose from when it comes to screen size, so
you should know one thing beforehand: the larger the screen, the better
the image quality will be, the lower the portability feature becomes...
If
you want a highly portable machine which you'll use just to jot down
information quickly, then a tiny laptop with a small screen would be
enough: these can range from a mere 7 inch diagonal size to about 13.3
inches. Average laptops will carry the average laptop screen size which
is known to be 15.4 inches. This is quite sufficient to be able to
visualize pretty much any type of media (web pages, documents, videos
and movies). For a better experience, these sizes can go up to about 22
inches. These can be quite bulky and costly machines, since they pack
quite a lot of tech in them along with the large screen, thus they make
excellent gaming systems or portable multimedia players.
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