Valuable tips for buying a laptop in 2009

- George Mathew

If you are planning to buy a laptop this year (2009), you will find the market is
overcrowded with laptops from various brands and with different specifications. This
can be overwhelming if you do not have a clear idea of what you are really into.
First take into consideration your requirement and the various specifications
available for your requirements when going to make the purchase. Also make sure
that you do a little homework on the latest computer hardware technologies
available in the market.

I will guide you in this article on how to understand and select the specs for the
laptop you need.

Processors:

As we all know, the processor is the ultimate brain of any computer. Check the
brand, type and speed of the processor that is inbuilt in the laptop.

The two major brands available are that of Intel and AMD. Intel at present is
marketing its Core 2 range of processors. Intel also has the Celeron and Atom range
of processor available for the economy conscious customers.

According to Intel website, “Based on Intel Core microarchitecture, the Intel Core2
Duo processor families is designed to provide powerful energy-efficient performance
so you can do more at once without slowing down.”

By the present standards for a normal home or business user, the Intel Core
2 Duo processor would be a good buy. Take into consideration also the speed of
the processor and the Last Level (L2) Cache it supports. The faster the processor and
more the L2 Cache, the faster the processing speed. The Core 2 Duo comes in
various speeds and starts with varying L2 cache as per each processor type. Also
take into consideration the Front Side Bus (FSB) of the processor. The FSB speed is
also critical in determining the overall performance of the processor.

For the heavy gamers and graphic designers, we have laptops based on the
Intel Core2 Quad and Intel Core2 Extreme Processors. These processors have
more processing speed and L2 caches compared to their Core 2 Duo cousins and are
relatively more expensive.

Intel also got its Atom processors in the market. A new range of the mini
laptops or Netbooks with small LCD screens come with this processor. Such laptops
also have a limited memory capacity compared to its big Core 2 Duo bros.

I would also like to remind the buyers that Intel has released the next range of
latest Intel Core processor, called the Intel Core i7. We can expect laptops
based on this technology to hit the markets in the near future. These processors will
be much faster than the Core 2 Duo series as it supports more inbuilt cores and
more L2 cache. The Core i7 offers an onboard dedicated memory controller,

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and reintroduces Intel Hyper-Threading™, which allows Windows Vista to
recognize all Core i7 processors as 8 different individual processor cores!...
But remember that the latest stuff will always be expensive.

AMD is marketing its Turion 64 Dual Core and Turion X2 Ultra 64 processors
as a main rival with the Intel Core 2 Duo series. These processors are 64bit but will
need a 64bit Operating System like the Windows Vista 64Bit Edition, to squeeze the
full juice out of it. It would also perform well with the 32bit Operating systems.

Recommendations: Choose a processor that is sufficient for your needs but not the
latest and most expensive (unless you have a big pocket). For the normal home and
business user, the Intel Core 2 Duo processors with speed above 2 GHz is a good
buy. For the heavy PC gamers and hardcore video editors the Intel Core2 Quad
Processors and the Intel Core2 Extreme Processors is recommended with speeds
above 2.3 GHz and sufficient L2 cache.

The Core 2 Duo series starts with processing speeds starting from 1.83 GHz
and goes on to 3.06 GHz. The more the processing speed of the processor,
the better the performance of the laptop. Don’t go for the most powerful
processors as they will increase the price of the laptop manifold.

Memory:

It is highly recommended you have a large amount of memory (also called RAM) on
your computer. By today’s standards and needs it would be perfect if you pump in
3GB or 4 GB of Memory into the laptop. The new laptops come with operating
systems like Windows Vista and other applications that are hungry for more and
more system memory. So more the memory, smoother the performance. The latest
laptops use Memories based on the SDRAM-DDR2 (Synchronous Dynamic
Random Access Memory - Double Data Rate) technology.

Recommendations: So 3GB or 4 GB of SDRAM-DDR2 Memory would be perfect.

More memory increases not only your ability to run complex programs but also to
run multiple programs simultaneously.

Hard Disk Drive:

The size of the hard drive depends on the amount of data you will need to store on
the laptop. Especially if you are planning to have a lot of videos and music files
stored on the hard drive, then you need lots of hard drive space.

The present basic standard hard drive size is 160 GB… This trend is slowly changing
with 250 GB and 320 GB Hard Drives becoming more frequent with new models of
laptops. Remember the price of the laptop keeps going up when you demand more
heavy hardware. As the size of the hard drive increases, so will the price.

The present hard drive technology used is that of SATA or Serial ATA which is
much faster than the previous IDE technology. Hardcore gamers would also be
looking for hard drives with more RPMs or Rotations Per Minute. The more the RPM
the faster the data retrieval speed of the hard drive and so faster the games. For

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normal users 5400 RPM would do fine, but the gamers would need the 7200 RPM
hard drives for a smoother hi-end 3D gaming experience.

Drives also have onboard RAM (called "cache") to store frequently accessed
information. 2 MB is the default. Faster drives with 8 MB are increasingly common,
and some models have 16 MB. The 4200 RPM drives are slow and nowadays usually
found only in ultra-portable laptops.

Recommendations: 250 GB or 320 GB of SATA Hard Drive with 5400 RPM

(for the normal user) and 7200 RPM (for the 3d gamer). The hard drive
should have at least 8 MB cache.

Size of the laptop:

The size and weight of the laptop is crucial and will entirely depend on the how the
buyer would be planning to use it.

The laptops with the 17 or 16.4 inch LCD screens are mostly used by users who
would be using their laptops as a replacement for the Desktop computers. As they
are heavy these laptops would be fixed at a particular place and would be used
mostly for gaming and watching movies.

Now days we have the Ultra portable laptops which come in very small sizes and
weighs very less. But remember that you will have to strain your eyes as the screen
becomes smaller and reading becomes more difficult.

Recommendations: Select the right laptop with the right size and weight that suits
to your lifestyle and work. If you are a heavy traveler then a light weight
laptop with a 14.1 or 13.3 inch LCD screen would be perfect. If you need a
Desktop replacement laptop, then the 17 or 16.6 inch LCD laptops are for
you. If you come between both these categories then the 15.4 inch LCD
laptops would be perfect.

Inbuilt Webcam and Mic:

If you have an inbuilt webcam and mic, you don’t need to be running around
searching for them in the middle of a chat session. Most of the present laptops come
with inbuilt webcam and mic. A 2.0 Mega Pixels webcam would be perfect for getting
a clear video input. Always make sure to use webcam in a well lighted room for
getting better video quality.

Recommendations: Get a laptop with a 2.0 Mega Pixels webcam and mic inbuilt. It
would also be better if the webcam can be rotated for capturing video from various
vertical angles. Also some of the latest laptops from major brands come along with
1.3 Mega Pixel webcams. These too will do fine.

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LCD Screen:

Laptop Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) is made by a small group of suppliers, who sell
the screen as a component to the laptop manufacturers. Display quality varies only
slightly among top-tier manufacturers (correspondingly, no-name laptops tend to
have dimmer, fuzzier screens), so your decision revolves around screen size. When
you are in the computer store, get a feel for the size you are comfortable working
with. Make sure you are comparing similar resolutions too; common laptop screen
resolutions start at 1024x768 (called "XGA") and go higher, rising proportionately
with screen size.

Battery:

Battery power is critical when it comes to a laptop. Make sure the laptop brand has
not had any previous history of complaints with its batteries, like that of over
heating. Most of the latest laptops use Lithium Ion (abbreviated Li-ion) batteries and
come in 6 cells or 9 cells. If the battery has more cells and is of better quality, then
the laptop will get more battery backup and the battery will last longer.

The 9 cells are able to store power and are for the same reason more expensive
compared to the 6 cell batteries. Check how much battery backup you can receive
from the laptop you plan to purchase and the number of cells it has. If you travel a
lot and need more battery power, you can also consider buying an external universal
notebook battery.

Wireless Technology:

Most of the laptops available today in the market are WiFi ready. Just switch on the
WiFi button and you can connect to a wireless network and browse the internet
without worry about cables.

Recommendations: Go for the laptops that support the latest 802.11 g/n WiFi
technology.

GPU Processor:

GPU stands for Graphic Processing Unit. This refers to a dedicated processor for
processing graphic intensive applications like video editing, 3d graphic designing and
3d gaming. Having a laptop with a dedicated GPU will enhance the all round
performance as the main CPU will not be doing all the work.

The most popular and latest series of GPU from nVidia is the GeForce Go series and
the ATi Radeon series. Special gaming laptops released by some dedicated gaming
laptop companies like the Alienware, can have two GPU built into the laptop to
provide unbelievable graphics. You can connect two of the hi-end graphics card of
nVidia GeForce using a technology known as SLi and two of ATi Radeon using a
technology known as CrossFire X. Some of the laptops come with onboard graphics
from Intel.

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Recommendations: Having a 254 MB or 512 MB DDR3 dedicated GPU from
renowned GPU manufactures such as nVidia or ATi inbuilt in your laptop would be
damn cool. Dude, its time for some serious gaming…

DVD-RW and Blue Ray Disc Drives:

The age of the Blue Ray Disc (BRD) has dawned and the age of the DVD technology
is slowly setting. Blue Ray discs can store more than their DVD counterparts. This
feature enables the Blue ray to support HD (Hi–Definition) video quality and also
store large amount of data files. So if you have a new Blue Ray Disk then you can
view Blue Ray Disc movies in HD quality and also burn huge amounts of data on to
blank Blue Rays Discs. Their unparalleled capacity, up to ten times that of DVDs,
means that with a Blue ray burner you can back up your entire media library on just
a handful of Blue ray discs.

Recommendations: If the laptop supports the Blue Ray Disc Drive the price of the
laptop will be much higher than its DVD-RW Drive model. So if you have a big pocket
and desire the latest, go for it.

Don’t forget these – USB 2.0, FireWire and DVI Ports, HDMI and Bluetooth
support:

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a serial bus standard to interface devices to a host
computer.Today we have a wide range of devices that can be connected to
computers using the USB ports. So more the USB ports available on the laptop, one
can connect more devices to the laptop at a time. If the laptop is small in size, the
number of USB ports available would also become limited. This issue can be solved
by using a USB Extension Hub. All the ports should have the USB 2.0 standard, as it
supports faster data transfer rates (maximum speed of 480 Mbit/s) compared to the
USB 1.0 standard which support data transfer rates of only 1.5 Mbit/s.

Many new Laptops come with inbuilt FireWire ports. These ports are capable of
supporting high speed data transfer and will become a standard in the future.

The higher end laptops also come with ports to connect the laptop to external
monitors. They usually support S-Video, HDMI and DVI ports.

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a compact audio/video interface

for transmitting uncompressed digital data. The latest LCD and Plasma monitors
come equipped with this technology. It would be just great to see a Hollywood HD
(High Definition) movie from you laptops DVD player or browse the internet after
connecting your laptop to a 32 inch LCD monitor through the HDMI port using just a
single HDMI cable. DVI (Digital Visual Interface) ports are also a must, as it is
used for connecting the laptop to the latest LCD and Plasma monitors.

Recommendations: Laptops with at least three or four USB 2.0 ports, One
FireWire 400 port, one HDMI port, built-in Bluetooth support, one or 2 DVI port, S-
Video, Built-in-card Reader with support for the most popular formats.

Hope you have a great time with you new laptop and that this guide was useful in
making your decision. By the way… do remember that the technologies that we see

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today took a long time to develop into what they are now. The dedicated life and
intense passion of many men and women over the years have brought the computer
that filled a huge building to you lap with 1000 times more the processing power.

Send me your opinions at geogm77@gmail.com