There are many ways to skin a cat as well as there is many ways to determine what I need to make my computer fit my life style. Not only is there desks (these are the PC's typically with the mouse, monitor, keyboard and CPU (Tower)); there is also laptops and their smaller cousins the netbook. So what is the best computer, when is the best time to buy and my favorite question desktop or laptop. For this article I am going to stay with a laptop. I will write a comprehensive article on desks all by themselves because each deserves their own and not to be clumped together.
Let's tackle the first question. What is the best computer to buy and why? To determine this I included a few questions to ask yourself, your IT professional or friends who are helping you.
1) What is the primary use of the computer?
2) How many users or people will be using it?
3) Is it going to be connected to the internet and if so how? (Is it going to be used for internet through your cable provider, Is it going to be connected to A DSL line or a Fiber line and finally is it going through a dial-up)
4) Space, how much space in your living area is you willing to owe to this new purchase. For example I live in an apartment that is 2 bedrooms with no telephone and basic cable. I decided to go with an Air-card from my cell phone provider because my computers are all laptops and I can create a small network easily and they are portable.
Ok, so we have determined that the computers primary use in my example will be portability. I am going to say that there are 3 users and it is connecting via a USB Air-card. Space is a major concern because of the portability factor and the amount of living space I am willing to sacrifice to my electronics and computer. So our scenario is built now to help decide further what the laptops needs are. As a user I am constantly blogging and writing. To further ad ad my needs I am also talking on Skype and YIM to my wife-to-be overseas. We discussed space is an issue so for me a laptop with built in webcam and microphone array would be needed. What I did not mention at first that I also do is video editing and photography. So to add to my needs I would need a processor capable to handle this task, I would also need a large hard-drive and a decent amount of memory both physical and video memory. So for me a netbook would be an option they are small and most netbook's are sub $ 400 US and weigh less than 4 pounds in total. Problem is the processor and additional storage space. I looked at about 30+ regular size laptops personally.
My needs and why
1) My hard disk drive had to be big enough to hold my Operating system (Operating system is the program that allows you the user to access the hard drive as well as programs that you use on a daily basis. internet Explorer and such.) As well as video and photo editing software. I am less concerned about games but if my hard-drive is big enough a game or 2 would not be out of the question. So in my case a 150 Gigabyte hard drive was the least amount I would need 250+ would be better.
2) Memory the best way I describe it is like the lines of how information travels or treaties of the computer. Where your hard-drive is the brains of the operation. If using Windows Vista Premium or higher I suggest no less than 2 Gigabytes of memory, that is not shared with your video and I will go into that in a moment.
3) Video card or Video memory, this is the eyes or to be exact what your eyes see when looking at the screen. Not all are created equally so be careful here. A Video card the memory for it is stored on its chip where video memory in laptops means how much is shared off your total memory. IE: A 512 Video card does not take away from your total memory where a 512 Video memory usually does. A video card typically on laptop ads to the overall cost and most time is gaming machines or low to high-grade video editing laptops will have this type of card in it. Most of the time a laptop like this will be low 500 to 3000+ laptop range. Video memory machines include the netbook family as well as laptops sold as productivity machines. Most business class machines use this which does make the laptop slow to boot and slow to do graphics but great for programs like quicken, Word, Excel, and the like.
4) DVD drive and Burner, for me this was a no brainer I am making movies and photo disks so a good dual layer versus single layer was needed. What's the difference? Well a single layer disk holds about 4.7 Gigabytes and a dual Layered disk holds almost 10.
5) Audio sound I am doing video editing so a standard sound card on a laptop will not cut it. I mean laptop sound is still a long way from 6.1 Dolby built in but a good sound card will make it easy to hook into a theater sound board and make the sound; sound that much better in the long run.
6) Touch pad or track ball, a touch pad is a touch sensitive plate usually in the middle of the laptop making for easy use of the cursor or what some may call the pointer both are correct (the skinning of the cat reference). The other common method which is harder for me to use is the track ball which is a red or some other colored solid peg usually put in the middle of the laptop keyboard and most of the time very sensitive to touch as well.
7) Price for me I did not want to go over 550 US which limited my choices. I went with a Dell 1535 Studio which is an entry level machine. Now if I had the money an Alienware laptop or XPS from Dell is where I would have ended up.
8) Research, warranty and return policy; not all are created equally and nor is everyone able to work on their own machine. Buyers beware not all extended warranty cover parts that may wear out. Ask questions, ask is the screen, Hard-drive, fans and over mechanical parts covered. Also ask, is dropping or getting wet covered (remember laptops are portable and accidents do happen)
9) Finally if I mess up how hard is it to install Windows or the operating system back on to the machine. Is the recovery system built in or do I have to have CD's or DVD's to reinstall everything that shipped with my laptop. With my Dell I have disks but Sony Viao had had a partition or reserved space on the hard drive for the operating system.
I know I went over a lot and most of the information is personal, but I wanted to put you in my shoes so you can see examples of what you have to do to buy your portable computer or laptop in this example. I will write a guide on desks but that will be a whole another can of worms because you have so many options from the outset a user can be lost forever. Laptops nowdays are as powerful as most silver or whitebox desks. Whitebox and Silver box systems are preconfigured computers by the manufacturers. Gone is the day of the weak almost none usable laptop and netbook.