8 Things to Consider When Buying a Laptop Computer

1. The ports: Make sure the laptop you buy has lot of USB ports. You will need them for devices like printers, your mouse, flash drive, digital cameras, etc. Also, if you plan on connecting your laptop to a TV, you will need a s-video port.

 

2. CD/DVD: Most laptops come equiped with a CD writerDVD reader drive. If you plan to copy DVDs, you will also need a DVD writer drive. The maximum speed for burning a DVD at the time of this writting is 16X.

 

3. The hard drive: The speed of your hard drive is measured in rpm or Rotations per Minute. Try to find a laptop that has 4200rpm or 5400rpm. A laptop with 40 Gigabytes is sufficient for an average person.

 

4. The memory: You should find a laptop with at least 1 GB of memory. However, you can get a notebook with 512 MB and work with Windows XP but it will be considerably slower. You should avoid a laptop with only 256 MB of memory as it will be too slow for most processes.

5. The processor: Your choices will be between Intel and AMD. At this writting and in my opinoin; Intel has the best processor for a laptop called the Core 2 Duo. The speed of aprocessor is measured in Gigahertz. As you would imagine, the bigger the number, the faster the processor is. Also, there are Dual-Core processors. It means they can process two things at the same time. As a result, the power of the processor is doubled; is that cool or what?

 

6. Size: You should choose a smaller screen if you carry your laptop a lot; a smaller screen means a smaller laptop. Typically a 14.1 inch screen is considered small. A 17 inch screen is considered big. A 17 inch screen is heavier and uses of your battery life. You can also get a screen of 15 inchs or a 15.4 inch.

 

7. The warranty: Each laptop computer should come with one year warranty from the manufacturer covering only defective equipment. You can also get an extended warranty usually through store you are purchasing from that will cover any accidents you may have.

 

8. The brand: Average brand of laptop is Dell, HP, Gateway, Acer and Compaq. The better brand of laptops is Sony, Toshiba, Alienware and IBM-Lenovo.